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LG Debuts New Hybrid Disc Drives

By BetaNews Staff, BetaNews

July 20, 2007, 2:05 PM

LG is reportedly releasing its second-generation hybrid optical disc drives for PCs. The devices are able to read discs in all currently available formats, including CDs, DVDs, HD DVD, and Blu-ray. Two drives will be made available, one that is able to write to CD, DVD, and BD, while reading HD DVDs, and the other can write to CD and DVD while reading both high-definition disc formats.

The drives will cost $499 and $399, respectively. In any case, the new burners will likely help Blu-ray the most, since earlier drives retailed for as much as $1,000. In comparison, HD DVD drives were about a quarter of that price.

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By GBH

edited Jul 22, 2007 - 10:17 PM

So many trolls where to start??

Ok umm reason why your normal home cinema style player doesn't support both BD and HD-DVD is because of licensing, it costs money to license the technology to run the menu's on the HD-DVD discs, also you can not get a license if your player does not comply with certain specifications.... (I think one of which is network connectivity)

Hence the old LG hybrid player generated its own menu's for HD-DVD

PC does not have that problem as your software +HDCP enabled video card handles playback.

as for all the BD vs HD-DVD debate going on. Who cares? this drive plays both I would have thought it would stop your pointless bickering over which format is better.
(I'm still waiting for Betamax, 8 track and the Atari Jaguar to make a comeback)

Score: 0

By lonechicken

edited Jul 23, 2007 - 9:38 AM

Which is it? Do the monitors need to be HDCP compliant as well (as video cards) or not?... which 100% of CRT monitors aren't, and probably 99.9% of LCD monitors sold aren't.

Score: 0

By Hollywood__

posted Jul 23, 2007 - 2:03 PM

I'm pretty sure it's both but I could be wrong.

Score: 0

By menkalos

posted Jul 24, 2007 - 10:40 AM

Yes, it's both, but not really enforced yet. Once the producers of the HD-DVDs and Blu-Ray discs set the "don't copy" bit on their discs (none of them have yet), then those discs will not play on any display that is not connected via an HDCP protected link the whole way from player to display.

This is true of all HD-DVD and Blu-Ray players on the market. You can play back your discs over component video, but that will break (at least at all decent hi-def resolutions) once that bit is set on a disc. Only if the path is confirmed as encrypted from end to end will the true hi-def (1080p) signal make it the whole way through.

Score: 0

By smarterthanyou

posted Jul 21, 2007 - 10:21 PM

This is great! Only $499 for an optical disc drive that can burn to Blu-Ray, the best optical disc format in the world. At least for data storage. The best part is the optical drive can also read superior HD-DVD movie discs with none of the restrictions imposed by LG's set top player. It's too bad other optical disc drive manufacturers haven't realized their very serious mistakes yet.

Score: 0

By JonathanD

posted Jul 21, 2007 - 10:27 PM

Did they carry out the plan where the computer Blu Ray drives could not read Blu Ray movies ? (I vaguely remember something like that) If thats true then they need to be very careful how they market these things ! I can see some angry customers on the phone now "I just installed this in my computer and I poped in a Blu Ray movie.... WHY DOES IT NOT PLAY ???"
Hehehe even if they can read them they need some sort of software to play them ? I cant remember what format Blu is I know they ditched CSS lol

Score: 0

By Hollywood__

posted Jul 22, 2007 - 7:44 PM

You wont be able to play a BD or an HD-DVD movie on any PC without an HDPC certified video card and monitor.

Score: 0

By JonathanD

edited Jul 22, 2007 - 10:23 PM

I forgot about that part :( now im sad ! lol hmmm does this count if the movie has been decrypted ? I know both formats have been cracked at least temporarily...

Edit:The part that actualy bothers me about the whole HDPC thing... my 1 year old CRT laughs at 1080P as a resolution... Too bad they are worried about the encryption being cracked (its not like people are going to be downloading many 25-50GB files or copying very many movies when the blanks cost 20$ each !!!)

Score: 0

By smarterthanyou

edited Jul 23, 2007 - 1:20 AM

That is correct. The only requirement for playing Blu-Ray discs is having both a graphics card and monitor that support HDCP over DVI or HDMI. Other than having a compatible optical drive and software, there are no other requirements for playing Blu-Ray or HD-DVD movies on a PC. And yes, there has been Blu-Ray and HD-DVD movie playback software available for PC's for quite some time.

