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Critics of Blu-ray often talk about how expensive the discs are, but in recent weeks, a growing number of Blu-ray movies have become more affordable, with several dipping below the $15 price point and some even slipping in at $9.99 on Amazon.

Cheap is popular these days and, not surprisingly, a lot of these bargain-price titles end up on the bestsellers list on Amazon. But when it comes to owning discs, most people have become pretty discerning, and don't just buy anything because it's cheap. With that in mind, we've culled down the list of bargain titles and selected 15 we think are worth owning.

As always, it's important to mention that taste is subjective, and if you don't like our picks, call us out and make your own suggestions in the comments section. If you're persuasive enough, we'll edit the list and swap in new titles. And as new budget Blu-rays come out, we'll also update the list. (Note: The discs on the list all were priced at less than $15 on Amazon at the time of this writing. Naturally, those prices are subject to change.)

For reference, here are the discs we considered but ultimately didn't include this round: "Bullitt," "Unforgiven," "Beetlejuice," "V for Vendetta," "Swordfish," "A Clockwork Orange," "I am Legend," "Fugitive," "The Road Warrior," "The Dirty Dozen," "Enter the Dragon," "Risky Business," "Dirty Dancing," "The New World," "Top Gun," and "Being There."

Click on any image to view the movies we did pick.

Watch this: 15 Blu-ray movies for less than $15

Related coverage:

• Top 30 must-have Blu-ray Discs
• Top 40 movies not out on Blu-ray
• The decade's 25 biggest tech flops

Ever since standalone Blu-ray players hit the market, there's been a great deal of anticipation for an Oppo Blu-ray player, mainly because of the company's reputation for making excellent upconverting DVD players. Oppo held out for quite some time, and in retrospect it was a smart move; almost all the early Blu-ray players were plagued with usability problems and hardware limitations. After a long beta-testing period, the Oppo BDP-83 is finally here and it lives up to the hype. The player feels fast and reliable, and has outstanding image quality on Blu-rays and DVDs. It's a true universal disc player, handling both DVD-Audio and SACD discs in addition to Blu-ray Discs, CDs, and DVDs. (Sorry, HD DVD fans--that dead format isn't supported.)

On the other hand, the Oppo BDP-83 really isn't for everyone. It lacks Wi-Fi and, more importantly, streaming media features such as Netflix and Pandora that are available on cheaper Blu-ray players from Samsung and LG.

At a $500 list price, it's also very expensive compared with the Sony PS3 Slim ($300), which also offers excellent Blu-ray playback--and can play high-definition video games, stream media, and browse the Web.

If you're not a home theater enthusiast with a sizable budget, you'll get more value from a PS3 Slim or LG BD390. However, if you are a dedicated, well-heeled home theater fan, the BDP-83 is a nearly perfect way to get the most out of your disc-based media.

Read the full Oppo BDP-83 review

Oppo BDP-83 photos

With Justin's return from his sojourn into the great outdoors, The 404 crew is complete again to bring you another awesome show, replete with "GI Joe" and "District 9" reviews, optical gaming, and a surprise appearance by Motherboard!

Street Fighter style!

(Credit: Justin Yu/The 404)

After getting mauled by a bear in Yosemite (where's the app for THAT?), I'm back, and much to Jeff, Wilson, and everyone else's dismay SO ARE THE GLASSES! That's right suckers, a little Krazy Glue goes a long way, but I'm not sure how long these things will last, so please continue to e-mail us submissions for the contest to choose my next frames. I'm not gonna lie, I've missed the show dearly and it's great to be back!

The first half of today's show has a lot of movie talk, starting with us talking all sorts of garbage on the new "G.I. Joe" movie. The movie won't be prescreened to critics, and we suspect it has something to do with the trailer receiving so much backlash from justifiably angry fans of the original television series. Jeff also gives us his take on the trailer for "District 9", the new science fiction movie based on the short film Alive in Joburg. Go check that out and let "G.I. Joe" go the way of the buffalo!

The second half just gets nuts, that's all I'll say. OK, well, without giving too much away, it all starts with the Get It Guy, a fake Australian accent, and a very steamy call from SadaCori in the chatroom (a must listen!), but then we get a surprise knock from Motherboard herself, who has something very special to show us...something that NOBODY HAS SEEN BEFORE, so be sure to check out the video for all the details. After that, we dredge up a claim about racism in Resident Evil 5 and it all devolves from there. Trust us, it's the last time you'll hear about it!

As always, feel free to leave us a voicemail at 1-866-404-CNET or get in touch with us on Twitter or at the404[at]cnet[dot]com!

Last month, GE revealed that its research scientists had discovered a way, using holographic technology, to store 100 DVDs worth of information on a single standard DVD. What a difference a few weeks make.

In what can only be seen as a "serving" (or pwning) of the GE researchers, the B-Boys researchers at the Swinburne University of Technology in Melbourne, Australia, have gone way past 100 and on to 2,000.

While standard DVDs are made with three spatial dimensions, the Aussie researchers added two more.

Using nanoparticles--extremely small bits of matter--the Swinburne team was able to introduce a spectral (or color) dimension and a polarization dimension.

To create the "color dimension," the researchers inserted gold nanorods onto a disc's surface. Because nanoparticles react to light according to their shape, this allowed the researchers to record information in a range of different color wavelengths on the same physical disc location. Their findings appear in the current issue of the scientific journal Nature.

