Get a Magnavox Blu-ray player for $98
Update: Just came from the Wal-Mart store in Commerce Township, Mich. Not only was the Magnavox priced at $168, but the sales guys had never seen a Blu-ray player for $98. Could be this is a regional thing, or it could just be bad reporting (on my part and others'). Were you able to find this deal? In any case, my apologies if you went to Wal-Mart and came up empty.
The good news: You can finally buy a new, non-refurbished Blu-ray player for under $100--no rebates required.
The bad news: You have to go to Wal-Mart to get it. And not Walmart.com, either, for now this deal is in-store only. (I'd phone first; this story first broke on Friday, so I wouldn't be surprised if many stores were sold out.)
Another Blu-ray player shatters the $100 barrier.
(Credit: Magnavox)This isn't the first time a Blu-ray player has dipped below the magical $100 mark: Sears had a refurbished Magnavox for $99.99 last month, and shortly thereafter Meijer had a new Curtis Mathes model for the same price. Both are long gone.
The Wal-Mart player is the Magnavox NB530MGX, a no-frills, no-BD Live model. Of course, I suspect most buyers upgrade to Blu-ray for the better picture and sound, not for mostly fluff extras. I honestly couldn't care less about Profile 2.0 and all that.
However, I know from previous posts that many readers dislike Wal-Mart, so this begs the question: Is a $98 Blu-ray player enough to draw you into the store?
If not, why? Are Blu-ray movies still too expensive? Are you satisfied with your current DVD player? Or are you streaming/downloading most of your movies nowadays, and therefore don't need a player at all?
If you do happen to visit a Wal-Mart today, hit the comments and let your fellow Cheapskaters know which stores have or don't have the player in stock.
Rick Broida, a technology writer for nearly 20 years, is the author of more than a dozen books. In addition to writing CNET's The Cheapskate blog, he oversees BNET's Business Hacks. Rick is a member of the CNET Blog Network and is not an employee of CBS Interactive. Disclosure. Deals found on The Cheapskate are subject to availability, expiration, and other terms determined by sellers. Follow Rick on Twitter at cheapskateblog. 
http://www.americantv.com/itemDetail.do?itemCd=042500315&linkBack=L2l0ZW1MaXN0LmRvP2NhdENkPTUwNDE=
$50 blu ray player.
The net is the future for digital contents because you can store and transfer to any player.
Most people are aware that tapes, disc, ...etc. are no longer necessary.
1. Price. Of both the player and discs. It doesn't help that I'm having problems with a Magnavox LCD right now, so the prospect of a bargain basement Blu-Ray player from said company doesn't exactly thrill me.
2. I'm not a huge videophile, much like I imagine the large majority of the home movie audience is. For me the difference in quality between proper aspect ratio DVD and the (optimized) Blu-Ray in-store sample is minuscule compared to the quality gulf between DVD and VHS. I personally don't see enough of a benefit to upgrade like I did previously.
I am reluctant to buy anything at Wal-Mart. A little effort has helped me avoid them for some time now. I am also not looking to by DVDs that don't have firmware upgrade paths. This is not because of the Blu-Ray LIve feature. This is because firmware updates can resolve incompatibility issues with DVDs. Sometime a Blu-Ray is released that just won't play right with your player. If this Magnavox can do DVD or Flash-Drive updates, then it's worth consideration (minus the Walmart).
My opinon.
Cheers
Everybody whines about the magic $99 price like the good old days of DVD. Unfortunately, because of inflation, the logic is off. It's more like $199 is equivalent of what you paid back then.
Prices for discs are coming down, plus you can get all the Blu-ray discs you wan through Netflix for bit of a fee.
As for the claim that Blu-ray and other optical media are defunct? Only that poster's thinking is defunct. Have you actually watched a movie downloaded from NetFlix on a TiVO HD? Not only is the proportions distorted, during large parts of the day the bandwidth of most people's ISPs is so compromised that they end up having the single dumbed down to i480 or worse.
Blu-ray is a lot of hype designed by a consortium for gaining yet more royalties, control and repurchasing of media.
They don't have a lot of high-end stuff, but they've consistently got the best prices on the low-end and mid-range items. We in the unwashed masses mostly buy that stuff anyway.
Wal-Mart may not have the best pay and benefits in the world, but what retailer is better? The local "mom and pop" shops everyone romanticizes so much have lower pay and no benefits for their employees, and offer no career path. You could work at Ma & Pa's General Store for 20 years, but if you're not Ma and you're not Pa, and you're not one of their kids, exactly what future do you have there?
Wal-Mart has great prices and gives workers better opportunities than they'd have otherwise. Small business owners may suffer when a Wal-Mart comes to town, but many more people (workers and consumers) benefit substantially.
Waiting a day for something to download isn't a feasible alternative to a disk.
- by jumpkutz July 13, 2009 7:38 PM PDT
- Didn't find any in my east Louisville, KY Walmart on the way home from work this evening. We do have a Best Buy in the area.
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