Name brand Blu-ray players break the $200 barrier

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.

Sources:

Samsung's BD-P1500 Blu-ray player dips under $200
Sony's BDP-S300 1080p Blu-ray player sinks below $200

[G-hero47]

Good, now maybe the majority of people will consider buying a blue ray disk player, instead of just the people like us.

[gbelk08]

This definitely is not a game changer for me. Blu-Ray discs are still much too expensive. For people on a budget, it's much more practical to buy DVDs for $8 and get an upconverting player, than drop $200 on a new player and $25 on EVERY disc afterwards.

This may help Blu-Ray players reach a wider audience, but what about Blu-Ray Discs?

[Rick3904]

You wouldn't necessarily need to start spending $25 for every disc from this point forward.
One could always rent BDs, and only buy ones considered special enough to own.

In my mind, it's hard to justify buying ANY movie, be it DVD or BD, since you'll likely only watch it a couple of times, then it just sits on the shelf. This is unlike music, where if it's an album you like, it will get played over and over.

I could see spending $200 on a BD player, as long as it's upgradeable to Profile 2.0.

[titolajko]

I understand that blu-ray is not justified yet for you, but I reccommend you go to your local best buy or circuit city and see a blu-ray movie on a new samsung 120hz tv. it will change the way you wacth movies and you will want to own every movie on blu-ray. Some people think it looks too real, but is there really such a thing. Anyway, check it out.

[bob1xxxx]

Get it under $150.00 and I'll buy a blue ray. BTW I know quite a few places in so cal that sell used blue ray movies for $10.00 so if you dont mind used it not that huge a difference . My issue with blur ray player is their shakey support of conventional dvd my friend got one and about everyother movie he got to update the firmware and his is almost useless for tv season box sets....... So it does seem there true backward support for older dvd's. So you still need a decent dvd player? anyone got experance?

[CitizenJag]

yea, 200 does not yet tell me i have to get blue ray. Get new blue ray movies to debut at 20 bucks, and the blue ray player around 100 bucks. That may take awhile but im not in a huge rush, my upconverting dvd player is doing pretty damn good on my regular dvd collection.

[neile45]

Yeah, I saw the Sony last night at my local Wal Mart for $199, and thought, "darn it, my wife's going to see this, and there's no change in heck that I'm getting that PS3 for Christmas!"

[make_or_break]

As BD players keep dropping in price, pressure on the PS3 is only going to get worse. Convergence used to be THE big deal with the PS3. Then it was convergence AND value. Now that cheap BD players have arrived the value part becomes highly questionable, since great gaming titles exclusive to the PS3 are still to few and far between. You've dropped support for earlier PS2 games among the other decontenting I've read about in the latest machines. It's ugly.

I can only hope that it'll still make it through; I really like my PS3 as a gaming device; as a BD (or DVD) player, it's too noisy for its own good though I do admit it does have a great picture to it. Shame that BD disc prices hardly make me want to actually BUY any of them, unless the flick happens to be one of the weekly specials down at Fry's.

[n0th3r3]

I'm still not convinced Blu Ray is the next big thing. I very rarely find myself watching a movie and thinking "Star Wars is great but I really wish I could display this on a slightly bigger screen without losing resolution." If your screen is under 40 inches you probably won't notice the 1080p . Besides that, $200 bucks for a "budget" player is hardly a bargain. When it drops down to the 100 to 150 range it my have a shot at mainstream success, but right now it's too much for too little. Connoisseurs already have players. People on a budget can't plunk down 200 bucks and start a new movie library of 25 dollar discs when the much, much, cheaper standard definition works fine. Besides that, budget players always break within a year. Buy a PS3 if you absolutely must go blu-ray.

