LG drops price of its 'Super Blu' HD DVD/Blu-ray Player

LG drops price of its 'Super Blu' HD DVD/Blu-ray Player
Finally seeing some competition on the horizon in the form of Samsung's $1,049 dual-format hybrid player, LG has lowered the price of their "Super Blu" BH100 hybrid combo player by $200 USD.

The BH100 was the first player of its kind to hit stores but it has had no competition and therefore stayed at its $1199 price tag until today.



Critics will still mention that at $999, the player is still much more expensive than buying two standalone players separately but the price cut is a step in the right direction.

The upcoming Samsung BDP-UP5000 should prove to be a fierce competitor with the LG player because it will offer full support for both BD-Java and HDi as well as well as web-enabled features for both formats.

Source:
HD Digest


Written by: Andre Yoskowitz @ 14 Aug 2007 17:10
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  • 15 comments
  • narmo

    a way to make ppl happy to buy one machine that does both formats and doesn't take up lots of space on the shelf like two seperate players would though two seperate i think are cheaper but it depends on the brand

    14.8.2007 17:25 #1

  • Pop_Smith

    An all in one is the way to go, if your going to do take the HD format plunge why risk a possible but not likely dropping of the format you support?

    With the player supporting both of the formats interactive technologies, BD-Java and HDi, you are not loosing out on any cool features that one technology has over the other either.

    While I am not sure of the demensions of other players I decided to look up the BH100. Right off of the LG website, which is located here the dimensions of the BH100 are: 16.9" Width x 3.0" Height x 9.8" Depth.

    Peace

    14.8.2007 17:43 #2

  • duckNrun

    besides the extra space two players would take up there is also the 2 hdmi ports theywould eat up on a receiver. While this may not be a problem for some this could definately be an issue with others.

    14.8.2007 19:47 #3

  • chubbyInc

    duckNrun has a good point.

    15.8.2007 06:36 #4

  • plutonash

    Couldnt you just buy a HDMI switcher. I only have HD-A1 hooked up via HDMI so Im not quite sure.

    15.8.2007 09:55 #5

  • Mr-Movies

    It's not even a burner way too expensive your better off waiting. I'd rather buy two SA's, one for $200 and the other at $500 then $1000 for a combo unit.

    Samsung and a lot of other TV MFG's are providing 3 HDMI's now so you wouldn't need a switch which would confuse most people unfortunately.

    We need more competition to lower the pricing.

    15.8.2007 10:28 #6

  • MightyOne

    Screw them all....

    Wait until the format war is over. These 1st/2nd Generation players will not last unless you can update the firmware.

    We are all ginny pigs right now.

    Things are going to change. Protection schemes will be added. Newer HD-DVD and BlueRay formats could be tweaked. I'm not sure but when blanks come out for you to burn, will they play those discs too...or will you need to buy another player ?

    Look what happened to DVDs. First the players. Some played only -R discs, some none, and some where iffy with the manufacturer. DVD Players now can be region free, patched, play both PAL and NTSC...etc...

    I would wait until things stabilize (become a standard) unless you have you don't really mind spending that kind of $$$ again in a year or two. Of course prices will drop in time.

    Who wants to be stuck with a player and discs that the industry no longer supports. Technology changes to fast for the average Joe to keep up.

    For all i know...2 formats may be accepted and nobody will actually win. We could go on for years with 2 formats.

    Just my thoughts. So much wasted $$$ when it could be avoided. These companies act like children fighting over who has the better toy and its mostly going to be at a consumer expense.

    15.8.2007 10:48 #7

  • narmo

    i'd rather just use an upconverter for my movies and everything cause its cheaper than a new player and dvds are way cheaper than blu ray and hd-dvd (as low as 0 $)

    15.8.2007 11:03 #8

  • windsong

    For those with some patience..I would wait a couple of years before taking the plunge. Remember how expensive DVD writers were when they first came out.

    All things come to those who wait.. (not to mention youll get better firmwares, bugs ironed out, more compatibility if you get a PC drive..etc)

    15.8.2007 11:32 #9

  • flyingv

    Originally posted by MightyOne:
    I would wait until things stabilize (become a standard) unless you have you don't really mind spending that kind of $$$ again in a year or two. Of course prices will drop in time.

    Who wants to be stuck with a player and discs that the industry no longer supports. Technology changes to fast for the average Joe to keep up.


    Um, Sony........(cough, cough) BETAMAX!

    15.8.2007 14:34 #10

  • Unfocused

    @flyingv

    Beta was far superior to VHS. Unfortunately for Sony, consumers wanted low quality tapes that they could fit a bunch of stuff onto. Beta couldn't hold as much content as VHS because it was of higher quality.

    I'm sure this just burns Sony's ass right now that 20+ years later, consumers want high quality.

    15.8.2007 17:36 #11

  • Mr-Movies

    It had nothing to do with what consumers liked, actually Sony screwed them selves by not allowing others to produce their decks and peripherals just like IBM PS2’s with their MicroBus in the old days otherwise VHS would have lost the battle. The BetaMax had a superior drive mechanism that would provide much better slow-mo play and wouldn’t eat tapes like VHS is famous for. You know these big companies that have done this and survive still go back to the old tricks that almost screwed them, they must think it will work the second time around but they certainly don’t learn from their mistakes.

    16.8.2007 08:34 #12

  • jimmer

    Originally posted by Unfocused:
    Beta couldn't hold as much content as VHS because it was of higher quality.
    umm, how bout beta couldn't hold as much content because beta tapes were much smaller than vhs tapes. lol

    16.8.2007 10:02 #13

  • borhan9

    I don't like LG hence this is a no go for me.

    18.8.2007 05:10 #14

  • jwerner

    Sony was first with BetaMax in the consumer video recorder/player category. They also had six or more years head start before Matsushita came out with VHS. Finally the quality was noticeably better and the mechanisms closer to the robustness of commercial recorders. So what went wrong? In a nutshell Sony, in their self-indulgent narcisism, believed because they were "Sony" they could keep their proprietary technology locked down...No licensing. Sony could go it alone because they didn't need any industry support, so they believed. As a result of this, at least in the days when they could have been a contender, Sony was unapologetic that their prices were much higher than the emerging VHS decks. Sony further ignored that it "clicked" with consumers that VHS could record initially up to 4 hrs (later stretching that to 8 hrs.). What we have here is an exapmple of corporate arogance so inane that it ought to be a case study for every business school in the civilized world. The fact that years later Sony has repeated a similar scenario regarding personal music players, a category they invented with the Walkman series, is surreal. Again proprietary technology, namely ATRAC, played a major role in killing the market leader. For the superior narcisistic Sony the failures were stacking up. Add Elcaset, Mini-Disc, and SACD to the heap and you wonder what is so seriously wrong at Sony to continually hurt themselves, their stock holders, and finally their long-suffering loyal consumers???

    FFW to today. Again we have a proprietary Sony format. This time it's in a very very important category...the next generation of video delivery/recording that just happens to be the logical replacement for the DVD and perhaps even the CD as well (many believe that a movement for a one-disc format, used for all audio, video, and data, is the future...at least until physical mediums are no longer viable due to memory only). And what is happening? History repeating? I'm tired of Sony hurting us all. They need to step up to the plate and make the definitive "peace-keeper" 2 format machine. When they do that, subsequently making them "mass-market" affordable in later generations the whole industry will follow and only 2-format machines will exist (effectively reducing it to a single format that has more flexibility). This should save the HD formats from doom, end the arrogance that has crippled Sony for so long, and, finally, give the consumer an edge. Record profits will follow Sony.

    18.8.2007 06:51 #15

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