Magnavox Blu-ray Disc Player Nb530mgx

Walmart is selling the Magnavox Blu-ray Disc play for $98.00 again in stores only.  You won't find this deal online.  This is a barebones player with no internet capabilities.  This means no BD-Live support and no automatic firmware updates via the Internet.  However, considering I have declared physical media [mostly] dead, I don't much care.  We needed a DVD player replacement and this fit the bill nicely.  DVDs up-convert to 1080p24 extremely well, way better than our previous player.  OK.  I did buy two Blu-ray titles to see what it was all about, Serenity and Wall-E.

Serenity Lisa Lassek Joss Whedon

Wall-E (Two-Disc and BD Live)

We watched Serenity and the quality was excellent - the best I've seen on our TV.  We didn't play around much with the Blu-ray features yet, U-Control for example.  Assuming the player maintains this basic level of functionality it was well worth the $98.  Clearly this is an ideal price point for most consumers.  Still, it seems most disks still cost $30 to $40.  I specifically chose the above titles because they were both $19.99 at Walmart.