With the format war between Blu-ray and HD DVD going full steam ahead, Samsung is one company that is preparing ahead to avoid landing on the wrong side of the battle. Rather than take the risk of sticking with one side, according to an assistant manager in Samsung's home-platform product planning division, they are now working on a drive that handles both Blu-ray and HD DVD.
Samsung's Blu-ray BD-P1000 will go on sale as planned in the US on June 25th, Korea in August, Europe and Australia in October and worldwide by the year end. Should HD DVD turn out as successful as the Blu-ray format, Samsung will consider introducing a universal Blu-ray + HD DVD player, which could be made available anywhere between the end of this year and early next year. However, Samsung has announced that they do not plan on developing a HD DVD only player.
While introducing a universal player would eliminate the risk of landing up with a losing battle, it would also benefit the consumers as not all the movie studios have agreed to make their movies available on both formats. For example, regardless of which format the customer chooses, they will not be able to play movies released exclusively on the competing format, at least unless a time comes when all the studios make their movies available on both formats. A universal player would solve this issue, since the user would not need to worry about checking if the movie is available in their player's format.
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"We don't have a plan to make an HD DVD-only player but are considering a universal player," he said. "We are preparing HD DVD [support] now, and if we launch a universal player, it will be the end of this year or early next year." Kim underlined Samsung's belief that Blu-ray Disc will beat HD DVD in the commercial marketplace, but said Samsung will consider a universal player should HD DVD prove as successful as Blu-ray Disc. |
It looks if universal players do reach the market, then it will likely be the companies who plan on sticking to one camp only who will actually lose out, since consumers would likely go for a universal player instead of taking the risk of going for one that handles only Blu-ray or HD DVD. LG Electronics have already announced plans to make drives that handle both formats, so it looks like this will be the way forward, much like how virtually all DVD-writer manufacturers produce drives capable of writing to both DVD+R/RW and DVD-R/RW.
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Source: CIO
