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Samsung joins LG in the fray with bilingual HD format players

With the next-generation high-definition optical disc format war still undecided, Samsung is declaring a neutral solution with the announcement a dual-format player shipping later this year. Samsung’s “Duo HD” player is model named BD-UP5000 and claims to fully support both HD-DVD and Blu-ray Disc formats and their interactive technologies, HDi and BD-Java. Pricing was not yet revealed.

Samsung joins the rank of dual-format hardware maker along with LG, another South Korean company who announced the first player handling both formats earlier this year at CES. Unlike LG’s offering, however, Samsung claims that its player will be able to handle all the interactive features afforded by HD DVD’s HDi.

“Consumers are hungry for more HD content but are currently confused about competing formats. Samsung’s Duo HD player will allow consumers access to every HD movie title available regardless of the authoring format,” said Dongsoo Jun, executive VP of the Digital AV Division at Samsung Electronics. “Samsung is committed to making life simpler through technology and will market next generation DVD products which will satisfy the consumer and market requirement. This is a big win for the consumer.”

Samsung currently makes a Blu-ray Disc player, but does not have an equivalent HD DVD offering. The BD-UP5000 will be the company’s first HD DVD-capable machine, though the company is not committing yet to making an HD DVD-only player.

“Samsung is flexible to market a stand-alone HD-DVD player whenever consumers demand it. Our main concern is not technology but consumer choice” said Jun.

Like the LG dual format player and Samsung’s upcoming BD-UP5000, Warner Home Video is also striving to cover the middle ground between the two warring formats. Rather than making dual-format hardware, Warner has developed TotalHD – a dual format optical ‘flipper’ disc – that can be played on both HD DVD and Blu-ray players.

“We welcome Samsung's Duo HD player as another solution in the marketplace that will help reduce consumer confusion and buyer hesitancy towards HD media,” said Ron Sanders, President of Warner Home Video. “This is an innovative product that can move us closer to mainstream consumer adoption of HD technologies.”

HD DVD got an early head start on Blu-ray, as the format released months earlier. With the release of the PlayStation 3, however, Blu-ray received a noticeable boost in software sales in 2007. Recent sales figures put total Blu-ray Disc sales slightly ahead of HD DVD, though both formats still have a long way to go before dethroning DVD.

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Excellent!
By therealnickdanger on 4/16/2007 9:09:07 AM , Rating: 4
Now they just need to price this at $199 and get HD movies under $20. Then we'll have something that can actually compete with DVD! :P

More dual-format players is definitely the way to go, but I'll take cheaper media over a cheap player any day.




RE: Excellent!
By AlexWade on 4/16/2007 9:20:37 AM , Rating: 2
I have a friend who only buys Samsung, for whatever reason I don't know. I'm going to tell him about this. If I had the money, I'd be all over it too.

Rumor has it that $100 to $200 Chinese HD DVD players will be making their way into Wal-Mart by this Christmas.


RE: Excellent!
By kalak on 4/16/2007 10:11:55 AM , Rating: 2
quote:
I have a friend who only buys Samsung, for whatever reason I don't know.


Cos Samsung products are the best. I NEVER had a problem with Samsung.


RE: Excellent!
By Tsuwamono on 4/16/2007 11:27:24 AM , Rating: 2
i have only had one problem with samsung and it was with my 931c monitor. Kept shuting off for no reason. apparently it was a defective batch that they recalled and Bestbuy just couldnt handle the thought of me taking a WORKING one so they sold me the defective one


RE: Excellent!
By SunAngel on 4/16/07, Rating: -1
RE: Excellent!
By madoka on 4/16/2007 12:55:54 PM , Rating: 3
"Sony is the best, but sometimes price prohibited. Samsung is in third place...just after Toshiba."

Wow, what's it like living in 1988?


RE: Excellent!
By mrteddyears on 4/17/2007 4:44:22 AM , Rating: 2
SunAngel,
I suggest you say the same thing to a European and see what happens.


