Crazy-cheap DVD player to be sold in England for under $18

ASDA, the Wal-Mart-owned supermarket chain in the UK, plans to start selling the Durabrand DVD player for just £9, or around $18. While DVD players have shown up during sales for under $30 in the past, often creating mini shopping crazes, this is the cheapest one we've ever seen. Durabrand has even offered dual-screen portable players for under $300. This one looks to be sold at supermarkets as a last-minute purchase item alongside gum and gossip rags, maybe bringing DVD technology to the final 80,000 (the number they plan to make) people in England who don't already have them. We have to imagine that there will be DVDs for sale right next to the units, most likely the real purpose of the cheap player. It's not the prettiest things, but -- hey -- did we mention it's cheap?

[Thanks, Judith]

[Michael @ Jan 29th 2007 2:14PM]

Wow man, where in Canada do you live? Where I am (downtown Toronto) you can get them for $20 at the discount shops easilly. If you want a refurb you can get them cheaper.

[someone @ Jan 29th 2007 5:06AM]

Eh. In China and SE Asia, we hve DVD players even cheaper than that. Yeah, $12-$15 US, if the local price is converted to USD.

[EdZ @ Jan 29th 2007 5:21AM]

I wonder how easy it is to unlock it's region coding? It seems the cheaper the player the easier it gets, so by that logic this should be a cinch.

[Josh @ Jan 29th 2007 5:25AM]

Getting hold of one will be the problem. They're going to go like hot cakes. Which I'm told is very fast.

[Kip HT @ Jan 29th 2007 5:36AM]

Its probably already region free. Its a no name brand, so they probably don't care. Most are region free anyway. Aren't they? They are in Asia... :P

[Neil Christie @ Jan 29th 2007 5:48AM]

For goodness sake, do Americans not understand?

The UK is NOT just England - it includes England, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales

Great Britain is England, Scotland and Wales

Please use the terms correctly - ASDA has stores in all four nations of the UK, which all use the same currency, the Great British Pound.

[August @ Jan 29th 2007 2:38PM]

We honestly haven't cared since we rolled over and became the preeminent superpower.

Thanks though.

[Jim1919 @ Jan 29th 2007 6:02AM]

the player is not multiregion, but it can be made multiregion with a simple set of remote commands

as for the story, I agree with the poster above, the Americans really need to learn the difference between London, England, Britain & UK

and the story is actually wrong:
"plans to start selling the Durabrand DVD player for just £9"
the were selling them at that price for 4 days only, today is the last day

for anyone in the UK, keep an eye on hotukdeals.com which is updated many times a day with great offers and codes for loads of retailers and online stores (this DVD player was on there the day before the price reduction)

[Darryl Hall @ Jan 29th 2007 6:14AM]

They sold out completley on saturday! I sent this article to engadget on friday evening, shows you how slow this website is!!

[Ashley @ Jan 29th 2007 6:28AM]

My mum brought this from ASDA the other day....

Verdict - Great DVD player, plays every dvd i can though at it, and is REALLY small compared to other dvd players for anywhere near this price!

9/10

Though, we didn't really need it, we already have a dvd player in every room! :P

fLUx

P.s. how long you reckon till HD-DVD players are this price?? LMAO

[Olivier @ Jan 29th 2007 6:48AM]

These things are probably illegal given that the DVD consortium charges almost $20 per DVD player in royalties. I'm not even sure that include the MPEG2 Player license..

Great price, but most probably something illegal. I know a few brands sold at CostCo got in hot waters when they sold DVD players for less than $30 when big manufacturers complained they were paying that in licences alone.

[Mark @ Jan 29th 2007 6:52AM]

This isn't really news.

I just bought a "Nova" tiny DVD player that has

- DIVX /WMA playback
- MP3 playback
- full tuner
- component and s-video out
- DVD-everything compatibility
- no region coding
- component cables included (!!!!)

at a XS Cargo shop in Vancouver for $24.99 Cdn dollars. Works like a charm, and if you can believe it, it's a replacement for a $650 LG DVD-R HD (250gb) unit, which I'm ready to chuck because the stupid thing only plays about 1/3 of my DVDs (as in bought for, legal DVDs).

The new $25 player has no problem with any of my discs.

[adam @ Jan 29th 2007 7:33AM]

We sell them everyday for $27 at wal-mart in the us, under 30 is not a sale, its regular price. You guys must not get out much.

[Jim1919 @ Jan 29th 2007 9:01AM]

Under 30 dollars is a sale to us!
don't forget we live in "rip off Britain" where prices on everything are higher to start with, then VAT is added

[boden @ Jan 29th 2007 7:35AM]

My last DVD player by Durabrand still works... However the only way to get the tray open is to lever it open with a guitar plectrum... That stopped working after watching about 3 DVDs.

I'd save my £9 toward a decent player... Or spend it on 20 bottles of lager.

[lazygamer @ Jan 29th 2007 7:46AM]

ASDA started selling them on Thursday 25th, and by Friday 26th they were sold out in nearly all their stores (they didn't implement a 1 per customer policy either).

The player is apparently very easy to hack as well (just a remote code)

[Jimmy B @ Jan 29th 2007 8:28AM]

when will asda realise that i want a free dvd player with my breakfast cereal

[Bryan @ Jan 29th 2007 9:40AM]

So the DVD player is actually cheaper than a DVD.

[Don Carcharo @ Jan 29th 2007 10:34AM]

I've got (what appears to be) the American version of this Durabrand player. I picked it up at Wal-Mart sometime last month for $25. It sports the same exact design with remote. Overall it's an unremarkable player other than it's very inexpensive and very small.

MFG Link: http://www.lenoxx.com/2005/audiosystems/DVD1002.htm

[Alex @ Jan 29th 2007 10:36AM]

On boxing day here in canada (think U.S's day after thanksgiving) they were selling dvd players for $9.99CA at the Superstore. They only had 100 units though.

[engadget @ Jan 29th 2007 10:53AM]

How low can they go! They'll be giving them away in boxes of cereal next!

[Eric @ Jan 31st 2007 5:49PM]

Physically, it looks like a Coby DVD player I've seen a lot, which they call "portable" because it's small.