There have been several announcements at this year's Consumer Electronic Show (CES) surrounding High Definition DVDs. I documented the battle between the two high definition formats, HD-DVD and BluRay, in a previous post and why the average consumer probably should hold off on buying a new High Definition player. I indicated that with the battle still in flux between these two formats and the quality not THAT much better than standard DVDs, it didn't make sense at that time to purchase one of these players yet. However, with the recent announcements, I believe that we are getting much closer to a point where this technology will begin to gain some momentum with average consumers. That is not to say that we are necessarily there yet, but we are definitely getting closer.

LG makes splash with BluRay/HD-DVD combo player (LG BH100)

The first of these announcements is the one made by LG. They have unveiled the first BluRay/HD-DVD combo player at CES 2007. This player allows a consumer to play either format seemlessly in the player, eliminating the worry of having to pick one format over the other.

The LG BH100, is scheduled to be released in February (yes - next month!) and has a pricepoint of a whopping $1,200.

Warner Brothers announced a disc that has both formats on it

The second big announcement was made by Warner Brothers. They created a new type of media called Total HD disc.This DVD media can hold and play back both HD-DVD and BluRay formats ona single disc. Total HD effectively eliminates the need to pick betweena BluRay or HD-DVD specific media when you want to purchase a moviesince it give yous both.

However, the catch is that these discs as currently designed will NOT have enough room to also carry a standard definition version of the movie, so it won't play in a non-HD DVD player. What is also unclear is how much these DVDs will cost - more than a dollar or two above an HD-DVD or BluRay disc would make them less appealing also.

The Gaming Effect

Lastly, while not as recent as the other announcements, the fact that if you already own an XBOX 360 game console, you can now buy and attach an HD-DVD player to it for $200 makes that format very compelling. I know many people that have decided to buy the XBOX player since it's so inexpensive and will definitely purchase HD-DVD movies. I believe that this will help the adoption of the High Definition format and continue the discussions among average consumers, further making it's way into our daily lives.

Bottom Line: It's still too early unless you own XBOX

While all of these announcements are positive, they still don't solve the basic consumer problems (1) an HD format that won't go the way of Beta (vs VHS) and (2) a price point that consumers can reasonably afford. A combo player is promising, but $1,200 is too steep. A dual media format is interesting, but the jury is still out on price and availability.

The reasonably priced XBOX HD-DVD player is currently the best and cheapest option for watching High Definition movies. However, this assumes that you already own an XBOX which still isn't a high percentage of the population.

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