RE: Excellent!
By SLEEPER5555 on 4/16/2007 3:45:37 PM , Rating: 1
actually in dvd players oppo is the best, i would give second to dennon and third to samsung


RE: Excellent!
By masher2 (blog) on 4/16/2007 4:20:24 PM , Rating: 3
Oppo ahead of Denon? In price/performance, Oppo leads...but in sheer performance and build quality, Denon is the leader hands down. What does Oppo have to compare with the Denon 5910? I have the 3910 myself...I had an Oppo 981 which was very close in upscaling and overall image quality, but the unit's build quality was embarrassing.


RE: Excellent!
By GlassHouse69 on 4/17/2007 2:44:31 AM , Rating: 1
yeah, dennon is the best. I get one again when I get a new tv set.

also, samsung = sony for tv's. like, actually not comparitively. sony's xbr's normally get some special backlight tube or some features to delineate them from one another.

I think a tandem player like this will destroy the market making not one of them win but both of them lose. we need for one to win to make these things cheap one day. DVD is cheap now because of massive amounts of them in circulation and a single process that now is dirt cheap to produce. two formats is terrible. this isnt a good idea in the long run, funny as shit though still :)


RE: Excellent!
By theapparition on 4/17/2007 7:22:12 AM , Rating: 2
I'll second the Denon 5910!


RE: Excellent!
By therealnickdanger on 4/17/2007 9:07:54 AM , Rating: 2
I third it! Although the new HD-DVD players with the newer Silicon Optix chips sure are impressive. Not only are they cheaper than the 5910 with similar upscaling, but they also play HD-DVDs. That's hard to argue with.


RE: Excellent!
By masher2 (blog) on 4/16/2007 9:23:06 AM , Rating: 4
There was an interesting piece in the FT last week about how European studios are moving heavily to HD-DVD, primarily because of costs. A Blu-Ray production line costs over twice as much, but has only 1/4 the per-day disc capacity of an equivalent HD-DVD line. European HD-DVD releases are running 3:1 over BD.


RE: Excellent!
By therealnickdanger on 4/16/2007 10:05:03 AM , Rating: 2
Yeah, Europe also has access to titles that we don't have in the U.S., because they are currently exclusive to Blu-Ray here. If you're willing to pay the price (about $40 with shipping), you can get a number of Studio Canal, Lionsgate, and Universal HD-DVDs that aren't sold here yet. Since they are American films, the main audio is still in English, so no worries there.


RE: Excellent!
By CorrND on 4/16/2007 1:33:50 PM , Rating: 2
Do you have any links to major European retailers where you buy these? I'd probably be interested in a couple!


RE: Excellent!
By therealnickdanger on 4/16/2007 3:03:23 PM , Rating: 2
I can't access this site from work, since they sell pr0n as well, but they sell a TON of hard-to-find movies alongside international releases and other stuff. You have to be willing to fork over the cash, though.

http://www.xploitedcinema.com/


RE: Excellent!
By hubajube on 4/16/2007 5:29:43 PM , Rating: 2
quote:
If you're willing to pay the price (about $40 with shipping), you can get a number of Studio Canal, Lionsgate, and Universal HD-DVDs that aren't sold here yet.
How can I be down with ordering these?


RE: Excellent!
By BMFPitt on 4/16/2007 10:18:57 AM , Rating: 2
I will only get into this when:
1) I can buy a sub $200 player.
2) I can buy most movies for $20 or less.
3) I feel reasonably confident that the format will survive at least 10 years.

Even then, I won't feel the need to replace my existing collection other than a few titles (i.e. The Matrix) and will still buy plain old DVDs for non-action movies if there is a $5 or more price disparity.


RE: Excellent!
By bldckstark on 4/16/2007 12:13:25 PM , Rating: 2
I said the same thing about about my VCR. Why would I want to buy a DVD player for $200, discs that cost 50% more and not be able to record or copy anything on it? When Star Wars came out on DVD I ran out and bought one, now my VCR's (still one in every room) sit and collect dust. There is a point where it becomes worth it to each person, and that one was mine. HD will do it too, on some format, at some time in the future.


