14 DAY TRIAL // Feel like the Blu-Ray vs. HD-DVD war is giving you headaches and you don't really know what exactly to choose among these two formats? BestBuy has the solution for you. Remember that at CES, LG presented its hybrid Blu-Ray/HD-DVD player. Guess what? It's already available online, thanks to those cool guys from BestBuy.
Despite the fact that LG seemed to have trouble getting positive feedback on its hybrid BH100 Blu-ray/HD DVD player, at least with the HD DVD logo onboard, it now appears that all problems have been overcome and LG is already shipping the new players. BestBuy presents the LG BH100 as being in stock with purchases shipping from its warehouse within one business day.
The problems started with the HD-DVD standard's capacity to incorporate a dual-stream decoder in the players, which allows studios to add exclusive content while the movie is playing. Thus, the hybrid LG player is unable to cope with HD-DVD specific features such as iHD interactive content and PiP. According to Crave, the only concession that LG was faced with from the DVD Forum was that the official HD-DVD logo could not appear anywhere on the product.
The lack of iHD seems to be the least of the BH100's real problems, as the unfriendly $1,199 price tag is sure to give some eye problems to average consumers. Instead of getting this expensive hybrid model, consumers can go for a $499 20GB PlayStation 3, which is Blu-ray compatible, combined with a $599 Toshiba HD-A20 player for HD-DVD movie viewing. Or even better: you could opt for a $499 PS3 and a $300 Xbox 360 with an additional $200 Xbox HD-DVD drive, and end up spending only $1000 plus the included bonus of getting 2 consoles, as well.
Bottom line? Better wait for a new implementation of the hybrid technology and more friendly price-tags.