Wal-Mart serves up $98 Blu-ray player

We don't know how long it will last, but several blogs are reporting that Wal-Mart has rolled back the price on the $168 Magnavox NB530MGX to $98 (in-store only). Apparently, on Father's Day weekend, the same player was selling for $128.

Is the Magnavox NB530MGX any good? It's not a profile 2.0 player (so there's no BD-Live support) and it's about as entry-level as you get. But it is a Blu-ray player, so now all you people who said you'd only buy one when it cost less than $100 have to ante up.

OK, I'm kidding. Still, the fact that we're at $98 is meaningful, and I expect we'll see more of these types of deals as we head into the holiday season (and the recession continues), with better models showing up at less than $150.

But more importantly, when will the discs come down in price? That's holding people back from buying Blu-ray players more than the cost of the machine itself, is it not?

As always, feel free to comment.

Additional reading: Top 25 must-have Blu-ray discs, CNET's Best Blu-ray players

(Source: EngadgetHD via Format War Central)

[dannybuj]

That is a pretty awesome deal if you ask me. If only i could scurry up the cash. The darn economy is killin me! I also agree that they have to reduce the price of the discs. I'm sure that it'll happen soon.

[mderby05]

Finally! may the race to the bottom begin! I personally feel that this will stoke the fires for many people who were hesitant to buy an HDTV because of lack of HD source material.... Here's hoping the disks come down, like you said David. w00t!!

[gvortex]

That machine is a real beauty. :P But hey, at least we've finally reached an important milestone as far as player pricing is concerned. That price will definitely appeal to budget minded consumers who don't necessarily care about the brand or feature set.

[macksumum]

sorry but the disc prices will never come down.buying blu ray is like buying a really great cellphone that is really realy cheap,the hardware can be next to nothing in cost but that cheap cost is used to lure you in to spend more on something else,in this case it is the incredible high cost of the movies.

[Shaun822]

I was in Best Buy the other day and was shocked at the number of movies available for $10 - $15 dollars and right in line with their DVD counterparts or only $2 - $3 dollars more. The disc prices are coming down right now in some cases, it needs to be more across the board though. BRD is still being adopted at a faster rate then DVD though for the same point in life cycle comparison.

[nancyeie]

This machine isn't worth five cents when I had the Magnavox BluRay Disc player it maybe played 2 or 3 blurays before it quit playing them.

[ywkhgqo]

its called calling the company to get it replaced, thats what warranties are for.

[uf2005]

yeah some products are just flat out defective. happens to sony, samsung, and lg too...

[paulimusmaximus]

Eh, I'd rather pay $188 for a philips blu ray with bd live. $100 is too much to spend for an out of date player in my opinion.

[joepa]

Have you actually found bd live to be of any interest? It has been a complete waste of time every time I check a disk's bd live links....

[blusky08]

ALL current BR players, DVD players, TVs, recievers, etc., have recently become more outdated than expected. Why? For one thing, because none of them have HDMI 1.4 (which includes an *all new* smaller connector)....That's right, within a year or two your current Blu-ray player/PS3 will have a last generation HDMI port.

[Shaun822]

I have never, NEVER used BD live and never thought it was all that good of an idea. Of course I'm the consumer that would be perfectly happy without the second discs too.

@ blusky08: There will be a new port size, but it is not replacing the current port size. It is called Micro HDMI, and it will be used on portable devices to save space (http://www.hdmi.org/manufacturer/hdmi_1_4/hdmi_1_4_faq.aspx#27). It is also the same 19-pin connector configuration, just smaller, so they will be able to make cables that connect devices with differing port sizes (http://www.hdmi.org/manufacturer/hdmi_1_4/hdmi_1_4_faq.aspx#29).

Also, the new devices that are built to use the HDMI 1.4 spec will still be backward compatible with existing HDMI devices (http://www.hdmi.org/manufacturer/hdmi_1_4/hdmi_1_4_faq.aspx#6), so your older HDMI products will still connect to the new ones, you just won't be able to use some of the new 1.4 features between them, such as HDMI Ethernet Channel.

[Maruuk]

Great article, zero links, no reference to this at the Wal-Mart site, and the latest ad has no reference to this. Some stoned bloggers are babbling about this so it becomes hard news on C-NET???

[vonscoot81]

The player is in fact $98. It is an in-store special only, just as it was when it first came out for Father's Day. This isn't an earth-shattering price change (only $30 from before) so you're not going to see any hoopla made over it on the website. As far as "hard news," I am a Manager for WM; the pricing is accurate.

[Josh BSN]

No, the price of discs is fine. I can get new blu-rays for $15-20 (older ones less than $10), just about any I want. Same price as DVDs, and 1/2 the time I can find the blu ray for less. You just have to look for the good prices! Plus, with blu-rays scratch resistant coating, buy used! No more worrying about scratched discs... unlike DVDs.

[Proud_Geek]

Ever since I started collecting them, over 15 years now, I've never scratched ANY of my DVDs or audio CDs. And I have an active, curious 2-year old daughter.

