http://www.digitmag.co.uk/news/index.cfm?NewsID=5870

Samsung will consider later this year if it will launch a high-definition movie player compatible with both the Blu-ray Disc and HD DVD formats, it said Tuesday.

Samsung is a supporter of the Blu-ray Disc format and its first player will go on sale in the US in the next few days. The BD-P1000 is the first consumer Blu-ray Disc player from any manufacturer and its launch will kick off full competition between the rival formats. Toshiba, which is the main backer of the HD DVD format, started player sales in March.

There are only a few technical differences between the formats but they're big enough to make them mutually incompatible. That's a headache for consumers because most Hollywood studios have initially committed to releasing movies on one or the other disc format but not both.

Samsung is already working on a drive that handles both Blu-ray Disc and HD DVD, said Kim Du-Hyon, an assistant manager in Samsung's home-platform product planning division, in a briefing with reporters at the company's headquarters in Suwon, South Korea.

"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.

Samsung is not alone in working on drives that support both formats, according to industry sources.

While LG Electronics Inc. has publically declared its plans to make drives for both formats, many of the leading Blu-ray Disc backers are also members of the DVD Forum and so have access to HD DVD technology and specifications.

Samsung's BD-P1000 will go on sale in the US from June 25 for $1,000. It will hit Korea in August, Australia and Europe in October and be available worldwide by the end of the year, Samsung said.

This is great news. If I buy a Blu-ray player I want it to also play HD DVD. However, I have little faith in a Korean company to deliver one I would actually want to buy. Hopefully, this is the way Denon will enter the market.

I love the idea of a combo player, but after hearing about the quality (or lack thereof) of Samsungs BD Player, I really wish it was someone else releasing it.

Wouldn't it be more economic to just slap 2 drives on a combo player rather than trying to spend all the R&D for a single combo drive? It may not be pretty, but it sure can be done a lot faster.

Can the backer of either format prevent this if the manufacturer has the right to use both specs?

I don't care WHO is releasing it, if they keep sending out BD discs with their current quality, a combo player won't matter.

By the time it's even affordable, this format war may be over.

that still sucks.... just make it one format please

part of me thinks this is a good idea. the other part gets the same feeling of emptiness I get when I look at that Pioneer SACD/DVD-Audio combo player sitting in the closet now that both of those formats have been abandoned for the most part.

I don't really see wanting to end up with both formats if I can help it. If I had to, it still wouldn't be a Samsung player. Like the tvs, but they don't have the rest down yet.

Sony must hate these kind of announcements. It just goes to show that the format war is not as much in their corner as they once thought.

How is this news? Esp good news?

"Samsung will consider later this year if it will launch a high-definition movie player compatible with both..."

So, someday, they are going to talk about whether to build something that they once planned to build, then decided not to, but still worked on the insides, just not sure if they are going to bother putting it in a box or not. Unless they change their minds again before "later this year" happens. --Wow, my heart's all aflutter.

Sounds like Colecovision.

Oliver, dude. Just send that Pioneer over to me. I'll pay shipping.

If you are a fan of Classical and Jazz SACD is very much alive and well. I have been buying 2-3 SACDs a month.

Indeed. Mobile Fidelity Sound Labs has been releasing some awesome classical and jazz SACDs. Heck, I even have a mono John Coltrane SACD, of all things.

Meanwhile, I would love a combo player, but not from Samsung, that's for damn sure.

I would buy a Denon univeral unit the first day they came out.... Not to sure about Samsung though....

A Pioneer Elite or Denon universal player would get my money.

According to an article in CIO, posted here, Samsung has already been developing the hybrid player:

http://www.hdtvoice.com/voice/showth...threadid=26183

Anyone who thinks they'll have done all this development and NOT release a hybrid player is not thinking through the basic economics...

After that old announcement, a Samsung official said that Blu-Ray would not grant them a Blu-Ray license for a dual-format player. Perhaps things have changed...

Plenty of products are developed and then not mass produced (for a variety of reasons). I'm not saying that will be the case here, but to claim that all products developed will be brought to market is quite naive.

Either Sony granted the license or Samsung found a way around it, otherwise they wouldn't have mentioned it again.

http://home.businesswire.com/portal/...00&newsLang=en

RIDGEFIELD PARK, N.J.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 22, 2006--Samsung Electronics is fully committed to the Blu-ray format and currently only has plans to introduce a Blu-ray player to the market. Samsung is looking forward to a very successful launch of the BD-P1000 which will be available on retail shelves, June 25th for a $999 MAP price in the United States.

Guess you didn't get my Colecovision reference.

awwww...hey!!! I had coleco! I never had atari!

Samsung is probably not to happy to be left out in the wind for several months with nothing but crappy SONY produced software to be shown on it.

oh....i'd LOVE to know what meetings are happening internally at these companies right now.

http://www.gizmodo.com/gadgets/home-...yer-182234.php

Knowing Samsung, that means it will cost $1,500 and will only look good over component.