LG breaks the HD DVD vs. Blu-ray barrier

Some time ago LG released a stand alone player with support to both high definition formats, and now they are offering multi format drive for PCs. The GGW-H10NI can record to BD-R and read HD DVD media and comes with a whopping price tag of $1199. While the drive is way too expensive for a regular consumer, it is an interesting milestone achievement which proves that the two formats can be squeezed into a single device.

The GGW-H10NI can write to 25GB single-layer and 50GB double-layer Blu-ray Disc media (both write-once and rewritable discs). The drive boasts some impressive spec ratings: 4X for BD-R single-layer write speed; 2X for BD-R double-layer, as well as for BD-RE (rewritable) single- and double-layer; 8X for DVD-R/+R; 4X for DVD-R/+R double-layer; and 16X for CD-R/RW. And, of course, it can play all of the Hollywood HD DVD movies now shipping, in addition to Blu-ray movies (assuming you have an HDCP-certified system with beefy specs and an HDCP monitor).

The drive is the first to support 4X BD-R writing, and the boost from 2X–the norm on competing Blu-ray drives–to 4X makes a tremendous difference in performance. Achieving improved real-world results will be tricky for a while, though, as the only media available today is rated at 2X, and media manufacturers say we won’t see 4X BD-R media until mid-to-late third quarter. As we saw with DVD, we learned that you can achieve faster Blu-ray write speeds on slower media–but such performance tends to be brand specific.

Source: PCWorld