SEOUL: South Korea's Samsung Electronics is introducing a dual format optical disc player that will support both Blu-ay Disc as well as HD DVD formats, the company announced Friday.
The new Duo HD player, BD-UP5000, will be available before the year-end in the U.S. and will support both the formats as well their interactive technologies, HDi and BD-Java. The player will be available in Europe in the following months.
Samsung, a long-time supporter of the Blu-ray format, is the second company to opt for a dual format, the first being the other Korean electronics major LG Electronics, which has already launched such a player in North America.
Major consumer electronics companies have been supporting one or the other formats all the while. Blu-ray, pioneered by Sony, has the support of companies like Matsushita Electric Industrial (Panasonic), Sharp and Dell, while the mover behind HD DVD is Toshiba with support from Microsoft and Intel and backing from the DVD Forum. The two formats were launched in 2006 and because of the confusion in the minds of users, sales of players using either of the technologies have not picked up.
Samsung has already introduced a second generation Blu-ray player, which is now available.
Announcing the Duo HD player, executive president of Digital AV division of Samsung Electronics Dongsoo Jun said the player will allow consumers access to every HD movie title available regardless of the authoring format.
"As a member of the DVD Forum and contributor to the DVD Industry, we recognize that both HD-DVD and BD formats have merits. As such, we have decided to market a dual format player. Samsung is flexible to market a stand-alone HD-DVD player whenever consumers demand it. Our main concern is not technology but consumer choice," he said
