LG 2nd Gen PC Drive details ($500, BD Reader/Writer, HD DVD Reader)

Will this player be better with HD DVD interactivity unlike the stand alone?

Yes as it has the official HD DVD logo it can only contain that if it supports all the mandatory features. This is great news. I think a $500 Universal player will be available in a year.

This war is going to come to a close once Universal players come down in price.

It's max 6x for BD-R SL, 4x for BD-R DL and 2x for BD-RE SL/DL.
They'll also be available without LightScribe (as GGW-H20N and GGC-H20N).

When are they gonna come out with the writers that write BOTH formats?

Does anyone know when these will be available for purchase? I haven't seen that mentioned anywhere.

I might have to be a guinea pig when that $400 read only drive comes out. I'll gladly gut one of my PC's to put a format neutral Media PC together. Any other news on a release date?

GGW-H20N is slated for a Q3 release, at least in Europe. The combo and LightScribe versions will probably follow about the same time.

I don't think you'll see one this year. There are not even a single non-hybrid half height HD DVD burner available yet (of course Toshiba is likely the only company working on one...). I'd guess one reason is because it took ages for the HD DVD-RW specifications to get finalized and it doesn't make sense to release a write-once burner only.

This really shows that in the future almost all drives will play both formats.

It should put any fears to rest that you're buying discs that will be obsolete soon no matter what side you are on.

I can't wait for these to come out. I will be all over it!

Um... why would it need to?

Why would people want to write DVD-R and DVD+R?

Dual format writers will come. At this point blank media is so expensive it really is a moot point.

It will take at least another year for blank media to come to reasonable levels, at that time i'm sure you will start to see some dual format writers hit the market.

Exactly. Why?

is LG only coming out a combo PC drive? i thought they have another combo player coming out that's supposed to be better than the BH100 and competes with the upcoming Samsung combo player.

I will definitely be getting one of these when it comes out.

Agreed. Pioneer for now. This in the future .

So I guess we can expect these around September?

I ask only because the stand alone universal player from LG is more of a BD player and it makes the HD DVD look bad.

How does it make HD-DVD look bad? I have the stand alone unit, and I think HD-DVD looks just as good as BD. Besides, didn't someone already say that this PC unit will sport the HD-DVD logo meaning that it will be fully HD-DVD compliant?

Press release from LG Japan with the full specs:





In Japan they will be available later this month already according to watch.impress.co.jp. The GGC-H20N will cost ~45000yen while the GGW-H20N will cost ~65000yen.

I'd ask what the prices are in the US, but we probably can't get the Japanese version due too region locking..

Any update on release date?

In stock at Newegg.com, search and you'll see price. Definately more expensive then what was previously mentioned.

I'm pretty sure you're looking at the original LG combo drive GGW-H10NI unless you have a link to something I am not finding.

Your right TommyV,

My fault I had searched for it once on before on Newegg and nothing came up so when it did this time I thought it was the new combo player. Sorry for the wrong info.

Why not? There is going to be a transition period from DVD to HDM. Right now like most people who own a HDM player, I only have one hooked up to my TV. But what about my notebook? What if I only need to burn 2 GB of something to lend to a friend who doesn't have a HDM player? DVD Media is also much cheaper at the moment.

For those interested in the new LG drive, I just noticed this:

"The good folks at LG USA have sent me a pair of their new second-generation Super Blue Multi Drives drives, which handle both Blu-ray and HD DVD formats. The GGC-H20L ($399) reads both formats and has standard CD/DVD writing capabilities; the GGW-H20L ($499) can write to Blu-ray media as well. Both drives should be available for retail sale beginning in September."


from here:
http://blogs.zdnet.com/Bott/?p=292

Another claim of availability in Sept:
http://www.blu-ray.com/news/?id=483