There's a revolutionary new development in the format war between the HD-



DVD and Blu-ray high definition DVD formats! Samsung is releasing a high

definition DVD player that can play discs in both of these warring formats. But

that's not really what's revolutionary because, after all, LG has had a device

capable of doing the same thing on the market for several months now. The

revolutionary part of all of this is that the model from Samsung only costs

about six hundred dollars while LG's model costs over eleven hundred dollars.

For some background, the idea of a dual format high def DVD player is

extremely attractive because Blu-ray players and HD-DVD players can't play

each other's discs. This, combined with the rabid competition between the two

formats to displace each other, has lead to a widespread fear among

consumers of investing in either format lest they be left with the useless lump

of electronics that a player in the losing format will inevitably become.

The attraction of a dual format high def DVD player is that it allows a consumer

to invest in high definition DVD technology and start to enjoy it before the

format war is over, while remaining content that his or her purchase will still be

usable no matter how the format war turns out. Of course buying two separate

players- one for each format- would also allow home entertainment

enthusiasts to enjoy this technology without risk, but that's not a very good

solution in two different ways. First of all, buying both players would be

extremely expensive. Second, and perhaps more importantly given the

amounts of money that people are willing to throw into electronics these days,

even if one buys players for both formats one is still buying the player of the

losing format, which means that one is still making the wrong choice. In many

ways choosing the right format is more important to people than hedging their

bets. A dual format high def DVD player allows people to buy a single player

and for it to be the right choice no matter how the format war turns out.

In addition to the benefit of costing far less than LG's dual format High Def

DVD player, the Samsung model is also superior in at least one technical way.

While the LG model doesn't provide access to some bonus features on HD-

DVD's, the Samsung model is capable of accessing the bonus features on

both Blu-ray discs as well as HD-DVD discs. That takes away one major

excuse for not getting a dual format player in general.

One thing that's extremely interesting about this device is that while it won't

end the format war, it and devices like it could make the format war a moot

point in the eyes of consumers. That's because if dual format high def DVD

players become the norm, then people won't care as much which type of disc

they purchase. This indiscriminate consumption of discs of both formats could

create a kind of equilibrium where even though the two sides of the war will

still be battling for supremacy, consumers will be free to ignore all of the antics

and simply enjoy the benefits of the technology.