RE: Excellent!
By BMFPitt on 4/16/2007 1:42:55 PM , Rating: 2
The difference between VHS and DVD was massive. Not only in image and audio quality, but in convenience. A simple optical disc that doesn't degrade and that you don't have to rewind. The HD formats are an evolutionary step, not a revolutionary one.


RE: Excellent!
By GlassHouse69 on 4/17/2007 2:49:04 AM , Rating: 2
yeah, agreed. ALSO NOTE:

dvd's are like 12 dollars for your favorite movie. 10 for some, some are 20 just comming out but always to be found for like 15 somewhere else. VHS tapes were over 50 dollars! i think everyone forgot that tidbit. dvd movies were rapidly collected because people could finally afford new releases and also be confident that it would last a long time.

480p on the proper tv set looks great... good enough for the majority of movies and upscaling even works much of the time.


surviving the game...
By kalak on 4/16/2007 10:09:57 AM , Rating: 2
I really can't believe that both formats will survive...
even with Dual Players, Dual Medias... They will have to cut the prices (so, need to cut the production costs). I believe that HD DVD is the winner here... Just my 2 cents...




RE: surviving the game...
By CorrND on 4/16/2007 10:42:46 AM , Rating: 2
The main reason dual-format players may be the end result of this war is that they're physically compatible. All you need is lasers for both formats and a player engine to decode both formats (as opposed to format-specific hardware).


RE: surviving the game...
By GreenyMP on 4/16/2007 1:36:32 PM , Rating: 2
quote:
I believe that HD DVD is the winner here...

I find that a difficult prediction to swallow especially with all of the recent reports showing blu-ray media outselling HD DVD media at greater than a 2:1 rate.

Here is one of many recent articles supporting my statement:
http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=6841


RE: surviving the game...
By CorrND on 4/16/2007 1:48:31 PM , Rating: 2
Just wait until HD-DVD players hit $200 and see how fast they catch up to Blu-ray. According to pricegrabber, you can already get a Toshiba HD-A2 for $302, compared to $449 for the Samsung BD-P1000.

Still, I'm holding firm to my dual-format player prediction.


RE: surviving the game...
By GreenyMP on 4/16/2007 2:38:05 PM , Rating: 2
People will not buy a player that does not play the movies that they want to watch/own. The format war will be won by the studios -- and the studios have chosen blu-ray.

quote:
The three biggest box-office winners of this year were, in order: Sony, Disney, and Fox. Those are the three Blu-ray players. When you consider that those three successful studios will be delivering last year's successful box office in home video this year, then that's an enormous advantage. The fourth is Warner, and they release in both formats, so it doesn't hurt.

-Sir Howard Stringer CEO of Sony

The war may not be over yet, but unless HD DVD can lure a couple of studios into their camp, it might as well be.


RE: surviving the game...
By GlassHouse69 on 4/17/2007 2:52:32 AM , Rating: 1
yeah, i think the reason none are winning truly is that no one is moving to them yet.

when families see that none of their kids movies can be purchased for their hd-dvd, they will return them for blu-rays. never underestimate parent-child sales. this past year saw more than 30% increase in profit from cd sales in childrens music while the rest of the industry plummeted.


RE: surviving the game...
By masher2 (blog) on 4/16/2007 1:58:52 PM , Rating: 2
> "outselling HD DVD media at greater than a 2:1 rate"

In the US, for the period from Jan to mid-March only. And at a rate so small that both combined are dwarfed by sales from the outdated VHS format, much less DVD. In Europe, HD-DVD has a small lead...and even in the US, HD-DVD seems to have regained ground since April (latest figures I've seen have BD ahead by 1.5:1).

But calling either format the 'winner' is premature at this point. The battle hasn't even really begun yet...its certainly not been won by anyone.


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