Amazon is directly selling the Samsung BDP-1000 Blu-ray new for $599 with free shipping.

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If Only I'd known this last week! Great bargain though!

I'll wait for the One Call $200 deal.

I don't know why you guys are taking jabs at the $599 price. I got mine brand new for $500 and even at $100 more that's a very fair price IMO. The same price that I got my A1 for. Both formats have hit or miss discs but in my experience with these two players the Samsung is far more reliable. I never have any glitches with it, whereas my Toshiba has a glitch during every second or third viewing. Then again, for $599 you can get the PS3 which will play games too, or the 360 plus add on. If anyone has any interest at all in games and doesn't yet have either HD format those methods are far and away the best bargains out there IMO.

What? Are you serious. Someone fill me in ....

I'll just go with the Samsung from Amazon if you're joking!

The Sammy with upgraded firmware is a nice player. Doesn't have all the bells and whistles, but it does have solid playback in my experience.

FWIW, I don't think any of the players have all the bells and whistles as of yet. More reason not to spend too much with CES weeks away.

No, I just figured, with the deal they just had on the XA1, they'll probably offer the Samsung for something cheaper than $600 at some point. If they got it at $300 or less I might be tempted enough to get one.

O ok, I gotcha! You're probably right. I was wondering where I was that I could miss such a low price.

The entire BDA combined have not matched Toshiba's marketshare of standalone players and it doesn't do the format good to sit in the store untouched at 1K and above prices. I figure prices on the first gen models to take a nose-dive after CES as second gen players start being shown to the public.

I know nothing about the BD players, but 599 is a lot more attractive price than 1k or more.

Tiger Direct has it at the $599 price now as well.