Score: 0

By GS5

posted Jul 21, 2007 - 7:36 PM

LG SUCKS!!!
Their products are the worst quality, especially when it comes to optical drives.

Score: 0

By rgrah

posted Jul 22, 2007 - 11:36 AM

You mean sony products right?

Goldstar=LG
LG bought by sony
LG=Sony division

Score: 0

By Latz !

posted Jul 22, 2007 - 12:54 PM

What are you talking about? LG has nothing to do with Sony.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LG_Group

Score: 0

By JonathanD

posted Jul 21, 2007 - 10:21 PM

"LG SUCKS!!!
Their products are the worst quality, especially when it comes to optical drives. "
I would say yeah alot of the models they make are indeed crapty but if your a smart shopper and know what model your are buying before hand and scope out the reviews before you buy, they make some very good ones for a decent prices. Its like cars, all the companies make Great/Decent/Crap cars depending on the model you just need to make sure not to pick option 3 (no matter how cheap something is, if it dont work then its not a good deal)

Score: 0

By Hollywood__

edited Jul 21, 2007 - 3:34 PM

66% of the movie sales share with 20 times as many players out there as HD-DVD. Yes, I would consider that a failure too.

I own three BD movies and 30+ HD-DVD's, that pretty much sums up the whole world. Let's do some math to see what the attach rate of movies to players are for HD-DVD and BD.

It's easy to figure out because we know what the market share of movie sales are and the approximate number of players sold for each format.

About 5 out of every 100 nex gen HD players are HD-DVD. The remaining 95 are BD players.

The owners of those 5 players purchase 33% of all the HD movies sold. If only 1000 (the actual number doesn't matter as we are looking at market share) total BD and HD-DVD discs were sold for example, 5 players (or 5%) would divide the 33% market share of 333 HD-DVD discs which is 66 per player.

The remaining 667 movies would be divided among the 95 BD players which gives you a grand total of 7 movies per player.

What is 66 divided by 7? It's 9.42, which is exactly what webisites have been saying about attach rates of movies to players.

HD-DVD supporters buy 9 times as many movies as BD owners. That's not opinion, that's a fact.

Yeah, BD isn't a failure.

The people that are the most vocal about this silly format war are the ones who can't afford to be a part of it. We all know Hollywood (that's me) is right, are you still saving your euros for that PS3 Mr. Sony cheerleader?

Let's not consider the 2006 numbers where HD-DVD had 66% of the market share and BD had 33% of all HD movie sales. I'm only going off 2007 numbers where BD took the lead in January or February.

If you average out both years it's almost exacly 50/50 market share. Which is even more pathetic for BD. At that point, the 5% buys half of all movies sold.

Score: 0

By Dsfargeg

posted Jul 21, 2007 - 12:27 PM

No thanks, I'll rather take Toshiba's $299 HD-Dvd player where I don't have to pay additional $100 for the failure that is BluRay.

Score: 0

By MinuteMaid

posted Jul 23, 2007 - 3:57 AM

LOL, people have no clue..

I hope you like your $299 door wedge.

Score: 0

By SGD

posted Jul 23, 2007 - 11:40 AM

He prefers HD so therefore he has no clue.

Did you ever think that you might too if both formats fail? But then again Sony never makes technologies that fail, oh wait.

Score: 0

By DaveBG

posted Jul 21, 2007 - 11:41 AM

What is the point of hd dvd?

Blu-ray is cheaper per GB, it hold twice more space and can go even 100GB and 200GB and on top of that it has 4-5 times faster access speeds than hd dvd...

Blu-ray is the way :)

Score: 0

By Latz !

edited Jul 21, 2007 - 3:02 PM

At least Toshiba doesn't support terrorism:

http://tinyurl.com/mm989 :P

"and can go even 100GB and 200GB"

Yeah, those eight layer BD-R are right around the corner. *cough*BS*cough*

"Blu-ray is the way :)"

Who are you, Pat Robinson? No I don't want to join your Sony cult.

Score: 0

By slinkys_delsol

posted Jul 21, 2007 - 3:06 AM

So let me get this right.

