Portable USB Blu-ray players (with HDMI out?)

Hi friends,

I'm looking for a portable blu-ray player to go with the new Vaio Z I just purchased. I would have loved to have the integrated blu-ray player, but $500 extra was out of the question.

The ideal I'm looking for may not exist...that's why I posted this. What I'm looking for is a portable blu-ray player with the standard USB connection so I can hook it up to the Z (so obviously I want this to be a small and portable piece of hardware). But I'd love to have a player that also has HDMI out and possibly even a remote, so I can hook the player up to my TV directly as well. I've been browsing the web and I'm thinking this hardware might not exist. But I figured I'd ask the community.

I realize I can always plug the blu-ray into the Z via USB and then use the Z's HDMI out capabilities to broadcast on the TV. That is the backup plan. But if there is an option out there I figured someone here would know. If this doesn't exist, then any recommendations for good portable blu-ray players are welcome.

Sorry if this has been discussed elsewhere in this forum. I did a search of the hardware forum and didn't find anything.

Thanks.

 

This is what I use. It's pretty good. A little big maybe for what you want.

Plextor PX-B310U BD-ROM/DVD Burner - 6x DB-R, 16X DVD+R, 8X DVD+RW, 16X DVD-R, 6x DVD-RW, 16X DVD-ROM, External, USB at TigerDirect.com

 

Thanks, I appreciate the reply. This particular model doesn't have HDMI Out does it?

What I'm mainly interested in is a small player that has both USB and HDMI Out, so that I can choose whether I want to plug it into my computer or straight into my TV. I haven't been able to locate a player that has both USB and HDMI Out, so it might not exist...

 

Te only way for a "drive" to work with HDMI is to use your computers output they just connect to your computer (via USB), and the computers video card is what will send the signal to a display (Laptop Screen, and any outputs your laptop may have like VGA, or HDMI)

If you want the player itself to have video output you need a stand alone player, not just a BR drive for your computer. The stand alone player has the procesor and stuff built into it to do the work the laptop does when you just use an external drive.

You may not need to pay $500 for some official drive, there are OEM blueray drives for laptops to go internal rather than external I know a few people have upgraded to blueray on some of the laptops models I own/have owned.

I moved away from disks myself personally. I just rip them and play them with my WDTV Live or from my computer hard drive.

 

That makes sense about the lack of HDMI Out in portables. Kind of a "duh" moment for me. Thanks.

Regarding the OEM internal blu-ray drives, thanks for the tip, but that so far has been a dead end. Because the Z is so tiny, its difficult to find a drive that will fit. Last time I checked, the one that would is selling on ebay for $500, so same price as the Sony upgrade itself.