One of the main backers of the Blu-ray Disc format, South Korea's Samsung Electronics plans to release an optical disc player this year that will play both Blu-ray Disc and the rival HD DVD format, it said on Friday.
Samsung hopes to make the BD-UP5000 player available before the end of 2007 in the US, says Kwak Bumjoon, a spokesman for the company in Seoul. He says the player could be available in Europe in the following few months, but an exact release schedule has not been decided. No details on possible pricing were available.
The news makes Samsung the second company to shift from a single-format stance and adopt the idea of a dual player than can read both types of disc. The other, fellow South Korean maker LG Electronics launched a dual player in North America earlier this year.
Consumer electronics and computer companies have been divided on the two formats for the last few years. Blu-ray Disc is principally backed by Sony and other major supporters include Matsushita Electric Industrial (Panasonic), Sharp and Dell. HD DVD's main supporter is Toshiba and it also counts the support of Microsoft and Intel as well as the backing of the DVD Forum, the group behind the DVD format.
