Floppyhead – Digital Media and Streaming

One quick way to end the high definition DVD format war is to offer a drive that plays both HD-DVDs and Blu-ray. LG has already shipped such a drive, which is available on HP’s m8010y media centers for about $500 extra. It looks like amsung is going to offer a similar dual format drive, albeit a little late to the party.
From Hidefdigest.com (via MissingRemote):

Unlike LG’s already released BH100 dual-format player, Samsung says its BDP-UP5000 will support all features of both formats (including BD-Java and HDi, as well as web-enabled supplements on both formats, via an Ethernet connection).

Dual drives will become more attractive as prices fall. Samsung is expcted to price the BDP-UP5000 at over $1,000. For less than that, you can buy separate HD-DVD and Blu-ray drives.  As prices fall, this may be a good way to hedge your bet in the format war.