LG BH100 has appeared in the news a number of times and this is more or less solely because it’s the first stationary blue laser unit sporting both Blu-ray and HD DVD. The player brings full support for the Blu-ray specification, while it lacks support for the interactive interface HDi of the HD DVD specification. Despite certain rumors, LG has started selling the player and now the first review of the player has appeared. At Gadgetaholic they’ve tested the player with both HD formats and as one should they praise LG for developing and launching a player sporting both Blu-ray and HD DVD.
When commenting on the functionality they point out that both formats worked flawlessly, except from the annoying lack of HDi support.
“As we mentioned, the BH100 does not support the HD-DVD’s HDi interactive menu system. When calling up the disc menus, it displays a much simpler-looking HD-DVD menus at the bottom of the screen than the ones on the HD-A2. The available options were Title, Scene, Subtitle, and Audio. Missing was the “Special Features” menu present when played on the HD-A2. This meant, no access to features like the Director’s Comments and music video by Nelly (boo hoo). According to c|net, LG has confirmed that neither the HDi functionality nor the HDMI 1.3 support will be upgradeable via firmware. Well, thanks, LG.”
LG BH100 has its ups but we’re looking forward to the next generation of combo players which hopefully brings full support for both formats, and hopefully lower prices.
