Blu-Ray

[bigaudiofanatic]

Got a hd-dvd player "the one at walmart" now I am looking to buy a blu-ray player. But I only want to spend 100-120. Does anyone have any info on ones that are going to be on sale like on black friday? Or a used one will do nicley.

[dagame27]

So for, what I have read indicates the cheapest one will be a couple samsungs at best buy for $399. Nothing earth shattering. I think we are going to have to wait a while for cheap blu ray players. Sony is banking on the available media, so in their view, there is no reason to compete w/ hddvd on price.

[McLoki]

Good luck in your search. It appears that Sony does not want to get into a player price war with toshiba, so I do not expect the super low prices on the blueray players... If you come across anything in your searches though - definately keep us informed. I think many will make a blueray purchase if the player could be had in the $100 price range...

Michael

[bigaudiofanatic]

Well honestly which one do you think is going to come out on top I am thinking Blu-ray because of disney

[ViperZ]

It's a long debate, and we discussed 'which one will win' to death in other threads... The only thing that I am missing on HD-DVD is exactly - Disney.

Otherwise, quality of picture and sound are the same on both; price of HD-DVD players is much lower. Bottom line, who cares. If I can find blu-ray player (used) for 150-ish, I'll buy it just for Disney movies (I have seen used BDP-1200 for $200 already).

[McLoki]

Best deal I have seen for blueray is the Circut City black friday 2007 ad of

Samsung Blu-Ray Player w/8 Free Movies - $377.99

[bigaudiofanatic]

Were did you find that add

[McLoki]

http://www.blackfriday.info/
or
http://www.theblackfriday.com/ (this one is pretty slow though)

Click on the store name you are interested in at the bottom of the page.

Edit - interestingly enough - I did not see any HD-DVD sales at all. Must be over for this year...

[93mdk93]

Sony is gonna lose this bet... i saw in the news that 90,000 HD-DVD players were sold just this weekend!

oh, and they sell Disney HD-DVDs everywhere but in the USA... sure, you might pay a couple bux more per title, but it'll take quite a few purchases before you've paid for a Blu-Ray player!

[cheddar]

This just came up on a quick search. $299 for what I think is a blu-ray refurb from the Philips site:

http://www.outlet.philips.com/b2c_re...enario=catalog

That's pretty cheap if the player's specs meet your needs. But better quality and features are available with other players if you're willing to pay the slightly higher prices near retail. You'll easily make up the price difference with all the bogo sales etc. for blu-ray software including disney. I posted several links to such sales in the movie/music section.

[cheddar]

Sony is gonna lose this bet... i saw in the news that 90,000...

This has already been covered pretty well here:

http://www.polkaudio.com/forums/showthread.php?t=59314

The sale is over and stocks are depleted unless you know where you can get $98 players that are still in stock.

[BIZILL]

http://forum.blu-ray.com/showthread.php?t=20371

http://forums.slickdeals.net/showthr...10942&t=652625

[Sherardp]

the Sony BDP S300 can be found for 300-349 in the USA. Its an excellent performer as well.

[bigaudiofanatic]

HMM i think i will take them money I was going to use for a blu-ray player and put it tords the tv.

[AndyGwis]

I saw some for very cheap on videogon. I think they were samsung BDP-1000s for about $150+ shipping.

[Sherardp]

Best bang for buck player is simply PS3, I know its alittle out of your budget, but that thing gets so many updates its unreal, so many additional features added it makes for superb standalone player, that just happens to play games.

[AsSiMiLaTeD]

I was wondering when someone was going to mention the PS3. I've not really read any reviews of how it does as a Blu Ray player, but that's my main reason for buying it - and it looks beautiful to me. It looks every bit as good as my Toshiba A2 - though in fairness I don't own a title I can compare on both machines.

The only drawback I can see to using the PS3 as a player is no support for my Harmony remote, but that's a minor inconvenience, and really meaningless when weighed against all the advantages it offers.

Plus it has some cool media sharing features and plays games too...or so they say...

[cheddar]

I was wondering when someone was going to mention the PS3. I've not really read any reviews of how it does as a Blu Ray player, but that's my main reason for buying it - and it looks beautiful to me. It looks every bit as good as my Toshiba A2 - though in fairness I don't own a title I can compare on both machines.

The only drawback I can see to using the PS3 as a player is no support for my Harmony remote, but that's a minor inconvenience, and really meaningless when weighed against all the advantages it offers.

Plus it has some cool media sharing features and plays games too...or so they say...

The odd thing about the new 40 gig ps3 is that they appear to be pushing it as a blu-ray player. It does come with spidey instead of the the 80 gig's motorstorm after all. And it looks like wallmart may be selling it with 15 free blu-ray disks (10 of them off the rack stock which they will be increasing specifically for this promotion) this weekend:

http://n4g.com/ps3/News-85353.aspx

Here's a nice straightforward review on the machine. It basically backs up what's been said so far:

http://netscape.com.com/consoles/son...7.html?tag=txt

Since the PS3's debut, we've seen several Blu-ray players from Samsung, Panasonic, LG, and Sony itself. And none of them generally perform any better than the PS3, even though they cost more (twice as much or more in some cases). HD movies look superb on the PS3, which can output video at full 1080p resolution via its HDMI 1.3 port.

And it even tops their list of HD media players:

http://netscape.com.com/4370-9991_7-197-102.html

Now if it can only release those great looking exclusive games already...

[cheddar]

While the walmart 15 free blu-ray sale this weekend may be for the 80 gig version, I just read the local frys black friday ad: They have the 40 gig ps3 with 10 free blu-ray movies and a free blu-ray remote for $399. Also the spidey blu-ray box set for $44.99. A handful of $12.99 hd-dvds too (dawn of the dead, mercury rising, shaun of the dead). So while you're snagging the 300 buck laptop, the 97 buck color laser printer, and all the free after rebate stuff, you might want to check out the high def deals too.