One of the biggest highlights at this year's CES is LG's new hybrid
Blu-ray/HD DVD player, the BH100. While LG has announced plans to ship the BH100 in February, they may have trouble bring it to market in
its current form. Without support for HDi, the DVD Forum could pursue legal action, as it does not fully support the HD DVD format.
The problem stems from the lack of support for HDi, the advanced interactivity technology used by HD DVD. LG has only
included support for BD-J, Blu-ray's interactive menu system, in the BH100. Without HDi, only the video content from HD DVD discs will
play back; menu systems and other interactive features will simply not be usable.
Kevin Collins, Microsoft's representative for
the HD DVD group who sits on all the steering committees, says LG will not be able to sell the product and claim it supports the format
if it leaves out HDi. Collins said LG provided no advance notice before announcing the BH100 player at CES, and noted he was surprised by
the move.
The way I see it, Microsoft has issues because, as the developer of HDi, they're losing out on the licensing fees.
That aside, the DVD Forum would be doing a disservice to consumers by blocking a player like this. In any case, it will be interesting to
see what LG does. If you'd like to read more, head on over to BetaNews.
