Sharp has made quite an amazing announcement, and one that has slipped almost completely under the radar.

Sharp has just announced the release of a new optical disc player that will allegedly be the smallest player ever produced. In and of itself, this is mildly interesting. But more interesting is that it is capable of playing CDs, DVDs, Blu-Ray and HD DVD. That’s right a dual format player, that could potentially eliminate the need to worry about formats. Thre press is very vague on the availability of this on a consumer level. But the player, be it a consumer item, or component is expected to cost less that $100 and begin shipping next month. If this is indeed a cross platform player, the news will certainly appear here soon.