If that Buffalo external Blu-ray drive that I mentioned a while ago was too large for your tastes, the new Sony Optiarc slim Blu-ray drive might be perfect for your needs. The new optical drive is very thin and can write to BDR media at 6x.

The drive also plays Blu-ray films and can write to DVD and CD media as well. The drive can record a 25GB Blu-ray disc in about 25 minutes. It also supports the playback of 3D Blu-ray films. The external optical drive may be perfect for notebook or netbook users without an optical drive or for machines that don’t have Blu-ray.

You can count on most notebooks and computers not having a Blu-ray drive today, though the Blu-ray drive is getting to be more common. With USB 3.0 ports now showing up on more computers we are seeing more gadgets specifically for these ports surface as well. Buffalo has announced a new USB 3.0 Blu-ray drive that can write media and play it.

The drive is called the USB 3.0 Blu-ray drive, it can burn BDR discs at up to 12 x speed, and it is capable of writing to CDs and DVDs as well. The drive connects to the USB 3.0 port for best performance, but it is also capable of working with the USB 2.0 port as well.

Toshiba has expanded its line of Blu-ray players with the new BDX3000. It’s the company’s first 3D-capable Blu-ray disc player. The BDX3000 delivers Full HD Blu-ray 3D playback with a suite of streaming content and comprehensive audio support.

You can combine this Blu-ray player with Toshiba’s all-new WX800 Cinema Series 3D LED HDTV and a pair of Toshiba 3D glasses. Some other features include DynaLight control and ClearFrame 240Hz technology. The BDX3000 also supports Wi-Fi and Ethernet for wireless access to streaming movies, shows and music.

IFA 2010 has brought us quite a bit of gear. You can also add the Yamaha DivX Plus HD Blu-ray player initiative to the list. They feature 1080p HD video compression with the help of a MKV container that’s incorporated in these Blu-ray players.

These are not only 3D-ready, but will also boast universal playback (BD, SA-CD, DVD-Audio/Video, CD) for a variety of media and formats. You can pick up the BD-S1067 in Europe and Yamaha intends to launch additional DivX HD Certified Blu-ray player models in North America.

There’s good news and there’s bad news. The good news is that all six Star Wars movies will be released together on Blu-ray in 2011 for the 35th anniversary of the release of A New Hope. George Lucas personally announced the set at the Celebration V and showed off a deleted scene from Return of the Jedi that will be included.

The bad news is that these are not the original versions of the movies, so Greedo shot first and Jabba is in the first movie. Nothing yet on price, and there’s no release date.

Word on the street is that the next version of the Nintendo Wii will be hitting the market next year with both an HD output and a Blu-ray drive. That Might help it catch up to the Sony PS3, but Nintendo is still very behind.

Take this with a grain of salt since it’s just a rumor for now. HD on the Wii is certainly welcome, but we’re not too convinced on the Blu-ray part.

Back early in June I mentioned that rumors were going around that Redbox would be offering Blu-ray movie rentals for $1.50 per night. Redbox has now come out and made the Blu-ray rentals official.

Redbox has added Blu-ray titles to 13,300 of its kiosks across the country. The company says that all 23,000 of the kiosks will have Blu-ray rentals by the fall. The flicks will rent for $1.50 per night.

Panasonic wants to improve your living room entertainment options with their RT2B series plasmas which can record TV broadcasts onto their hard drives or Blu-ray drives.

These are also the first all-in-one models that can handle Blu-ray 3D movie playback too. There are 42″ and 46″ versions. Sadly, the likelihood of seeing them on our shores is very small. But we may just see their new 3D glasses, which come in various sizes and can be recharged via USB.

If your laptop has both the USB port and the power, Plextor has a new device to bring Blu-Ray to your machine. The new PX-B120U is a USB-powered BD-ROM drive, which plays Blu-ray movies and even goes a step further with the ability to burn DVDs and CDs.

Those features are nothing special. It’s the ability to function entirely from USB power that we like. The device can also be converted into a living room player when connected to the forthcoming PlexMedia. At just $99.99 it is very tempting.

Charlie over at DVICE got a chance to check out the XStreamHD entertainment system that’s currently under development and in beta. The satellite-based XStreamHD works using the concept of “pre-fetched entertainment.” which means you can view movies without having to download or stream. The data for up to 40 movies is sent to your box during the night ready for you to view whenever you’re ready. All Blu-Ray quality.

When you want to watch a movie just unlock it and play it immediately. There’s a monthly fee of $10 plus a fee for each movie watched but XStreamHD claims that it will keep prices in line with amazon and iTunes rentals.

Sony thinks we need more 3D so Sony’s 3D Blu-ray update for the PS3 console will arrive in September, a few weeks earlier than expected. There’s also another update in the works that will add support for 3D YouTube, and 3D photos that use the .mpo format.

Users will be able to capture 3D photos from supported cameras and view the content using a PS3 and 3D compatible TVs. Some of the supported cameras include the recently announced Cyber-shots with 3D photo capture.

Vizio may have concentrated on WiFi-equipped TVs at CES this year, but now it is expanding to other devices with the announcement of three WiFi-equipped Blu-ray players, and a dual-band ‘HD” router to go with them. The router is the XWR100, which prioritizes HD media streamed to Vizio’s VIA-enabled devices.

Devices like the three newly announced sleek Blu-ray players. The VBR210, VBR220 and VBR231. The VBR231 is the first dual-band wireless Blu-ray player, and all include Vizio Internet Apps (or VIA) to stream content from Vudu, Netflix and other services.

The A665 is a 15.6-inch laptop that will hit US stores on June 20th. It features a 3D Blu-ray capable drive, Intel’s Core i7-740QM quad core processor, NVIDIA GeForce GTS 350M discrete graphics, 4GB DDR3 RAM, a 640GB hard drive, and a 12-cell battery. The basic 3D model starts at $1600.

If 3D isn’t for you, Toshiba has a non-3D A665 and the M645, both of which offer processors ranging from Core i3 up to Core i7 or AMD’s Phenom II Quad Core and optional discrete graphics. These two models come with seamless graphics switching Nvidia Optimus technology. Starting prices are $800 and $730. Both look like they offer solid performance and will be available this Sunday as well.

Blu-ray players normally just play Blu-ray discs, but Hitachi see them doing more. That’s why they decided to integrate a 32GB solid-state drive as well.

Hitachi is calling it the “Hy Drive,”. The idea is that the operating system and critical software components could be installed into the SSD, leaving your platter hard drive free for everything else. It could improve overall system performance. Hitachi launches the new drives in August.

I think it serves Blockbuster right that all of their stores are starting to go out of business. At one time, there were no less than six locations in my town of 100,000 people. Over the last year, they have all gone out of business. I thank Redbox for killing off Blockbuster and their late fees.

One thing I am not a big fan of on Redbox, other than the fact that I can never remember to return the flicks I rent, is that it offers no Blu-ray titles. Redbox president Mitch Lowe has now stated that Blu-ray rentals are coming in the next few months for $1.50 per night.