Blu-Ray/VHS combo player?

Factual Questions
1

Our DVD/VHS combo player died a few weeks ago. I had one in my work studio and we’ve been using that, figuring one of these weekends we’d go out shopping for a replacement, presumably one that would be able to play the new Blu-Ray format since sooner or later some video rental we’re interested in will only be available on Blu-Ray. (Or one Blu-Ray versus multiple DVD disks, etc).

I took it for granted that the optical Blu-Ray mechanism would be backwards-compatible with standard commercial and home-burned DVD from the 4 gig thru dual-layer 7.x gig varities. That seems to be the case from what I’ve glimpsed.

Without thinking about it, I also assumed that for an additional extra bit of currency there’d be no problem finding players that did VHS as well as Blu-Ray/DVD. Not seeing that. Hmm… am I just looking in the wrong places, or looking too early in the life-cycle of Blu-Ray for such devices to have cropped up on the market? (I can readily imagine that early adopters of Blu-Ray would not be the folks with continuing interest in being able to play back VHS tapes as well)

2

The responses you got on that other forum seem pretty conclusive. Someone might release a combo player eventually, but nothing is available right now. Can you find a standalone VHS player anywhere? Heck, I’d sell you my DVD/VHS combo If you lived closer.

3

We’ll probably go one more iteration of standard-DVD / VHS since I’ve read several reports saying “Nope, no sudden rush of Blu-Ray-only movies, DVD is not going away any time soon”.

It’s not like they’re an expensive investment.

4

You might look into an upconverting DVD player, as I’ve heard the quality is quite good, enough that some people don’t see the need to replace their DVDs with Blu-Ray movies. You can get a combo upconverting DVD/VHS player (or, I think a combo including an upconverting DVD recorder and VHS player).