Walmart offers a Blu Ray player under $200

Well, it is finally here. A Blu Ray Player for under $200!

http://www.tvshowsondvd.com/news/Site-News-Walmart-Bluray-Player-Offer/9770

... But... your still paying 298 dollars for it... you just happen to get 100 dollar gift card... which you can't put back into your bank account.

Not to mention... Magnavox... really?

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[Post edited by Mike37 on Jun 4, 2008]

Since obviously nobody buys anything from Wal-Mart

Everyone buys stuff from wal-mart... my point being is that it's still 300 dollars. No matter how you cut it... that's 300 dollars out of your bank account. Sure you could use that 100 dollars at Wal-Mart but I'm pretty sure you can't use that 100 dollars WITH that purchase. If you could... then awesome.

I myself won't be complaining when Wal-Mart gives me 100 dollars for buying the MGS4 PS3 Bundle... That 100 dollars will go straight to buying 3 or 4 BR movies.

I'm just saying... no matter how you cut it, you're still paying Three hundred dollars for it.

Just saw the specs on this player. Disappointing. It is only 1.1 complaint. I think it is somewhat deceptive to continue marketing blu-ray players as great deals when they will be unable to access features with new release movies later this year. And I know what some of you guys are saying, "not everyone wants those extra features." I have a feeling if you did an informal poll at your local walmart, bestbuy, or circuitcity and asked random customers who walk by the blu-ray display if they would buy a bd player for $300 to $500 that wouldn't be able to access all the features on upcoming movies I have a strong feeling that 99% will say no deal. Furthermore, how sure are you guys that once the new profile 2.0 movies start to hit the market there won't be any hardware problems with regular playback? There have been a few bd live movies that have come out already and it seems o.k. so far but since there are no dedicated specs on older players there is no telling what will happen once every bd movie/disc starts to switch over to the new profile. We already know what happened when fox released their BD+ copy-protected discs and how they caused numerous headaches for third-party bd player owners. I think its best to still wait on buying a stand alone until bda gets their hardware act together and until they find a way to stop charging 3 times the price of the former competition (hddvd) for the same technology. And judging by current sales trends of blu-ray it looks like most consumers agree.

anyone got any reviews on this player?

It's the Funai player, and lots of reviews and user experiences reported - just google and check out AVSForum. Seems to be a solid player, with some problems however with 1080/24p DVD playback that supposedly will be resolved in a future firmware update.

What's sweet compared to some other players, is that it just takes 20 seconds from turning on to be ready, and loads disks in under 30 seconds (still not as good as PS3). PQ with Blu-ray has been reported as good, upconversion with standard DVDs reported as not as good as PS3:
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1026390

True $100 isn't in your bank account, but you can buy a few Blu-ray movies to go along with it on Walmart's $15 Blu-ray sale, and maybe have money left over to buy a better toaster.

Quote:
MagnaVox started selling a 1.1 profile Blu-ray player for 298 bucks, which has been spotted at Wal-Mart. This is definitely the cheapest option out there…Is this what many people have been waiting for to take the plunge and invest on a Blu-ray player? Maybe… MagnaVox is a second tier brand from Phillips but this player has been manufactured by the Japanese Funai, which also makes a few products for Hitachi, Mitsubishi, Sharp, Denon and others. Also hitting the market is the Sylvania NB500SL9, which can be pre-ordered at amazon.com at an affordable price of $349.99. This Sylvania player is also manufactured by Funai and basically the same as the MagnaVox NB500MG9, only different brand.

http://myblurayplanet.com/blu-ray-players/blu-ray-hits-the-300-mark-with-magnavox-nb500mg9

Quote:
Since obviously nobody buys anything from Wal-Mart

Dude! Gun racks and beef jerky, two things nobody can live without!

looks like it bitstreams the HD codes and the loading isnt bad, per some guys testing it in the AVS forums.

not bad , and cheap, specially for a second player

About this new Funai-OEM made player - sold under the Magnavox name, Best Buy's Insignia brand, Sylvania (coming in July) etc - most of the parts are supplied by Sony, and chipset/processing is provided by Panasonic's Blu-ray tech. So, it should function well, but obviously not manufactured to include all of the premium features found in more deluxe BD players.

