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.

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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.  

big deal

Oct 20, 2008 15:19     

blu-ray is dying.
jason report abuse vote down vote up Votes: -6

Not a bad deal

Oct 20, 2008 15:22     

This isn't that bad of deal for people looking to get into BD for xmas. It's sad a hundy only buys about 3 BD movies.
Action Jackson report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +4

Sales Woo Hoo for Receission

Oct 20, 2008 15:55     

That's nothing, the Sharp BHP-20U is $199.99 at Futureshop, which is pretty much the red Bestbuy. Other sales include $89.99 for a LaCie Hard Disk designed by Neil Poulton 500GB, $24.99 for a BT RocketFish Mouse, Cybershot DSC-W120 for $149.99, and for $19.99 you can get an Epson Sytlus NX200 all-in-on. They must be closing down or something, I've blown over $300 already in 4 days.
webterractive report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

Not buying

Oct 20, 2008 17:07     

I don't care how low they go, I not buying this piece fo junk. I just makes it more affordable to buy one and take it out of the box in front of Best Buy and take a sledge hammer to it and leave it in from of the store.
R Steele report abuse vote down vote up Votes: -11

wah wah wah

Oct 20, 2008 18:18     

first all these hddvd fanboys said blue ray was more expensive, now they just wont buy them out of fanboyism.sure if hddvd won, and prices were exactly the same theyd buy it, but no, just because its blueray. what a bunch of losers. i buy whats more effective, and blueray is the most effective disk format out there now. plenty of storage room for crap on them.
Auri Tau report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

Blu-ray made easy...

Oct 20, 2008 19:52     

Well true that's what you're paying for last seasons technology. I bought a Playstation 3 so I can play some games and watch movies as well. If I get bored with it, it's pretty easy to sell a Playstation 3 than a Blu-ray player.
webterractive report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

Low cost player, high priced media...

Oct 20, 2008 21:31     

With movies as the thing that I would be buying the most of, I would rather have a player at $199, if it supported the full Blu-Ray 2.0 feature set, and the movies at $9.99. The thing about this offer with coupon books, is that they often come with movies that I'd never buy in the first place. So I'd end up with a low end player and several movies that I wasn't happy about. This is not exactly a win-win situation.

9Nails report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

Now that the prices are hitting below $100

Oct 20, 2008 21:48     

Now that the prices are hitting below $100 the players could start selling well. I doubt many people will go out to replace good DVD players, but sub $100 BluRay players are now competitive when replacing dead and dying DVD players. I still say that BluRay's biggest hurtle over the years has been the convoluted marking message; billing the medium as the complete replacement for DVD, while the cost for both the player and HD-tvs were at high-end prices was just insane - few consumers fell for that one. Now that it's just as easy to pick up a HD-tv and BluRay player when getting around to replacing the old units, the format actually has a chance.

hank report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

Blue Ray Rocks!

Oct 20, 2008 22:45     

I have had a Blue Ray player and a 1080P t.v. for some time now and I never want to go to the theater now because Blue Ray is just that much better. It looks SOOO much better then DVD if you have a good T.V. which saldy most are buying 720P T.V.'s
Blue report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

still way overpriced

Oct 20, 2008 22:53     

Naw thanks. A coupon for overpriced movies.... not a deal. Maybe next holiday season they'll be more worth while. Not for sure, but it's defiantly getting skipped this year.
heres mytake report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0