Pax Optica: Samsung’s Duo HD-DVD Blu-ray Player

Equally unwavering in their desire to prove that their format is ideal, neither Sony nor Toshiba are willing to yield, because the stake here is not only image-related; there is a considerable sum involved as well – more zeros than the distance from the Earth to the Moon.

Basically, the company that will succeed in imposing its format will dictate the way in which we will watch movies during the next decade, which translated into business language means commissions from the movie studios that reach billion-dollar figures.

Although the stake is quite clear for companies and studios, the co-existence of two rival formats, even if technologically related, has already generated plenty of confusion amongst consumers.

In an attempt to find a solution, Toshiba and Sony have gone through several rounds of negotiation over the years, in order to discover and promote a universal hybrid format. It would seem that eventually they might even reach a peace treaty and that a disc will emerge that combines the best technologies of the two formats. For various reasons, negotiations have reached a dead end, with each company going its separate way.

Blu-Ray players, promoted by Sony and its supporters, as well as HD-DVD players, promoted by Toshiba and its friends, have already landed the market, price differences being significant. A Blu-Ray player comes close to $600, while an HD-DVD player costs about $400.

The hybrid format has remained a dream though that other producers have not given up on. In October 2006, NEC announced a controller chip which enables the creation of a player that reads both formats. NEC has said that this chip will cost approximately $84 and that it will be shipped starting April 2007.

At this year CES LG was the first company to announce a dual player, "Super Multi Blue" Player, compatible with Blu-ray Disc, DVD, CD read/write and HD-DVD-ROM.

The unit supports various A/V formats, including MPEG-2, VC-1, H.264 video, MPEG1/2 audio, Dolby Digital, Dolby Digital+, DTS and DTS-HD audio, and includes multiple inputs/outputs such as HDMI out, component/composite video outputs, and optical/coaxial/discrete 5.1 channel audio outputs, among others.

Now, it’s Samsung’s turn to join the camp of dual players. Actually, Samsung offered some hints in the past that is considering this type of solution. Last year, a Samsung official spoke about the possibility to create a dual player. It seems he was right as Samsung announced Duo HD player (BD-UP5000) which will fully support both HD-DVD and Blu-ray Disc formats and their interactive technologies, HDi and BD-Java.

With the Duo HD consumers can enjoy additional studio content such as trailers, director's comments, more elaborate interactive menus and behind the scene footage. The new Duo HD joins Samsung's next generation DVD line-up which includes Samsung's second generation Blu-ray player available at retail this month. Together, these two models offer the consumer a strong line of High-Definition players to match Samsung's line of HDTVs.

"We are very pleased to announce the upcoming release of our Duo HD player. Consumers are hungry for more HD content but are currently confused about competing formats. Samsung's Duo HD player will allow consumer’s access to every HD movie title available regardless of the authoring format. Samsung is committed to making life simpler through technology and will market next generation DVD products which will satisfy the consumer and market requirement. This is a big win for the consumer.” said Dongsoo Jun, Executive Vice President of the Digital AV Division at Samsung Electronics.

Despite Samsung’s and LG’s efforts to put an end to HD-DVD versus Blu-Ray formats war, many analysts considered that a dual solution do nothing more than generate even more confusion amongst customers and to bring disadvantages to both sides.

Also at CES 2007, Warner Home Video came up with another approach and presented Total HD or Total Hi Def Disc, which plays the HD DVD format on one side and the Blu-ray Disc format on the other. Warner said that discs in Total Hi Def will be available in the second half of 2007, and titles will be announced in a time frame consistent with the company's standard trade announcements for home entertainment titles. The physical structure of the disc is 1.2 mm the same as DVDs, HD DVD and Blu-ray discs. The Total Hi Def disc has the ability to contain both single layer and dual layers for both formats enabling either 15 GB or 30 GB on the HD DVD side and 25 GB or 50 GB on the Blu-ray side.

As you can see, there are solutions but it remains to be seen which will win the consumer’s support: the dual player, Blu-Ray, HD-DVD or a dual disc?