Wal-Mart Lowers Blu-ray Player to $128

[admin]

It may be a Father’s Day special, but Wal-Mart’s $128 special for a Magnavox Blu-ray player is another indication of the mainstreaming of the high-def disc format.

http://www.pcworld.com/article/166536/walmart_lowers_bluray_player_to_128.html

[UncasMS]

i doubt that this cheapo will play many bd and i dont think that "magnavox" will provide firmwares to solve issues as fast/good as the big players like sony, samsung, pioneer etc.

i'd rather spend a couple of $ more and enjoy a player that handles everything fine

++++++

even the bigger/more expensive magnavox player does not seem to provide blu-ray profil 2.0 (only supports 1.1) and seems to lack an ethernet port!

waste of money imho

[drpepper]

What model (s) would you recommend for:
1.) budget price
2.) middle of road price

[UncasMS]

i have tried 2 and have number 3 now which finally does its job to my satisfaction:

- Samsung 1600
new class with extreme fast load-times; plays any blu-ray out of the box - so far there is not even a firmware available - and not necessary!

if you ever burn AVCHD to DVD / DVD-DL make sure to use +R as your booktype setting because the Samsung 1600 + 3600 will not accept any other booktype as opposed to the 1500, 2500 or 4610 - they also played -ROM in my tests.


- otherwise I'd look at the LG BD-370
- or Sony 350

[Wombler]

There are new Sony players coming out soon with built in wireless networking as well.

The BDP-S560 is the first as far as I know but it will be interesting to see if this filters down to the cheaper models as well.


Wombler

[drpepper]

My thought was to rotate out the oldest dvd player in house & add blu ray option. If this was your 1st step up to blu ray & main purpose was just to play the movie only- either a dvd or blu ray. Will it play & upconvert at least modestly? What is the budget way to do it? Is it this walmart version or another?

If your are the viewer that doesn't watch the dvd extras now & aren't interested- at least now- in the new blu extra features then no need to get a player that is 3 times as much as a budget one. If you or someone else has a blu ray dvd, it would be nice to offer your house for viewing. Like you said, maybe on purchase 2 or 3 you can jump up to the feature pack one for your entertainment room.

[UncasMS]

dont go for that walmart crap - no ethernetport is not very promissing at all.

a player like that wil lvery likely fail with many original discs and be a pain in the butt

upscaling works fine for most decent players so no need to worry, but you come across players that will not be able to play title XYZ until a firmware update is available

and then there are players which play almost anything - like the said samsung 1600

it even let's you attach a usb thumb drive to the front and play avi files or mp3 from there.

[drpepper]

Thanks just saw Samsung 1600 on sale at Sears starting tomorrow... I'll have to check it out