It's profile 1.1 (so handles the BonusView stream too), but will not connect to the internet (profile 2.0) to access special online content available on certain BD titles. So, consider if not having online capability is "a big loss" or not, and then decide to buy or not. I expect the player to be reduced in price (perhaps down to $200) by either Fall, or definitely by the 4th quarter holiday sales period.

And this is just one lower-priced player. Next year, we will have 11 Chinese companies making BD players, along with South Korea's Daewoo Corp, along with newer models by the major brand names.
And coming NEXT MONTH are two new BD players by Sony, one with 2.0 built-in, and a lower-priced model that's 2.0 capable, will need a firmware update later in the year, after Sony releases it for that player.

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-JIMI McLovin (the Voodoo Child)

Just wait until Christmas 2008, thats when the prices will tumble. I just payed 2600.00 for a trip to Disney (hey I have a 9 year old..... and me of course the BIGGEST kid in my house) So my Blu Ray player will have to wait. I must be patient this time, and I will have one by 2009.

I cannot walk out of Walmart with a Blu-Ray player with just $199.99 + tax.

Hence this thread is not true.

LH, what do you think about the samsung 1500?

I believe walmart will have it next week for 349.00 with the 100 gift card awell. tha tplayer looks kind of pretty.

Quote:
True $100 isn't in your bank account, but you can buy a few Blu-ray movies to go along with it on Walmart's $15 Blu-ray sale, and maybe have money left over to buy a better toaster.

So this differs from the 'five free titles' we saw at the start of of the year how?

lol, you can use it for underwear, groceries, dog food and/or feminine products. lol

I honestly was never too impressed with the online features of HD-DVD. I mean, there were cool and all that but nothing I could live w/o. However, I think the broadband access is very important for the firmware updates. W/O those I would had never being able to watch all the HD-DVD movies flawlessly for some newer movies (as we all know) were not compatible with prior firmware versions so I'll be still waiting for a 2.0 profile real $200 or below blu-ray player before considering buying one, and not some "gimmick" (sorry for the "g-word" Sky, ) sale to drive people into purchasing Wal-Mart merchandise.

BTW Tim, not all of us are hunters so I can surely survive w/o gun racks and beef jerky. he he.

Deadmeat said -

Quote:
"Hence this thread is not true."

What about your untruthful claims for SUC-processed SD-DVD? Where you claimed that DVDs thru SUC will output "native 960p HD" images - which is FALSE, since (1) the only "native" resolution with SD-DVD is 480i, and (2) 480i DVD super-upconverted to 960p is NOT "HD".

This thread's meaning is truthful based on the special offer associated with it - the Walmart promotion.

kucoloco... sorry, I haven't read any reviews yet on the new Samsung BD 1500 player model. As long as it doesn't suffer firmware-update problems (that plagued their 1200 model, but not the 1400 to my knowledge), then it should be a real winner.

wii-lite... remember, you can add firmware updates thru the mailed CD-Roms companies offer, if your player doesn't have the capability to connect to the internet. As for us PS3 owners, the best (and safest) method is to download the update to a USB storage device (flash drive usually), then plug it into the player. Tony mentioned earlier this year that updating his PS3 directly from the internet was a catastrophe, when (if I remember right) his unit 'lost' the connection and he had to send it to Sony for repair/replacement (because of the glitch caused when he lost the connection during the update). So be cautious.

_____________
-JIMI McLovin (the Voodoo Child)

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[Post edited by Love Hendrix! on Jun 5, 2008]

Went to Wal-Mart yesterday, they had both the Sony (?) BD-1300 (?) and the Magnavox the Magnavox was $298 and there was no mention of any offer...one or two weeks earlier I had seen some HD DVDs and they are now gone...

Well, Wal-Mart beings a 10-day Father's Day Blu-ray promotion tomorrow (<view for details).

Also, the very latest newer Sony Blu-ray players (2 'Sapphire' models) won't appear in stores until July at the earliest (from what I've heard previously).

_____________
-JIMI McLovin (the Voodoo Child)

Quote:
What about your untruthful claims for SUC-processed SD-DVD? Where you claimed that DVDs thru SUC will output "native 960p HD" images - which is FALSE, since (1) the only "native" resolution with SD-DVD is 480i, and (2) 480i DVD super-upconverted to 960p is NOT "HD".

I am going to disprove your false claim now.