[bob1xxxx]

Look Id get a ps3 blue ray with gaming , but with ps3 lack of backward compatablity with older ps2 titles and a lack of decent new ps3 games its a bad deal. Im hoping xbox 360 comes out with a blue ray external disk player because with it large library of games (60gb and above plays almost every game) its the better deal. but still get the regular blue ray stand alone under 150.00 and I'll buy one

[bob1xxxx]

Look Id get a ps3 blue ray with gaming , but with ps3 lack of backward compatablity with older ps2 titles and a lack of decent new ps3 games its a bad deal. Im hoping xbox 360 comes out with a blue ray external disk player because with it large library of games (60gb and above plays almost every game) its the better deal. but still get the regular blue ray stand alone under 150.00 and I'll buy one

[dirty55409]

I like when thrifties say things like I'll wait for it to come down to 150. There are still progressive scan DVD players that are more than 150. What are you going to wait for Blu Ray discs to be less than 20 bucks too? not gonna happen lol not for years. But hey I'll be enjoying my HD movies... the Godfather trilogy just came out on blu ray today!!!

[sonymaster101]

ur rite, u cant have an hd system and try to be thrifty at the same time. it doesnt work.

[bplewis24]

lol@the amount of idiotic things being said in response to this article.

Brandon

[robertz1200]

I agree with gbelk08...who gives a rats @ss until the discs themselves drop in price. I don't care who makes the player and what the player itself costs until that part has been addressed.

[One-Eared Gundark]

Blu-ray just doesn't have the same impact as DVD had on the VHS market. DVD really caught on not because of a better picture, but because:
1. Durability. No more tapes tangled up in the VCR
2. Easier storage. Less space used on the movie shelf.
3. Random access. No rewinding.
4. Dwindling VHS movie rental availability.

Ignoring the interactive features, Blu-ray brings better picture quality to the game, but that's about it. The vast majority of the public either can't tell the difference in picture quality or don't care. There is no real "must-have" with Blu-ray. Maybe when 42"+ HDTVs are the norm in homes, the public will be ready for the upgrade.

[jsnowbordr47]

Yeah...I didn't by my first standalone dvd player until they were about $129. Before that, all my dvd's were played via my Mac's but since Apple isn't releasing first party Blu-Ray solutions, I'll stick with good old sddvd, I'm actually hoping to be able to skip out on Blu-Ray and continue downloading HD via iTunes and Xbox Marketplace.

[sonymaster101]

well they should be soon enough since they are a member of the blue ray disk association. but in reality, the quality of the itunes and xbl fake hd videos (only 720p for the most part, not 1080p) with cruddy video quality(poor color, bad contrast) and compressed mpeg4 audio. XBL is almost worse, with wmv based video. so, trying to pass that stuff off as hd is almost a slap in the face. the quality in the end is worse than cable. the fact of the matter is, the broadband penetration in the us is so low that most people cant realistically use xbl, PSN, and itunes as their sole source of movies. and the nice thing about having a disc is that i am not going to run out of space on my hard disk by having a lot of movies.

[gapipkin]

The main problem with blu ray is the cost of the disks. I own a ps3 and I rarely purchase BR movies because of the cost. $25-$30 is too much when Walmart has regular DVDs for $12-$15.

[Waam]

I have a PS3 and a Samsung BP1500, and love them. I still have some older titles in SD that I probably will never switch over because of price as all of you have mentioned, but it's a shame if you don't get to watch some of these in blu ray HD, and I don't mean HD on demand from Comcast or any other download.

If you have a 40" + LCD or plasma, why did you even get it if your not going to watch it in HD is the real arguement. For anybody else, don't include yourself in the conversation until you get a big screen.

[ferretboy88]

Once you watch an xxx movie in HD you will want one. lol

[meisme33]

Anyone else who ordered one not seeing any change in status for theirs on the RadioShack site? It continues to says that it located my item in their stock, but nothing about preparing for shipment....

[ez1dog2]

I'm trying to wait and see where the ps3's price will be after the holidays.I'll be ok with my up-converting dvd player until then.

[wmplpi]

www.woot.com sold new Memorex Blu-Ray players for 139.00 this past week