According to a report by DigiTimes, Samsung Electronics, during a conference held in Hamburg, Germany last week, announced it will launch the BD-UP5000, a dual format high definition player that will hit the European market on November at a tentative price of €400 - about $545.
Samsung's player would become the world's second dual-format player next to LG Electronics' BH100, which made its debut at the CES 2007 in January and launched initially in the US market at $1,199. However, LG's BH-100 so far has received mixed reviews, with the lack of full support for both formats being a major complaint.
The BD-UP5000 not only will cost less than half the price of the BH-100, but it will also feature full support for both formats, according to the company, adding the HD DVD interactive system (HDi) as well as Blu-ray Java platform support (BD-Java).