Blu-ray player prices dropping
You don’t have to wait until Black Friday to get a good Blu-ray player under $200. Sears is now selling the Sharp AQUOS BDHP21U player for $179. This is not a sale price! This comes on the heals of the leaked Sears Black Friday ad listing the Sony BDP-S350 for $179.
The BDHP21U is a BD1.1 player meaning it does not have BD-Live features. By contrast, the previously mentioned Sony player now has a firmware update which enabled BD-Live (requires a 1GB minimum thumb drive). The Sharp player does have Quick Start which loads a Blu-ray Disc movie in as little as ten seconds.
This is a trend we’re seeing. I’ve even heard rumors of sub-$100 players by Christmas. I expect Blu-ray to really take off in 2009.
Latest firmware is here, but it won’t play the recient Chronicles of Narnia disc and according to tech support there is no guarantee they will publish an upgrade to fix this … buyer beware …