Pioneer beat 'em to the punch, and has subsequently managed to be rebadged by most everyone else, but now Philips is on the scene at Computex with a PC Blu-ray burner that boasts support for 50GB discs — once they're available. The drive still doesn't have anything as silly as a model number (though we're thinking it's the SPD7000 that they've been talking about for a while), but it does include CD burning support along with the DVD and Blu-ray burning, which is something Pioneer omitted from their BRD-101A. Philips can burn a 25GB disc in around 70 minutes at its 2x speed, and will support t…

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Not a ton of new specs to behold on this new Blu-ray player, but Philips's BDP7100 does everything it should (1080p output, HDMI CEC, 24p, True HD, and DTS HD support). No word if it's got HDMI v1.3 or Blu-ray 1.1, and Philips also neglected to mention the price and availability of this new Blu-ray player of theirs, but we still dutifully thank them for their morsels of information and sheepishly ask for a second helping of porridge, kind sirs. One more image after the break….

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'Tis the season to cut prices as Toshiba slashes the cost of its hi-def spinners – now from just £250

This price-cutting wave is catching. With the ink barely dry on the Xbox 360's new price tags, Toshiba's had a word in our shell-like to tell us it's marked down the already bargain HD DVD spinners.So £250 will now get you the top-selling HD-E1 or, for an extra hundred of your English/Scottish/Welsh/Northern Irish pounds you can invest in the 1080p-spewing EP10 (pictured).And they're the official prices, mind. A quick search online will now find you the HD-E1 at an incredible £210 or the HP10 for £300.At those prices you may as well forget a dual disc spinner. Bag a Toshiba and …

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Add Blu-ray to your PC for a mere £125 – just don't forget the graphics card

Seems the PS3 is not the only route to cheap hi-def thrills. Phillips partner, Lite-On, is getting ready to debut a cut-price Blu-ray drive for PC movie watchers for a mere £125.Natch it won't burn BD discs but it will spin them and, provided you have a HDCP compatible graphics card such as the bargain basement ATI Radeon HD 2400, you can watch Blu-ray movies to your heart’s content on your monitor or an attached HD-ready TV.Incidentally, it turns out that the Xbox 360's external HD DVD drive is compatible with Windows XP should you want to watch a spot of Transformers with your Spi…

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You didn't think Acer's recent deal with the Blu-ray camp was an exclusive arrangement did you? No sir-e, not if this product sheet is to be believed. Though the details are hard to make out, those Blu-ray Disc and HD DVD logos make it pretty clear that the Aspire line-up of multimedia desktops are about to go both ways. The desktop will feature what Acer calls “Blu-ray Universal” which reads Blu-ray and HD DVD discs while burning DVDs and CDs. Sounds like an LG Super Multi Blue player to us. It's all said to be going down on October 1st, in Australia anyway. Do your best to make out the full …

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