Samsung Electronics to support HD DVD playback on its next-gen players...

Samsung Electronics has announced that it will provide HD DVD playback capabilities on its next-gen high-definition standalone player, the Samsung BD-UP5000, despite reportedly having strong opinions previously, indicating that it will only support the competing format.

Samsung also added that in its press release, to possibly address some "rumors":

"Samsung is flexible to market a stand-alone HD-DVD player whenever consumers demand it. Our main concern is not technology but consumer choice” said Dongsoo Jun, Executive Vice President of the Digital AV Division at Samsung Electronics.

As much as this news is welcomed by many who have adopted the HD DVD format or both high-def formats, I'm cautiously happy about this piece of news, keeping in mind that the LG Combo player has led to a short-changed HD DVD experience (the player did not conform fully to the HD DVD specs) while BD specs were fully implemented. Early adopters who have no prior knowledge about both high-def formats may not know about the kind of entertainment experience HD DVD can currently provide over BD, such as Picture-in-Picture video commentary.

Thus for this Samsung Duo HD player, I believe we'll have to see and scrutinise the full tech specs, especially with regards to audio/video output/decoding capabilities for HD DVD playback (whether its similar/comparable to BD playback) and whether it conforms fully to the HD DVD specs, before we as consumers can acknowledge that they really do offer us a choice with this player.