Memorex MVBD-2510 Blu-ray player hits $139.99 (but not for long)
By Darren Murph 
posted Nov 17th 2008 1:24AM
posted Nov 17th 2008 1:24AM
[Thanks, Jamil]
posted Nov 17th 2008 1:24AM
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See, this is what gets me about blu-ray. Everyone talks about players reaching a PRICE threshold. I think you are always forgetting to mention the QUANTITY threshold. I wouldn't care about buying a blu-ray player at $50 or $250. What matters to me is the fact that there are only 500+ titles out there!
Let's get real. Assuming you had access to rent all 500+ titles (Netflix, etc) there are always invariably going to be titles/generes you don't want to see. So I mean, why would I go to buy a player when the selection sucks? I find tons of movies on HD television, and the only premium one I get is HBO. And even then, most of the blu-ray coming out are movies that were recently out, so I've seen them anyway.
I say, once you start lookingat blu-ray with 5,000+ titles, including TV shows and older movies (80s and before) that I wouldn't mind revisiting for the HD quality, then let me know (and I'm sure players will be even cheaper then, lol).
This is a stupid argument. We'd still all be on wax cylinders if our criteria for buying into a new format was that it had as many titles as what it's replacing. New formats always start from 0 titles and increase from there. At some point they either flop or they supplant the old format. DVD was no different. Neither was VHS, compact disks, audio cassettes, LPs, 78s etc.
What matters is that the price, features and selection of titles is sufficient to attract new owners. Each group has different criteria for buying into a format. Early adopters have a lower buy-in threshold than the early tech savvy mainstream, which has a lower threshold than the conservative mainstream, which has a lower threshold than the stragglers. With Blu up to 1000 titles and more affordable players its appeals is going to be greater than was last year. It'll probably take years to surpass DVD but it's fairly likely that it will when players also happen to be backwards compatible.
It takes a bit more brains to see that the titles are a lot more not to mention that they will get even more after a few weeks.
Get a life (or go shoot yourself) ;P
Curious, how many titles were there available when you bought your first DVD player? According to this report there will be about 1,000 at Xmas.
http://www.kansascity.com/entertainment/story/892749.html
BTW, it has never really been the shear number of titles available to get me to adopt a new platform, or even an alternative platform. Its about the number is titles, as a threshold, that I am interested in that determines it.
I look at the this from the perspective of the cost of the player divided by the number of titles I am interested in that are available and that must equate to a dollar value below what I am willing to invest for high definition viewing.
For instance, let's say the player costs $150 and there are 20 titles I am interested in that are available. Using Amazon as a best-price (for me) I can think I'd pay about $20/title. The added cost of the $150 player is $7.50/title. Is $27.50/title worth it to me?
Luckly for me the number of titles I own thus far and those I am interested in are substantially more. But, YMMV.
I can't find a single independent review, good or bad.
Why would anyone drop $140 - $270 (depending on promotion/offer) on a total unknown?
"it'll still handle the 1080p basics" - yeah, maybe it does, but the question remains, how well or how badly?
Its a solid player for low-mid budget people. Everyone should have a chance to see gorgeous Blu-ray. I would get this since it has everything you would need - watch movies.
No Dave.
If I was looking at buying this thing I would want a couple of proper independent reviews and not the ridiculous & obvious cheering-on of a blind fanboy who obviously has no idea about this unit, thanks.
(that's if I didn't already have a high quality Blu-ray player)
so, youre saying unless one can google up some internet reviews on a product, they shouldnt make a purchase?
I'm saying that if you can't look up several respected independent reviews on a product you are buying completely blind and shouldn't be surprised if you then end up ripped off & with an over-priced, low quality & useless POS.
Personally I look for several professional reviews and as many owner reviews as I can.
I think you've got to be a bit of a sucker to make any serious purchase without being as fully informed as possible.
(but you know what they say about one born every.....too many sellers depend on that to make their living but I do my best & try not to play that stupid game)
Is this another EHD "price exclusive" on a discontinued model? The fact this unit is Profile 1.1 suggests to me that this is a model Memorex/Woot are clearing out and no longer making, rather than a price drop to increase interest. Amazon have dropped the price to a hair under $180. It doesn't appear that the MSRP of the unit has changed, just that retailers are desperately getting rid of it.
We're still waiting for the Apex BD player. By that I don't mean for Apex to make one (I have no idea of whether they do or not), just for a player that is announced from the beginning as a sub-$200 player that has all the features you'd want, just as Apex's AD600 was back in '99.
It's difficult to get excited by something that's been made for a while now that's suddenly had a massive price drop and appears to be obsolete.
In the meantime, I suspect it'll continue to be an uphill struggle pointing out that the low end is still around the $250 mark for a new, non-discontinued, not on special or factory clearance, player.
Sweet!! For most of us, sure this would be an insult, but to my future in-laws it's not, and I'll look like a BAD ASS for giving them this POS....they'll never know the difference. ;) Plus it's not a profile 2.0 so on the bright side I won't get a call every time they rent a new movie with features that they have no idea on how to use!!
Seems to me Bluray is just as far or farther along than DVD was a couple years into the format and prices are dropping just as fast or faster than DVD players did. So people should stop with the doom & gloom editorials.
There's no reason why Bluray shouldn't have great success. It has great potential for HD video and next Hi-Rez Audio too . It probably will succeed. Downloads aren't somehow going to make every other format obsolete because they have their own set of problems.
Prices are dropping FAST lately, one would assume it's because of low sales!!! Even at this low price, I still don't want it.
Almost at the $100 mark, but it is only profile 1.1 player. I wonder how long it will be until new blu-ray discs require profile 2.0 players, just to play the movie.