Bought into HD-dvd, still love HD-dvd, but admit freely it "lost" the war. Have noticed prices dropping (finally) on Blu-ray, and starting to think about investing into it. But I have a fair number of HD-dvd discs and a perfectly good player. I'm perfectly fine with getting a reasonably priced Blu-ray plugging it up along side with the HD-dvd.

But... being an old married guy and knowing my wifes grasp of this technology I can see issues with another box, and her remembering which remote to use, or putting the wrong disc into the wrong player etc.. I remember right when things were coming to a head during the "war" there were a couple of combo boxes built. There didn't seem to be much out there when I did a quick look around on the web today. Just wondering if anyone knows of any such thing as a combo box (reads both) that are available still (and the prices aren't ridiculous)

You don't have to "admit" it; it's not really an opinion.

Anyway, it sounds like you're in the same boat as me. The players you're looking for are the LG BH200 and the Samsung BD-UP5000. From most accounts, both excellent players. The LG can be easily made region free for both BD and SD discs and does some neat audio format output-conversion tricks. The Samsung has a full complement of analog audio outs and most seem to think it upscales a bit better than the LG. Each has a small list of problematic discs and a frustrating (but still continuing) firmware update saga.

I've ruled out both of those since they stretch out 4x3 DVDs. I refuse to have to make any adjustments on the TV, I want picture formats to be displayed correctly automatically. Since HD-DVD is dead now I can tolerate having 2 separate players, I'm not even going to use the HD-DVD player for anything besides HD-DVDs so it'll have the least amount of wear put on it.

I have a LG combo in my HTPC. I never had a problem with HD DVD, but almost every new release on BD I need a software upgrade to play it. That has turned me off to BD big time. I already own a couple of stand alone HD DVD players and I had considered buying a stand alone BD player, but now I'm thinking I'll wait until the Blu-ray mfgs figure out what the heck they're doing. I'm glad I haven't bought my parents a BD player. They don't have the Internet and don't have a clue about upgrading firmware. And even though I do have the Internet I don't want to have to keep my player hooked up to the Internet to be able to play new releases. I guess the Blu-ray continuum failed to realize that they needed a format that was finalized. I've bought quite a few HD DVDs and rented a few BDs, but I refuse to buy any BDs until they all play on my player, regardless of what they are selling for.

LG 200 is $250 at some Best Buys and you can get a $75 check back if you call and complain about the lack of BD-Live.

I keep forgetting to do this. Need to call and get my $75.

I like my BH200 though it is not perfect. Overall though I think it is well worth the $250 current price and is a solid HD DVD and BD profile 1.1 player. The number of discs it has issues with is very low especially if you stick with US discs and it can be easily hacked to play any region on DVD and BD. The stretching of 4X3 is a hassle, but can be fixed by outputing in 480p (with my TV at least, some HDTVs can do this at 1080p) and switching your HDTV to pillarbox the content.

I would recommend the BH200 to anyone that wants a combo. Especially if you have an HDMI receiver.

I did mine today...took about 15 minutes and I have two $75 checks coming to me.

On clearance and sold out long ago at my Best Buys. Not available on bestbuy.com

Remember our little bet?

One way to solve the problem. I have both players going in to the receiver via HDMI. So regradless of which player the TV utilizes the DVD input, the only change is the HDMI output on the receiver. I have my universal remote set to do everything automatically. Each player is marked and part of the "turn on" function is switching the TV to DVD and the receiver to the correct HDMI output. One button does everything.

Buy an LG HD DVD / Blu combo player for your PC for $130 or less. Then have it connected to your HDTV. It's a great back-up for your HD DVDs in case your main player goes poo-poo, and you can play Blu-ray movies.

Being computer illiterate, how would you hook up one of those drives to an A/V system? I'm assuming you would need to put it in an actual computer, and then have software to play each disc format.

Which is dandy, unless your computer is an Apple laptop*.




*And, yes, I know I could run Windows on it, but I don't want to!

Still at my local Best Buy along with plenty of Samsung 5000's

Where you at?

Yeah, you would need something like the latest Cyberlink PowerDVD software to play back the HD formats. Also you'll need a decent video card to handle the processing. My top-of-the-line-in-2005 Nvidia6800 card basically said "fuck you" when I tried to run an HDDVD with the Xbox360 addon connected to my computer

Many thanks to all. I'll have to swing by the local Best Buys to see what they have on the shelves. And I can definitely add the player to my universal to keep the wife technology factor down a bit

Southern California area. I have a ton of Best Buys out here and each one usually has atleast one or two LG 200s sealed, a few sealed 5000, and tons of open boxed 5000's. That also goes for Circuit City as well (the ones remaining open) for the LG 200.

Keep in mind if the LG 200 shows up on Best Buy's website, it will only show available in-store if they have 3 or more units in stock. Some BB's placed it under a different SKU/Name so they could have a "managers special" on the price. So its always best to call. I know another DVDTalker PMed me about the price of the LG 200 my store had last week and I let him know the price ($248.99) for a new one.

If you are in SoCal and want to know a specific store let me know. I swing my two or three sometimes on my way home and always glance at the new/open box players looking for the right deal. $248 is hard to pass up + $75 cash back check in a few weeks making it $175 or so for an excellet Region Free BD, Region Free DVD and HD DVD player.

Thanks, man!

Sadly, I'm in NY. The LG's my first choice player, though and I'll do a little calling around. BTW, what do you need to demonstrate to them to get the $75? Receipt? UPC? Serial #?

When I called, the CSR needed the purchase date and serial number. She also needed my address, of course, and that was it. I got the check not even 10 days later.

Just a receipt of purchase and Serial # from the back of the unit. Very painless. Most got a check within 7-10 days of calling...very fast turn around!

Thanks, guys! I figured I wouldn't be eligible as I thought the rebate might only apply to those who bought before LG announced that profile 2.0 would not be coming.

I gotta get off my butt and check to see if any Best Buy's still have the BH200 around here. I'd love to get the German Leon import BD.

If you follow the thread at AVS it might actually be coming. Or atleast something "big" (DTS MA internal decoding, NetFlix, BD-Live....who knows). Worth a read!

I've got my fingers crossed for dancing stickmen...

Yeah, I've been following it. Thanks!