Last week at IFA 2007, the South Korean electronics maker LG said that its second generation of Super Blu Player will be launched until the end of the year. Today they confirmed the news by announcing that

LG Super Blu Player model BH200 will be displayed for the first time Custom Electronic Design and Installation Association (CEDIA) EXPO 2007.

LG introduced the first version only seven months ago at CES 2007. According to the company’s statement, LG's Super Blu Player BH 200 will be available to U.S. consumers and custom installers in

mid-October at a suggested retail price of $999, the same price as BH 100.

"LG introduced the world's first high-definition dual-format player to focus on consumer needs and to end the confusion caused by the current format war," said Allan Jason, vice president of consumer electronics

marketing at LG Electronics USA, Inc. "The launch of BH200 reinforces our leadership position and offers consumers and custom installers a best-in-class next-generation high-definition media player."

Unlike its predecessor BH100, the new player will support both BD-Java and HDi, providing interactive functionality for discs of both formats.

The LG Super Blu Player, which can output up to 1080p video resolution at 24-, 30- and 60-frames-per-second, supports various A/V formats, including MPEG-2, VC-1, H.264 video, MPEG1/2 audio, Dolby Digital, Dolby Digital+, DTS and DTS-HD audio. The unit also includes multiple inputs/outputs such as HDMI 1.3 out, component/composite video outputs, digital optical and analog audio outputs as well as a LAN Ethernet port for network interactivity.

The player also features QDEO advanced video processing for superior up-scaling accuracy up to 1080p, improved noise reduction and consistent color precision and it uses the HDMI-CEC communication standard. The BH200 also is equipped with a USB Media Host for easy access to digital music and photo libraries.

LG’s SuperBluPlayer will have to compete with Samsung’s dual-player BD-UP500 which was also presented at IFA 2007. In Berlin a Samsung Europe executive said the player will go on sale before the Christmas shopping season. Samsung’s BD-UP500 is using Broadcom’s integrated Blu-ray and HD DVD system-on-a-chip (SoC) (BCM7440), which is also HDi and BD-Java