Samsung contemplates hybrid player

6/21/2006 12:03:32 PM, by Eric Bangeman

With the first batch of Blu-ray movies finally hitting store shelves and Samsung's BD-P1000 ready to launch on June 25, the war between the next-generation optical formats is about to be joined. Given the slow launch of both formats, the early battles will likely prove to be little more than inconclusive skirmishes as consumers begin to educate themselves about the new discs and recover from sticker shock.

Samsung, which is a high-profile backer of Blu-ray, is considering whether to hedge its bets by introducing a hybrid player. Still in development, the device would be able to play both HD DVD and Blu-ray content in a single drive.

The idea of hybrid devices is not a new one. Just before CES began in January, chip maker Broadcom took the wraps off an A/V decoder chip that was compliant with both next-gen optical disc formats. The BCM7411D handles realtime HD decoding of VD-1, H.264, and MPEG-2, the video formats supported by Blu-ray and HD DVD.



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