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Blu-ray, Great Deals
Blu-ray, Great Deals The Sub-$100 Blu-ray Player Has Arrived!
Tuesday, July 14, 2009 at 6:59PM 
My local Wal*mart had a stack of Magnavox NB530MGX Blu-ray Disc Players ready for purchase at a non-sale price of $98 USD. The NB530MGX's sub-$100 price is a historic first for a brand new Blu-ray disc (BD) player, and I'm looking forward to writing up a full review of this value priced player in the coming days. In the mean time, here are the player's specs as taken from the Magnavox website:
Blu-ray / DVD
- Plays BD Video, BD-RE (Single/Dual), BD-R (Single/Dual), DVD Video, DVD-R/RW, CD-R/RW, Audio CD, DTS-CD, HD JPEG
- BD Profile 1.1 (BONUSVIEW)
- HDMI Full-HD 1080 24p / 60p Output
- HDMI 1080p Up-Conversion Output
- Progressive Scan Video Output
- HDMI 1.3a - Deep Color Processing
- HDMI Audio Output: Dolby Digital, Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby True HD,DTS, DTS HD, Linear PCM
Convenience
- FL (Fluorescent) Display
- Trilingual On Screen Display (English / Spanish / French)
- Parental Lock
- Remote Control
Input/Output
- Composite Video Output
- Component Video Out
- RCA Audio Output (L+R)
- Digital Audio Output (Coaxial)
- Digital Audio Output (Optical)
- HDMI Output
- SD Memory Slot
Some notable items from the above list includes an SD card slot for simplified picture browsing, coaxial and optical digital audio outputs, and 1080p24 output (via HDMI) - not bad at all for the least expensive BD player around. However, the NB530MGX lacks network support (Ethernet or otherwise) for simplified firmware updates and it is a Profile 1.1 BD player so it supports picture-in-picture but not the online interactive features of BD-Live - considering the poor quality of most BD-Live content, this missing feature may be a non-issue for most shoppers.
Stay tuned.
Reader Comments (8)
Hi Rob,
Firstly are you the same Robert Heron that used to host DL.TV?
Are you on a break from the show or has it finally wrapped up? Judging by what has happened over at Extreme Tech it doesn't surprise me.
Anyway its been great watching DLTV and following your articles on PCMag, etc. over the years.
Don't stop writing, I always enjoy reading your articles, either in the Home Theatre domain or the Tech side of things.
Cheers
Chris
(Adelaide, Australia)
Seconded. Looking forward to more.
J. Corgan
(Pennsauken, NJ)
FYI this player will not play most blueray disks and when i called magnavox i was told they have no intention of issues firmware updates for this model. The player is put on under magnavox however it is a rebrand for Funai Corporation.
J: what Blu-ray discs did you discover that were not compatible with the player?
The same player was $178 at a Wal-Mart in Hawaii...
I like to wait and see if electronics from wal-mart burns houses down before I buy: http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/01/walmart-expands-durabrand-dvd-player-recall-to-4-2-million/
Did you ever get around to reviewing this unit?
Robert,
I recently purchased a Toshiba BDX1100KU at Tiger Direct in Dallas. It was $79.00. Totally happy and every title has played perfectly.
Jeff