blu

Still renting, buying, and/or owning movies on shiny silver discs? Believe it or not, I suspect most people are doing at least one of those.

And shiny silver discs require a shiny-silver-disc player, hence today's deal. Until the clock strikes midnight (ET), and while supplies last, Daily Steals has the refurbished Samsung BD-E5400 Blu-ray player for $45 shipped. It sells new for $99.99.

Update: Looks like it's sold out.

Like any good Blu-ray player, this one features built-in Wi-Fi, and can stream from a handful of services: CinemaNow (is that still a thing?), Netflix, Pandora, and … Read more

Don't let its archaic name fool you; Cyberlink PowerDVD may sound like a name that's rooted in history, but it's actually an innovative media player and library manager that goes beyond just standard disc playback. In fact, PowerDVD 13 aims to distinguish itself from the premium media player crowd with features like "TrueTheater" enhancements, presentable media browsing, and customizable playback tools. To wrap it all up, PowerDVD also aims to rope all your media devices into one connected experience.

The installation process is standard: Cyberlink takes about 360MB of space and leaves a light footprint. … Read more

Working with different types of movie files and disc formats, including Blu-ray, can be a challenge using native Mac programs. Aurora Blu-ray Player for Mac allows users to play movie files, DVDs, and Blu-rays from one application with good quality.

Available as a free trial version that places a watermark on Blu-ray playback, the full, unrestricted version costs $39.95. The trial version allows unrestricted use of movie files and DVDs. While the program only took up approximately 30MB of space, the download and installation took approximately 30 minutes, despite the high-speed Internet connection used. Once this completed, the actual … Read more

If your laptop shopping list includes a touch screen, SSD storage, or even NFC, finding a new system shouldn't be hard. But if you're still tied to your optical discs and need a DVD or Blu-ray drive, that's another story. This once-ubiquitous feature is hard to find in new Windows 8 laptops, largely restricted to older models that have had Win 8 slapped onto them and to a handful of larger desktop replacements.

As laptops continue to get thinner, a charge led by ultrabooks and the MacBook Air (and the MacBook Pro with Retina Display), I suspect we'll see fewer and fewer optical drives.

Slot-loading drives are easier to fit into a small chassis than tray-loading ones, but like Ethernet ports, optical drives may become an added cost that PC makers feel most shoppers can live without, thanks to online gaming, music, and movie services, and the growth of cloud computing.

Since the launch of Windows 8, we've reviewed only a handful of laptops that include optical drives. The list below gives our favorites, and a few that weren't quite as warmly received.… Read more

Conservation of marine life begins with knowledge and awareness. TheBlu 3D Ocean Screensaver for Mac tries to educate users about marine life and support conservation through social networking, but its functionality is spotty.

The program is available as freeware with a log-in and e-mail address required, but you can purchase additional marine life for the screensaver. TheBlu 3D Ocean Screensaver prompts with a Facebook log-in at startup so the user can share knowledge learned through the program with friends. Downloading was simple and fast, but installation proved problematic. There were no instructions, and support appears to be minimal. When the … Read more

If you have a Blu-ray player and don't want to or can't use a native Mac media player app, Mac Blu-ray Player can be used to view Blu-rays in addition to DVDs, but some may find the price tag for the full version too high.

The installation and setup of a free trial version of Mac Blu-ray Player for Mac went smoothly. The initial menus are intuitive and well-designed. The trial version will only function a limited number of times, however, before the user must buy the full version at $59.95. Technical support is available, and the … Read more

It sounds ideal. Take all those DVDs and Blu-rays you own and, from the comfort of your own home, effortlessly gain digital copies for a low price. That's the promise of Vudu's new "In-Home Disc to Digital" service. Vudu delivers on that promise in some cases but disappoints in other ways.

Last year, Walmart-owned Vudu launched its Disc to Digital service that required people to go into Walmart stores for the conversion. Who wants to do that? This is where the "In-Home" version of Disc to Digital comes … Read more

Pop a properly manufactured CD into a CD player, and you'll hear music in a second or two. In more than 30 years of playing CDs I've never once encountered scanning, searching, or error messages; after I press "Play," the music starts. Stick a properly manufactured DVD or Blu-ray in a working player, and you always have to wait a while to start watching the movie -- or it might not play at all. You might have to do a firmware update to play the disc. With DVDs and Blu-rays, there's no such thing as … Read more

What happens when you combine a high-quality 3D screensaver, social media and games, and environmental activism? You get TheBlu, that's what. TheBlu is something new, an interactive 3D app specifically tied to a social cause, protecting the oceans. TheBlu's realistic underwater world is relaxing and soothing but also educational, and making purchases to add to it supports oceanic conservation, according to Wemo Media. You can dive right in simply by downloading the free screensaver. TheBlu 3D Ocean Screensaver is far more than any screensaver we've yet seen, though, with an interactive display, social connections like chat, and … Read more