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LG Electronics has released a special High Def DVD player that will play both Blu-ray and HD-DVD discs. This is a development that could pretty much end the high def DVD format war. At least in the eyes of consumers. The Blu-ray and HD-DVD formats are both able to deliver movies in HDTV, but can't be played on each other's proprietary disc players and drives. This has led to a format war between Sony, which created the Blu-ray format, and Toshiba, which created the HD-DVD format. The strategy of both companies has been to sell enough discs and devices to play them in order to swing consumer preference in favor of their format. This strategy has been subverted to some extent by the fact that consumers have been slow to warm to either format because of fear of being left with an obsolete and useless player and set of discs when one format inevitably trumps the other.

The LG player, if it in fact works like it's supposed to, should make the fact that the two formats aren't compatible a non issue. That's because the LG player offers an option for anyone who's afraid of being left with obsolete equipment because it will play discs of both formats. Therefore, it's a risk free proposition to buy.

One downside to the LG dual disc player though, is the fact that, at about twelve hundred dollars, it's fairly expensive. That said though, considering that a typical Blu-ray player costs more than nine hundred dollars and a typical HD-DVD player costs about five hundred dollars, the LG player has the critical quality that will make it successful: it's cheaper than buying both a Blu-ray and an HD-DVD player! Another factor to consider is that as more people buy the dual format player and other competing models arrive on the market, the cost will drop over time.

Of course, this doesn't end the format war completely. Both Toshiba and Sony, along with other companies that support them, have invested a lot of time, money, and effort to put each format in a position to win the format war. For that reason, they'll probably keep duking it out. The interesting thing is that, at least for the short run, the general public no longer has reason to care who the winner is. (At least those who haven't bought one or the other type of player don't won't care.)

Regardless of the news about LG's dual format High Def DVD player, it seems that by several measures Sony's Blu-ray format is pulling ahead of the Toshiba's HD-DVD format. Recent sales figures show that the sales of players have held even, and considering that those figures don't count the new Play Station 3 video game platform which also functions as a Blu-ray disc player, that means there are more total Blu-ray players than there are HD-DVD players out there. Also, considering that most Blu-ray players are twice the price of HD-DVD players, the fact that there are more of them in American homes must mean that Blu-ray is the preferred format. Sales of Blu-ray discs also double those of HD-DVD's. All of this is good news for Blu-ray and Sony, and is heartening to anyone who believes that the best technology should have the best chance in the market.