LG to Continue HD DVD Support

[admin]

Hoping to bridge the gap for HD DVD-supporting early adopters, LG said Tuesday that it would continue to support HD DVD in the wake of Toshiba's announcement.

In a statement first published by Pocket-lint.uk, LG acknowledged that Blu-ray will now be the leading high-def format, but "that does not rule out HDDVD immediately as there are still a number of consumers who have chosen HDDVD and begun to build a HDDVD collection."

http://www.highdefdigest.com/news/show/LG/LG_to_Continue_HD_DVD_Support/1484

It's funny because I would have thought that Toshiba would be the one to carry on the HD DVD torch, not LG. But I think a dual format Toshiba player is still on the horizon, despite what they said about ending volume production.

[blutach]

Why? The studios will totally abandon it by year's end, I reckon.

Sadly, the HD-DVD is a Betamax fast forwarded by 30 years.

Regards

[BR7]

GREED They will continue to tap the well until its dry.With all the HD-DVD owners out the dual format player makes sense (as admin stated)

[admin]

HD DVD will become a niche market to cater for existing owners, and LG wants to tap into that. What better way for a HD DVD owner to switch to Blu-ray than through a dual format player?

There is also the issue that some of the people chose HD DVD because they are waiting for Profile 2.0. Due to HD DVD's requirement for ethernet, perhaps the only major hardware difference between a Profile 2.0 Blu-ray player and a HD DVD player would be the laser (there is also the additional persistent storage requirements of 2.0). If the BDA finalizes Profile 2.0 soon, and if the machine LG makes is versatile enough through firmware updates, then they could come to the market with a dual format 1.1 player that can be upgraded to 2.0, thus stealing the thunder from other manufacturers by getting a 2.0 player out before anyone else.

I think you'll see many CE's use various tricks to add value (either real or perceived) to their players, now that the format war has ended, and the real competition starts to see who can dominate the Blu-ray player market.