LG To Support Both HD DVD and Blu-Ray

The battle between HD DVD and Blu-Ray has gained another fence-sitter as LG Electronics announces it will support both high-definition technologies.

LG Electronics, one of the world’s largest optical drive makers, has said it plans to support both Sony’s Blu-Ray and Toshiba’s HD DVD formats as the formats compete for dominance of the next-generation DVD marketplace.

LG had firmly sided itself in Sony’s Blu-Ray camp, but now has become the second major Blu-Ray supporter to announce it will also support HD DVD. Hewlett-Packard announced earlier this month it would also support both HD DVD and Blu-Ray.

At this week’s CeBIT trade show in Germany, LG showed Blu-ray optical drives which can be used with a personal computer; the drives are expected to reach consumers sometime in during 2006, although no pricing information was released. Initially, Blu-ray drives for PCs are expected to be available only in selected mid- to high-end units until costs decline enough to permit mass consumer adoption.