Ah, ha! So
that's why the Insignia
NS-BRDVD recently
stooped below $200. Out of absolutely nowhere comes the successor to the previously mentioned unit, the Profile 2.0 NS-2BRDVD. According to
Blu-ray, the newest unit actually does have an Ethernet jack, although you wouldn't know it simply by looking at the specifications on Best Buy's website. At any rate, the new deck checks in a few inches smaller and a few pounds lighter than the old, while still supporting 1080p playback and boasting optical / coaxial audio outputs, a single HDMI socket and a bundled remote. Unfortunately, the NS-2BRDVD trashes the Media Card slot and Energy Star qualification that the previous model possessed, so not everything is actually a step up. Those too impatient to see what
Black Friday will bring can expect delivery in one to two weeks (unless you drive to a store) if you plunk down $249.99 right now.
[Via
Blu-ray, thanks Anthony]
posted Oct 30th 2008 8:08AM
The only problem that I see with this is that if Sony BD 350 model is going for $200 or even $250 this Black Friday why in the world would anyone buy this player?
It is obvious that these guys have cut certain things from the player in order to maintain the price and unless this player is being sold for $150 I don't see it competing with Samsung's or Sony's players.
It seems that now BDA is killing Chinese player manufacturers by undercutting them with prices not to mention the fact that these guys actually pay licensing. I just wonder how the whole spin will be made to actually try to hide this fact.
$250 for Insignia player that has cut features from previous model and kept pretty much the same price is showing true state of Blu-Ray hardware manufacturers IMO.
Funai is Japanese not Chinese although they have Chinese facilities. And Best Buy is selling neither Sony nor Samsung models for less than $250. e.g. the S350 is listed at $299 on the site. If other places are selling players cheaper I guess they're going to make a lot more sales than Best Buy will.
I posted about this way back in the last thread about the lower blu-ray model. Engadget is slow. LOok at the unit and the remote, it screams Samsung bdp1500.
Mark: "And Best Buy is selling neither Sony nor Samsung models for less than $250."
Who the F cares what Best Buy is and is not doing. I am sure everyone isn't fastened to Bad Buy, and will happily buy the competition from Amazon for $210-250 and get free movies to boot.
As an employee of Best Buy, I can tell you that the player should be at your local Best Buy. My store has had a big stack of like 30 of them for the past week and a half.
Still too expensive for mass adoption. And is anyone else worried about playback quality (though it will be less important with 1080 content on a 1080p TV, or should I say, harder to screw up).
Marshall
That's just the current MSRP. These things will be down to $150-$200 by the end of the year, I should think. That's solidly in the same price range as a very good upscaling DVD player, and these players do a pretty reasonable job of upscaling DVDs (Uniphier chipset).
I suspect we'll see $100 BR-D players by mid-2009. Good for you, Funai!
Bumper sticker on my car...
"Friends don't let friends buy Insignia"
Is it just me, or does this player look like a re-branded Samsung BD-P1500? If that's the case, why wouldnt you buy the actual Sammy player over at Amazon for $207 w/ free shipping? Maybe they are releasing this player now so they can sell it for $129 on Black Friday? Cause honestly, that is about the most I would pay for this thing.
I am a best buy employee as well and we put it on display the other day and it looks just like the sammy and the remote is identicle to the sammy it just says insignia instead.
Insignia often rebrands Samsung products, its a pretty well known fact.
ummmmmmmmm
I smell a Black Friday $150 Player.........
either that or shit.......
hell who knows.....could be both
Today Amazon is offering the Samsung BD-P1500 + 4 Warner Blu-ray films for $177. This is the best price I've seen on this unit & the free movies are a bonus.
http://www.techdealdigger.com/deals/samsung-bd-p1500-177-at-amazon/4772
Amazon is offering a Samsung BD-P1500 + 4 Warner Blu-ray films for $177? Wow, that shows how much Amazon is struggling to sell Blu-Ray.
I almost wanna buy one to bust it open and see who really made this player. Because it does look very similar to the samsung player, and most insignia is either poorly designed cheap crap, or rebranded stuff from other manufacturers. I can tell you though that the previous model the one they are getting rid of was absolute rubbish, we had many returns on the unit, and even more complaints about slow(slower then most blu-ray players) load times, ect.
About 200$ too expensive. A nice BR price is today's dvd players price: 50-100$.
If I have to wait another 5 years just like I did for my dvd player to drop to that price, so be it.
Don't worry, you won't have to wait 5 years for Blu-Ray players to drop to 50-100$. I'm guessing the players will drop to that level by late 2010.
A "Very Good" upscaling dvd player does not cost $150-$200. Try 1K-2K. The Samsung BDP2550 is decent (for a BDP)at $350, because of its HQV Reon-VX chip. Cheap ($150-$200) upscaling DVD players use averaging and poor chipsets. The Uniphier (Panasonic) chipset is well known as a poor chip for processing of SD content. HQV Reon and Realtea Chips are dominating the market (with the exception of Oppo Players). Even better AVR use HQV chips. You're gonna have to let go of more than the change that's found in your couch to get a hold of those AVRs. Cheap home theater gets cheap performance deal with it.
insignia sucks
The Circuit Citys that are being shut down are offering the Sony BD-550 for $314.00 and the BD-350 for $269.00.
We bought one and it's fantastic. In fact, if you check the most recent Consumer Reports.org, it's rated second only to Denon and Sony/Sammy are WAY down at the bottom of the list.
So, spend your $300 on a name and enjoy your lesser quality.
I find it amusing that you mentioned Consumer Reports. You do realize that the model that was ranked #3 is the older model (NS-BRDVD) that Steven mentioned above "was absolute rubbish, we had many returns on the unit, and even more complaints about slow(slower then most blu-ray players) load times, ect." And the Insignia, Sylvania and Magnavox models are practically clones of each other, all made by Funai (look carefully at the photos of the units, especially the remotes - same button layouts and the card reader is in the exact same spot). Admittedly, most reviews of these units are fairly positive.
If the new unit (NS-2BRDVD - note the "2" in the model number) is OEM'd by Samsung, and that's the one you bought, then you may have got a great deal. I almost decided to pick one up myself last week, but I hate the Samsung remote design.
When I try to play Mama Mia the audio drops out mid song and comes and goes. I'm wondering if this is just an issue with this specific one or if it's a systemic issue with all of this model ns-2brdvd?