LG’s new Blu-ray player won’t rip and store your movies, but the BD590 is still pretty decent. The BD590 will store your music, photos, downloaded movies, rip CDs etc, via USB or Ethernet port, though apparently not through its 802.11n Wi-Fi connection for some reason.

Unfortunately, no DVD and Blu-ray archiving. Which isn’t surprising for legal reasons. Anyway 250GB isn’t ideal for ripping Blu-Ray movies.

Sony’s new BDPorter is a portable Blu-Ray projection machine in a rollable cabinet that will look right at home in your office. It comes with a Blu-ray player inside, a WXGA projector, surround sound headphones, speakers and a 60-inch screen.

This one is targeted mainly at corporate situations to use with presentations, or when you need to move it into another office etc. If you really wanted to, you could probably import one from Japan if you have a spare $7,700.

Sony and Panasonic have teamed up to develop 67GB Blu-ray discs using i-MLSE (Maximum Likelihood Sequence Estimation) technology. That’s pretty damn impressive. This means that the next generation of Blu-ray discs will store 33.4GB of data on a single layer disc or 66.8GB on a dual-layer disc.

And as a bonus you won’t need new hardware to use these new Blu-ray discs. There is no info on the release date yet. When we might see them in our hands is anyone’s guess. A year maybe.

Oh joy. The Blu-ray Disc Association has now issued the official specs for 3D Blu-ray, confirming that the discs will be backwards-compatible. The PS3 will be able to play 3D Blu-ray discs, and upcoming 3D players will be able to play 2D discs as well.

The discs will use Multiview Video Coding (or MVC) and will use 50 per cent less space on discs compared to 2D content. The content will be full 1080p, so even though you’re watching your flick in 3D, the quality should be good still.

Looks like we might be able to enjoy 3D Blu-ray movies by next summer. According to NVIDIA’s PR manager for the UK and Northern Europe, Ben Berraondo, the Blu-ray Association has finally agreed on the details of 3D Blu-ray.

NVIDIA’s 3D Vision Technology will be able to display this new standard, but most of us would need to upgrade our existing hardware as many HDTVs run at a 60Hz refresh rate, while 3D films require a refresh rate of 120Hz. I’m still not sure this 3D thing isn’t just a fad, but I guess no one wants to miss out, so every company is jumping on the bandwagon.

Here’s something that makes perfect sense and we’re surprised that it has taken so long. With Amazon’s Disc+ on Demand, when you buy a DVD or Blu-ray movie, you will be able to stream it instantly via Amazon On Demand. Pretty awesome huh?

Looks like it applies to a few hundred titles so far and for the moment it’s just for those in the US, but it should have no problem being successful and should grow quickly. You’ll need to look for the Disc+ on Demand logo on movie pages to make sure it’s eligible.

Warner has a new trade-in plan that hopes to convert you to the ways of Blu-Ray (Especially if you just got a Blu-Ray player and have a ton of DVDs, they want you too.) Just send in your old DVDs, $7.95 to $9.95 per movie plus $4.95 for s&h and HD versions will arrive in about 4 to 5 weeks.

You’ll have to decide if it’s worth it or not by consulting the 55 movies on the approved list that you own, but we suspect that most of you will just want to keep the ones you have on the shelf and wait for better deals.

Don’t let the small size fool you, the VOT550 mini computer from ViewSonic is a powerful and sleek machine, powered by a 2.2Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo T6600 processor with 4GB of RAM, a 500GB HDD, built-in Blu-Ray drive, and Microsoft Windows 7.

Aside from being small, the ViewSonic VOT550 comes in a piano black casing that’s sure to go well with your other gear. It also provides six USB 2.0 ports and an S/PDIF port for your AV receiver. For added security there’s also a Kensington lock.

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.