Blu-Ray, HD-DVD Player

[hennessy1]

What is the best combo player out there now? The one that has the least amount or no readiability problems?

 

[Slick5150]

Isn't LG the only company with a hybrid player out? Its ridiculously expensive and doesn't work very well either as I recall

 

[cubby1223]

The LG BH100 is the *only* combo player out there. It does not support interactive features on either Blu-ray or HD DVD, and owners are waiting on a firmware update to play the newest Fox releases. Upcoming is the LG BH200 & maybe the Samsung BDP-UP5000 should be fantastic players, but aren't yet available.

 

[Shawn]

There is only one out right now and it sucks. Wait for the Samsung BDP-UP5000 which should be out in December if you really want a dual format player. It'll be expensive though (~$900).

You can pick up an Toshiba HD-A2 from Amazon.com right now for $229.98 and it comes with 5 free HD DVDs or the 3rd gen Toshiba HD-A30 from Amazon.com for $323.98 and comes with 7 free movies. The cheaper 3rd gen HD-A3 comes out in Nov.


Then if you want Blu-ray too you can get a Playstation 3 from Amazon for $499.99 and it comes with 5 free Blu-ray movies. I wouldn't pick up a standalone blu-ray player until Profile 2.0 players come out. The PS3 is currently the only Blu-ray player that has any chance of being able to be firmware upgraded to 2.0.

 

[SLCentral]

I'm not fully sure as to why everyone says it sucks. It's going for $799 now, plays both formats, and works fine. The only couple things I don't like are:

1). HD-DVD interactivity is missing. Not a big deal for me; I know HD-DVD's biggest thing is the new interactive features, but I just don't use them on my A2. I like to watch the movie.
2). Dolby TrueHD surround: It doesn't work through HDMI, and I don't believe you can get more then Stereo through analog 5.1. While TrueHD is nice to have, it's not 100% necessary for most (though I would not buy the player for this reason alone).

That said, everything else about it I like. It loads Blu-Ray/HD-DVD MUCH faster then any other single player out there. I have the Pioneer Elite 94 BD player next to the LG, and it's almost night and day when it comes to load times. As much as a minute doesn't sound too bad for a player (like the Pioneer), in practice, waiting a minute to put a disk in is unbearable.

It's also more stable then any other Blu-Ray/HD-DVD player I've ever had/seen. We've had tons of problems with the Samsung BDP-1200/1400, Pioneer Elite players, and even the Sony's. None with the LG...so far. No hard freezes, needing to reset, losing the HDMi signal, etc.

That said, $799 is still pretty steep, considering you can get an HD-DVD (A2) and Blu-Ray player (S300) for the same price. Even so, the convenience of one unit for MOST customers may be more important. Just something to think about.