EveryJoe » Magnavox

Black Friday: best chance to go Blu-ray?

Robin Parrish — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 21:31:57 +0000

Until recently, Blu-ray players have been unaffordable by most middle-class and lower-class consumers. But we’ve seen them dropping to the $150-$200 range of late, and now that Black Friday ads are busting out all over, it looks like the day-after-Thanksgiving is going to be most consumers’ best opportunity to jump on the Blu-ray bandwagon, with prices dropping as low as $100 and even lower. Which ones offer the best value? These are my three picks, but read carefully…

Costco is offering Vizio’s VBR110 Blu-ray player for $99 on Black Friday. It’s important to note that the VBR110 is considered an “entry level” Blu-ray player, meaning it doesn’t come with some of the bigger bells and whistles that other players are sporting these days, like streaming Netflix digital rentals. But Vizio’s player comes with an Ethernet port for BD-Live capabilities, and they throw in an HDMI cable.

Walmart has the best deal I’ve seen so far, with a bargain-priced $78 Magnavox Blu-ray player available on Black Friday. (I’d suggest getting there early if you want to score one of these — they’re sure to go fast!) The Magnavox player upscales regular DVD videos up to 1080p, so they look more like the quality of Blu-ray discs, but it includes no other major extras. But it does not include BD-Live capabilities, so you won’t be able to download any additional content that way. Still, it’s the best Black Friday price overall, and that’s likely to go unchallenged by any other retailer.

Best Buy is offering a $99 Blu-ray player from its own brand, Insignia. The Insignia player upscales DVDs to 1080p, streams Netflix if you connect it to an Ethernet cable, BD-Live, and even plays BD-ROM discs. Best Buy is also throwing in a free Blu-ray copy of either Superman Returns or Beetlejuice. If you want the most options for the best price, the Insignia player is my recommendation.

Post from: EveryJoe

Black Friday: best chance to go Blu-ray?

Blu-Ray player price drop

Robin Parrish — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 04:20:38 +0000

If you’ve been wrestling with the should-I-or-shouldn’t-I? debate of upgrading the ol’ DVD player to a Blu-Ray player, Walmart has reportedly made your decision an eentsy bit easier. The house that Sam built has dropped the Magnavox NB500MGX Blu-Ray/DVD combo player to the rock bottom, record setting price of just $128.

There’s a catch: you can’t buy it online. You have to leave the house, drive down to your local Walmart (which, let’s face it, is probably less than 300 feet away — right between McDonald’s and Starbucks), and buy it there. Online ordering nets you the player for $168, and I’m guessing a $40 savings is worth a quick trip down to Wally World. Am I right?

Either way, it’s unheard of to find a Blu-Ray player for under $200, and this same player is currently listed at Amazon.com for $360, which puts Walmart’s price almost two-thirds off!

Post from: EveryJoe

Blu-Ray player price drop

The History of Video Games in two minutes

Joel Tan — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 11:34:04 +0000

I’m currently watching a video on the history of video games by YouTube user applemctom, and my wife, Joyce, keeps asking me why I know majority of the games featured in the video. I guess my video games addiction is finally showing, eh? To test my mettle, I tried to list down in order all the games shown in the two-minute footage. Unfortunately, I didn’t get them all. Before I show my list (rather, before you take a look at it), watch the video and try listing down in order all the games that you see. Let’s compare notes later.

Well, here’s my list:

Pong, Space Invaders, Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back, Pac-Man, Frogger, Donkey Kong, Super Mario Brothers, Leisure Suite Larry, Afterburner, Double Dragon, Prince of Persia, Tetris, Secret of Monkey Island, Sonic the Hedgehog, Castle Wolfenstein, Super Mario Kart, Street Fighter II, Mortal Kombat, Minesweeper, Myst, Rayman, Command & Conquer, Tekken, Tomb Raider, The Sims, Grand Theft Auto, and Total War.

Darn, I think I have to brush up on my video games history and literature again.

Post from: EveryJoe

The History of Video Games in two minutes

Video game consoles, then and now

Joel Tan — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 21:15:36 +0000

Did you know that there have been at least 63 video game consoles and personal computers in the past 50 years? Well, I didn’t … honestly. So imagine my surprise when I came across this video:

The author of this mish-mash, however, missed the entire Apple line of personal computers. I owned an Apple IIc, so I know first-hand that a lot of video games can be played on the machine—that is, if any Apple computer is still intact to this day.

Post from: EveryJoe

Video game consoles, then and now

Retro game print ads

admin — Fri, 10 Feb 2006 15:09:30 +0000

They don’t make them like this anymore…

I’m amazed at how text-heavy some of them are… It’s not like now where you get a pretty picture that will never be in the game, they were far more representative of the product that was being sold… And you could read a bunch of marketing flimflam too!

Check out more adverts at Toy Adz.

Post from: EveryJoe

Retro game print ads