Blu-ray on a Budget in Uncertain Times

Bubbles may burst, Lehman may crumble, AIG may get bailed out - but gold isn’t the only commodity on the rise, so is Blu. These days consumers may be thinking twice about a buying a new high-definition disc player. The Memorex MVBD-2510 and Best Buy’s Insignia NS-BRDVD have arrived to combat those price-tag willies.

It’s not a great time to be an emerging consumer electronics format. DVD had the benefit of almost a decade of economic growth while Blu-ray is truly getting the short end of the picture tube. But with players edging closer to the $200 mark the format can’t help but witness growth.

Best Buy’s house brand Insignia was originally a $300+ player released earlier this year. At the time of writing it’s down to a very reasonable $229. Not bad for a Blu-ray player that actually decodes DTS-HD.

Now the Memorex MVBD-2510 dips into this "low-price" territory with a new Blu-ray player that will list for $270 in November.

• Supports Blu-ray Profile 1.1
• Onboard decoding for Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD High Resolution
• Bitstream output for Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio
• 5.1 multichannel analog output

Very good numbers for Blu-ray on a budget. The Memorex model is probably not a significant step up from the Insignia but will have one important feature the Insignia overlooks – 5.1 analog outputs. It’s the feature that will save consumers who want the high-resolution audio formats to go with their high-def video from having buy a whole new A/V receiver.

It’s good to see the price of Blu-ray players keep coming down during this period of economic uncertainty. Now if only the power brokers on Wall Street can do something about the ridiculous price of the discs. Case in point … The 1987 film Wall Street on Blu-ray sells for a steep $30 – a classic film I’d love to own on BD but Gekko is asking me to mortgage too many lunches for the pleasure. I guess we know how Gekko feels about lunch.