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Insignia NS-BRDVD Blu-ray player at Bestbuy

We recently covered the release of the Magnavox NB500MG9, which is a Blu-ray Bonus View player made by the budget electronics manufacturer, Funai. This player is now available at Walmart for a bottom of the barrel price of $298.

Similar Blu-ray players are now starting to appear at other retailers, including the Insignia NS-BRDVD at Bestbuy (pictured below) and the Sylvania NB500SL9 at Amazon. All reports indicate that these are the same Funai manufactured players as the one available at Walmart, sans the Magnavox brand name and carrying a slightly higher price tag, at approximately $350.



Other retailers should also start carrying Funai manufactured Blu-ray players soon, possibly under additional brand names.

So why is the Walmart Magnavox player $298 versus the $350 price tag on the Insignia and Sylvania players? No one knows for sure, but it is most likely due to volume. Walmart is the number one retailer in the United States, which allows them to cut special deals with manufacturers & suppliers and obtain lower purchase pricing. This can lead to lower priced products at Walmart stores.

Either way, whether a consumer is shopping at Walmart or another store, they will now have the option of purchasing a BD Profile 1.1 Blu-ray player for near $300. This should eventually lead to higher Blu-ray adoption rates and help the format grow. Heck, these budget players will probably hit record lows ($200?) this coming holiday season, during Black Friday and Christmas season sales. I welcome the competition and hope that these new budget players will help to drive down the pricing of other Blu-ray hardware.

For more information and discussion, post a comment below or see this AVS Forum thread.

UPDATE: Bestbuy is now bundling a $100 coupon book with this player.

FREE $100 COUPON BOOK
with this Insignia® Blu-ray Disc player
When you buy our Insignia® NS-BRDVD Blu-ray Disc player, you’ll receive this special book of valuable coupons inside the box. Redeem the coupons at your local Best Buy store for $100 in instant savings on a great collection of Blu-ray Disc movies from Disney, Touchstone and Miramax.
Coupons valid in store only. Not redeemable online.

Free $100 giftcard with PS3 at Walmart.com

Still waiting for a good deal on a PS3 before jumping into the Blu-ray fray? Looking for an additional BD-Live player for a second room? If you desire the 40GB version, now is a great time to buy a PS3 at Walmart.com.

For a limited time, Walmart is giving away a bonus $100 giftcard with the purchase of a PS3. This offer will be published in the Walmart ad this coming Sunday, but the deal is already live at Walmart.com. This giftcard is valid online only and should be good for purchasing any products at walmart.com. Note: There are some who claim that the giftcard is only good for Blu-ray product purchases, but the walmart product page does not state that it is restricted to Blu-ray purchases.

If you don’t mind acquiring a new credit card, you can make this deal even better by applying (and getting approved) for the Sony credit card. Purchase the PS3 using your Sony card and they will add a $100 credit to your account. Plus they’ll give you 12 months no interest financing.

If you go the Sony card route, you’ll wind up paying $299 and getting a bonus $100 Walmart.com giftcard. That would make your PS3 cost near $199 in the long run. Even without the Sony card route, a 40GB PS3 for $399 with a bonus $100 walmart.com giftcard is a killer deal.

Source: SlickDeals

Denon offers lower-cost Blu-ray player

Late last year Denon delivered two high-end Blu-ray Disc players to a series of scoffs. They were both priced well over $1,000 with the more expensive at $1,999. This week Denon, a D&M Holdings company, showed the new DVD-1800BD at the more affordable $749.

This new player sports HDMI 1.3a with obligatory Deep Color and Bonus View as well as handling all advanced audio codecs. It’s not clear if its BD2.0 compliant, but it does apparently support internet content like subtitles, camera angles, games and more so it may be BD-Live capable.

The DVD-1800BD is a “Blu-ray Disc Transport” player so it only has two-channel analog audio outputs. It is meant to be used with next-generation A/V receivers.



The DVD-1800BD will join the existing line of players. These are the DVD-3800BCDI and DVD-2500BTCI at $1,999 and $999 respectfully. The DVD-3800BCDI is a fully-featured player with all the bells and whistles including 7.1 analog outputs, but remains a BD1.1 player. The DVD-2500BTCI is a transport player with zero analog outputs, it has an HDMI output and RS232 and IR inputs for control.

This is a pretty solid lineup of players. All us average folks need not apply.

The Blu-ray bandwagon slowdown

One strength I saw in the Blu-ray Disc Association over the course of the so-called “format war” was that they refused to actually engage in the war. While HD DVD would attack Blu-ray, the BDA would stay their course as if they were already the victor. Obviously this was all an act.

When Warner went exclusive to Blu-ray in January the BDA was cheering and declaring (once again) that their format was the victor. When Toshiba finally threw in the towel they once again made sure everyone knew they had won.

But now that we’re months past “mission accomplished,” I don’t see the same marketing push as in the midst of the throes of war. There were those who said the war was actually good for the high-def market – maybe these same people agree with Howard Dean and think the drawn-out primary battle is good for the Democratic party. I disagree with them and think the war caused a large amount of ennui and consumers were put off to high-def opting instead for upconverting DVD players. But I would have to agree with these same people if the BDA companies do not continue with at least the same effort as when they were engaged in combat.

