With hi-def war, it's 1975 all over again

They’re pricey, at around $1,000. Look for other companies to follow suit, and for prices to drop.

Samsung started off in the Blu-ray only camp.

But, “clearly, there’s confusion in the marketplace about the formats,” said Dan Schinasi, HDTV product planning manager.

“We now offer a player for those who want the best of both worlds.”

The differences in the technology between Blu-ray and HD DVD are not major at this relatively early stage of the HD game. Each uses the same kind of blue-violet laser to create the discs. Blu-Ray discs hold 25 gigabytes on a single layer vs. 15 gigabytes for HD-DVD. 

Either way, that’s a lot of capacity to provide the kinds of extra features consumers have come to expect from DVDs.

A lower-cost alternative to high-definition players are upconverting DVD players, which start at under $100.

Upconverting players require an HDMI connection on an HDTV, and play regular DVDs. The picture you’ll see is a better one that that provided by a standard DVD player. But you will not see it in high-def.

At least with an upconverting DVD player, said Cripps of HDTV magazine, “if I’m getting good enough performance out of it, I’ll never have to throw away any of my DVDs, like I had to do with all my videotapes.”

High-definition DVD players are referred to as “next-generation” players, and many consumers may prefer to wait before buying one.

“Standard DVD players and upconverting players are the majority of the DVD player market,” said Joe Bates, director of research for the Consumer Electronics Association.

“But we do expect that to change over the coming year. It’s a matter of time before the next-generation DVD players become the majority.”

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