Are you living with a pack of wild dogs?

[wusupjohn]

Bought it two weeks ago because I don't see the use of BD Live or other pointless features. It works like a basic blu-ray player should and it costs half of what comparable players cost. My only regret is that i bought it before the price dropped.

[HTismything]

get a price adjustment, but hurry up before it goes back up in price

[rpen25]

Blu-ray is gonna be the same as inkjet printers. The printers are REALLY, REALLY cheap, but the ink will cost you an arm and a leg. Same concept. You can play that beautiful, 1080p disc in that dirt cheap player, but the price of movies will negate any savings and will probably end up costing more than regular a regular DVD setup.

[ikjadoon]

Well, I bought that HD-DVD player for Toshiba for $99, but I'm still pretty bummed about HD-DVD. Heck, screw Blu-ray; I'll just download 1080P movies at 2Mbps!

/sarcasm

Impressive. Now, if LG would just drop their prices......Can cNET get a review on this unit? Picture quality, etc.? That'd be highly interesting. :)

~Ibrahim~

[robertorosco]

2Mbps?!? Ha!!! I get 23Mbps ;)

[killa08]

....or you can buy a PS3 and just call it a day = }

[make_or_break]

I bought a PS3 and it turns out that we rarely use it for movie watching. Seems that the gaming aspect of the thing keeps hogging all of its up time.

Not sure how long a cheapo BD machine will last in actual use, but at least the price point has been reached.

[robertorosco]

My cousin says that his ps3 heats up to quickly and the fan does get noisy. So yeah ps3 isn't the top choice it once was.

[spencermustbeking]

I agree, this is a great deal for those who want the blu-ray experience, but don't like shelling out the money for a new dvd player when they have a, say, xbox. I simply hope that this blu-ray player actually has the minimum standard of quality (of video) that other mainstream players have. I'd love to have one, so I can see Hermione and Dumbledore much more clearly! Ha. ahem..I mean....

[breadfan451]

I bought one of these after a visit to wally world for some shaving gel, after a trip to the electronic depo for a quick run through the xbox 360 games i noticed a 98$ blu ray player. Well i had to get it, along with International. Since i had to go to ITT Tech the next morning it just sat in my room. On my way home i got Band of Brothers and a few others and made my way home. On my plasma it says 1080p, looks great. on my surround, its connected with an optical cable and im getting 5.1. Also it has a sd card reader on the front. For the price this little guy is well worth it. Just buy one, hell for the price buy two. Im going back next week and getting one for my sister.

[alldaelong6]

The average price of new releases on blu ray is insane, I own two PS3s, but I rarely buy movies unless they are must haves; I usually just head to hollywood video and rent a blu ray if someone hasn't already rented the ONE copy they have, or lately just watch it on demand on directv @ 1080p or so they claim

[MrMurder]

Who needs BD Live?!!? I just want to watch movies and play games on the disc. Sometimes I just don't understand why companies try to make products overwhelming. And I'm surprised it only took three years for a Blu-ray Disc player to descend to a price point below $100. It probably took DVD over five years to go below $100.

[jcmark42]

If I were to buy this (and I don't plan on it anytime soon) it would be great for a guest room. I wouldn't want this in my main viewing area. I've seen other low budget BD players and the load times are too slow compared to my PS3. If this was around a few months ago, I would have bought it for our guest room, but the upconverting Sony DVD player I got brand new for $42 was hard to pass up.

[traderofkind]

Come to Blockbuster. Previously viewed Blu Ray discs are 2 for $25!!!!!!!

[ikcizokm]

Has David actually checked the price of Blu-ray media lately? New releases are $19 @ Walmart, Best Buy, etc. compared to $14 for the DVD (not to mention some Blu's come with a DVD or a digital copy--a great bonus). As an early adopter, I have over 350 Blu-ray movies and have yet to pay over $25 for any movie (with the exception of compilations like the Die Hard Collection or Band of Brothers).

[ikramerica--2008]

You've paid $5000-$7000 for Blu-rays.

[rllaw]

"The price of the discs..." I agree that the costs of new movies might turn me off from rebuilding my movie library in BluRay any time soon. But with the players creeping lower in cost, I'm all over one the next time my DVD player craps out. Probably not a rock-bottom player like the Magnavox in the story, but rather one with BD 2.0 and the ability to stream Netflix or a competitor. Even without actually owning a BR library, for $100-150 a BR player that streams makes one heck of a deal on an upconverting DVD player.

[bplewis24]

Saying the disc prices are holding people back is misleading. While I typically spent $20-25 in 2007 for discs and between $15-20 in 2008, in 2009 I'm routinely spending about $10-15 for blu-rays.

And keep in mind these aren't bargain bin, non-anamorphic full-screen versions like you had with DVDs, where the "widescreen" edition costs more. In fact, just last week at Best Buy, there were some DVD versions of movies that were more expensive than the Blu-ray versions. This Holiday season will be even better.

Brandon