Samsung follow LG with BD-UP5000 dual format HD DVD and Blu-ray player

Plays both formats to avert format war

26 July 2007 1:04 GMT / By Stuart Miles

Samsung has followed LG in announcing the launch of a dual format HD DVD and Blu-ray player in the US with a mouth watering price of just $1000 (£500).

Due in the shops for Christmas (although we aren't sure if it will make it to the UK in time), Samsung's first dual-format HD player, the BD-UP5000 Duo HD will offer support for both Blu-ray and HD DVD in a hope to appeal to consumers unsure of which format to back.

Samsung's first dual-format HD player, the BD-UP5000 Duo HD Player, will be the new flagship in the company's growing line of high definition players and offers the same playback capabilities of the current second generation player, the BD-P2400 including HQV (Hollywood Quality Video) processing.

Like the LG super Multi Blue, the BD-UP5000 supports both Blu-ray and HD DVD formats as well as their interactive technologies, HDi and BD-Java.

In addition to the new dual-format player the company has also announced a new home cinema solution with built in Blu-ray called the HT-BD2 as well as two standalone Blu-ray players; the BD-P1400 and BD-P2400.

The HT-BD2 7.1 channel HD receiver will come in piano black with soft blue LED accents. A fully powered subwoofer, four tower, a center channel, and two satellite rear speakers will provide 1100 Watts of total output power and support 24 frame playback. The HT-BD2 also supports 60Fs for enhanced compatibility with many of today's HDTVs.

In what seems like a fiesta of announcements from Samsung, the company also announced the launch of the BD-P1400 and BD-P2400 Blu-ray players.

They too will support 24 frames playback, HDMI 1.3 connectivity and Dolby Digital, Dolby Digital Plus and DTS audio playback, as well as DTS HD and Dolby TrueHD.

The BD-P2400 and BD-P1400 models include backward compatibility with standard DVD and CD formats (including DVD-ROM, DVD-+/R, DVD-+/RW, CD, CD-R and CD-RW). Playback of multimedia content in a variety of different formats is quick and easy at 720p, 1080i and 1080p resolutions.