Target Selling Sub-$70 Blu-ray Player, HD-DVD Rolls in its Grave

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QUINTIX256

March 15, 2010 at 5:30pm

Instead of going for cheapies from the likes of Funai, it may be reasonable to have a movie player as a loss leader. It seems as if many household just aren't buying HDTVs (if they aren't going into debt for them), and those that do run plain old NTSC signals to it from a cable box most of the time, and said signals are usually stretched or warped to fill the screen.

You can have your recession. I'm not participating.

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LGA1156

March 15, 2010 at 3:26pm

This unit it on clearance, unless you live a hole of a town forget about it.

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icebird

March 15, 2010 at 12:34pm

The worst, fastest-dying optical drive I ever bought was a Philips.

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jgrimoldy

March 15, 2010 at 2:58pm

I remember a time when Philips / Magnavox were good brands.  This was back when Sizzler was still a good steak house, and Sambo's was still, unexplainably, in business.

Both the Philips and Magnavox brands are both owned by Funai Electric in Japan.  Among the other brands that Funai owns are: Symphonic and Emerson.  Funai manufactures shit products.  I'm not sure how, exactly this squares up with the Philips Pronto remote control that I own (which is actually, pretty gosh-darn nice).

However, I know this:  I bought two budget priced (unser $100) Maxnavox DVD recorders from Wal*Mart a couple of years ago (this was sooo wrong on soo many levels, not the least of which was me being a damn cheap-ass).  One of the recorders failed after about 4 months.  It was too far out to take it back to Wal*Mart.  I figured I'd just buy a new one at Wal*Mart (or wherever else) and just return the broken one.  No dice.  No longer available anywhere.

Ultimately, I had to deal with Funai's outsourced warranty repair organization.  This was a friggin nightmare.  The warranty was depot service.  Countless phone calls and six months after starting the process, I finally got the unit replaced.  I vowed to never again buy a product made by Funai.

You have been warned.  Funai makes shit products.  Run away!

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big_montana

March 15, 2010 at 11:45am

If this proves to good to be true, Amazon is selling a Sylvanai BD player for $10 more, model is Sylvania NB530SLX for $79.99 with free shipping.

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jgrimoldy

March 15, 2010 at 3:01pm

Funai also makes Sylvania.  See my comment above. 

You get what you pay for.

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Scootiep

March 15, 2010 at 11:17am

"We thought we scored a pretty banging deal when Wal-Mart started selling Toshiba HD-DVD players for $98, and truth be told, we're still a little ticked at having plunked down a C-note only to watch the format war shift in Blu-ray's favor not long after." Ok, correct me if I'm wrong but, from what I remember, Disney sided with Sony/Blu-Ray long before Wal-Mart started selling HD-DVD players for sub $100. Now look, i know everyone hates Disney. They're evil souless children eating demons and no one is disputing that. HOWEVER, as soon as that happened, you guys should have stayed as far away from HD-DVD as possible. Their death was all but certain.

And I agree with  youSignal2noise, PS3 is still the best bang for your buck in the Blu-Ray/console department. However, you can't go wrong with a cheap little BR player for that extra basement set or in the kids rooms.

To start press any key...ohh, where's the "Any" key. - Homer Simpson

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agredon

March 20, 2010 at 1:14pm

I bought my HD-DVD player knowing that Blu-Ray was winning [because they were dumping them - by way of the PS3 - way below cost]. Why? Because, it was alot cheaper (sub-$100 vs. $300+) and the movies were cheaper. Even without new movies, it was worth it just as an upconverting DVD player and the money saved on movies. You can still find some HD-DVDs at really deep discounts. I bought a Blu-Ray player shortly after HD-DVD death became official to play newer movies. Blu-Ray movies are finally starting to come down to reasonable prices ($10-15 in some cases).

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Signal2Noise

March 15, 2010 at 10:30am

PS3 is still the best way to go. Sure it's more money but you get Blu-ray, gaming, and media server (not as good as the 360 but still...) which make it the best bang for your dollar. Not to mention that any Blu-ray firmware upgrades can be done thru the PS3 provided the user has it connected to the interwebs. Standalone players can become redundant as new Blu-ray disc specs are released.

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violian

March 15, 2010 at 9:55am

Input 008061041 into Target.com's search box. It says that this item is available online only. So I don't know how you'd be able to get it for $70 in-stores.

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