Samsung says Duo HD BD-UP5000 dual-format Blu-ray/HD-DVD combo player on the way

Samsung's been seriously non-committal about whether or not they were going to come out with a dual-format HD-DVD / Blu-ray combo player for a while now (they first said they working on one back in September of '05, only to retract that a few months later), but no more: it's officially happening. They've just announced the Duo HD BD-UP5000, their first player to support both HD disc formats. LG beat 'em to the punch with the BH100, but Samsung is promising that the Duo HD BD-UP5000 will have full support for HD-DVD (including support for HDi), something LG hasn't been able to offer with its player. We're still waiting to hear details about pricing and all that, but they are promising that the combo player will be out "in time for the holidays."

[Clayj @ Apr 12th 2007 11:38PM]

Awesome... I have an HD-DVD add-on for my Xbox 360, but since it's still not clear who's going to win the Format War, I don't want to buy another HD disc player unless it supports both formats... and since Sony's obviously never going to make a combo player, Samsung will probably get my money for one of these.

[badenglishihave @ Apr 13th 2007 7:49AM]

And the winner of the format war is... Samsung!

[audioeric @ Apr 12th 2007 11:42PM]

Combo drives are not the answer to the high def disc wars. These companies need to settle this soon. Combo drives mean that you pay more because the industry can't decide on a single format.. This whole thing is getting old...

[Clayj @ Apr 12th 2007 11:46PM]

You're right, they're not the answer... but I've already got a small collection of HD-DVDs, and I want to be able to play them in whatever player I get. That means a combo player.

Format wars suck. I really, really hate that we have two formats.

[Nick @ May 18th 2007 2:03PM]

you are absolutely right. It's kind of sucks in the beginning for those who can't wait. But that tend to drive the price down faster in my opinion. I don't think HD-DVD will debut at $499 if Blu ray weren't invented.

[Billy Kincaid @ Apr 12th 2007 11:52PM]

Screw a combo player. I want a combo BURNER!

[hmurchison @ Apr 13th 2007 12:03AM]

Combo drives are the answer if you don't want to wait forever to get access to all content. The Samsung Universal player will be what $200 more than a PS3 60GB after some months out. Bring it on baby!!!

[hmurchison @ Apr 13th 2007 12:08AM]

I consider this a nice resounding battle victory for HD DVD. A defection. Sweet

[Toki9 @ Apr 13th 2007 1:22AM]

i actually think the format war is good given how eager the two sides are...i'm amazed at the pace of hardware/software price drop and at the pace of new movies becoming available...i don't think these advances would be happening as rapidly if there was only one format...

[George @ Apr 13th 2007 1:27AM]

I thought these combo players were against the Blu Ray license? Isnt this illegal? (Not that I care!)

[nikster @ Apr 13th 2007 1:28AM]

whatever - once they are mass produced, the dual format drives will be $100 and the single format ones $99. continuing integration will do this just as it has for everything else. see the price development for LCD panels for comparison - definitely a harder problem to get 0 dead pixels out of millions then to build a player that can deal with 2 formats. 5 years from now, $100. If that.

[js @ Apr 13th 2007 1:32AM]

Is this the DVD+-RW war all over again?

[Russell @ Apr 13th 2007 4:21AM]

Looking at how low raw sales numbers are for HD DVD and BluRay media and standalone players neither format is even close to "winning"

I think we are going to end up with both formats and dual players making it take even longer to become fully adopted.

Hell not enough people even have HDTV, been telling all sorts of people about planet earth on Disc HD and no one fricking has it...

[Rob @ Apr 13th 2007 4:59AM]

"they first said they working on one back in September of '05"

Are you sure thats not 06?

05 seems a little early to me.

[Peter @ Apr 13th 2007 7:54AM]

This is not any kind of solution.

A: Buy Combo drive.
B: Buy disk formats.
...
C: Format war gets won.

If the format war is ever won. New drives will always be single format so new players won't play half your disks.

Buy a combo drive and rent HD disks until the war is over.

[SHopkins @ Apr 13th 2007 9:17AM]

The first and closest analogy I see here is DVD-Audio and SACD. The first generation of players were one or the other but were quickly replaced by nearly everyone by combo players when the cost difference in hardware negated being single format... and hopefully this is how things go w/ the hardware mfgs (except Sony likely).

DVD-A and SACD are both fledgling formats, mainly due to the fact that music downloads have become much more popular than better sound quality... which lead to a very small amount of software in either format. Neither HD-DVD and BluRay seem to be lacking in software, so as player prices drop and formats converge into one the consumer will win out because which format won't matter. Then if one or the other dies, it won't affect the consumer at all.

[Nish Vamadevan @ Apr 13th 2007 10:30AM]

We are talking about 25 GB a Disk... I want a burner which can burn from CD-R to Blu-Ray Double Layer Disks, then its worth having.

I doubt they will make it to burn every sigle disk media. (i.e. CD-R, DVD-RW, DVD-RAM, DVD+R etc etc)

[Reid Sorenson @ Apr 13th 2007 5:22PM]

The format war would be moot if content owners would get together an create a universal downloadable HD rental format. iTunes+Apple TV would be a much better solution than buying any disc player at all, if the content were in HD.

[ChiliBean @ Apr 13th 2007 8:28PM]

Full HD DVD support, including HDi.
Full Blu-ray support, including BD-J, and 1080p24 output.
HDMI 1.3 (adds Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD...ooooh yeaaah!!!!)

Can't wait for the review on this and hopefully there will be more Blu-ray and HD DVD combo players coming out soon.

[shimman @ Apr 14th 2007 9:22AM]

samsung must be pissed at sony for the ps3's blu-ray playability. it appears that sony is making everyone against her...what a pity.

[Nick @ May 18th 2007 2:04PM]

Neither format took the world by storm when they were released. Don't they get the hint that nobody is buying. Only early adopters. Most poeple want to wait and see who's leading (I for one). Come on guys just shake hands and give us the best players and then concentrate on the home recorders. Both will benefit from selling blank disc just like DVD plus and minus.

[Paul " SEQUENCE " Ferguson @ May 21st 2007 3:10AM]

Well when the player is in the store and i can test it out to see if it plays both formats, then i will jump for joy.

www.sequence.net
Paul " SEQUENCE " Ferguson