[Posted May 28th 2008 5:42AM]

"First of all Jimmy you comparing Magnavox and Onkyo is absoutely retarded. There's a HUGE difference in quality."

So you're saying the Onkyo might have a "huge difference in quality" yet you wonder why it costs more?

"Second, Magnavox is probably something that was agreed on with Walmart and is most likely licensed on a larger scale with lower fees because when you manufacture 10,000 players and 1,000 players licensing has a different effect imbecile."

"Probably?" Don't you know? Funai is an OEM that makes players under a raft of brand names - Sylvania, Magnavox, Insignia, Emerson. They even make branded equipment for the likes of Philips, Hitachi and so on. Indeed their new Blu Ray player has been described by those who have inspected its internals as a cut-down Philips BDP7200. Funai also make the BDP7200 so this is not surprising. Magnavox is not a store brand even if it is predominantly sold in places like Walmart.

Even if we assume your stupid argument were correct for a moment and that Funai got a bulk discount. Well clearly they anticipate selling a lot of players don't they? Implicit to your ludicrous claim is the admission that Funai thinks it will sell a lot of players.

"Don't you find it strange that most other brand name Blu-Ray players at 1.1 and above are $700+? And only Sony and Panasonic 2 major BDA license holders have cheaper players even those are $400,$500,$700. Even that new Chinese Blu-Ray player is what $900."

No I don't find it strange at all. But then again, I don't have my head up my ass. New technologies always target the early adopter first which means that the ratio of "set top box" style players to Home Cinema / AV rack style players is lower than it would be in a mature market. Even so, prices for 1.1 profile players are quite affordable. It would be easy to walk into a store like Walmart and buy a profile 1.1 or 2.0 player for much less than $700 - a PS3, or a Samsung BDP1500, or a Funai, or a Philips BDP7200 or in few months a bunch of other players from Sony and others which will all retail in the $250-550 range.

As for the new Chinese player is not $900. It obviously won't cost $900 or anywhere close, and only a cretin and/or someone deliberately lying would make that inference from what the company boss actually said.

"The only 2 players we've seen so far that will be in $300 range are that ridiculous Magnavox and possibly older Samsung at discount or new model that's coming out at $350 but Samsung has been making Blu-Ray players from the start so it seems that they managed to make a good deal while the war was in effect and have already broke a little economies of scale because they were the most sold Blu-Ray standalones anyways."

Why is the Magnavox ridiculous? Accounts from people who have actually purchased and used it have been very favourable. Which is to be expected seeing as Funai are an OEM for many manufacturers with several BD players already under their belt. They know what they are doing and the new player appears perfectly suited for people who want to rig a player up to an HDTV and don't have an expensive AV setup.

Yet you bitch about price and then you bitch something else when a cheap consumer player appears.

Your rationalizations about Samsung making a "good deal" are equally absurd. It's clear that the likes of Funai, Samsung, Philips are pursuing the consumer market while the likes of Onkyo, Pioneer, Marantz, Denon are pursuing the AV crowd with the rest somewhere in the middle.

No conspiracy theories are required to figure out why there might be a price differential between a Magnavox and Onkyo player. Different companies, different features, different target audience, different retail model, different business model, different volumes, different everything. Only fools like yourself seem perplexed which is not surprising.