Back when I bought my PS3, I paid lots of money for it in part because of the Blu-ray player. Today Blu-ray players have come down significantly in price and several models are available for under $200. JVC added a new device to that under $200 list today called the XV-BP11.

The Blu-ray player has support for the AVCHD format used on many HD camcorders, including the JVC Everio line of camcorders. The JVC player supports BD-Rom, BD-R/RE, DVD-Video, DVD-R/RW, DVD+R/RW, Audio CD, CD-R/RW discs.

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer is known to talk about things and then Microsoft has to come back and clarify what he has said. Ballmer had another senior moment yesterday when was allegedly got confused when asked a question about Blu-ray on the Xbox 360.

Ballmer’s comments lead many to believe that Blu-ray accessories were coming for the Xbox 360. Major Nelson reports today that Ballmer was referring to Blu-ray accessories for the PC in his comments and there are no plans to add Blu-ray to the Xbox 360.

Microsoft chief Steve Ballmer may have inadvertently tipped off some plans for an external Blu-ray drive for the Xbox 360. He’s doubtful that it will ever be built-in but he tells Gizmodo that an external Blu-ray drive will be an option. He doesn’t go into detail but is unexpectedly confident that the hardware is enroute.

Company spokespeople asked about it wouldn’t confirm or deny, but do say that immediate plans focus on 1080p streaming video through the upcoming Zune Video Marketplace on the Xbox.

LG has announced a new home theater system. The LG HB954SP Blu-ray HCS offers Full HD 1080p video and 5.1 surround, with 1,000W of audio tuned by audio-wizard Mr Mark Levinson. It features a slide-out dock in front for your iPod or iPhone, and you can control it from the HB954SP’s own remote.

The system can also upscale standard definition DVDs up to 1080p. The ethernet connection connects it to the internet for streaming YouTube and BD Live content. You’ll also get two HDMI inputs and a USB port. If you haven’t jumped onto the HTIB bandwagon, this might entice you with it’s touch of blue and globular speakers.

Blu-ray drives are becoming all the more common on notebooks and desktop computers today. This is thanks in part to the fact that Blu-ray drives are much cheaper than they were a year ago. Samsung today announced a new internal Blu-ray combo drive that will burn Blu-ray discs and read BD-ROMs at 8x.

In addition to the 8x Blu-ray reads, the drive can also read CDs at 40x and DVDs at 16x. The drive also uses Samsungs jumping algorithm that allows the drive to achieve an average access speed of 350ms, which Samsung says is much faster than other drives on the market.

Are people really all that into Blu-Ray burners? Well, if you are, here’s one to catch your fancy. The BDR-205 looks just like any other 5.25-inch internal Blu-ray writer, both in looks and features. It just ups the spin like a fork-tongued politician from the current 8x to 12x.

Not exactly news that will have you doing backflips and yelling, but hey, it helps cut down long Blu-ray burn times if you are into that sort of thing. The BDR-205 will arrive in October for $250.

Looks like Toshiba is getting the rest of it’s products up to speed with Blu-ray drives. The new Qosmio X500 gaming laptop is a good example. Just like the previous models, this one is big and bulky and for gamers.

It sports an 18.4-inch, 1920 x 1080 screen, 2.8GHz Core i7 processor, NVIDIA GeForce GTS 250MNV graphics, up to 8GB of RAM, dual 500GB hard drives, Blu-ray drive and a Blu-ray burner.

Looks like the love affair with HD DVDs is finally and completely over. Toshiba has hammered the final nail in the coffin with the BDX2000 Blu-ray player and thrown their HD DVDs out on the lawn. You can expect the following specs:

BD-Live (Profile 2.0), 1080p/ 24 fps Full HD Video Output, AVCHD Playback, Toshiba REGZA-LINK (HDMI-CEC), Support for enhanced audio formats from Dolby True HD and DTS-HD Master Audio, Bonus View, SD memory card slot and it’s ENERGY STAR Certified.

The problem with netbooks is that they lack optical drives. I learned that the hard way when I used my netbook at CES earlier this year and everyone was handing me CDs with information on them to check out.

Addonics has a new external optical Blu-ray drive that has both eSATA and USB connectivity. The Blu-ray drive can play Blu-ray movies and burn CDs and DVDs. The drive is also available in a DVD only version that can burn and play DVDs or CDs.

Buffalo Japan is getting ready to unleash two new optical drives on the Japanese market, the BR-H1016SU2 (external) and BR-H1016FBS-BK (internal) Blu-ray writers. Both drives have 4MB of buffer memory and will give you write speeds of up to 10x for BD-R SL, 8x for BD-R DL, 2x for BD-RE SL/DL, 16 x for DVD-R/+R, 12x for DVD-RAM, 8x for DVD-R/+R DL and DVD+RW, 6x for DVD-RW, 48x for CD-R and 24x for CD-RW.

Both models come with several connectivity ports including SATA and USB 2.0 for the BR-H1016FBS-BK, and eSATA for BR-H1016SU2. The BR-H1016SU2 and BR-H1016FBS-BK should hit Japanese retail shelves in early September for about $359 and $300.

I always knew that Blu-ray would win the format war with Sony on its side selling the PS3. The PS2 helped get the DVD player into the homes of gobs of people and I figured the PS3 would do the same for Blu-ray.

Toshiba was the main backer of HD DVD and when its format was defeated it stayed out of the HD format market for movie players. The company decided this year to get back into the HD payer market and has announced that it has applied to be part of the Blu-ray disc association.

Harman has released a new high-end Blu-ray player dubbed the Lexicon BD-30. This Blu-Ray player is supposed to support just about everything including BD-Live, BonusView, DVD, upconverted DVD, DVD-Audio, SACD, CD and USB.

The BD-20 also comes with Anchor Bay’s award-winning Video Reference Series technology for the best 1080p picture possible. Sadly, we have no word on price just yet, but this is high end so expect to pay. We’ll let you know when we do.

Here’s some good news for those of us living in the States. Onkyo has finally launched its latest Blu-ray player in the US market. This one is the DV-BD507 and it supports Deep Color and x.v. color specifications of HDMI 1.3a and can play AVCHD video files stored on SD/SDHC card or DVD-R/RW dics.

The DV-BD507 also features BD-Live Profile 2.0 for various online interactive content. If this one is up your alley, the Onkyo DV-BD507 will cost you $449.

Panasonic has announced a new series of DVRs that will be available in September. Six models in all, these new DVRs feature a Blu-ray recorder, a VHS player (for the DMR-BR670V) and your choice of 320GB / 500GB / 1TB / 2TB of HDD.

They come equipped with the latest UniPhier system LSI that integrates new AV data compression/decompression technology. The high-end model, the DMR-BW970 should be able to record up to 320hrs of video in MPEG-4 AVC/H.264 @ 12.9Mbps and supports Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby True HD, DTS-HD, can record on BD-RE / BD-R / DVD-RAM / DVD-R / DVD R DL / DVD-RW, and there’s also HDMI output, an SDHC card slot, the VIERA Link, and is DLNA.

This one is interesting, even though we’ve heard it before. Just as Toshiba is announcing that it will be delivering a Blu-ray drive of it’s own, Microsoft could follow suit. At least that’s the word on the street.

The big M might be readying a Blu-ray drive add-on for the popular Xbox 360 gaming console. The company did offer an external HD DVD drive before, built by Toshiba. The new drive is seen as more feasible, both because of Toshiba’s support and cost reductions, which could make a USB Blu-ray reader affordable.