It's the Magnavox nb500mg9 for $128. Not a bad price, but anyone have any thoughts on it (or issues with it)? We've got a PS3 for our main theater room, but I was thinking of picking this up for our other room. Worth it?

http://www.my411family.com/electroni...navox_NB500MG9

So they say this player is pretty damn good...what's the catch? Why is it selling for so cheap?

My question exactly.

Magnavox doesn't make anything anymore really. It's a Funai rebadged under the Magnavox name, same as Phillips, Insignia, Integra and others. The only concern I would have is the availability of firmware updates. Most players have updates available to allow players to play newer and more fully packed BD discs. So, there is a chance some of your movies will not play on it. Still, I'd say its a good gamble for the price, esp. for a secondary unit.

Besides what tommyp007 said....the reviewer linked above wouldn't know "high-end" if it fell on him. Take glowing reviews from no-name websites with a grain of salt. There is NO high-end in the BD world right now, never has been. The Denon 3800 purports to be, or the Pioneers, but I wouldn't put any of these there. Possibly the next Pioneer, due in 2009.

That said, all BD players have great picture quality for BD. And fairly good for DVD, although this is where they differ. They all have better sounding audio options than DVD players, even if they don't have ALL the options that are available to BD. They really are all going to look and sound good, the high-end of BD is going to be a tricky place that really won't be all that much better than the low-end.

Buy on features you want and price at this point. Features might include: analog audio output, 1080p24 output, how the remote or menus work, BD Live, etc. And whether you think a cheapy like the Magnavox will break sooner.