After the "death" of HD DVD some thought this would inevitable, but Samsung has officially declared the news that's surely to upset some of the old red die-hards.
In a move not exactly surprising following the end of the format war, Samsung has decided to cancel its latest dual-format disc player, the company said this week.
“In light of recent announcements, Samsung will not introduce the BD-UP5500 Duo HD Player,” company spokesman Dan Lantowski said in a statement e-mailed to Dealerscope. Despite calling the dual-format players “the best and only solution for consumers that want access to all available High-Definition (HD) titles in the short term,” the company will from now on concentrate on Blu-ray-only players, vowing to release a full line-up of them this year.
It’s next new player, the BD-P1500 Blu-ray Player, is scheduled to arrive in June. The BD-UP5500 had been announced at International CES in Las Vegas in January.
Also in the e-mail, Samsung shared that it “always believed that Blu-ray was the format best-positioned to win based on the studio support and the format’s capabilities.”
Samsung and LG were the only companies to produce dual-format players; Samsung produced Blu-ray-only players as well but never HD DVD-only.
