After groups saying there making combo players and then retracting the statement we all know it’s only a matter of time till we finally get one. The latest rumors come out of the Toshiba camp… Toshiba President Atsutoshi Nishida, tells investors “We have not given up on a unified format. We would like to seek ways for unifying the standards if opportunities arise.”… See atleast part of the people involved want to work things out somehow. LG, Toshiba and a few others all “secretly” working on combo players and according to G4 tonight Sony and NEC also working on a combo player it seems that neither side fully trusts there media and would rather just produce players that do it all.
No, The funny part about this isn’t even about the combo players but more so about the PS3 and xbox HD-DVD addon… With both specific to one brand and with neither side Sony or Toshiba 100% sure of their standards (rightly so because they both have their own merits) the fact comes down to where does the ps3′s bluray and the xbox360 addon find itself? The PS3 has kind of heralded in the bluray saying that it’s so wonderful and all but the fact is if bluray doesn’t succeed that extra cost was just a big waste since the BD drive isn’t upgradeable or swappable for a combo player or HDDVD. The same holds true kind of for the 360′s addon… but then again that’s just an addon your not forced to buy it and Microsoft has already said if in the end bluray was to win they would more than likely release a BluRay addon… but atleast there is a path in that case. Most technical reviewers can easily see through Sony’s smoke and mirrors at this point, primarily because if they were to announce a Combo HD-DVD / Bluray drive for under 1k or so before the ps3 launches there reason for the high priced PS3 would seem deflated and so would bluray, it would make Sony seem unsure of itself.
But in my view doesn’t hideing it and ending up with rumors and i dont know… samsung execs slipping up end up being even worse in the end? The fact is things just aren’t shaping up well on either side, the problem for sony though is unlike toshiba and microsoft they haven’t bet there entire company on 1 piece of hardware and 1 form of media.
Source: Inhouse / G4TV / Engadget
