LG drops the MSRP on the BH100 HD DVD/Blu-ray combo player
By Matt Burns 
posted Aug 16th 2007 4:52PM
posted Aug 16th 2007 4:52PM
Let's say you absolutely must have high-def movies, and who doesn't, but you also can't decide which format to buy. The obvious choice is to buy LG's combo player - the BH100. That way if one format doesn't pan out, you don't have to post the other one on Craigslist as your player supports both formats. However, said combo player actually cost more than buying a player from both HD DVD and Blu-ray. (Sony BDP-S300 + Toshiba HD-A2 = $899) Thankfully, LG is trying to keep up with the times and they dropped the MSRP of its player to $999 from $1199. The price is still technically higher than buying one of each but then retailers can slap their sale prices on 'em and get that price down to where it needs to be.
I'm enjoying my Xbox 360/HD-DVD addon + PS3. War? Call me Switzerland.
Don't waste your money. This is a waste of money on both fronts -- it doesn't support HD DVD *and* it doesn't support BD profile 1.1 (or 2.0). Why bother at any price?
Correction.
Sony BDP-S300 + Toshiba HD-A2 = $798 not $899
The BDP-S300 is $499 The HD-A2 is $299. Both are less on Amazon.
best to wait til November?
"best to wait til November?"
Even longer, I believe. I don't think any BD players with profile 1.1 have been announced yet (maybe the $2,000 one had 1.1, I can't recall). The spec is supposed to be finalized by November, but the hardware will take a few more months after that to come out.
So my recommendation would be to either buy HD DVD and enjoy HD now, buy BD and not be able to enjoy any extra features on new disks, or buy neither and wait it out until sometime next year.
If it were me (and it was at one point), I'd buy a Toshiba HD-A2 for around $230 and enjoy HD now. Yeah, you won't get to see Disney/Fox/Sony movies yet, but frankly two of those three studios haven't released much anyway. Some Sony movies would be nice, but you'll have that problem regardless of which format you buy at this point (unless you buy both). There's tons of good movies from Universal, Warner Brothers, Weinstein, and Paramount, all of which are on HD DVD (plus, you can always buy some of the BD exclusives from Europe on HD DVD - cheaper than buying a BD player if you only want a few, although not all movies are available obviously).
or buy a BD now that will be firmware upgraded to 1.1 later once the spec is completely finalized.
@MasterCKO: This isn't something that can be fixed with firmware. The spec change will require extra HARDWARE, and none of the current BD players have it. Sony hasn't even said whether the PS3 will work, although I would think it probably will... But who knows?
out of curiosity, may i ask how many hd dvd titles you own