Samsung to launch '€400' Blu-ray/HD DVD player next month
Watch out, Toshiba
Samsung will launch its promised dual-format HD DVD/Blu-ray Disc player in Europe next month, the company has said, and industry insiders are already claiming the machine could be priced at just €400 ($548/£271).
Samsung apparently revealed its plan to launch the player, the BD-UP5000, at a recent preview event for the upcoming IFA consumer electronics show, which kicks off in Berlin at the end of August. Nothing was said about pricing - the €400 comes from Taiwanese moles cited by DigiTimes without addressing how Taiwanese sources might know what local pricing decisions the European wing of a South Korean company has made.
Samsung executives first hinted they were pondering a dual-format player back in the Autumn of 2005, but the company quickly acted to stress its total support for Blu-ray Disc. The rumour was revived last year after the first signs LG might be planning to produce such a machine surfaced in March 2006. The following June, Samsung staff were once again being quoted as claiming the company was considering a dual-format player.
Samsung has become increasingly willing to throw its weight behind HD DVD as well as Blu-ray of late, most notably by announcing last month a latptop with an integrated HD DVD drive.
The BD-UP5000 is said to offer full support for the two optical disc formats' interactivity technologies, HDi and BD Java. That lifts the machine above the dual-format player announced by LG in January: it will only handle Blu-ray interactivity - HD DVD playback is limited to the movies themselves.
COMMENTS
oops - rumour is wrong again (probably)
If you go back to the source of all this (in Germany IIRC), you will find it is supposed to cost 400 Euros MORE than a standard Blu-ray only player. If you think about it that makes a lot more sense and implies a price of more like 800 - 1000 Euros. Anyway we will all know at IFA next month.
See for example http://www.electronista.com/articles/07/07/04/samsung.hybrid.launch.info/
John Dawson
more great journalism
why can't you write something new and incisive on the subject instead of copying and pasting your own original article in to bush it out? Let me guess, you get paid per word, right....?
Sony?
What have Sony got to do with this, other than as one of the many people behind one of the formats the device can handle?
Personally, I've already got the HD-DVD add-on for the 360, so I'm not in a hurry to buy a new player, but this is still good news.
So now a customer has to pay €400 to get shafted ?
Well that certainly is an improvement of sorts. But with all the DRM and mistrust that permeates Sony products nowadays, I'll stick to DVD and something I can control.
When the player/recorder is down to €70, when the list of available titles goes over the 10,000 mark and when I can easily find a crack for the DRM infection, I might consider paying for the privilege of being another customer Sony is just waiting to sell more boot-sector malware to.
Nah, on second thought Sony can just can it. I'm through with Sony products.
Pascal.
