First Look at LG 'Super Multi Blue' Player
January 8, 2007, 3:12 PM
Nate Mook, Editor-in-Chief, BetaNews: We just spoke with the folks at LG to glean some insight into their newly announced Blu-ray/HD DVD Hybrid player and the response was disappointing. The big news: iHD is not supported at all, only Blu-ray's BD-J menu and interactivity system. This is a huge blow to LG's first effort, as iHD is one of the most important features of HD DVD. The hybrid player will only playback movie content on the disc; no menu system or interactive features will be supported. Also, the player uses only HDMI 1.2, not the new 1.3 standard found in the latest standalone HD DVD and Blu-ray players.
Tim Conneally, BetaNews: The price tag is a big problem as well. At $1,200, LG is unlikely to find many buyers, especially with standalone HD DVD players priced at $599 and the Sony PlayStation with Blu-ray support also $599. Visitors to the booth were asking the LG representative why anyone would pay that much, and the response was pretty telling: "I don't know, I'm not a marketing guy." Overall, the concept seems very attractive, but the result is quite a letdown.
Scott Fulton, BetaNews: This is a big deal, fellows, because it indicates that everything that was left out of the initial LG press release, was left out for a reason. I was willing to give LG the benefit of the doubt on not mentioning iHD, but I find it baffling that the player could purport to play HD DVD videos and not support iHD interactivity. Further, I'm not certain how the player will support high-def audio and still only enable the HDMI 1.2 connection. Perhaps my uncertainty could be explained away with the Phrase of the Day: "I don't know, I'm not a marketing guy."
Nate Mook and Tim Conneally are on the floor for us all day.
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