Chicago (IL) – Last Friday we reported about average Blu-ray player prices nearing the $200 market. This week we have what we could consider – with some tolerance for marketing messages - the first sub-$100 Blu-ray player – the Insignia NS-BRDVD at Best Buy.

The Insignia device is about as basic as it can get for Blu-ray players, but if you are looking for a cheap Blu-ray player to just play Blu-ray movies, then this is - at least to our knowledge - the cheapest player in the U.S. at this time, if take a coupon book into account.   

The NS-BRDVD is offered for $199.99, but comes with a $100 coupon book for Blu-ray movies. And since you will have to buy Blu-ray movies for this new player anyway, some may actually consider it a useful promotion and accept Best Buy’s message, that this player, in effect, actually costs just $99.99.

Best Buy also dropped the prices on three other Blu-ray players this weekend. The Samsung BD-P2550 now sells for $399.99, the BD-P1500 for $299.99 and the Sony BDP-S350 for $299.99. All Blu-ray players are offered with additional rebates in combination with package deals.

If you don’t prefer these marketing programs and simply look at the basic purchase price of a Blu-ray player, there are plenty of choices in the $200 region – and below. For example, at the time of this writing we found Sony’s BDP-S300 Blu-ray player offered online for as low as $190.