From
http://www.dvdexclusive.com/article.asp?articleID=2372&categoryID=This seems to be old news already, but I thought I'd post it for the information of everyone interested. If anyone has an update on this, pls confirm. Thanks.SAMSUNG BRIDGES HIGH-DEF GAPPromises dual-format player for Blu-ray and HD DVD
By Paul Sweeting 9/9/2005
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With a marketplace format war looming, Blu-ray Disc Assn. board member Samsung Electronics said last week that it would hedge its bets by introducing a dual-format player next year that can read both Blu-ray and HD DVD discs.
The announcement was a first for a major hardware maker from either high-definition camp and echoed the growing unease throughout the industry over the contentious transition from standard to high-def video discs.
"We would welcome a unified standard, but if it doesn't come, which looks likely, we'll bring a unified solution to market," Samsung consumer electronics division president Choi Gee-sung said in an interview with the German edition of the Financial Times. "It won't be simple, but you'll see our solution in the coming year. Consumers will be too confused otherwise."
In a separate sign of friction, European replicators said last month they're concerned about being gouged on patent royalties by both sides in the format battle and filed a complaint with European Commission's anti-trust division.
Although speculation about a dual-standard player has been rife for months, the announcement from Samsung was seen as a blow to the Blu-ray camp, which had counted the Korean giant among its key supporters.
One of Blu-ray's key selling points in the contest for studio affections has been the support of an overwhelming majority of consumer electronics makers.
Among the Blu-ray Disc Assn.'s 140-member companies are such prominent hardware names as Sony, Pioneer, Panasonic, Philips, Sharp, LG Electronics, Hitachi, Mitsubishi, Thomson and, of course, Samsung.
By contrast, HD DVD's hardware support comes primarily from three companies: Toshiba, NEC Corp. and Sanyo.
Should other companies start hedging their bets, however, some of BDA's advantage could be lost.
BDA officials offered no response to Samsung's announcement.
Just how practical Samsung's plans for a dual-format player are is unclear.
Blu-ray and HD DVD rely on different optical elements, which would likely mean a dual-format player would need two separate optical assemblies, adding significantly to the cost.
It's also unclear how licensing terms for the rival technologies would apply--if at all--in the case of a dual-format player.
One possibility is that Samsung meant its comments to put pressure on the two camps to renew unification talks, which have been dormant for several months.
Samsung officials in the U.S. did not return calls for comment.
Licensing terms also were the focus of the replicators' concern.
Officially, the complaint dealt with royalty rates for standard DVDs, which replicators complain have stayed high, even as the price for pressed discs has fallen sharply.
But in comments to the European media, Guy Marriott, head of the Geneva-based International Optical Disc Replicators Assn., made it clear that the group has its eye on the next-generation formats.
"There will be new formats coming, and we feel it's important that a line should be drawn in the sand by regulators," Marriott told Reuters in Brussels.
The complaint alleges that the three patent pools for standard DVD--DVD6C, DVD3C and MPEG-LA--discriminate in the licensing fees they charge, in violation of European Union competition laws.
Through various cross-licensing arrangements, companies directly involved in the patent pools are exempt from many of the royalties charges that others must pay to manufacture DVD players and discs.
The replicators also allege that they are forced to pay royalties for patents that are not actually used in pressing prerecorded discs.
While the licensing terms for HD DVD and Blu-ray, along with their respective copy-protection schemes, have not yet been fully revealed, the eventual patent fees are considered the main prize in the format war.
That has IODRA members nervous about being the object of plunder.
"The time is right to put down some markers to say how these new technologies should be licensed," Marriott said.
