Wal Mart has a Sharp, a Magnavox, and a Sylvania all under $200. I'm sure they are all rebranded from another manufacturer but for that kind of money they'd probably be in the same class as that Phillips.

You can order a Panasonic DMP-BD60 from www.6ave.com for $198.55 delivered. They are an authorized dealer. Use coupon code AFL5 at checkout.


http://www.6ave.com/shop/product.aspx?sku=PANDMPBD60

THANK YOU S.B.J.! I'd like to update on this...
That coupon code also works on the BD-80, bringing it to about $280.00.
I didn't want to entrust a delicate piece of electronics to my local joke of a Post Office, so I went to a local 6th Ave store armed with a printout of the $198.55 price of the BD-60 with the code and asked them to match their internet price. They hemmed & hawed, but finally offered to do $198.97. They claimed this is their cost, and was the lowest they could go. I wasn't about to quibble for 40-odd cents, so I grabbed it. The sales clerk brings it to the front desk, and a different checkout guy rings it up. That checkout guy GLARED at me and practically pushed the box across the counter to me. Clearly NOT happy to see a customer get a legit deal - LOL.
Anyways - this may be a YMMV deal, but You should (with varying degrees of resistance) be able to get the deal in-store with a printout.

Toying with the thought of jumping into the BD pool....wanted WIFI Netflix access....

Any thoughts on the major differences between LG BD390 vs Samsung P3600 vs Samsung P4600? (The 4600 just seems to have Pandora, which I'm not concerned about...)

Any help would be appreciated!

It's now down to $189.05 using the same coupon.

I'd opt for the LG; I've got the 390 and absolutely love it.

Get the LG - Samsungs are giant POS'.

HKFlix is now selling the Oppo BD player (although their stock has not yet arrived from Oppo)...for $500. It only plays region 1 DVDs and region A Blu-rays as previously discussed.

Actually, Amazon.com has it as well for $499.99. Free shipping and maybe no tax for some.

There is supposedly unsupported firmware floating around that will make it region free, but who knows what Oppo will do to combat this. If they figure out how it's being done they could keep restrict it with their next necessary update.

And $500 for a player which has to be hacked by third-parties for region free is still too much IMO. If and when my BD30 dies I may consider getting it for my primary player, but otherwise no sale.

JVC XV-BP1 is getting a lot of attention at AVS. Loads as fast as the PS3 or Oppo and looks great in both BD and SD. Someone ran some artificial tests and it performed very well. So well in fact, some are calling it the "poor man's Oppo". At ~$230-$250 street, it might be worth a look for anyone still in the market.

Oppo wanted the player to be DVD and BD free but the big bad BDA said 'No!'. Which is silly because we are so close to the Chinese players hitting retail and they certainly won't give two shits about what the BDA wants. Hopefully that will loosen up some of the other CEs to 'slip' a remote hack in. I'm on the fence with the Oppo...but likely will stick to my trusty S550 because of the damn backlit remote. Why CE's don't do backlit remotes more often, especially with their "premium" version of their players (LG BD390, Samsung 3600 etc) boggles me.

That's why I bought the Costco version of the 350. It came with the 550's backlit remote.

Yeah, I had that before but needed the internal DTS MA decoding. Wish they carried the LG 390 with backlit remote.

Here's the region-free firmware:

Oppo BDP-83

Supposedly, it works just fine on all-regions, DVD and BD.

I don't mind the $500 price tag, as this box also supports DVD-A and SACD playback, of which I own many. IMHO, for a universal player with a region-free hack, it's a bargain.

Any thoughts on the Sony BDP-S360, I am think about gettting a standalone bluray player soon, because I don't like my PS3 running loud, and if I started using it for games only, it might keep it from breaking on me. I heard it will decode both Dolby Truehd and DtS ma, but there is no eject button on the remote. That doesn't bother me too much, as long as its a good player that will last me a long time.

Yes, internally decodes both TrueHD and DTS MA.
Yes, no eject button on the remote (though there is a workaround on AVS....can't remember but its like press a button twice?)

Get it at Costco where its called the BDX2 and you get a backlit remote.

Some of us got in a deal last night for a $50 Blu-ray player (Sherwood something) and its been confirmed to be a Momitsmu in disguise...which is also region free which a few clicks of the remote. Looks like the BDA can't control region coding with Chinese players

I saw you all trying to keep that hush-hush over at AVS.

As soon as it hits the 'internet' Fatwallet joins in and you hav people buying 5-20 players for resell and ruining the deal.

The Panasonic DMP-BD60 is $198 $195 at Amazon today, a reasonable price for a good player. Might be better deals out there, but I haven't looked.

LG BH200 now 2.0. LG came through!

The one and only HD DVD / Blu-ray 2.0 player. It does everything but internal DTS MA.

For those who like Sony products, Amazon has the BDP-S360 for $217.99. No streaming or anything. I just got one and like it so far. It's very small. I do believe the load time has improved some. And it definitely seems like it handles java menus a bit better than their last gen models. This is one improvement it has over the Panasonic, which still is more sluggish.

Best Buy has the Pioneer BDP-51FD on clearance for $149.99. This is a profile 1.1 player...but it's built like a tank and supports all the hi-res audio formats. I was able to get two open box units for $119.99 each (for my brother and I) at lunch today.

I'll be looking today.