Whether you want one for a cheap Father's Day gift,
player for a second room, or just a low barrier to entry for
Blu-ray ownership we certainly won't judge, and we suspect more than a few will be tempted by Meijer's offer of a $99 Curtis Mathes branded CMMBX130 Blu-ray player. Add on coupon code DOTMJR09 for free shipping, and its easy to over look its lack of surround sound analog outputs or Profile 2.0 support for the cheapest new Blu-ray player we've ever seen. Inside is the same Broadcom 7440 chipset that powered much higher priced players from Samsung and others
in the past, so while the absolute latest in energy efficient,
fast loading, BD-Live connected goodies may escape you, we figure that extra Benjamin or two in your pocket will be more than enough to compensate.
Update: Looks like it's sold out now, sorry folks!
[Via
Dealnews]
posted June 19th 2009 11:04AM
At under $100, I'll finally buy into Blu-ray.
The only thing of concern is PQ. If it's good then I say go for it.
I agree. But then again, If you are the type to only buy a $100 Blu-ray player, then chances are you bought a cheap HDTV.
If watching a DVD, I'm sure you're going to take a massive PQ hit over the good upconverters. If you're watching bluray, then you're getting a 1080p uncompressed video with bitstream or LPCM soud. Digital is digtal. Do you notice a difference on your computer swapping one brand of DVD drive for another? No, because it's just a digital transport.
t3yf5g,
you took the words right out of my mouth. plus, i've had a chance to play with some cheap players like the sylvania nb500 and honestly, they looked as good as the sony, samsung, and panasonic players from last year (with modest load times!). it dropped the ball on DVD playback though...
Blu-ray video is still compressed, be it MPEG-2, AVC, VC-1 or any variant of those.
This is perfect for a bedroom player. I think i'm definitely going to pick one of these up for that.
Cheap HDTVs don't always mean they're junk. I wish people would stop saying this. Sure, house brands usually are, but there are a few brands out there that are cheap and still very good. Of course if you get a Samsung and Sony you'll get a few more extras and a better remote.
I have a Vizio 1080p TV upstairs as a secondary TV for games and it's picture quality is nearly as good as my $3000 Sony. If my Sony dies i'm going to think twice about forking over another 3 grand.
Pretty much every single company selling TVs now has a "cheap" model anyway.
I think it's worth spending extra money for a blu-ray player though. I'd have my doubts if this player is any good. Hopefully they at least supply firmware updates.
he didnt say cheap tvs were junk. he's saying a cheap tv will even nerf the quality of this entry level bluray player, and its owners will be too happy to notice cuz they saved $150.
The most critical deficiencies of a poor quality television (color gamut and black levels) are independent of the player, and likewise, the most noticeable deficiencies of a poor quality player (e.g. load times) are independent of the television. Only a few relatively minor features of a higher end player (e.g. 24fps support) might be "nerfed" by a "cheap" HDTV.
I just bought a $128 Magnavox player this week from Wal-mart that had 24fps support. It flew off the shelves so fast that I had to track one down 30 miles away the day after it was advertised and 2 days later it disappeared from the website.
did anyone else read the reviews at the linked site (meijer.com)? kinda bizarre!
I agree with all above. Lots and lots of HDTV owners out there have not entered the world of blu-ray for any number of reasons. The two most often mentioned is the cost of players and the cost of movies (available from Netflix). This player is only a good deal if the PQ is rated at least good by BLU-RAY standards. I would guess that it's up converting abilities are marginal so unless reviews show otherwise it should only be counted on for actual blu-ray watching, unless you are replacing a current non up converting player. I still want to see a couple of professional reviews regarding PQ before I blanket recommend any player, especially one for under $100. I would rather see people remain blu-rayless than to be disappointed with their first blu-ray experience.
Some of you guys are funny.. Champagne taste with beer budgets. Over the past several months some people have been complaining about the price of Bluray players and would buy if it was under $200.00 or less. Here you are.. a $99 player and people are concerned about video quality?? What are you expecting for $99 anyway?
I'd be more concerned about QA, ongoing support, firmware updates etc than video quality. If its using a broadcom chipset, it's video quality is probably going to be comparable with other more well known players that also use them.
Do not insult Beer, sir. A bunch of pansies crunching grapes is a lot wussier than a MAN turning grain into alcohol.
In any case, I absolutely agree with you. You can't be picky with a player that cheap. Besides, digital is digital. PQ will be just as good with a shitty player as with a great one. Load times, problems getting over minor scratches, feature list and longevity... that's a different story
Does anyone know if this thing can bitstream DTS-HD or TrueHD? I didn't see that on the product page.
It's not quite as simple as you're making it out to be...
Yes, lots of people are saying "we want it under $xxx before we buy one". That doesn't mean they want someone to roll out a poorly constructed, low-quality, and feature-barren model just to fit their budgetary needs. It means they want to current, higher quality technology to lower in price. It's not unreasonable, and inevitably, it will happen. It's just a slower moving process than some might prefer.
Sold Out as of 2:20PM
All the "wake me up when players are $100" commenters will have find another arbitrary excuse for hating on the format.
"wake me up when players are $100"
Ok, Ok. I got one :P. "Wake me up when players are $50 like upconverting dvd players and when the cost of the disc is comparable. I can get my gladiator on for $5.99 on dvd! Its MSRP is 39.95 for the blu-ray premium disc."
im sure its been answered a million times but i still dont know the answer:
If the same story is posted on Engadget & also on Engadget HD.... why arent they linked together so all of the comments are in the same post?
That's bugged me too.
^^^^^^ because
I gotta admit that I'm looking to get my first Blu-Ray player in the fall, but I'm skeptical about this player. I'll probably end up spending $200-300 on a solid full featured player so that I'm set for a while. I would certainly like Engadget to take the lead with this player and fully review it instead of just all the high(er) end players.
-Brian
I bought the entry-level Memorex BD player a few months ago from Woot.com for $169.00. I am very happy with it. The picture is pristine and I have it hooked up to a $3000.00 Samsung LN52a650 TV. The TV is what matters in this setup so if you can score a deal on the player then go for it. There is no difference in picture quality from different Blue-Ray players!
A Ferarri is no different than a ford escort either, if all blu ray players are the same... geez... what about hd audio and like above posters said... firmware updates? this is a bedroom, or kid room player. would you buy some may pop tires for your fast car? Why put this crap on your nice 650 tv? Just cause it shows a picture doesn't mean its great..?
amazon has the Panasonic BD60 for $209 delivered with no sales tax.