Thursday, January 04, 2007

I didn't honestly believe this was going to happen so quickly

TWICE: LG To Launch Dual-Format HD Disc Player

New York — LG Electronics provided a few surprises days before International CES opens in Las Vegas, announcing last night that it will launch the first Blu-ray Disc-HD DVD combination player at the show and this morning that Allan Jason has been named marketing VP of consumer electronics.
LG’s brief statement from its headquarters in Seoul, Korea did not provide details on the high definition, dual format unit, saying features will be discussed at CES.
“LG expects this technological breakthrough to end the confusion and inconvenience of competing high-definition disc formats for both content producers and consumers,” the company said.


I think that this is a great idea, although the format war will not be truly resolved until either Blu-ray or HD-DVD (or both!) is killed off.

Since LG could never have built this unit without Sony's approval, this tells me that Sony is loosening up their licencing requirements: reports from various sources earlier this year had made it plain that Sony was playing hardball, and had threatened to yank several maker's Blu-ray licences if they built a hybrid player. Now, however, it appears that Sony has moved into a new phase in their strategy. Will it work? I can't wait to find out.

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1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Perhaps they will both be killed off, but in the meantime this seems like a small victory for the would-be consumer, and maybe even for a few retailers.