LG has stepped up the game and brought 3 new Blu-ray Burners that can write up to 6x speeds. This throws them ahead of the game since many manufacturers (LaCie, Plextor, LiteOn) are still releasing 4x burners. The new LG Blu-ray burners are: BE06, GBC-H20L and GBW-H20L. All three of them can read HD-DVD media at 3x, have SecurDisc capabilities, which provide data protection and content access control on all current optical formats, and LightScribe technology, a very cool feature that allows users to create direct-to-disc labels right from their drive.

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The BE06 is an external drive that can be connected to your computer by USB 2.0. The BE06 has a MRSP of $379.95. It is compatible with all BD, DVD and CD formats, reads 6x BD-R/2x BD-RE and records DVD+RW/-RW at 16x. Get the detailed specs of the new BE06 drive here!

Both the GBC-H20L and GBW-H20L are internal drives and will be priced at $199.95 and $279.95, respectively. The GBW-H20L handles 6 × BR-R writing and 2× BD-RE writing, along with 16× DVD burning and 40× CD burning. The GBC-H20L does all the above but does not to write to Blu-ray media.

“LG drives offer everyday users and professionals some of the fastest recording speeds in the industry,” said Marc Sorkin, senior marketing manager, for LG Electronics IT and Home Entertainment products. “With cutting-edge technologies such as SecurDisc and LightScribe, which make data transfer easier and safer, these drives meet consumers’ increasing demand for a compact storage option both in the office and at home.”

You can read the full press release here!

Popularity: 21% [?]

Samsung and LG will no longer produce players that are capable of playing both HD-DVD and Blu-ray Discs as of this fall. This move will help both companies to cut costs.

Here is what they have to say about this piece of news:

“Surely, it is a very tough decision for us to halt the production of the combos, however, we will stop manufacturing the Super Blu series from the second half of this year,” said a spokesman from LG Electronics.

“Since February this year, we have no longer been producing combo players that support the playback of HD-DVD and Blu-ray high-definition discs,” a spokesperson from Samsung Electronics told The Korea Times, Monday.

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So basically if you have HD-DVD discs, you are now on your own if something happens to your current player. Once the players that are available on the market now are gone, you can kiss HD-DVD bye bye…You see? That’s what you get for choosing a format that has no future!

You can find combo players here as long as inventory lasts. After that - Try E-Bay!

Popularity: 8% [?]

Finally, a single machine that plays everything: HD DVDs, Blu-ray Discs, standard DVDs, and even CDs. Much better than its precursor, the BH100’s, and most of the initial player’s shortcomings were addressed in the company’s second, more successful stab at a dual-format player, the BH200 Super Blu. Picture quality is excellent with all compatible formats, and the BH200 can also hook up to a home network to let you take advantage of interactive features found on both HD DVD and Blu-ray. The major area where this second-gen Super Blu machine comes up short is audio performance, where it’s still limited in its support of the new high resolution formats

Besides the above mentioned it supports DVD-R, DVD-RW, DVD+R and DVD+RW formatted discs as well as audio CDs

The LG BH200 has excellent image quality on Blu-ray Discs and HD DVDs. It has full support for HD DVD interactive features, slick high-definition menu system and it supports Blu-ray Profile 1.1 (with firmware to be released).

Even though this is a better player than the BH100, it does have shortcomings. It is more expensive than two standalone players; high-resolution audio support is not up to par. It has a irritating bug on DVD playback. It doesn’t output at 24 frames per second; it has some disc compatibility issues on Blu-ray. It lacks analog multichannel outputs and it cannot upgrade firmware over Ethernet.

• Blu-ray DiscTM & HD DVDTM Playback
• Full HD 1080p Output
• QdeoTM Advanced Video Processing
• DVD 1080p Up-conversion
• HDMITM 1.3 with Deep Color
• LG SimpLinkTM Control
• Advanced Interactivity
• USB Media Host

This is definitely not the best around but you are looking for a good player the BH200 will do!

You can buy it here!

Popularity: 17% [?]