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Blu-ray player prices dropping; here's one for $170
Okay all you Blu-ray holdouts — your excuses for not jumping into the crispiest, cleanest, best-sounding video format yet are wearing thin. Here's the cheapest Blu-ray player we've seen short of Black Friday insanity and refurbished models: the Curtis Mathes CMMBX72 is on sale at Target, fetching a mere $170.
Sure beats the thousands of dollars they were selling for a couple of years ago. And this one's still packing the goods, with Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby TrueHD, remote volume control, HDMI, and that sweet, sweet 1080p-ness that drives the gals wild. Hot stuff.
Be careful, though, recession bargain hunters — this Curtis Mathes guy sounds like somebody's girlfriend's brother. Make sure you can return it for a refund — this low price is making us suspicious. But pretty soon, they'll start giving the players away, as long as they can keep gouging us for $25 per Blu-ray disc.
Target and Amazon, via Gearlog
By Old Man Dotes at 1:18 PM ON 03/20/09
I don't need an excuse to boycott Blu-Ray. Blu-Ray is Sony, and I will never, ever have another Sony product (not even a licensed Sony format) after the Sony-BMG rootkit-virus-on-audio-CDs fiasco. Period.
By duniyadnd at 1:44 PM ON 03/20/09
Now if they can just price the Blu-Rays themselves a little cheaper, we'll be golden
By Shimrod at 7:12 PM ON 03/20/09
Sorry - not buying blu-ray or sony again either - they have proven themselves untrustworthy and abusive.
The discs are also overpriced and have yet to pass the test of retaining their data over long periods - remember 'DVD- rot' anyone?
By DaDigitalGuy at 8:08 PM ON 03/20/09
Why buy 2/3rds of a Blu-ray player?
This player will NOT properly play BD-Live enabled (i.e. Web-connected) titles because it does not have profile 2.0 capability (e.g. an ethernet jack).
Most other similar players are NOT upgradeable to Profile 2, no reason to think this one is, either. failing to advertise this fact is a SERIOUS OMISSION and DISSERVICE to the buying public (who likely won't understand this until they can't play a BD-Live title at home!)
By stattube at 10:03 AM ON 03/21/09
@DADIGITALGUY. All Blu-ray players can play BD-Live titles, you just won't be able to access the interactive BD-Live features, which are mostly a complete waste of time anyway.
By mcm at 3:43 PM ON 03/21/09
The entire format is a complete waste of time anyway.
Only 1400 titles to choose from after almost 3 years on the market.
Only 2.5 million standalone players sold
Bring on HD downloads.
By JordanLund at 1:01 AM ON 03/23/09
Too bad they keep releasing junk titles on the format. Title selection is what is holding Blu-Ray back, not price.
By Cash907 at 2:57 AM ON 03/23/09
Want an excuse for continuing to hold out? How about "no way in hell would I spend almost 200 bucks on some off-brand I've never even heard of?" Not good enough? Ok, well lets try, "no way in hell would I buy into another Sony upgrade after I was screwed over by the whole 'no dvd upscaling over component cables' punishment they inflicted on those of us who were stupid enough to be HDTV early adopters." They say it's to protect their digital content, but who in their right mind would go through the hassle of dubbing video off of cables when you can download programs for free off the net that will rip the video directly off the discs in ten minutes, with just the push of a button? Screw you and your BluRay B.S. Sony, I'm done with you and your proprietary formats.
on your cellphone!
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Cash907:
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