Blu-ray and HD DVD players and movies can now be easily found on store shelves. As expected, sales of the players so far have been less than stellar. Could consumers be holding out for hybrid players? Taiwanese hardware makers think so, as some are once again pushing the concept of players that can play discs of both formats in an attempt to kickstart the market.
The concept of hybrid players is not a new one. At the 2006 Consumer Electronics Show, chipmaker Broadcom unveiled a decoder chip capable of decoding both Blu-ray and HD DVD video. A few hardware manufacturers have openly considered developing hybrid players, including Samsung, Hitachi, and LG, but LG has since changed its mind, deciding to cast its lot with Blu-ray.
A combined HD DVD/Blu-ray player could take two forms: one with a single drive capable of playing both formats or a player with both a Blu-ray and HD DVD drive installed. Both hybrid models would be significantly more expensive than a vanilla Blu-ray or HD DVD drive to manufacture. Single-drive devices also pose some development challenges because of minute differences in physical disc size along with different data paths.
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20061218-8443.html
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