LG Hybrid Blu-ray/HD DVD Player Cannot Be Sold As Is

January 10, 2007, 12:40 AM by Nate Mook

Nate Mook, Editor-in-Chief, BetaNews: LG may have a difficult time bringing its newly announced BH100 hybrid Blu-ray and HD DVD player to the market, BetaNews has learned, because it will not receive certification from the DVD Forum. Without such certification, LG cannot publicly claim the player supports HD DVD as it is doing now.

The problem stems from the lack of support for HDi, the advanced interactivity technology used by HD DVD. LG has only included support for BD-J, Blu-ray's interactive menu system, in the BH100. Without HDi, only the video content from HD DVD discs will play back; menu systems and other interactive features will simply not be usable.

Kevin Collins, Microsoft's representative for the HD DVD group who sits on all the steering committees, says LG will not be able to sell the product and claim it supports the format if it leaves out HDi. Collins said LG provided no advance notice before announcing the BH100 player at CES, and noted he was surprised by the move.

In fact, Collins explained to BetaNews that the DVD Forum could pursue legal action against LG for claiming the hybrid player supports the HD DVD and using the HD DVD logo, just like it does against pirate hardware manufacturers in Asia that build DVD players without paying licensing fees.

LG plans to begin selling the BH100 in the first quarter of this year for $1,199 USD. But objections from Microsoft's Collins and other companies involved in HD DVD could force LG to make changes, or scrap the player altogether. Collins noted that studios would be "very upset" if consumers could not playback HD DVD movies as they were intended, with interactive menus and special features.

BetaNews was awaiting a response from LG on the matter by press time.

Scott Fulton, BetaNews: If you're wondering, "Isn't Nate referring to the iHD interactive layer?" your glasses are not on backwards. Microsoft, which is its co-creator, has been referring to it publicly as "HDi" since last August, perhaps because putting the little "i" in front of things makes people believe Apple created them; although industry insiders outside of Microsoft still tend to refer to the interactive layer as "iHD."