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.