While Blu-ray sales are increasing by about 20% a week, and consumer awareness is at about 70%, I see a strikingly low amount of effort to really push the format as a new standard in video and audio reproduction. For a while there I saw TV adverts for movies as “Blu-ray High-Def and DVD” with the Blu-ray box in the forefront. Now it is the opposite with “DVD and Blu-ray” featuring the blue case behind the DVD one. I’ve even seen fewer Blu-ray ads on HD Theater and other HD channels who frequently aired specifically Blu-ray ads for months.

The good news is we do see growth in the market, and custom integrators have been moving clients to Blu-ray Disc throughout their homes instead of just the media room. Panasonic has also introduced a single integrated chip for Blu-ray reproduction that replaces up to four chips which should bring the price of players down significantly.

It is simply my contention that in the midst of the summer movie season we should be seeing a much larger push for the savior of home video. Put it on screen before the summer blockbusters – or if you’re Mark Cuban actually sell the Blu-ray version of the film they just saw to them as they’re leaving the theater. Their message should be, “Bring the theater experience home!” It’s just not the time to rest in their sound victory and let the market soften.

Flexplay attempts to revive Divx

Some people just don’t learn from history at all. This time Flexplay Technologies is bringing the exact same Divx technology we all despised in 1998 back. Like a reoccurring nightmare, this 48-hour lifespan disc just won’t quit.

If you remember, Divx was introduced in 1998 and about six-months later it was discontinued. You would think companies would have figured out that this technology just wouldn’t work, but in 2003 Buena Vista created the EZ-D disc with the same properties only it would play in any DVD player, not just special Divx players. Again, less than six-months later this attempt failed miserably. Now we have Flexplay (who developed EZ-D in 1999) trying again using the sales channel of Staples (the office supplies store).

The problems are two-fold. The first is this disc is temporary so you have 48-hours to view the content once the seal is broken. The second is this disc is temporary, and in this overly-consumeristic society we’re concerned about the amount of waste we’re producing. In both cases, this is an idiotic move.

Never mind that DVDs are already cheap (in the $10 range), so this $4 to $6 price is outrageous. Hell, when you rent a movie from Blockbuster you get it for five-days, not two! Not to mention the title availability is going to be minimal with only Paramount, New Line, DreamWorks and Warner Bros. on board.

Flexplay Is at least trying to quell the fears of the environmentally minded by providing recycle bins at the place of purchase or postage-paid mailers for recycle. But honestly, most consumers don’t recycle their aluminum cans and they actually pay a fee for those when they buy them. If the movie studios were actually committed to protecting the environment – as they all say – they would abandon this technology right out.

There must be a tax shelter for idiotic business plans.

Credit: Home Media Magazine

Netflix announces set-top box

The leader in online video rental is now expanding to hardware. Netflix has announced a set-top player for their “Watch Now” movies (about 10,000 titles). This player is built by Roku and will retail for about $99.

Currently all subscribers to Netflix with the $8.95/mn. package have unlimited access to stream movies, and this carries over to the hardware. There is no additional subscription charge. Before this you were confined to Windows based PC viewing with Internet Explorer web browser. I never took advantage of Watch Now exactly for this reason.


The box is small and unassuming. The 5-inch x 5-inch x 1.75-inch player is black with a simple Roku logo on the front, but it has HDMI, component video, s-video, composite video, stereo audio and optical audio on the rear. It connects via ethernet on the back panel or with built-in wireless-g network.


The downsides for streaming video over receiving the DVD in the mail may be a deal-breaker. Most titles are not in widescreen, they don’t have surround sound audio and worst of all the picture quality is not close to DVD quality.

You cannot add movies to your queue from the TV. You simply browse your existing queue of Watch Now titles. Netflix separated the DVD queue and Instant queue a while back, but all DVDs added to your DVD queue are automatically added to the Instant queue. The movie buffers for about a minute before it starts playing.

While I would never consider this box at this quality on my normal movie watching 50″ screen, I am considering picking this up for my bedroom to watch things quickly when nothing is on TV (which is most of the time).

Pioneer Signature Series plasmas feature IP control

I swear, this is not another post about Pioneer’s new line. This is actually a post about me tooting my own horn. I’m allowed to do this because I am great.

They should just send me truckloads of cash. Back in February I wrote about how companies should make their TVs plug directly into Crestron networks. While they’re not using the same technology I wrote about, Pioneer has added exactly this functionality into their new Signature Series plasma line.

This line was aimed at the high-end custom integrator. While part of it seems gimmicky – like the fact that these panels are “hand picked” – but they are the top tier in quality. 1080p Kuro plasmas at 2.5″ deep, plus they have advanced calibration controls to get them just right.

But the reason I’m writing today is because you now plug ethernet directly into these plasmas and they come with a Crestron module for IP control in your automation system. No slow RS-232, no more IR emitters glued to the front bezel.

Better bring me that money now.