<Toshiba's Super Upconversion Demo>

Left side is SD source image, right side is super upconverted image.

Now do you see details on woman's cloth on right image that is not present in original source image? Do you get that extra detail by simple blow-up and interpolation? Absolutely not.

Output of Super Upconversion is 960p native, period. Now stop making false claims.

You know, I never can understand why you guys post side-by-side pictures? Haven't any of you heard of Photshop? Anybody with a good knowledge of graphics software can make just about any picture look better than its original. If you really want to see side-by-side, then go to your favorite electronics store, have the sales/tech rep set it up so you can compare! Make those pimple-poppers work for you money!

The player has to be released first Tim.

Wait a sec the PS3 has the same feature built on board. It's called Double Scale!

Let's Review...

........CAMP #1........
(HD) High Definition
"Native HD" disc content:
Blu-ray & HD-DVD

-and-

........CAMP #2........
(SD) Standard Definition
"Native SD" disc content:
DVD (w/any upconversion),
UMD (for PSP), LaserDisc

Toshiba's SUC tech is part of Camp #2 (SD), another form of Upconversion, and uses standard-definition DVDs, therefore is INCAPABLE of producing real and true hi-def image (although some, like Deadmeat, can fantasize and tell themselves otherwise). The SUC "960p" output is never HD at all, is not the native signal on the SD-DVD disc, and any new Toshiba player will only have a "DVD" logo on the player (no HD anything).

HD = Blu-ray, HD-DVD, Cable/Satellite, Apple TV etc

SD = DVD (w/SUC), Divx, LaserDisc, VHS,

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-JIMI McLovin (the Voodoo Child)

Well Hendrix, I would definitely buy a Toshiba SUC if it is significantly better than my current options for upscaling my current DVD collection - since I don't watch DVDs much anymore and they do look pretty crappy at 130". I also own a LOT of DVDs... and I know you do too.

It's just that it would be dumb for me to actually pay money to buy a DVD. I'll rent one once in awhile for stuff not on Blu-ray in the foreseeable future (like more obscure stuff), but that's it.

Deadmeat did you own an HD-DVD player? Just answer that simple question.

If yes then you need to move on and accept that HD-DVD has lost.

I was a big HD-DVD fanatic, It truly was superior IMO. Price,reliability and best features. Java is truly craptastic compared to HDI.

But you know what I'm over it. Its time to buy BD if you want HD movies. Toshiba needs to quit this SUC nonsense.

Skyhawk said -

"Well Hendrix, I would definitely buy a Toshiba SUC if it is significantly better than my current options for upscaling my current DVD collection".

Well, I can understand that, and I would too acquire one. I mean why not buy a SUC model at a later date, if it will truly make SD-DVD look their best. However, this Deadmeat person is misleading everyone with claims of SUC's 960p being "HD" and a new "native" for the disc content. 960p cannot be native, since the DVD disc is always 480i, so yeah they've got their upconversion of better quality, but it's still STANDARD DEFINITION being upconverted. And the larger the screen, the more noticeable the difference seen in that SD image vs true HD of Blu-ray (or HD-DVD).

_____________
-JIMI McLovin (the Voodoo Child)

Here's a FYI that I've known about for years. Believe it or not your DVD's will look better without the DRM on. Sounds weird but... The DVD player has to account for CC protection before and as it plays. If you play a disc that has no DRM, it plays with no delay and the Upconversion DVD player, or HD DVD player(or whatever machine you use) at least from my observation seems cleaner and clearer. I first notcied it with my Philips prog scan divx DVD player(DVP642). It used to be quite fuzzy with rental,a nd it drove me crazy. When I started ripping the movie, they got a lot cleaner. Once the CC was removed, it was like experiencing DVD all over agian. I never surmised the technical aspect of it, but it worked for me! I know it everything that you guys are against, but it works... Most movies you can tell right away, but some are so badly compressed to begin with, it doesn't really matter.

SLAVEMART IS THE KEY TO BRINGING BLU RAY TO THE MASSES. WITHOUT IT...IT'S DOOMED!


(god that was so easy)

ladies besides the magnabox being a decent player. 1.1 cheap and with 100$ gift card

so is samsung 1500, and the panny is in stock also... with 100 giftcard. im playing around with the sammy right now, if i dont like it, ill pick up the panny. so far so good though