It appears that CES will include a possible "armistice" to the current format war: PC Magazine has an article up about LG's plan to show a player at CES that will play both HD-DVD and Blu-ray. If we really do have the full hardware equation in place now (drives, chipsets, and legal wrangling), we could start seeing combo players even before the individual formats have rolled out truly solid players of their own. It'll take these combo players some time to get past the early teething pains (just like DVD-A/SACD players did, but with even more challenges since the new formats are even more complex), but simply having that process under way at last is cool to see - assuming this player is the real deal.

Hey gonk,

I will hold off buying a Blu-ray player for now. I will hope that Blu-ray is around for it has the newer tech stuff, 1080P, ect. As I am still planning building my soon to be new system based on the 1070, I wil want a new generation Denon DVD modified to make the sound great.

Well, technically, HD-DVD also supports 1080p (or will once players are released that can do it) and all of the same new audio formats - Blu-ray can hold more data, but that's about the only difference. The two share a gret many things in common (AACS encryption, the various new video encoding formats, the new audio formats, and so on and so forth) - not least of which the format supporters' stubborn resistance to finding a middle ground...

Gonkster:

Don't bet on this totally ending the format battle just yet. It's a different thing, but remember that even though some companies make/made DVD-Audio/SACD players, some brands (hint: the ones from the companies that came up with SACD) never made combo machines. You can bet that one of those two brands (hint: it's a four letter word) would probably NEVER make anything with HD-DVD in it.

It really depends on what the studios do. Some (same equation as above) will likely NEVER release "TotalHD" discs or movies on HD-DVD. One major has yet to go with BluRay, but they could change at any moment.

CES will be, well, "very interesting".

The patent application for Warner's Total HD format also includes embedded DVD information. Looking forward to seeing if they actually pulled that off next week at CES.

Brief info on it here.

Still wondering when the long-in-development holographic storage process will become widely available and make all of this a moot point. The original reports were that the technology would allow storage upwards of 1 TB on a cd-size disc.

Oh, absolutely - combo DVD-Audio/SACD players didn't end that format war, but they did give consumers a way to enjoy both formats while the two formats started to fade away into niche market-dom. Likewise, combo HD-DVD/Blu-ray players will not do anything to end the format war (they'll likely just prolong it), but they'll help consumers start to experiment with the formats without the degree of worry about betting on the wrong horse. Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic are welcome to not make combo players - I'll gladly spend my money on hardware from companies like LG, Denon, or maybe even "little" names like OPPO or Outlaw.
I agree - if the format war is to have a true winner and loser, it'll be because the studios decide to declare one by releasing significantly more (and more popular) titles on one format than the other. Sony, Toshiba, Microsoft, Panasonic, and all the others can do all they want to on the hardware front, but at the end of the day it'll be software that makes the big difference. Assuming, of course, that at least one format survives long enough and gains enough market share to be more than a niche product like LaserDisc, MiniDisc, DVD-Audio, and SACD before something else (higher density media storage, downloadable content, video on demand, or some trick we haven't even seen yet) rises to prominence.

Nice find Gonk! LG is to be complimented for stepping up and offering a universal HD player. I think it will have an immediate market made up of folks that already have 1080p capable monitors/TVs. LG (or any other company willing to make an universal HD player) would have a huge market if they included a couple of features besides those already offered on the current crop of BluRay/HD-DVD players.

I, like a lot of folks, have a HD monitor (capable of 1080i and 720p) with only component inputs. I'd like to see a HD player that: 1) scaled conventional DVDs to 1080i and 720p via HDMI and component, and 2) scaled 1080p content to 1080i and 720p, again via HDMI and component outputs. I understand that HDCP may limit these features but it sure is frustrating to have a monitor capable of better resolutions and not be able use them except for HDTV.

A player with these features would allow a lot of people to enjoy greater dvd resolutions with their current monitors/tvs and when 1080p monitors/tvs are more reasonably priced they can choose whether to upgrade to the new HD standard and the full 1080p benefits. Then again, the companies that would make a player with the features I want also want to sell us all new and shiney 1080p TVs!

Now I'll get off my soap box and watch a movie...

My understanding from taking part in some discussion of Oppo's players over at AVS is that the reason you don't see upscaling of DVD content to HD resolution at component outputs is a licensing issue - basically, the big boys (I don't recall at the moment whether it's HDMI, HDCP, or another necessary licensing authority) will pull your license for doing it. As a result, it is extremely unlikely that LG will be able to implement upscaling of DVD's via component output on a player like this. It's a messed up situation that many of us were already worried about several years ago, when first DVI and then HDMI were just emerging and there was early talk about "plugging the analog hole." Folks are stuck with either 480p from DVD's or doing stuff like the firmware hack for the Oppo 970HD (which is based on an older version of the official firmware but has HDCP disabled for the HDMI output and allows copy protected discs to be scaled to HD resolutions).

On the other hand, 1080p source material will have to be able to be scaled to both 1080i and 720p because such a small portion of the installed HDTV market can support 1080p, and as long as HD-DVD and Blu-ray discs are mastered with the ICT flag left off then players will be able to output those resolutions via component.

As hard as it has been for folks like Toshiba, Sony, Samsung, Panasonic, and Pioneer to get first-gen HD and BR players right (delays, limited feature sets, and even some operational problems), I suspect that it'll be another year before we can hope to see universal HD players that really start to hit the mark on both features and performance - a few initial hiccups are likely, especially since even the players from format leaders aren't necessarily including all the desired features yet.

Thanks, Gonk. Its just no fun being in the analog black hole. I guess that is the price I pay for having the "wow" factor about 4 years ago when I bought my plasma. I hope a number of things come together at about the same time: 1) HDMI v1.3 is implemented in processors and source components. Not that it is really necessary, but it sure would/will be nice to have an easily recongnized and widely implemented standard, 2) we have an indication about which HD DVD format will prevail or universal players become available, and 3) prices for 1080p displays come down. Until then I'll wait (with some envy for those with displays that have digital inputs) until I can go digital video with all my components.

I think that's a good trio of things to wait for since you already have an HD display.