Hasta La Gadget!

Blu-Ray drives for laptops and desktops are starting to appear more frequently in standard configurations and as options when you’re customizing your new computer, but for those of us with older laptops and desktops and a growing collection of Blu-Ray titles we can’t watch on our computers, Plextor has an answer: the PX-B120U USB-powered external BD-ROM. The new drive is slim and portable, and doesn’t require a permanent home on your desk. It’s designed to travel, and doesn’t require an AC adapter since it draws power over USB.

Additionally, the PX-B120U comes bundled with Cyberlink for Blu-Ray and DVD playback if you don’t have anything on your computer to handle Blu-Ray or DVD playback, and the drive also functions as a standard DVD-ROM drive that can read DVDs and CDs of any type. The Plextor PX-B120U is available for purchase now for $99.99 list.

Don’t be surprised to see a couple of new Samsung Blu-ray players on the shelf at local or online retailers while shopping, as it’s rolling out new 3D capable models in the BD-C5900, BD-C6800 and BD-C7900. The $399 (MSRP) BD-C7900 updates the older BD-C6900 with two HDMI outs, useful for those with an older receiver that isn’t HDMI 1.4 compatible, while the $279 BD-C6800 seems to have all the features of the BD-C6900 except for that porthole on top, and comes in at a lower price. Last up is the BD-C5900 with an MSRP of $229 which puts it within reach of two bills at retail, but means losing the 1GB of internal storage featured by the other two players. The product pages aren’t all fully updated on Samsung’s site yet, but the BD-C5900 has already arrived at Amazon and Best Buy and the others shouldn’t be far behind. Of course, if 3D’s not your thing, we’d still keep an eye out for their arrival — a price break on the older 2D-only models that were released earlier this year shouldn’t be too far behind.

Samsung quietly expands its 3D Blu-ray player lineup with a few updated models originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 12 Jul 2010 21:56:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sony on Tuesday introduced several new AV receivers, as well as a 3D Blu-ray player.

The BDP-S1700ES 3D Blu-ray player will be available in August for $400. It features an IR input on the back panel for connection to other systems, as well as 802.11n Wi-Fi for access to Sony’s Bravia line of Internet-connected TVs and Sony’s Qriocity video service. It will have 1GB of built-in memory.

Users with an iPhone or iPod touch can also download the “BD Remote” app from the Apple App Store to turn their devices into a remote for the Blu-ray player. The iPhone or iPod touch will also display disc details like jacket artwork, as well as actor, and production information, and it will facilitate searches for related video clips online.

An Android version of the BD Remote will be available soon, Sony said.

The three new Elevated Standard (ES) AV receivers include IR input jacks and two-way serial control. They can be controlled over IP, and they allow for 3D pass-through and multi-room features.

Aching for a fancy new Macbook Pro with a Blu-ray drive? Don’t hold your breath. Steve Jobs apparently isn’t having any of this Sony disc nonsense. Apple’s CEO contends that the format is likely to go the way of, well, the HD-DVD, in the not so distant future.

According to Mac Rumors, Jobs recently responded to an e-mail from a Mac Mini owner asking when the company will finally embrace the technology. Jobs responded, “Bluray [sic] is looking more and more like one of the high end audio formats that appeared as the successor to the CD–like it will be beaten by Internet downloadable formats.”

The Mac Mini managed to get one more e-mail from the CEO, who stated,

No, free, instant gratification and convenience (likely in that order) is what made the downloadable formats take off. And the downloadable movie business is rapidly moving to free (Hulu) or rentals (iTunes) so storing purchased movies or TV shows is not an issue. I think you may be wrong–we may see a fast broad move to streamed free and rental content at sufficient quality (at least 720p) to win almost everyone over.

Jobs’s user responses seem to be both more frequent and verbose these days. Personally, I would have just responded by writing, “Blu-ray? More like Boo-ray.” I guess that’s why I’m not allowed to run multi-national corporations.

Vizio, known mostly for its inexpensive, high-volume HDTVs, has entered the router business.

No, these aren’t the standard data routers (wirelessly) tied to your laptop or other device, but video-optimized wireless 802.11n routers,a dual-band connection which uses both the 2.4-GHz and 5-GHz band to tie your TV to the Internet. Vizio also announced a complementary dual-band Blu-ray player, which also connects to the Internet.

The XWR100 Dual-Band HD Wireless Internet Router prioritizes HD video
and audio to VIA HDTVs and Blu-ray players. Within it are four Ethernet jacks and a USB port for connecting a hard drive. Compatible
with both Mac and PC systems, the XWR100 will be available in Q3 at an MSRP
of $99.99.

Vizio also announced three wirelessly connected Blu-ray players: the VBR210, VBR220 and VBR231. Vizio’s pricing strategy is a bit difficult to understand; you’ll have to wait until July to buy the most expensive model, the VBR231, which will cost $199.99. But that’s just $10 more than the VBR210 and VBR220, whose chief difference is that they operate on the single 2.4-GHz band shared with other 802.11b/g devices, while the VBR231 uses both the 2.4- and the relatively unobstructed 5-GHz band. All three deliver up to 7.1 channels of digital audio output
over HDMI, with support for Dolby TrueHD, Dolby Digital Plus, and DTS
HD audio formats.