LG announced the first stationary unit capable of playing both Blu-ray and HD DVD media which on paper sounds like a terrific product for us consumers who wants to buy movies of both these HD formats. The market needs multiformat players and LG seems to be the first with such a product. But there is a minor problem, the LG BH100 player can not be sold with the specifications it has today. The player claims full support for Blu-ray but despite that LG claims full support for HD DVD as well this isn’t quite correct. The player namely doesn’t support iHD which is the system the HD DVD format uses to handle menus and interactive features. This means that LG HD100 can play the video and audio from an HD DVD movie, but that you will not be able to change any settings for the movie.
So sure, you can play both formats, but its hardly commercially possible to market a multiformat player which doesn’t support all functions. Especially not such basic functions as menus and settings. Instead LG may be angering DVD Forum as it markets its HD100 player as an HD DVD-capable player, without a complete support for the technology. What this mess will look like in the end remains to be seen, but we certainly hope for an happy ending.
