Other World Computing (OWC) has introduced a new member to its Blu-ray burner line-up by launching the Mercury Pro 12x External Blu-Ray Burner. With the OWC Mercury Pro 12x Blu-ray Pioneer BDR-205 External you can archive massive amounts of data (up to 50 GB per disc!), and start creating DVDs using your own family and friends as the stars! Based on Pioneeer BDR-205 writer, the drive offers four different connection interfaces including FireWire 800, FireWire 400, USB 2.0 and eSATA, an 8 MB of buffer memory and provides 12x write speeds for Blu-ray Disc media, 16x for DVD and 40x for CD media. It also includes two 25 GB pieces of retail Panasonic write-once media. The OWC Mercury Pro 12x retails for $349.99.

JVC has thrown out its cheap Blu-ray player coded the JVC XV-BP11. This ultra-thin Blu-ray player can play BD-Rom, BD-R/RE, DVD-Video, DVD-R/RW, DVD+R/RW, Audio CD and CD-R/RW discs.

Formats supported by the JVC Blu-ray player include AVCHD, WMV, JPEG, MP3, WMA, Dolby Digital, Dolby Digital plus, Dolby True HD, DTS, DTS HD Master Audio/Essential. JVC also equips the player with several connectivity ports including HDMI 1.3, RCA video, coaxial audio, analog audio and front-panel USB allowing direct connection to camcorders and other devices. The JVC XV-BP11 cheap Blu-ray player retails for $199.95.