LG Blu-ray/HD DVD combo player is a dud!

Alex Zaharov-Reutt
Monday, 08 January 2007 10:54

Opinion and Analysis

If you thought LG’s new ‘Super Multi Blue’ combo next-gen disc player was the answer to format war, think again. This first generation unit is so expensive and crippled that you could buy a Blu-ray player and an HD DVD player and still have change. Hopeless!

Well, for a few days there, we all held out hope that the format wars were over at last. Then came the articles saying – wait! Maybe they aren’t over after all. And how right the pundits, including myself, were.

Wait for the price, we all cautioned. How good will it really be, we asked? Now we have the answers, and boy are we all disappointed, LG people. We hope you’re listening!

Of course, we can cut LG tiny bit of slack. After all, LG are the first to take this bold move. But LG have had to do it with such compromises that buying this unit hardly seems worth it – if anyone still has money left in their bank account after the most digital Christmas of all time.

So, what are the specs, how much does it cost, and why is it so disappointing?

Let’s start with the price. LG’s unit is unimaginatively called the BH100, and you’re talking US $1200. That’s well over AUD $2000, or the price of two Sony PS3s! Or the price of one Blu-ray player and one HD DVD player. Of course, LG’s single unit takes up less space under the TV. But the compromises they had to make!

Next up – no CD playback. It has two laser diodes inside – one for standard DVDs, and one for HD DVD and Blu-ray. But neither can read a standard audio CD. To get CD playback, they need to add a third laser, which they are considering as an option for the BH100’s successor. Clearly, price considerations prevented LG from including what should be a very inexpensive component. And yes, you probably already have a CD player and wouldn’t use your BH100 for that purpose. But every $50 DVD player can play CDs.

Then, when you actually do pop in a disc, the BH100 has to shuffle the lenses around so it is using the right one. All this shuffling means that when you pop in a disc, you have to wait, and wait. 25 seconds for a Blu-ray movie to start, and 30 seconds for a HD DVD movie.

What’s more tragic about this horrible delay is that LG claims their drive is the fastest, which means that Blu-ray and HD DVD only players must take longer!! Given that Panasonic promote a ‘one second start’ on their DVD/HDD recorders and that consumers are used to this kind of performance, slower performance speeds, even if they are ‘the fastest’ are still a step backwards.

Then we come to the much-hyped interactive features of Blu-ray and HD DVD discs. Happily, the BH100 fully supports all of the interactive features of Blu-ray movies, including Blu-ray Disc Java. But what about HD-DVD’s interactive features?

Oops. The iHD technology for HD DVD interaction is not supported. Instead of the fantastic graphical pop ups and other interactive features, the BH100 just displays incredibly basic looking generic menus. So much for showing your friends your cool new 21st century device that has menus that have come right from the 1980s – at least when playing HD DVD discs.

What about HDMI? Don't tell me they left something out there, too? Read onto the next page to find out...