Walmart pushing blu-ray

Agree. Just a matter of time before they come down further in price. I believe people DO want the enhanced picture quality driving their big TV's. Circuit City had an ad for a Phillips Blue Ray for $399 in todays insert. I'm holding out for an Oppo Blue Ray offering; one that will up-convert red-book DVD's as well. That's when I'll pull the trigger. The phone companies and cable companies still don't have their $#@& together, so it will be years before streaming movies in HD fully evolves. I refuse to replace my existing red-book DVD library ( 550+ movies ). Guess I'm too cheap. Hope the BR movie prices fall as well. If they don't, the format may join the El-cassette club.

Blu-ray should be the HD format of choice until HVD matures and comes in to the consumer price range. That will likely be far enough out that Blu-Ray is a worthwhile investment for many people.

Guys,

Blu-ray players have sold for $199 with $100 gift cards in them already. I bought my sixth Blu-ray player the other day from Amazon, a Sony BDP-S350 for $278 shipped, and the player is the best I've had yet. I am an early adopter, I know the price and am willing to pay it. I did with SACD/DVD-A, HD DVD and Blu-ray, and now with a solid winner and a huge step up in both video AND audio, I am still amazed at how many people are waiting!

Waiting for what???? Is 7.1 channels of 24/192 uncompressed audio not good enough for you????

My only caveat might be to heed the words of certain bozos who saw this a year ago with HD-DVD. "Someone" (ahem - you'll probably have to go search the archives...) made some of the almost-same comments last year, only then it was about Walmart's push on HD. Turns out that even their marketing muscle didn't do the trick and the rest was history (just like HD players).

Walmart will push whatever they think will sell and make 'em money. If it's not profitable then they also have no qualms about pulling the plug and moving on - soon. Maybe this will be enough incentive to get the actual out-the-door retail prices ("we don't need no steenkin' rebates!") down to where Joe the Plumber will buy?

There's an article in the current Home Theater mag that gives rave reviews to the Panasonic BD35 and BD55. The review rates the Panny's upconversion of standard dvd's as excellent. Its also a full 2.0 machine with an ethernet connection. I have the Panny 30 and am thinking of jumping to the bd35. Amazon has it for around $250.

Mr hosehead,

I agree, The majority of the "average consumer" market has still not been sold on Blue Ray. Hardware and software prices are still way to high, especially in our current dismal economy. I would say that Mr/Mrs consumer putting down $278 for a dvd player is not realistic, when they can basically get a S DVD player for $40. For many of us this is a hobby so price point is not as reflective as it is to the average joe. Nothing personal, you could ask 500 people and none of them would have bought 2 blu ray players since their debut, let alone SIX!!! Thats a downpayment on a car for many. Again, we here kind of have a different mind set when it comes to these things. Just my opinion...I currently use an Oppo 980. I currently have around 800 dvds, so upconversion my best bang for the buck. For me I just don't see the point of switching until the format wins with the average consumer. With the countrys present situation I think Blu Ray will probably take an even bigger hit unless players drop drastically in price. Believe me I am sold on the difference in picture quality of BR, it is trully amazing.

WalMart up the street has 2 BR players for about 230$+tax. Low end stuff, but serviceable.

Personally, I won't jump in until this settles out more. While I was the first kid on the block to own a CD player...I still have my original Philips/Magnevox FD1000, BR is simply too much and not stable.
The Cheap players are.....cheap....and you still are into it for 400$ for a new / top player.
The solution may be to wait for OPPO. My 981 is perfect.
At that point, I go with NetFlix so I won't own many BR disks.
THAN to top it off, I'll need a BR drive for my confuser and the appropriate software.

With the countrys present situation I think Blu Ray will probably take an even bigger hit unless players drop drastically in price. Believe me I am sold on the difference in picture quality of BR, it is trully amazing.
Zigonht

Not only the price of admission but also for the price of software.I for one will only buy blu-ray,but only when the disc pricing is to my advantage.
Drop the price to DVD levels and the rest will be history...

Wow, what a lot of pre qualifying. The price of admission is under $200 for incredible picture and sound. Add another $800 and you might be able to see a marginal difference between players but who cares it's just HT. If there's a cost hike it would be in outfitting to 7.1. Depending on your existing system, two more speakers and a modern coded HDMI receiver/pre with room correction and of course the two hundred dollar player.

I have a small HT area and the addition of the side speakers and room correction make this little space sound huge.

What I don't understand is how the cost of the BD disk drives the purchase of the player. I own a few films but I almost never watch them again and again. Why would anybody buy and collect this stuff?

Vicdamone,

For me its part of the hobby. I still have over 600 casettes. Do I listen to them all the time, no, but yeah every once in a while I hit the old collection. Cd's the same. So why not DVD's. Get together with the family on a cold Friday night, popcorn and sit back.