Bob, I keep reading that Redbox (DVD rentals for $1/day) is hurting DVD sales badly. Where I shop, there is often a line in front of the Redbox kiosk. And most customers walk away with not one but a handful of DVDs.

Viewers apparently prefer renting movies to owning them.

I just scored two LG BD530 Blu-ray players at Walmart for $65 a piece. Haven't tried them yet but they support AVCHD so they will probably play my HD on DVD disks. So, I have a full compliment of Blu-ray players. At these prices there is no reason to hold back.

Ken, please post your results of the LG BD530 Blu-ray players.

Well, here it is, in all it's glory, listed at $65 usd. I wonder what they will be priced Nov 26th or just before Christmas?
http://www.walmart.com/ip/LG-BD530-Blu-ray-Disc-Player/15140696

It is described as a Network Blu-ray Disc Player, and besides the usual Blu-ray and upscaling DVD functions which work fine it seems to have at least some media player capabilities. I connected it to my wireless router which has a 100 Mb switch and it auto configured perfectly. I used it to access my Picassa Web Albums on line after logging in to my Google account and ran a slide show of one of the albums. I was able to play YouTube videos and access AccuWeather for major cities. This may be useful for the living room TV but there is no network jack nearby and I don't plan to buy a wireless adapter for the marginal utility it provides. So, to me this capability is a mere novelty, playable on the unit near my PC. It also supports DIVX files up to version 6.

On the front, right hand side there is a USB port which accepted my thumbdrives and easily played back audio and photos after using the remote to select the function. The manual says it can play back AVI files but it would not recognize a short DV-AVI on the thumbdrive. The manual says it will accept an external USB HDD but I don't have one to test it. If it won't play back a short DV-AVI from the thumbdrive then I wouldn't expect it to do so from and external HDD either. It was formated FAT32 but the video was far smaller than the FAT32 file size limit.

I found one anomaly which bothers me. The BD530 always adds a folder to the thumbdrives whenever they are inserted. This seems totally unnecessary and I even reformatted my smaller drive in the PC but the BD530 created the new folder again! And guess what the folder name is - BUDDA.

This only shows up when you use the remote to navigate the files on the thumbdrive or managing the files after moving it back to the PC but, considering that I am a Christian, I find this persistent "feature" annoying.

$65. Hard to say no to that.

I've heard that many of these under$100 BluRay players can also download Netflix video on demand too!

I was reading the LG website (looking for a feedback form) and I read something about Netflix access. Since this doesn't interest me I didn't pursue it but there is no mention of Netflix in the manual.

At $65 each I figure I got two for the price of one. Such a deal!

Thanks for the update Ken.

Just checked the link and Walmart says they are out of stock. Hmmmm......

I just stumbled upon the LG Blu-ray burner drives OEM for $99.99 I paid $130 for the same drive just last spring. Blu-ray is finally here and affordable for even hobbyists.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827136181&nm_mc=AFC-C8Junction&cm_mmc=AFC-C8Junction-_-na-_-na-_-na&AID=10440897&PID=3332167&SID=u00000687

Thanks Ken. I started this thread about 1.5 years ago in May 2009. It sure took long enough...

And, BTW, you get FREE 3D glasses with it!

Not a bad price Ken. I also see that the costs of media has come down, but DVD media is still way cheaper.

I am still using DVDs to distribute my family videos. Many of the family members do not even have BluRay players yet! Also since all of the old stuff is SD anyhow, that is the easiest thing to do.

I still haven't bought a BD writer. I use my Patriot Box Office for my in-home viewing in HD, or upload to VIMEO (which does support HD viewing via the Roku box).

Got a Magnavox Blu Ray player for my birthday last month, now I have to get a blu ray burner.
The player is very nice and the image from the Dell Projector it is connected to is awesome at about 5 ft. x 4 ft. I also have the player connected to the internet and can watch High Definition movies from Vudu.com
The quality and streaming is amazing.

Hey Chuck, is it the new model they released just before Christmas? The Magnavox BD players from last year didn't support AVCHD (HD on DVD) disks - if that's important to you.

Bobby, I bought the Sony media player, SMP-N100 at Costco just before Christmas. I took it back just yesterday - very disappointing. Perhaps there is a better topic on the forum to talk about it.

It is this one
http://www.walmart.com/ip/Magnavox-MBP5 ... ifications

Don't think it supports AVCHD but that doesn't matter to me anyway.