Paw Paw Dog

When Walmart dropped the price for the Magnavox Blu-Ray player to $98, I broke down and brought one. But is it any good?

Make no mistake this is a basic entrant level Blu-Ray player. The packaging is also very basic but I suppose is adequate.  The flip of the box has a diagram for the back panel connectors is a good design, at least better than nothing. Inside the box are the following,

• The player
• Remote
• Battery for the remote
• Analog composite video RCA cable
• Two channel analog audio RCA cable
• Manual

The back of the player has the following connectors

• HDMI for video and audio
• Component video
• Composite video
• Analog stereo audio
• Digital optical audio
• Digital coaxial audio

The power cord is the none removable type.

That’s it. But then for $98 what do you expect?  If you need a component video cable, you probably can use the included analog audio and composite as component video cable. While it may not look very elegant, it gets the job done.

Please note, my local Walmart place this play and the older NB500MG9 on the same stack for the same price. You want to be sure you get the right one. As newer unit, once would assume it has improved electronic. At very min. the new model has both optical and coaxial audio output while the older model only has coaxial output.

Although I have some passing interest in Blu-Ray, I am not so crazy about it. For starter, I HATE the regional protection scheme. If I paid for a movie, why should I be limited to allow to play it anywhere in the world?

Second, it seems the same greedy studios want to keep the Blu-Ray movie prices high to make extra profit. While I can see the Blu-Ray disc may cost a little more than regular DVD, it should not cost us the consumer 50%, 2X or even 3X more than DVD for the Blu-Ray. Yes, the Blu-Ray pictures may be shaper than DVD with better color too. But, with a decent upscale DVD player that cost as low as $70, average people will be hard pressed to spend more than $1 or $2 per movie for the difference.

Then there is the audio thing. While Blu-Ray supporters will point out that with Blu-Ray not only has better pictures but also has better sound track. While this claim may be true, for most of us it also means we need to spend more in order to “enjoy” this “improvement”. Why? Because most if not all the entrant to mid level Blu-Ray player does not have multi channel analog audio output and they will downgrade the quality before they send out to the optical or coaxial digital audio output. They will only output the “new and improved” sound track over HDMI output, which means unless you have a recent AV receiver at home, you are out of luck. Prepare to spend either for a $300+ player that has multi channel analog output or spend more to get a new receiver. To me, the HDMI or the HDCP DRM behind it is the most evil consumer electronics pushed to the public in recent years.  It is designed to squeeze more money out of consumers.

Good thing is prices for both Blu-Ray, player and movies started to drop more significantly lately. Just last week Fry’s was selling Sony S360 Blu-Ray for $199 plus two free movies for the July 4^th one day sale. I gave it a little thought but decided to pass as even at $199, the price is still too high, not to mention it does not have multi channel analog output and my receiver does not have HDMI input.

As recent as 7/7/2009, the cheapest Blu-Ray player my local Walmart was selling is a Magnavox Blu-Ray player for $168.  This is a lousy price to say the least for a very basic player. But to my surprise, two days later the price for the same player is dropped to $98! Even the sales associate at the Walmart was surprised. Well, at this price point I finally broke down and thought I will give it a try. Although this is one more victory for the evil Blu-Ray alliance, the same Walmart associates commented he is waiting for the price to be $50. Take that.

When I checked our local Walmart store yesterday (7/9/2009), I was surprised to find the price for Magnavox NB530NGX has dropped to  $98!  I was there just two days ago (7/7/2009) and the price for the same player was $168!

Granted, this Magnavox is an entrant level Blu-Ray player but it should be more than enough to  meet most people’s need.

One word of caution though, this NB530NGX is a newer model. My local Walmart has the old (NB500MG9) on the same stack for same price. Although the box and the players look similar, at very least the new model has both optical and coaxial digital audio output while the old model only has coaxial. So buyer beware.