LG BH100 HD DVD / Blu-ray hybrid player (merged thread) (1 Viewer)

[ppltd]

Dave, when the LG was originally announced it seemed like it might be a good way to go. But now, you can buy seperate BD and HD players for the price of the LG, get more functionality, and end up with fine components to add to your rack. While I have not read any reviews on the LG, even if it got exceptional reviews, I would now probably steer clear of it.

 

[Tim Glover]

Correct Thomas. One can get a fully loaded Toshiba HD XA-2 & a PS3 loaded for just a little more. I like idea of these hybrids but you got to give us a reason to buy them....

 

[john a hunter]

[This player gets a very, very good rap from Scott Wilkinson in the current Perfect Vision and his review is available for downloading at their website. I'm like many who have a 1st gen Tosh and are sitting on the fence with BD.(For me, the exclusive BD software at the moment is basically crap. It must(?) get better.) This player fits the bill apart from the price.I could still use my X1A when I wanted full HD DVD implementation and the LG for fast access,loading,etc which we all know is the bugbear with these 1st gen machines . All that together with very good BD playback for when there is something else to play on it apart from Casino Royale.Am I missing something?

 

[Tim Glover]

But John, if you already have the excellent XA1 HD DVD player, why not save about $400-500 and just add a PS3 for BD playback. More advanced audio decoding on the PS3 as well as HDMI 1.3 future ready.

Use the extra money on movies man! Or toward a better tv etc..

 

[Cees Alons]

John,

Apparently that player isn't a very good HD DVD player (menues!), which is less important to you because you own the HD A1 already. But for the same reason: why add what's basically a BD player for you for that amount of money? It's for this reason that I'm holding off too.

And sadly I have to agree with you about the BD-exclusive titles. Hardly anything worth orderering, except CR perhaps (which I did, together with the SD version, because I don't have a BD player yet either). I own 5 BD titles now (and two more to arrive) next to 70 HD DVDs.


Cees

 

[john a hunter]

Thanks Tim and Cees for your guidance.
Does anyone know whether we will ever get a firmware upgrade to fix the XA1's "operational problems"?If I knew it would get "better", it would help.
I'm not into games so it would be a standalone player for me. The best thing would be to wait but I will be in New York in early May from Sydney so it would be an ideal time to buy one.Not only would it be cheaper but it would be R1 which is perfect for me as I have always used R1 discs and you can't rely on Fox not to implement zoning on BD more agressively than present.

 

[Cees Alons]

John,

When an upgrade for the HD-A2 series appeared last week, it was rumoured that one for the A1 series could be expected in a week. So, it might be very soon.


Yeah, when anything labeled "copy-protection" is presented to Fox, be it genuine or not, or effective or not, they immediately consider it seriously, it seems. Some guys must have made fortunes merely "advising" Fox.


Cees

 

[Tim Glover]

No problem John. All of us need to make a few somewhat reasonable buying decisions with our hard earned money.

Then again, who said anything in this gloriously addictive HT hobby was reasonable.

Best of luck John!

 

[ppltd]

Hey Tim. I think if we were really making reasonable buying decisions, we would still be sitting on the sidelines waiting .

130 plus HD's and 25 plus BD's probably shows my lack of reasonable buying decisions myself .

Add to that a XA1 replaced by an XA2, a XBOX add-on and a Samsung does not make for a smart buyer . This war is getting really expensive.....Damn good thing I am no longer married.

 

[Tim Glover]

....or you would be un-married soon! Ha.

 

[shingdaz]

SO whats the problem with dual format's?...they both fit in the same tray so who really cares? Wal-mart should definatly take advatage of this.

 

[Chris Gerhard]

What software format does the consumer buy if dual format players gain a portion of the market? A dual format player only guarantees the software can be played until the player breaks. The consumer is concerned that one of these redundant formats is going to disappear and the one left will find no hardware being manufactured to play it. The market is demanding only one of these two exist. A small portion will get involved when dual format players are less expensive, but that really doesn't help much in my opinion. Look at SACD/DVD-A, the formats bombed big time despite affordable dual format players.

Two formats for the same thing is stupid beyond belief.

Chris

 

[DeathStar1]

That's corporate greed for you. They s aw how big a market share DVD had gotten in so little time (3-4 years?) and wanted a piece of the rights to the next format. The smart gene must go bye bye when you reach corporate level or something .

 

[Beery]

Right now I'm thinking Blu-Ray has an edge over HD-DVD. Three months ago I'd have said the opposite, but Alienware is starting to support Blu-Ray so I'm thinking that's going to influence other manufacturers to support the format.

 

[Aurora Coast Productions]

I agree. Computer manufacturers acceptance of either format (looks more BR for now) will sway public acceptance. I for one am also looking for data storage, and BR has a slight edge for now.

Dave

 

[ppltd]

That would make since. I believe that Dell purchased Alienware, and Dell is a BD exclusive hardware manufacturer, so it would stand to reason the Alienware would also be. I tend to doubt it will have much influence as Alienware as a very small market share and is heavily weighted to the gamers. More important will be HP (Compaq), Lenovo, Toshiba, Dell, Gateway, Acer and to a much lesser extent, Sony. And between those Brands that account for most of the hardware sales, where support has been decided, it is pretty evenly split between HD and BD.

 

[Ryan]

I noticed this player is now down to $699.99 at Circuit City if you factor in the $200 gift card that comes with purchase. The player includes multi-channel analog outputs so people without HDMI receivers (most) can still enjoy the new lossless codecs plus uncompressed audio on Blu-ray. If you have two seperate players, you can only hook one of them up this way. Also, Toshiba dropped multi-channel analog outputs on their lower-priced players. I think this is a big mistake by Toshiba because the higher resolution audio is almost as exciting as the picture quality of these players!

If this format war continues much longer, I really think combo players are going to be the solution for most people.

 

[gushin]

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