On the HD-DVD side, the winning ticket appears to be the Microsoft Xbox 360 HD-DVD player, while for Blu-ray, the most compelling option is the Sony Playstation 3. Alternately, consider £440 / €770 for the Blu-ray only LG GBW-H10N drive, especially for those seeking to put one to work in a PC. While the LG combo drives are interesting, at just under twice the price of the aforementioned combo, they are too expensive for most ordinary mortals (and even many business users) to contemplate.

Going Both Ways: Putting HD-DVD And Blu-ray Into A Single PC

Those who wish to purchase high-end Media Center PCs will be pleased to learn that a handful of vendors who sell such systems will accommodate Blu-ray or HD-DVD players, including Sony (Blu-ray only), HP (which currently offers HD-DVD in its notebooks PCs, and sells an HD-DVD player peripheral), and Toshiba (which offers HD-DVD in its Qosmio notebooks).As this article went to press, we found only one company that sells PCs that can accommodate both an HD-DVD and a Blu-ray drive in a single PC at the same time. This company is VidaBox, based in Garden City, NY.

The VidaBox DualHD MAX and LUX systems can accommodate both types of drives in a single large home theatre PC (HTPC) case. The difference between the two models is about £300 / €500, which pays for a touch screen on the MAX units; the LUX units have no front panel display, and the MAX case looks a lot like the OrigenAE X15e. Prices for these units start at over £2,000 / €3,000 and go up quickly from there: we'd expect a fully-configured DualHD system to run more than £2,500 / €4,000, especially for those who'd opt for its two Cable Cards as well as both types of high-definition DVD players.

With a fair number of Blu-ray PC drives now available, and hopes for at least a couple of HD-DVD drives as well, do-it-yourselfers should soon be able to start building their own systems that go both ways - (though accommodating two DVD drives calls for a bigger case than many might want to use for an HTPC. In fact, we plan to cover this act of prestidigitation in a forthcoming story right here on Tom's Hardware Guide.

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