LG can make a Drive that can read all formats including Bluray and HD-DVD, but the Player Manufacturers (Mainly SONY, PANASONIC and TOSHIBA) claim that a cross compatible platform is not in the near future???

Actually, these drives are cheap compared to the $600+ BR Drives that Sony has out.

$99??? Oh wait, I remember the Motorola RAZOR being $500 when it came out, now it is FREE. There is hope!

Also, $20 for 50GB is really not all that bad. Chri$t, if they made a decent DVD-DL Media that was reasonable. A 3 Pack of that is $15 - $20 and that's only about 24GB.

Score: 0

By Alex Stevens

posted Jul 21, 2007 - 9:17 AM

$20 for 50GB is really not all that bad.

25GB, they're single layer discs.

Score: 0

By slinkys_delsol

posted Jul 21, 2007 - 2:49 PM

50GB (DL) movies and Blanks are slated for later this year (2007) / early 2008.

Bottom line, the average Home User is not ever going to need this, but in a Business Atmosphere and the need for other / different Backup resources are always needed.

I work in a Hospital IT Department and there is always the need to expand.

Remember when the ZIP drive came out it was shunned, but for 3 - 5 years is was out (Prior to Thumb Drives) is was the thing to have.

Score: 0

By Latz !

posted Jul 21, 2007 - 3:01 PM

"50GB (DL) movies and Blanks are slated for later this year (2007) / early 2008."

Not for $20 a disc they aren't.

Score: 0

By siryak

posted Jul 21, 2007 - 9:57 AM

Wow...Cost more or equal per MB than an external HDD.

Score: 0

By MidnightWatcher

posted Jul 20, 2007 - 8:56 PM

Call me when it's $99.

Score: 0

By bobthegoat2001

posted Jul 22, 2007 - 4:44 AM

Call me when I can get one for about $40 on Newegg.com and I can get a 100 pack of either format for about $25 like DVD+-R media.

Though I think hard drives or thumb drives are the future.

Score: 0

By JonathanD

posted Jul 20, 2007 - 11:07 PM

I agree I think my 12X DVDRW+/- drive was 60$ at Sam's club (nice LG) still plugging along nicely :)

Although I might bite sooner if the blank media was cheaper (I can get a 50 pack of DVDR's for like 20$) 20$ a pop for 1 blank Blu Ray.

Score: 0

By siryak

posted Jul 20, 2007 - 11:26 PM

"20$ a pop for 1 blank Blu Ray."

Youch! Forget that. $1 a piece is a steep price when it comes to blank media! Much less $20!

Score: 0

By bsf

posted Jul 20, 2007 - 8:31 PM

$499 and $399.
Wow, that's a very reasonable price.

I just have to wait for the second version to come out because I means there's tend to be bugs and changes .

Score: 0

By Natrunner

edited Jul 21, 2007 - 2:49 AM

Reasonable? Not alot of us have that kind of cash just laying around AND the technology isn't 100% proven yet.

Score: 0

By bsf

posted Jul 23, 2007 - 3:41 AM

Not a lot of US got it, true.
but a lot of people do have it, and they got nothing else to do with those cash.

Score: 0

By PC_Tool

posted Jul 20, 2007 - 4:59 PM

Nice.

Still not going HD in the near future.

Score: 0

By plague201

posted Jul 20, 2007 - 4:08 PM

"The drives will cost $499 and $399"

Cool, might actually be worth buying a PS3 now, all that remains is a good mod-chip.

Score: 0

By JonathanD

edited Jul 20, 2007 - 11:04 PM

And some cheaper media... at 10$ a pop (I couldnt find the US price but they are 10 pounds, I think media in the US is cheaper but still... ouch)

Edit:With some more searching... holy 20$ for one disk ! in US money.
To be honest I was thinking about this drive for backing up my HD with Ghost (I thought it might be faster then the DVDRW's I use in combination with my external 500GB HD) takes for ever to write those 20 disks... would have cut it down to more reasonable 4-5 disks :( Well maybe some day :)

Score: 0

By Paul Skinner

posted Jul 22, 2007 - 2:19 PM

Erm, yeah. $20 would make sense.

It's 2:1 in the old $ to £ ratio at the moment.

Score: 0

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