Current DVDs are recorded in a single color wavelength using a laser. Brain explode yet? No? Well just keep reading, pal.

Sony got it right with the CD.

(Credit: Steve Guttenberg)

Betamax was one of Sony's biggest blunders.

The videocassette format was introduced in 1975, and initially sold well. But when JVC's VHS tape cartridge was introduced in 1978, Betamax quickly lost its lead. The media loved Beta for its superior picture quality, but Standard Betamax tapes were only 60 minutes, and VHS 3-hour tapes could record more TV shows.

VHS was more popular, but Betamax refused to die. Production in the U.S. ended in 1993, and the last Betamax machine in the world was produced in Japan in 2002.

Ah, but the Compact Disc was a hit from the get-go. On August 31, 1982, an announcement was made in Tokyo that four companies, Sony, CBS/Sony, Philips, and Polygram had jointly developed the world's first CD system. Talk of the CD's demise are premature, sales are still in the hundreds of millions of discs a year.

The MiniDisc was introduced January 12, 1992. The recordable music format was originally based exclusively on ATRAC audio data compression, but the format never caught on in the U.S. MiniDiscs were popular in Japan and Asia as a digital upgrade from cassette tapes.

Which reminds me, Sony's ill-fated Elcaset came out in 1976. Like Betamax, Sony was trying to make a higher quality tape format, in this case better than the Philips Compact Cassette. Elcaset was better, but it was too large and cumbersome. Elcaset was a flop.

Daylight-saving time really messes with the guys of The 404. Today, we realize how old we are when compacts discs are 30 years old. Obviously, teens prefer MP3s over CDs; audiophiles die a little. Another teen creates Muziic, a program that lets you build a music library from YouTube. And finally, Walgreens starts to sell sex toys.

In case you were born in the 90s. God, we're old.

(Credit: Wikipedia)

With music, pictures and now your documents living online, it's not going to be long before your pr0n collection moves there. Justin feels pretty compelled to write guidelines on how to do this. As a matter of fact, he's become quite the expert on how to do it in your \System32\ folder on your Windows partitioned, disguised as a temporary cache.

Congratulations to Elizabeth for winning a copy of House of the Dead: Overlord for the Nintendo Wii. Right now, "The Nerdy Dirty" is leading our contest for a 404 motto, but we're waiting to see what our community comes up with the phrase "Not found." As always, call in at 1-866-404-CNET (2638). Or send us an e-mail at the404 [at] cnet [dot] com. We've got more giveaways coming up--I know, it sounds like we're bribing you, but you gotta do what you gotta do to get those listeners.

Companies that wish to make Blu-ray devices will very soon have a less expensive and simpler licensing process, according to a joint announcement Wednesday from Sony, Philips, and Panasonic.

A new license will be established by mid-2009 as a "one-stop shop" for device makers. The license will include all necessary Blu-ray, DVD, and CD patents for selling Blu-ray players. The licensing program will be handled by a new licensing company to be led by Gerald Rosenthal, former head of intellectual property at IBM. It will be based in the U.S., but will have local branches in Asia, Europe, and Latin America.

Instead of having to approach Blu-ray, DVD, and CD holders individually and paying them separate royalties, the single license should cut down the total cost of royalty payments by 40 percent, according to Sony.

The fees for the new licenses will be $9.50 for a Blu-ray player, and $14 for a Blu-ray recorder. Making Blu-ray Disc will cost 11 cents for read-only, 12 cents for recordable discs, and 15 cents for rewritable discs.

The idea for a one-stop shop for Blu-ray has been floating around since a 2007 meeting of the 18 companies that hold Blu-ray patents. Licensing fees can be extremely lucrative for disc format patent holders: several years ago license fees for making a DVD player cost between $15 and $20.

This one-stop shop will help avoid the headache DVD licenses created. To make a DVD player or disc, manufacturers have had to ink deals with three separate organizations that represented various patent holders. There is DVD 6c (Hitachi, Panasonic, JVC, and six others); DVD 3c (Philips, Sony, Pioneer); and MPEG LA (representing encoders and decoders).

Former CNET News editor Michael Kanellos contributed to this report.

It turns out the blogosphere was correct. At its GSMA World Congress press conference on Monday, Samsung took the wraps off the Ultra Touch, the Omnia HD, the Beat DJ, and the Beat Disc. The four phones offer touch displays with a big multimedia focus. Check out the slide show for full specs and glamour shots and another peek at the Samsung Touch Blue.

Samsung phones at GSMA photos

Say goodbye to the Pioneer hybrid cassette tape-equipped DVK-900.

(Credit: Pioneer)

Anyone still own one of these mammoth Laser Disc (LD) players and oversized optical discs at home? (Psst: I do.) Well, it's finally time to say goodbye as Pioneer--the last major electronics manufacturer to continue making LD players--has recently cut the lifeline of this antique video format.

According to Akihabara News, the company is halting production of all LD players. Victims include the versatile LD/DVD/VCD/CD DVL-919, the hybrid cassette tape-equipped DVK-900, and karaoke-oriented DVL-K88.

On a separate note, the manufacturers are not making disc players like they used to nowadays. Mine is still in pretty good working condition after more than 10 years of use. You just need to open it up once in a while to clean the laser lens to keep it going.

(Via Crave Asia)