Vizio's VBR100 Blu-ray player is a $188 Wal-mart exclusive next month
By Richard Lawler 
posted Jun 25th 2009 6:12AM
posted Jun 25th 2009 6:12AM
We still don't know what it looks like, but during its line show, Vizio let slip that the sub-$200 VBR100 Blu-ray player announced at CES is now scheduled to come to Wal-mart only in July. For $188 (just not that cheap anymore) Wal-mart shoppers can expect a BD-Live ready (with optional 1GB+ USB thumbdrive attached) player, though no details on codec or output support. Don't shop at Wal-mart for philosophical reasons, quality concerns or fear of being trampled during an early Black Friday rush? A similar VBR110 model should follow, coming to other retailers around November/December, just in time to match with that brand new WiFi connected Netflix / Amazon / Twitter etc. widget packing LCD.
I would rather buy $188 worth of toilet paper!
Seriously. What can they be skimping on to make it $188.
I view blu-ray as a premium way to watch a movie. To get rid of HDMI, HD audio, Profile 2.0, etc... to drop the price, where is the benefit over a DVD?
Why not sell a version with only VGA output for $89?
Trust me, I want to see blu-ray be mainstream cause I want studios to strart releasing my fav tv shows on blu-ray but this method doesn't seem right. But then again, Vizio sells more HD tv's then anyone and not everyone has a home theatre setup.
Walmart is known for forcing companies to water down and cut corners on products. This is why at Walmart/Sams you'll find TVs missing picture in picture, fish tanks that come with incandescent instead of CFL bulbs, etc. You end up getting what you pay for, a more cheaply made product, and supporting a culture of large companies forcing disposable quality goods upon us.
Mayby Wal-mart will take this opportunity to sell some Blu-ray TV's to their customers. After all HDTV needs HD DVD, so Blu-ray DVD needs a Blu-ray TV, no?
That said, I am interested to see how the VBR-100 performs. I have a feeling that it will be lacking in the following areas...
On board lossless decoding won't be that hot
Start up times will be mediocre at best
Overall player response will be sluggish
No one will be buying it because of its awesome upconversion capabilities
Even with all that. It's probably going to be a really good seller.
Unlike many of the haters I have no particular problem with Walmart. But Vizio's release date drift would have driven me a bit crazy since I was all geared up to get my first Blu-ray player back on the announced date in April. With a MSRP of $199 I figured they'd probably be around $149 at Costco. Never could get any release or location info from Vizio though as the date slipped further and further behind. Ended up buying an excellent Panasonic BD60 instead and am very happy that I didn't wait for Vizio to sort it out. I'd rather buy at the local Costco, for convenience and their liberal return policies, than drive 40 miles to save a little at Walmart anyway.
Cool product from what i heard but i did't get a look at the product cos there's no clear picture of it. I wolud like to see clear pictures of the product. I would appreciate it if the pictures could be sent to my email box.
My second DVD player was an APEX AD-500W, which was the Wal-Mart version of APEX's 500 series.
It's sitting in the spare bedroom, eight years later, still serving up DVDs, and was considerably better than the AD-500A I already had which had an annoying tendency to turn into a Sinclair Spectrum whenever there was any slight imperfections of the disc.
So, quite honestly, I suspect the "OMG! They forced Vizio to cut something, it's probably lacking all the important features!" crap is probably just that, crap.
As for lacking HDMI or whatever, you guys know that HDMI is REQUIRED by the Blu-ray spec? As in they can't legally call it a Blu-ray player if it doesn't have HDMI? If it lacks anything, it'll probably be analog outputs or something like that.
http://www.vizio.com/product.aspx?id=3535&pid=2624
Product specs. No multi-channel analog outs.
Supports BD Live and natively decodes TrueHD. Doesn't look like a bad player. If I actually planned to go BD I'd consider it.
At this price range (under$200) you'd be crazy not to pick up a Panasonic BD60 instead. Sure it doesn't come with an SD card, but you cant beat the compatibility, quality and scaler for the price. It also got a glowing review in this months Hometheatermag.
How is a 300$ player under 200 dollars????
188 -> 300 = 60% difference
Street price for the BD60 is under $200, despite the $300 MSRP.
Why are some of you clowns in denial that Blu is not worth its weight in Blu disk space? Economies of scale are being realized as we speak and the price of admission is not meant to generate huge profits. Think of the player itself as a inexpensive printer that constantly needs expensive printer cartridges to be useful. Well those bunk disks that most rent and some choose to purchase is similar to the cheap printer/expensive cartridge conundrum. Usually "what the wise do in the beginning, fools ultimately do in the end." But early adopters of Blu ultimately got bent over backwards with no Vaseline!! Patience has always been a true virtue...
it looks like vizio forgetting what took them to the second place.
u have to go 120-140$,u have to stay on the cheap side.
sony and samsung getting closer with their prices,ill give vizio 2 more years,they gonna fall back to 5th.... place.