LG's second-gen Blu-ray/HD DVD player better, still slow

Alex Zaharov-Reutt
Tuesday, 11 December 2007 16:51

Opinion and Analysis

That said, PC World reported that Samsung’s next dual format player, due later this month, will retail for US $799, putting immediate price pressure on the BH200, and signalling price drops to follow, if not before the end of the year, then certainly in 2008.

Realistically, the price of any combo player will need to fall to around US $200 to roundly outsell the competition and really start being taken up by consumers, but whether we’ll see such a low price for a combo player in 2008 is certainly in doubt, despite HD DVD already having smashed not only the US $200 barrier, but the US $100 barrier too, albeit on a special sale price.

There’s also the question of being able to record to blank Blu-ray and HD DVD discs, something that today’s players are obviously incapable of doing.

Adding in a terabyte hard drive, allowing users plenty of space to record high-definition TV broadcasts and then archive them to disc if desired, is also something that needs to be sold all over the world, and not just in Japan, although once again at prices that consumers will pay for such a device, something that would clearly be very expensive if launched in the US market today, at least double the US $999 price if not more expensive.

LG’s latest player is without doubt a most welcome development, as is the dual format player that Samsung is also about to launch.

With any luck, now that dual format players are a reality from at least a couple of manufacturers, the end of the format war is closer, rather than further away, but that’s probably just wishful thinking.