Walmart pushing blu-ray

Agree. Just a matter of time before they come down further in price. I believe people DO want the enhanced picture quality driving their big TV's. Circuit City had an ad for a Phillips Blue Ray for $399 in todays insert. I'm holding out for an Oppo Blue Ray offering; one that will up-convert red-book DVD's as well. That's when I'll pull the trigger. The phone companies and cable companies still don't have their $#@& together, so it will be years before streaming movies in HD fully evolves. I refuse to replace my existing red-book DVD library ( 550+ movies ). Guess I'm too cheap. Hope the BR movie prices fall as well. If they don't, the format may join the El-cassette club.

Blu-ray should be the HD format of choice until HVD matures and comes in to the consumer price range. That will likely be far enough out that Blu-Ray is a worthwhile investment for many people.

Guys,

Blu-ray players have sold for $199 with $100 gift cards in them already. I bought my sixth Blu-ray player the other day from Amazon, a Sony BDP-S350 for $278 shipped, and the player is the best I've had yet. I am an early adopter, I know the price and am willing to pay it. I did with SACD/DVD-A, HD DVD and Blu-ray, and now with a solid winner and a huge step up in both video AND audio, I am still amazed at how many people are waiting!

Waiting for what???? Is 7.1 channels of 24/192 uncompressed audio not good enough for you????

My only caveat might be to heed the words of certain bozos who saw this a year ago with HD-DVD. "Someone" (ahem - you'll probably have to go search the archives...) made some of the almost-same comments last year, only then it was about Walmart's push on HD. Turns out that even their marketing muscle didn't do the trick and the rest was history (just like HD players).

Walmart will push whatever they think will sell and make 'em money. If it's not profitable then they also have no qualms about pulling the plug and moving on - soon. Maybe this will be enough incentive to get the actual out-the-door retail prices ("we don't need no steenkin' rebates!") down to where Joe the Plumber will buy?

There's an article in the current Home Theater mag that gives rave reviews to the Panasonic BD35 and BD55. The review rates the Panny's upconversion of standard dvd's as excellent. Its also a full 2.0 machine with an ethernet connection. I have the Panny 30 and am thinking of jumping to the bd35. Amazon has it for around $250.