Samsung Player to Play Blu-Ray and HD DVD

Next year Samsung reportedly plans to offer a DVD player capable of handling both the Blu-Ray and HD DVD formats if rivals Sony and Toshiba can't agree on a standard.

Samsung’s head of consumer electronics Choi Gee-sung told the Financial Times Deutschland that the company plans to develop next-generation DVD players which support both the Blu-Ray and HD DVD formats. "It won’t be simple," he said in the interview, "but you’ll see our solution in the coming year. Consumers will be too confused otherwise."

Samsung backs Sony’s Blu-Ray format, which offers a larger capacity and other features not present in Toshiba’s HD DVD format, but has higher manufacturing costs and is incompatible with existing CD and DVD players. Talks to unify the two formats into a single standard recently broke down, with both companies announcing they plan to bring products to market using the incompatible formats. Choi Gee-Sun said: “We would welcome a unified standard but if this doesn’t come, which looks likely, we’ll bring a unified solution to market.”

Samsung has previously embraced multiple standards in its mobile phone and mobile video products. A dual-standard next-generation DVD player would undoubtedly carry a premium price tag to account for the licensing costs and engineering effort involved in supporting both formats, but could catch consumer interest if the looming battle over future DVD formats turns into a shooting war.