Name brand Blu-ray players break the $200 barrier
Blu-ray players from Samsung and Sony have been spotted for less than $200, confirming earlier rumors of Blu-ray price drops this fall.
EngadgetHD has been keeping a close eye on the prices of Blu-ray players, and recently noticed that both the Samsung BD-P1500 and Sony BDP-S300 have fallen below the $200 mark at certain stores (RadioShack and Amazon.com, respectively.) This is right in line with previous reports of falling Blu-ray prices, and while the BDP-S300 is pretty old, the BD-P1500 is currently Samsung's most recent Blu-ray player. In many ways, these cuts are more important than the budget players we've seen from Insignia and Memorex, since for many people it's a lot easier to drop $200 on Blu-ray if they know they're getting a "Sony."
EngadgetHD's link to RadioShack is no longer working, and we couldn't find the BD-P1500 on the site by searching--we're guessing they're sold out. But if you can find the BD-P1500 for $200, it's a much better deal than the BDP-S300. When we tested the BDP-S300, we found it painfully slow and it only supports the older Profile 1.0 standard.
The BD-P1500, on the other hand, is currently Profile 1.1-compatible and is upgradeable to Profile 2.0, and considerably faster to use than the BDP-S300. The BD-P1500 is also on deck to get DTS-HD Master Audio decoding in the future, which means you'll be able to get high-resolution soundtracks using most HDMI-equipped AV receivers.
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Samsung's BD-P1500 Blu-ray player dips under $200Sony's BDP-S300 1080p Blu-ray player sinks below $200
