LG BH100

The first player to handle BOTH HD formats lands, thanks to LG.

War? What war? Thanks to this deck, you no longer have to fret about choosing between the Blu-Ray bus or the HD-DVD personnel carrier. The BH100, or "Super Multi Blue" as it's known, is the first deck to play both flavours of Hi-Def disc.

Don't break out the Bollinger just yet, though. While the Blu-Ray half works as you'd expect, HD-DVD compatibility is restricted to just the movie part of the disc. Want to watch extra features on an HD-DVD? Forget it.

Also, the ethernet port is for servicing only; there's no way to hook up to the internet, leaving web-enabled Blu-Ray and HD-DVD features, due to arrive soon, firmly off the menu.

On a cheerier note, picture and sound quality with both formats is top class, despite having little in the way of image enhancement technology. The player delivers sharp pictures with lively, well-saturated colours and very little picture noise. There are a few jagged edges on moving objects, but nothing too distracting. It also makes a fine fist of upscaling to 1080p.

The full range of new lossless audio formats are supported, but in a fairly picky way. The HDMI will only carry two channels of lossless sound, so you'll have to use the analogue line outputs if you want Dolby TrueHD or DTS-HD in 5.1-channel form.

The real plum-shrinker with the BH100, though, is the ludicrously high price. Sure, being able to play both formats is hella cool - but you can buy a PS3 AND a Toshiba HD-E1 for less.