New blow for Blu-ray as LG drops player

The Blu-ray high-definition recording bandwagon has got its second blow in a day with news that LG Electronics has dropped plans to ship a player this spring.

Instead it is planning to release a player supporting both Blu-ray and rival HD-DVD this autumn, the electronics industry magazine Twice reported. 

The news came as Sony cited Blu-ray problems as a reason for the postponement of its Playstation 3.

Analysts speculated that the real reason was a lack of games titles and graphics problems, but the announcement was at the very least bad publicity for Blu-ray, which had been generally believed to be winning the battle against rival HD-DVD technology.

A third HD format using cheap existing red lasers and storing up to 40GB a disk was announced at Cebit.