Although sales of high-definition movies on Blu-ray and HD DVD make up less than one percent of the numbers that DVDs put up, there is the perception of a fierce battle between the two optical formats. Those looking to jump into the 1080p era are usually faced with the choice of either picking sides, or going neutral by buying players of both formats.

Thus, the idea of a dual-format player seems to be a simple one, though in practice it appears that bringing such a machine to market isn’t an easy task. Samsung is up to the challenge, and in April announced a duo player, dubbed the BDP-UP5000, that will be supporting both formats in one box.

“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.”

At an event in Germany, Samsung is reported by Heise as saying that its dual-format player will be ready to hit market in October or November. Samsung is expected to display the product at the IFA tradeshow this August.

Samsung won’t be the first with a dual-format player. LG has the honor of being first, though its BH100 is less than perfect in its support for HD DVD. Besides compatibility issues with HD DVD titles, the LG machine’s $1,199 price tag outruns the cost of buying machines exclusively for each format.