Price Watch: Sharp Blu-ray player, $179.99

Take the Blu-ray plunge for a reasonable $179.99

(Credit: Sharp)

If you're planning to put a Blu-ray player under the tree, menorah, or Festivus pole this year, Sears has a solid deal: The Sharp Aquos BD-HP21U for $179.99. That's plus shipping (a very reasonable $7.50), but you can bypass that cost by picking it up in-store.

This is a new model, not a refurb. It's also new to Sharp's Aquos line of Blu-ray players, following the previous BD-HP20U (which I own, and like for its reasonably speedy start-up time). CNET hasn't reviewed it yet, but notes that it shares its predecessor's quick-start capabilities (discs load in about 10 seconds) and can decode both Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD audio. Alas, it's Profile 1.1, which doesn't bother me but will undoubtedly discourage some.

The BD-HP21U sells for upwards of $299.99 at many stores, so $179.99 is an unequivocally good deal. If you're in the market for a Blu-ray player, that is. I gotta admit, my BD-HP20U sits idle much of the time. Of course, I'm more into TV than movies anyway. 30 Rock, woo!

Update: Eagle-eyed reader fbny71 just reported that Woot.com has a new Memorex player for just $139.99, plus $5 shipping. Woot, indeed! (Today only, though.)

[FellowConspirator]

Is this a, or can it be made, region free. Unless it's region-free or can be rendered such, it's a non-starter.

[fbny71]

Woot has a Memorex Blu-Ray player today for $140 + $5 shipping.

[rickbroida]

woot! Excellent find!

[Dragon_Myr]

I've been really surprised by Sears lately. It seems like they're definitely trying harder than some of their competitors this year. It was easy to purchase a Panasonic HDTV TC-37LZ85 last night from them since the price was so good (and I had gift cards). I hope they keep up some good deals. This Sharp Blu-ray player looks like a good deal, but it and the price of Blu-ray movies are still too high. The players are approaching the acceptable price range, but the movies still appear high.

[dude7895]

Its Festivus for the rest of us!

[BartholomewFly]

Has the Sears store always said "Temporarily out of stock for delivery"?

[rickbroida]

Alas, no, that just appeared. Not too surprising given the low price. Deals like these go fast!

[sartor1]

This model is a black friday special price!
The author should mention that in his article!
That's why it says out of stock for delivery.

[jca671]

Early adapters, rejoice! As for me- yawn- when players drop below $100 and discs cost the same as regular DVD's, then maybe. But not for $180 or $140, plus $30 + for each disc that will become obsolete!

I went to my local Sears store when they had the "Friends and Family" event. I got a 10% discount on it and it was the last one in the store. Woot! My parents aunt each bought a Toshiba 40" LCD 1080p HDTV. I tried to order another but due to the amount of people ordering it said "backorder" in their system.

Don't know if it's firmware is upgradable to 2.0 or 3.0, but it is upgradable.

[Indibob]

I have a second generation Sharp Bluray. It's crap. Don't buy it.