RSSSamsung to Offer Blu-Ray/HD-DVD Player
By Ed Oswald | Published September 6, 2005, 12:15 PM
There is still no agreement in the fight to become the de-facto standard for next generation DVDs, but at least one company is preparing itself for the possibility of competing technologies and will produce a DVD player that will be able to play both Blu-ray and HD-DVD formats.
A Samsung executive told the Financial Times Deutschland that while the company is pushing for a single standard, it is ready to produce a player that would be compatible with both formats.
"It won't be simple but you'll see our solution in the coming year. Consumers will be too confused otherwise," Choi Gee-sung, Samsung's consumer electronics director, told the paper.
Backers of Blu-ray and HD-DVD have been attempting to broker a deal for much of the year, but initial talks faltered in May as neither side was willing to compromise. Discussions resumed over the summer, but neither side yielded, which made an agreement impossible.
Sony counts Matsushita, the maker of Panasonic electronics, Philips, and Apple Computer as supporters of the Blu-ray format. The PlayStation 3, Sony's next generation gaming console, will also use the format for its games.
HD-DVD, on the other hand, touts backwards compatibility as one of its most attractive features. Supporters include Toshiba, NEC and Sanyo.
It's companies jumping the gun on standards that left us with the whole DVD RAM vs. -R\-RW vs. +R\+RW situation which has only been resolved by multifunctional drives from a handful of manufacturers for just over a year or so.
It's just a modern day equivalent of the VHS vs. BetaMAX war in the early days of video tapes.
The one thing I will say however is that at least Samsung have commited to supporting both standards and so at least they haven't done what some companies did in the past and settle for just one format before a standard was set.
As others have said, Samsung tends to think like the end-user and cut through all the politics to deliver good products that satisfy everyone's needs.
Score: 0
|This is a good thing. I was worried that I'd have to look into buying 2 players in the coming year, I had no idea the 2 technologies could be so similar as to be built into 1 player. I just hope it isn't over $150
Score: 0
|Smart, but it sounds like it won't be available until way into next year-- & other offerings are coming this holiday season... put on your skates Samsung! & it better not be one of these puny 2x one format, 4x another, 32xcdrom like i saw another company announce already.
Score: 0
|go sony!
Score: 0
|I think they should make a dual layer blue ray dvd which combines both technologies somewhat. IT would be like getting blue ray's space doubled. Which would be larger than most hard drives and cheaper too.
Score: 0
|The winner in this battle?
Samsung.
Score: 0
|Very smart. This will ensure sales of Samsung's player, no matter what format people use, until the format wars are over. Good job Samsung.
Score: 0
|Hopefully other companies follow suit until the format war is resolved.
Score: 0
|w00t.
Go Sammy.
*grin*
Score: 0
|wow, i always like SAMSUNG coz of this kinda thing. they know what i wanted. i wonder if it'll cost more, and will the two sides competing allow SAMSUNG to do such thing?
Score: 0
|SMART.
Score: 0
|