Fry's Electronics in Arizona has had the Samsung DVD-HD755 for under $70 for several weeks. It includes the HDMI cable. As you say, bare bones, but upconverting to 720p/1080i. Coaxial digital audio (no optical). Very small, and clearly of a cheap construction. But, a great deal if you don't have a player yet.
I bought one of the cheap Samsung upconverting players from Fry's (model 755, $69). In some brief A/B testing, I felt it didn't give me a better picture quality when output to my Sceptre 1080p LCD over HDMI than I was receiving with my Panasonic XP30 480p player with component cables. However, I was pretty impressed that a little $69 box with a cheap, thin HDMI cable rivaled my $200 XP30 (which has the old Faroudja chip) w/ super-honkin' BlueJeansCable component cables. So, not bad for someone who had no player at all. I would imagine the Faroudja upconverting players are quite a bit nicer.
Are we guaranteed that Blu Ray discs will all have the super special coating that makes them impervious to scratches? That would at least help the value equation - never having to replace it because the kids used it as a Frisbee.
Let the hive mind of Engadget get that for you.
"I have a MacBook Pro and an Xbox 360 and I would like to get a 20- to 24-inch display that will support both devices. The speakers should be inbuilt, or there should be an aux out on the display to hook up external speakers. Help! Please!"
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