LG gives connected access to two Blu-ray players

During its annual Consumer Electronics Show (CES) press conference, LG Electronics again demonstrated its efforts to add streaming content to standalone Blu-ray players.  Specifically, two new Blu-ray players will have LG NetCast Entertainment Access support, which gives owners access to a wider variety of streaming content they can view using their Blu-ray players.

LG made the announcement prior to CES, but didn’t disclose which Blu-ray players would get the NetCast Entertainment Access, or when the players will be available.

The LG BD370 and BD390 Network Blu-ray Disc Players will have on-demand streaming from Netflix, CinemaNow, and YouTube, LG announced during the press conference.  The players are almost identical, except the BD390 has 1GB of internal storage while the BD370 does not.  Both players also have BD-Live support.

"As millions of U.S. consumers view and download movies or TV shows through the Internet, they are demanding easier ways to access content and more home entertainment options," LG Electronics director of product development Tim Alessi said in a statement prior to CES.

CinemaNow will offer 14,000 movie titles and TV episodes, while millions of videos will be accessible through YouTube.

The BD370 should be released in Q3 while the BD390 will launch in the fall.

As Blu-ray manufacturers continue to lower prices and attract new consumers, the ability stream content from Netflix and other similar companies has been slowly rolled out.  The Microsoft Xbox 360 and Roku Netflix Player, along with several other devices give users the same ability to stream content.

In addition to the Blu-ray players, LG also introduced two new HDTV series that will make use of NetCast Entertainment Access.