Mr. Cinema

Per www.blu-ray.com:

Wal-Mart has revealed that any consumer who purchases a Blu-ray Disc player between June 8th and 14th will receive a free $100 gift card. In addition to the Sony BDP-S300 ($388), which thay have been selling for some time now, they have added the Magnavox NB500MG9 ($298) as well as Blu-ray players from Samsung and Panasonic..

kevin75

cool. thanks for the heads up. my brother is looking for a played and this can help him out.

Timber

Looks like they are doing the same thing with the PS3. How is the S300? I've heard it's little slow. It would seem a little strange to me to pick up second PS3 just for movies. And there is a part of me that likes having an actual DVD player to fit in with the rest of my components.

Mr. Cinema

I've had the 300. It is slow, although firmware updates have sped it up some. I wouldn't get it. The Samsung 1500 has been getting some very good reviews. It's $348 at WM.

Neil M.

Awesome news. I was planning on picking up the new ps3 bundle next week. Hopefully my Wal-Mart will have it in stock.

Also, the $100 gift card deal is available online right now. The card is for online use only though.

milkdog

That Sammy 1500 and $100 GC for $350 is very tempting for this HD DVD owner.

cultshock

That Samsung 1500 is getting really tempting now.

Wolf359

That Magnavox is mighty tempting at only $198 after gift card. I did a quick google and coulnd't see any reviews for it though. Opinions? How important is 2.0 vs 1.1? Thanks.

Mr. Cinema

The Magnavox is using a Panasonic chipset and I believe also includes Sony parts. So the build quality should be fine. It loads a little slower than the Panasonic BD30, but is faster than the Gen 1 units.

Regarding 2.0 vs 1.1, 2.0 is BD Live, which allows you to experience online interactivity. Every 2.0 player has an ethernet port, which also lets you upgrade the firmware via online. 1.1 lacks both of those options, but does allow playback of the picture-in-picture features, which are starting to pop up more often.

GenPion

Is this really a bargain? I could get a PS3 on eBay for $300.

And this is going to wind up costing me a lot more with the money spent on getting all the HDMI/Optical Switchers and Cables and it's giving me a giant headache.

Wolf359

Thanks Mr. Cinema. If it was just the BD Live, I think that would be fine, but not being able to update the firmware via online sounds like a headache.

Mr. Cinema

I have the Panasonic, which is 1.1. Their update procedure using a cd is a piece of cake. Burn the file to disc, put it in the player, 15 minutes later, update is done.

Duder

Someone at a local Walmart informed me that the $100 gift card deal would be good for the 40GB PS3, but NOT the 80GB package that comes out on the 12th (because it's a new SKU, or some other stupid reason).

So don't assume you can take advantage of this deal with the new PS3 package; verify it first!

CapRockBrewingCo.

YMMV, but my local Best Buy pm'd this deal with the Panny BD-30 this morning with no hesitation. I had been looking for a second player (almost bought the Insignia last week) and now I'm glad I waited. After using the $50 hd-dvd gift card, I was out the door for $434.96 and a $100 GC, plus more RZ points.

Mr. Cinema

Yes, I believe Best Buy's home office sent out a memo to pricematch the Walmart deal.

CapRockBrewingCo.

They must have, the manager punched in a code and it came right up.

kenage

So Best Buy will match the deal except you get a Best Buy gift card instead of a Walmart one? That sounds like a better deal to me.