LG should be nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize for ending the format war between HD DVD and Blu-ray, or at least making it irrelevant.  Last Tuesday the Korean electronics manufacturer made it official, they will try to begin manufacturing a combination player late in the year.  We can only say “try“ because it's been tried before by Samsung who came to the conclusion that it couldn't be done.  But LG seems a little more determined with the most recent

Originally LG had sided with Blu-ray and had some players slated for release this spring.  The BD199 was demonstrated at CES ’06 and was going to be LG’s early Blu-ray player available this spring.  But LG has decided not to release it at all.  Instead LG will no longer back Blu-ray exclusively but had decided to add HD DVD support to its line up of next gen DVD players.

When or rather if LG can pull off a combo player by the end of the year, no matter what else happens in the format war we have to give LG full credit for ending it.  It’s still likely one or the other will whither and die and at this point it doesn’t seem likely to be Blu-ray, but that’s not an official prediction by any means.  The presence of a combo player means it doesn’t matter which one dies, or if both continue for years.  How can sales of the first Blu-ray players (retailing for around $1K) not be affected by the coming of the LG combo players?  Who will knowingly go ahead and drop $1K on a player that might theoretically only be able to play half the films available.