Broadcom Chips Away at the HD-DVD Divide

[paintit77]

"New chip will allow one device to play both HD-DVD and Blu-ray Disc content"

And the Lord said: "Let their be hope"

Very encouraging news. I hope HP and Samsung start releasing these HD-DVD/Blu-Ray conversion players in the spring at the earliest. That would be cool and then the war now becomes pointless.


http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,124151,00.asp

[archibael]

This is Broadcom PR. Everyone who's putting out a chip is making it format-agnostic.

Now, if/when we hear from an actual manufacturer who's willing to put out a dual-drive machine...

[Mike Lindberg]

[QUOTE=archibael]Now, if/when we hear from an actual manufacturer who's willing to put out a dual-drive machine...[/QUOTE]

I know this has become legend, but didn't Samsung demonstrate a single drive HD DVD/Blu-ray device? Even if they've since abandoned it, was it just a mock-up or would it be possible?

[AnthonyP]

no, they said that if there is two formats they would work on creating a universal player.

There are two parts, the decoding (that is relatively easy) and the reading (that is much harder)

[hmurchison]

Yes I'd be more excited to read about a lens assembly that supports both blue laser formats and red laser dvd.

That would help the prospects of a Univ player.

[DrrD]

From The Perfect Vision 12/05:

A format war appeared inevitable
until Samsung announced plans to launch a high-definition disc
player that can handle both Blu-ray
discs and HD DVDs, according to a
report in the September 16 Financial
Times. No technical details had been
released by the deadline for this issue
of TPV, but at the CEDIA Expo in
Indianapolis in early September,
Samsung executives confirmed that the
company would probably debut prototype
dual-format players at the
Consumer Electronics Show in Las
Vegas this winter.


So keep you ears open, the CES starts today.

[AnthonyP]

Samsung came back a few days later and said that they were misquoted. You won't see a Samsung Universal player this year at CES. What they said is that if the war continues long enough then they will start working on a universal player because for them forcing two players is not a nice solution. Also that such a device would not be cheap because there are some fundamental differences between HD-DVD and BR on the drive side

[kjack]

[QUOTE=archibael]This is Broadcom PR. Everyone who's putting out a chip is making it format-agnostic.[/QUOTE]So Intel will be supporting blu-ray? :)

[dsmith901]

If affordable universal players becomes widely available then it will just be up to the studios to decide whether to manufacture/release their movies on (inexpensive) HD-DVDs or (expensive) BD-DVDs. Guess which they will choose?

[Gai]

[QUOTE=dsmith901]If affordable universal players becomes widely available then it will just be up to the studios to decide whether to manufacture/release their movies on (inexpensive) HD-DVDs or (expensive) BD-DVDs. Guess which they will choose?[/QUOTE]


IF. I doubt we'll see universals anytime soon or in quantities for the public.