Wal-Mart to sell $300 Blu-ray players

Profile 1.1 hardware from Funai

19 May 2008 9:45 GMT / By Amy-Mae Elliott

American retail giant Wal-Mart is to start selling Blu-ray players for under $300.

Marking the cheapest starting price point yet for players in the format, even cheaper than the PS3 which sells for $399 in the States, the hardware on offer will be a Funai player rebadged for Wal-Mart under the "Magnavox" brand.

The Magnavox NB500MG9 will be Profile 1.1 with picture-in-picture functionality and should go on sale throughout the chain by 26 May.

This same player also will be sold at Best Buy under the chain’s in-house Insignia brand in July, but the for higher price tag of around $350.

This is expected to give the next-gen disc format a shot in the arm as far as retail sales go - despite Blu-ray winning the format war following the demise of HD DVD, consumers are still slow to adopt the expensive format, especially in the light of the recent economic downturn.



Comments

  • people...do NOT buy any blu-ray player at any price that isn't at profile 2.0 unless the player has a way to update its firmware as new profiles are released. the one thing that HD DVD did right was it released a finished spec and players that could be updated as new versions were released. every early adopter of stand alone blu-ray players are stuck with an unfinished spec that was rushed out the door to compete with HD DVD. these $800+ players could not be updated and those guys are stuck with these players and have to buy another one if they want the latest blu-ray profile. don't be a sucker...this isn't even THAT low of a price. Posted by tile, US
  • I believe the shot in the arm will be the profile 2.0 at $100.00 as it was last season for HD DVD. I'll try to make that prediction now...

    Christmas 2010.

    Posted by Phil S., US
  • I bought a PS3 (80Gb) in Feb 08. Why?
    It's a game machine with more potential processing speed that X-Box or Wii.
    Its Blu-Ray players firmware is upgradeable to 2.0 and further thru the internet.

    All for $500 CDN. Why would I spend $500 on just a player?
    Posted by P.T., Canada

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