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?

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!

Image: Copyright 2009 ©Magnavox.

Post from: EveryJoe

Blu-Ray player price drop

Good? Bad? There’s no telling.

Some will argue that this is just another way for Walmart to beat out the little man and monopolize yet another market. I have witnessed two small “mom and pop” video game stores go under due to Game Stop rolling in to town.

What happens now that Walmart is introducing 77 game trade-in kiosks across the Northeast?

It’s easy to damn Walmart for being a “big box” store and making so much freakin’ money but if there’s a need for their services and they’re providing said service, is it really a bad thing?

Thoughts? Reactions?

Image|Wikipedia

Post from: EveryJoe

Walmart to Offer Game Trade-In Kiosks

This monopolistic partnership has prompted Blockbuster to raise their subscription price to keep at par with Netflix. In the end, consumers were the losers which led to the lawsuit.

Netflix and Walmart could easily lower their prices as they help each other out and I don’t see any reason why they have to increase their prices which led Blockbuster to do the same.

At least, when consumers are concerned it only means they are not downloading pirated copies using their computers.

Post from: EveryJoe

Netflix and Walmart Under Fire