Blu-ray Player Reviews

The Toshiba HD-A2 is just $500. It is limited to 1080i output but is also a very good upconverting standard DVD player. It's fully HDi compatible, much faster and more reliable than the first-gen Toshiba players, and includes the ability to transcode Dolby TrueHD to multichannel PCM over HDMI. It lacks multichannel analog outputs, so getting upgraded next-gen sound from it requires an HDMI 1.1 or later pre/pro or AVR that has the ability decode multichannel PCM.

So, if the HD-A2 looks OK, and you don't need wi-fi or a 60GB hard drive, you could opt for the A2 and the $500 PS3 and save $200 from what a Super Multi Blue costs. You'd have full HDi and BD Live interactivity, and the ability to send TrueHD over HDMI as multichannel PCM and get full bass management and level and delay adjustments in your compatible AVR or pre/pro.

If you're willing or able to splurge to $1,500 or $1,600 you can get a $999 Toshiba HD-XA2 HD DVD player and one of the PS3s. To the above, the XA2 adds 1080p output, outstanding (if slightly problematic with 4:3 discs) DVD upconverison powered by Silicon Otpix processing, HDMI 1.3, and analog multichannel outputs.

This only covers some of the currently available options. This summer Sony is coming out with a $600 second-gen standalone BD player that will probably have more of the PS3's features and decoding capabilities. Toshiba will also release the HD-A20, a $600 1080p HD DVD player with the ability to decode TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio. Mix and match these as you see fit if you're the kind that can wait.

Performance
On the most detailed and dimensional HD DVDs I have, such as King Kong, Blazing Saddles and Hulk, the video performance of the Multi Blue left nothing to be desired. I especially enjoyed seeing 24p from HD DVD, which was just terrific. The player's performance looked every bit the equal of Toshiba's HD-XA2, if not a hair sharper at 1080p/24. I liked what I saw.

An interesting side note here. Recently, I've been able to verify the output resolution of high definition players using a test disc from Stacey Spears and Don Munsil. This disc has 1080p patterns encoded on a DVD-R using VC-1 compression. But as soon as the LG detected the disc as a DVD-R, it limited the output resolution to 1080i. At that output I saw full resolution on the luma bursts out to 37Mhz at a single pixel width. But I could not verify the 1080p output resolution due to this oddity.

After a painful experience navigating the Silicon Optix HD Benchmark, I was able to look at some of the 1080i patterns encoded on that HD DVD. But here again I was foiled by an LG playback idiosyncrasy. I could not select the player's 1080p output and evaluate the 1080i-1080p deinterlacing. The player detected native 1080i on the disc and would not allow me to select 1080p output. Hmph!

Switching to Blu-ray, I evaluated the best titles I had—titles crunched with all three codecs currently in use on the format: MPEG-2, MPEG-4/AVC and VC-1. These included Mission: Impossible 3, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, and Blazing Saddles. I compared what I saw to the same discs played on the Pioneer Elite BDP-HD1. While I could be nuts, I thought the AVC discs might have looked just a hair sharper on the Multi Blue, while the other codecs were too close to call. And this is on an 80" wide front projection screen driven by the Marantz VP-11S1. While long-term viewing might have yielded a more forceful leaning one way or the other, early indicators are that the Multi Blue's video quality playback with BDs, as with HD DVDs, is excellent.

Switching to DVDs, loading the usual suite of deinterlacing and scaling torture tests into the Multi Blue revealed mediocre upconversion performance. While it's common to see players get tripped up with the video-based material from the Silicon Optix HQV Benchmark DVD, it's more rare to see a player fail to lock onto a 3/2 cadence correctly, a shortcoming I found here.

Looking at resolution patterns, the Multi Blue showed the highest resolution at 480p, and rolled off at the highest frequencies with 720p and 1080i upconversion. This was evident in typical program material as well, but let me caution that it was subtle, and noticeable mainly in comparison with something better and sharper. I make this distinction because Sony's PS3, for sample, is so noticeably soft and poor a DVD player that it doesn't require any comparisons for discernment. This player is superior to the PS3 on standard DVDs, even though it's not up to the standards set by the Silicon Optix REON processor in the Toshiba HD-XA2.

On the audio front, time did not allow me to evaluate the DTS-HD Master Audio from the analog outputs. I expect great things from this lossless audio codec, but frankly, the best audio I've ever heard wouldn't be enough to tip the scales in this player's favor given its other oddities and deficiencies. There are too many other players on the market that don't have these shortcomings and cost less. I'll anxiously await LG's second-gen Multi Blue to follow up on DTS-HD Master Audio.

Conclusion
Last fall when Broadcom announced the availability of an IC solution that would allow Blu-ray and HD DVD playback from a singe disc drive mechanism, people were excited by the prospect of ending consumer hand-wringing and teeth-gnashing over the format war so more people would jump in. Turns out there's more to making a dual-format player than just spinning the discs.

The LG Super Multi Blue is expensive at $1,200 and I can't ignore that it doesn't do some of the basic things a $500, first-generation HD DVD player or a $500 PS3 does. And its inability to output multichannel PCM over HDMI is a killer for me, a shortcoming not shared by any other next-gen player I've experienced. And these are hardly the Multi Blue's only foibles.

Still, LG has a lot to be proud of here, and a lot to build on. It's not as if any of the other next-gen players out there are perfect. In particular, the Multi Blue's outstanding pure video performance with the next-gen formats leaves me with a lot of hope for LG's next whack at this.

I'm admittedly not one of those who's phobic about having two disc players in his equipment rack. But even for those who are, in spite of the Multi blue's excellent video performance I just can't quite recommend a combi player at this price that gives up so many crucial benefits of both formats combined with so many irksome oddities. But I'll be eagerly waiting for LG's Multi Blue version 2.0.

Highs
Plays BDs and HD DVDs with superb resolution
Good Boot-up times and disc access speeds
Good Image Quality with BDs and HD DVDs
Decodes DTS-HD Master Audio

Lows
Lack of HDi interactivity makes navigating HD DVDs frustrating and eliminates some of the format's coolest features
Unable to output multichannel PCM over HDMI
Dolby TrueHD compatibility is two-channel only