$169 Blu-Ray Player

[blackraven]

I saw a Best Buy ad in the paper today for the Insignia Blu-Ray player
for $169.

I bet they sell a ton of these.

[Worf101]

I ain't so sure... Most people are NOT HT purists etc... In these tough economic times it might be a hard sell even at $169, but we'll see.

Da Worfster

[Woochifer]

That Insignia will probably need to go down even further.

I was just at Costco over the weekend, and I saw a Philips player and the Panasonic DMP-BD30 for around $200, and the newer DMP-BD35 going for $230. Just a few weeks ago, those same players were going for around $240.

[L.J.]

Black Friday sites shows Walmart listing a Magnavox BR player for $128.

enVue Digital Photo Album with 3.5" LCD Screen $40.00
Giini Digital Picture Frame with 8" LCD Display, Clock & Calendar $39.00
JVC 30GB Hard Drive Camcorder with 28x Zoom $249.00
Kodak 2GB Secure Digital Memory Card $7.00
Magnavox Blu-ray Disc Player $128.00
Philips 2GB MP3 Player with 1.5" Color LCD Display $29.00
Philips 7" Digital Photo Frame Alarm Clock $89.00
Philips MP3 Player Accessory Pack $10.00

[Woochifer]

I ain't so sure... Most people are NOT HT purists etc... In these tough economic times it might be a hard sell even at $169, but we'll see.

Da Worfster

Anecdotally, I saw quite a few people loading Blu-ray players into their Costco shopping carts over the weekend. These might be tough times, but it's still the holiday season and we're now at a stage where HDTV penetration has reached more than 50% of North American households. That's a much bigger market than two years ago when Blu-ray and HD-DVD rolled out into a market with less than 25% HDTV household penetration.

In tough economic times, people tend to stay at home rather than go out, and what do they do at home? Watch TV and lots of it! I think Blu-ray's fortunes will come down to whether people view DVD as "good enough" or if they want their disc viewing to match the high resolution they've gotten used to with most primetime network programs now produced in HD. If anything, $169 is low enough to consider if someone's looking to replace a broken DVD player and has at least heard of Blu-ray. Then, there are people like my in-laws who bought a Blu-ray player because they wanted a "good DVD player" to go with their new HDTV!

For Blu-ray, the format already accounts for more than 10% of the unit sales for blockbuster titles, and about 8% of the disc market overall despite much fewer titles getting released. This continues a trend of accelerating growth rates.

I read that The Dark Knight will get released with over 1 million Blu-ray copies shipped. Just last year, Casino Royale was the first Blu-ray title to ship 100,000 copies, and only a couple of months ago, Iron Man crossed the 500,000 threshold. I suspect that The Dark Knight alone will sell a lot of Blu-ray players.

[blackraven]

Even in these tough times, I believe that people will still buy them with the prices as low as they are. More people have HD TV's and many more people are staying home from the movie theaters. Plus Blu-Ray is something the whole family can enjoy. You don't need a HT set up to enjoy HD movies.

[Mr Peabody]

A friend of mine wants a BR player bad but not much money to spend, he was interested in that player at $128.00, he read some reviews (not sure where) and came to the conclusion it was a piece of crap. He's now considering the Samsung BD-P1500 and hopes to land the "black Friday" price of $150.00.

[02audionoob]

What sort of impact does Blu-Ray have on 1080i and 720p screens? Anything of note?

[pixelthis]

What sort of impact does Blu-Ray have on 1080i and 720p screens? Anything of note?

Its the best bargain in HT and audio, for starters.
ESPECIALLY AT THESE PRICES.
Is it worth it on 720 and 1080i screens?
Of course.
Even more than the res, color purity and light and shadow are better on a Blu, and there are almost no artifacts, ever.
Cant speak for 1080i but 720 is great.
ONE point tho, if you are a perfectionist you will trade your 720p
soon after buying one, and rightfully so.
Where BLU shines is 1080p, I mean the pic is simply amazing,
and thats not even going into the sound.
This is why I CHUCKLE at plasma fanboys buying 720p so as to be able to afford plasma, they will be missing out.

[blackraven]

Walmart has an ad in todays paper that states they are selling the Sony BDP 350 for $179.00

[Woochifer]

Walmart has an ad in todays paper that states they are selling the Sony BDP 350 for $179.00

Sears and KMart are matching that price.

HHGregg is also selling a Sharp AQUOS model for $150.

[Woochifer]

What sort of impact does Blu-Ray have on 1080i and 720p screens? Anything of note?

Huge. Watching Blu-ray on a 1080i/720p set will give you at least the same image quality as watching a broadcast HDTV channel. And because Blu-ray is a less compressed signal and uses a cleaner source, you'll likely see a better picture than those channels.

No matter what upscaler and upconverting tech you use, it's still a lot more revealing when you downconvert a 1080p signal to 1080i or 720p, than upconverting a 480i or 480p signal. Can't manufacture resolution that isn't there in the first place.

[L.J.]

Auugh!! I wish Sony would drop the price of the PS3. I wanted a 2nd PS3 but decent BR options below 250 are starting to pop up everywhere.

[s dog]

Walmart has an ad in todays paper that states they are selling the Sony BDP 350 for $179.00

$179.00 for the 350, Now that's starting to get damned tempting.

[Woochifer]

Auugh!! I wish Sony would drop the price of the PS3. I wanted a 2nd PS3 but decent BR options below 250 are starting to pop up everywhere.

Yup, that's a sign of progress! The only PS3 deals I've seen are bundling deals that include a Blu-ray movie, game, and/or controller. Nothing below $399.

If Sony follows their typical pattern, the price reductions will happen sometime in February or March -- well after the 30-day return window has lapsed for most retailers.

[Mr Peabody]

A friend of mine is looking for the "best" deal in a BR player, I told him about the WM ad but he couldn't find the bd-p350 at WM for that. Ultimate is running a Black Friday at that price. If it's for sure WM I wonder if it's some how just a local thing.

[pixelthis]

I KNEW that the prices of these things would be coming down about now.
How? Am I psychic or something?
NOPE.
I paid 300 bucks for one in the summer, thats how I knew.
HAPPENS EVERY TIME!!!

[Mr Peabody]

I was almost ready to go out and hunt a deal down as I sat down yesterday to watch Forbidden Kingdom on Blu-ray and I couldn't get it to play on my 1200. Of course, there's a firmware update out I don't have. I'll have it in about a week. I have an issue some where in my house with the phone line and my download time is slow or I could have gotten it via ethernet.

Download time being slow is according to my provider. Apparently everything is good up to the house. I'll have to find some one to trace the problem and hopefully not charge me a leg. Too bad no black Friday deals on service.

[02audionoob]

I went with the Sony Blu-ray today. Couldn't stand to be on the sidelines, any longer. No Blu-ray discs, yet. The missus is going to pick up Iron Man, later today.

[Mr Peabody]

Congrads. Check the BR bargains thread, Amazon has several titles on sale and Circuit City is supposed to have some too. I'm mad, Amazon was running Transformers at $10.99 today and I bought it a week or so ago for $19.95. They were also running Kung Fu Panda cheap too.