Interesting article from Widescreen review, a glimmer of hope:

http://www.widescreenreview.com/news_detail.php?id=15216

Though, according to this other article, full SW support comes mid-yesr:

http://www.betanews.com/article/Broadcom_debuts_reference_design_for_HD_DVD_Bluray_SoC/1199745014

This gives a better picture about what they mean by reference design - seems Samsung just gets the boards from Broadcom and slaps them in the box:

http://www.broadcom.com/collateral/pb/97440-PB00-R.pdf

I don't get that from the article.

I just see that LG and Samsung use the 7440 SoC.

I do remember though, that when I looked at the 7440 specs, there was mention of the reference platform.

In fact, looking at the HTML code of the Broadcom 7440 Product Page (http://www.broadcom.com/products/Consumer-Electronics/Blu-ray-and-HD-DVD-System-Solutions/BCM7440) I see this:

<meta name="date" content="2007-10-24">

I wonder if that is the update date of the 7440 page. If so, I may a little more optimistic.

In light of the new format war developments, can we even expect Broadcom to release the HD DVD and universal finished stacks ? I'll believe it when I see it.

In light of the new format war developments, can we even expect Broadcom to release the HD DVD and universal finished stacks ? I'll believe it when I see it.

I would expect that Broadcom will finish the stacks.

It isn't like HD-DVDs will spontaneously combust on June 1, 2008, or that Warner will instantly release all of the current HDDVDs on Blu-Ray and offer a trade in program. There still will be a market for a dual format player.