Samsung BD-UP5500 Dual HD Format Player Canned

Samsung's Blu-ray/HD DVD BD-UP5000 suffered delay after delay in 2007, eventually slipping out at the tail end of the year. Now its forthcoming successor, the BD-UP5500, is set to suffer an even worse fate, namely that it won't be launching at all.


The player was initially announced at CES and was due towards the end of spring, but no longer. The crux of the announcement is as follows:

"Now that Blu-ray has been chosen as the next-generation format, the consumer can move forward with confidence and enjoy the incredible experience that Blu-ray offers. Samsung believes that a multi-format player like the current BD-UP5000 Duo HD Player offers the best and only solution for consumers that want access to all available High-Definition titles in the short term. It remains a practical solution, but the window of opportunity is smaller than it was before. In light of recent announcements, Samsung will not introduce the BD-UP5500 Duo HD Player".

While Samsung does have a fair point - HD DVD is now officially dead remember - it's a shame that the current BD-UP5000 is going to be short-lived as there's likely to be a fair number of early HD DVD adopters who would welcome the chance to still use their content while making the switch to Blu-ray.

Samsung also doesn't have an up-to-date, Profile 1.1 (a.k.a. Bonus View) spec player on the bill at the moment, which is odd; incidentally the BD-UP5500 would have met that criteria. Hopefully we'll see an announcement soon, otherwise Samsung could see itself falling behind rivals such as Sony and Panasonic who already have up-to-date models coming.

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