Samsung kills BD-UP5500 combo player before it ever truly lived

Given the finality of the format war, we can't say we're totally shocked to hear that Samsung will be pulling the plug on its recently announced BD-UP5500 HD DVD / Blu-ray combo player, but still, it's not good news for folks planning to pick it up for kicks (or watching their library of HD DVDs). Interestingly enough, Sammy had already planned to axe its current flagship hybrid player -- the BD-UP5000 -- this May, just months after it went on sale and began taking heat for not meeting expectations. On the plus side, the firm's latest BD-only player was a real gem, so hopefully we'll see lots more where that came from in the future. Oh, and if you're weeping this very moment at the thought of never getting to see one in person, feel free to click here and live vicariously through us.

[Rob @ Mar 6th 2008 11:54AM]

I don't think they're canceling because HD-DVD is no longer supported by Toshiba. It may have more to do with the many issues Samsung has been experiencing with their HD players, specially their combos.

[Paris @ Mar 6th 2008 2:22PM]

I'm sure you are right.
The fact that HD-DVD is a dead format and will be adding an additional unnecessary and unwarranted cost to both Samsung and the customer cannot be the reason.

[Zeus.:God @ Mar 6th 2008 5:10PM]

Paris, there is still a market for combo HD-DVD/Blu-Ray players, and there will be for quite a while. I highly doubt people want to re-buy their HD-DVD movies for Blu-Ray, right? People just absolutely LOVE wasting there money.

[Chebwa @ Mar 7th 2008 2:00AM]

Anybody who invested in HD DVD knew FULL WELL they might have had to buy their movies on a different format once a winner was declared.

People might not love wasting *their money, but the people who threw theirs at HD DVD knew that it could end up in the toilet. There is no market for combo players, the cost of manufacturing, designing, shipping etc. would not be covered back by the fraction of consumers eager to buy one.

[normgarry @ Mar 6th 2008 11:55AM]

Alot of people thought the format war was going to continue with both HDDVD nd BluRay but I knew that wasn't going to be the case when I nticed Blockbuster declared it wouldn't stock HDDVD's and other retailers started backng away.

Had the war continued, a combo player would have been the only win/win solution for both camps. My frriend called me telling me that his girlfriend's father wanteed to buy a dual format player and I did my best to convince him he was wasting alot of money ($900) and should just get a PS3.

[fischju @ Mar 6th 2008 12:14PM]

The Xbox 360's $50 HD DVD addon works on the PS3. You could say that it is a $450 combo player.

[CaptCaveman @ Mar 6th 2008 7:01PM]

@fischju

I could not find any site showing or stating that the 360 add-on will work with the PS3 (to play movies at least). But it sounds really interesting.
Could you post a source to getting the add-on to work with the PS3?

[Rob @ Mar 6th 2008 1:52PM]

@ fishju:
Are you talking about via Linux or natively on the PS3's OS?

[mattclarkie @ Mar 6th 2008 11:57AM]

Well D'UH, I am suprised it took this long.

[tekdroid @ Mar 6th 2008 12:08PM]

bring back Warner's Total HD :p
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Total_HD

[hemmy @ Mar 6th 2008 12:14PM]

This could be a problem for HD DVD.

[Ray @ Mar 6th 2008 1:09PM]

Yeah, they just dug up the coffin to exhaust their nail gun surplus.

[Chebwa @ Mar 6th 2008 2:44PM]

@Ray

Amazing.

[andy @ Mar 6th 2008 12:34PM]

Not surprising considering they haven't managed to make a working player of any type yet.

That said, I was probably going to get one of these. It would have been awesome to have a blu ray 2.0 and HDDVD player.

I could have picked all of the HDDVD sales clean and had one player to rule them all.



Truth be told though, I was definitely going to let others gunea pig this thing for me before I bought one. Sammy hasn't been that reliable lately.

[Rob @ Mar 6th 2008 1:47PM]

Let me just say one more time: BUILD YOURSELVES A HOME THEATRE PC.

I get better picture than I ever got out of my HD-A2, plus I get HD, BD, MKV, WMV-HD, DVD, DVD-A, XVID, Divx, and just about anything else I can throw at it. The only place it lags (and just a small lag) is the sound department, but the 7.1 cards that are coming out now should bring that up to par as well.

Quit wasting your time with standard consumer electronics! Don't be sheep!

R

[Rob @ Mar 6th 2008 1:50PM]

I have to agree with you on that one. I bought the HD-DVD 360 Add-on that I'd be making part of my HTPC soon.

[Jim H @ Mar 6th 2008 3:59PM]

I was rather expecting, with the demise of HD DVD as a standalone format, that we'd see combo players for the future because people will still have HD DVDs that they'll want to be able to play in 10 years time when their current players have packed in. Are all all HD DVD owners going to be left swinging in the breeze? I hope not. It shouldn't be that difficult to include HD DVD in blu-ray players once the tech has settled down.

[happy_penguin @ Mar 9th 2008 5:11AM]

I think eventually all players will support HDDVD. The companies which have supported HDDVD will be looking to sell the rights and Blu Ray players have nothing to lose to support it. From a standpoint of the technology to integrate the support, I can't imagine it would cost that much. Blu Ray players will already need to support standard DVD so why not include HDDVD support?