VIZIO jumps into the sub-$200 Blu-ray player ring with its VBR100

Never mind that VIZIO is breaking from its discount-market image, the combination of a known brand name and $199 pricetag for its VBR100 Blu-ray player is the one-two punch here. The company is showing off this new 2-inch thick (not the slimmest, but not exactly portly, either) Blu-ray deck at CES this week, and the feature set is pretty encouraging. The upconverted DVD feed coming out of the HDMI jack can be switched between 720p, 1080i and 1080p, but even more importantly, the unit's 7.1-analog jacks around back can output decoded Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD MA. Set for release in April for a penny under $200.

[eminemdrdre00 @ Jan 7th 2009 3:54PM]

Not much of a deal, most name brands are around this same price.

[bull3964 @ Jan 7th 2009 4:00PM]

I disagree, sub $200 for multichannel analog out is pretty much unheard of. This is great for everyone that doesn't want to buy a new receiver.

[Fargus @ Jan 7th 2009 4:24PM]

this player should easily sell for 99.99 to 149.99 during any type of sale. 199.99 is the MSRP!!!!

[Galley @ Jan 7th 2009 4:38PM]

Comparable Sony and Panasonic models are $350-400, so the Vizio is a steal.

[delighted @ Jan 7th 2009 4:45PM]

what is the licensing cost for:
1. Blu-Ray
2. Dolby TrueHD
3. DTS-HD MA
4. HDMI
5. DVD
6. 7.1 surround

Plus cost of development for features like:
7. upconversion
8. variable resolutions

??
distributed across the U.S.?

If we look at comparable models it seems like this is a really good deal.

[bandigolo @ Jan 7th 2009 4:56PM]

@bull3964,

You have to go back a ways to find a 7.1 - nay, a 5.1 receiver without a single optical or coax audio input. With all due respect to the analogians, it's time to upgrade your receiver.

[TravisO @ Jan 7th 2009 5:23PM]

I agree, but it's still nice to see more companies jump on the $199 price point. Personally I recommend the Panasonic BMP-BD35 which can be found for about $200-$235 and is a 5 star player.

[bull3964 @ Jan 7th 2009 6:31PM]

@bandigolo

Optical or Coax digital inputs don't give you high def lossless audio. You need an HDMI receiver for that which are much newer. So, multichannel analog out benefits even those who have digital inputs.

[IsleOfMan @ Jan 7th 2009 6:33PM]

@ bandigolo

You're really missing the point on the importance of 7.1 analog outputs for many with older high-end electronics lacking HDMI.

Optical and Digital Coax are not capable of transmitting either a bitstream or decoded LPCM stream of DD+, TrueHD, or DTS-MA. The only way to enjoy these codecs is either bitstream or player-decoded LPCM over HDMI to a capable receiver, or player-decoded LPCM over 7.1 analog.

This feature lets people with older high-end receivers and processors enjoy the new lossless and uncompressed audio codecs without having to replace an expensive piece of equipment (likely $500 - $2k for a high-end receiver, $2k - $5k for a pre-processor) just to add HDMI.

[bandigolo @ Jan 7th 2009 7:52PM]

ohhhh. Yeah, forgot that bit. Very good point. Although I doubt anyone owning $3,000 worth of audio equipment is holding out for the sub-$200 Vizio BDP, but I guess you never know.

[Dead_Rebel @ Jan 7th 2009 3:54PM]

Yay VIZIO!

[Xoyuji @ Jan 7th 2009 3:55PM]

Whats the big deal its still not at the $99 price that will get them in most homes across the country.

[216 @ Jan 7th 2009 4:00PM]

Yea, $149 is good, $129 is cheap, but $99 is special and it would get the job done in fully replacing DVD all together

[kjb434 @ Jan 7th 2009 4:15PM]

But the features they are offering for $199 will certainly push the higher end names to come lower.

When that happens, Vizio is bound go lower again. I think by the end of the year or early 2010 you'll see $150 or less full featured BD players.

[Jonathan @ Jan 7th 2009 3:59PM]

First you say its $199 and then you say it is a penny less than $200 (which is $199.99).

Geez, don't you guys have a copy editor?

[Christopher Vendemio @ Jan 7th 2009 4:09PM]

It's a means of avoiding monotony.

[Dead_Rebel @ Jan 7th 2009 4:10PM]

Who gives a shit?

[delighted @ Jan 7th 2009 4:39PM]

@Jonathan: you're an idiot.

the focus of this posting is about price level versus feature set. what's most relevant and pertinent to further a good discussion here?:

- is this product remarkable (features)? given the other responses here... yes.
- do they have a high-quality product at this price or are the components inferior? anybody?
- what other products in the marketplace will it be competing with? anybody?
- is this a category killer or something that will impact the market in any significant way? given the other responses here... yes. How? I think @ksb434 said it best below.
- is there anything that this posting forgot to mention with regard to the product and it's place in the CE market? I'm sure. I'll leave that to the more educated people here who know more about this stuff than me.

[Jonathan @ Jan 7th 2009 5:08PM]

Wow. Sarcasm is really lost on a lot of people.

[disclaimer: this comment is not intended as sarcasm]

[Ryan @ Jan 7th 2009 4:16PM]

Screw blu-ray, I'll just download/stream my movies.

[Amerist @ Jan 7th 2009 4:35PM]

When people say that I think they've never actually seen the difference between blu-ray at 1080p and the crappy, compressed 720 image that most streaming providers tout as "HD".

Maybe you have and you really don't care but i doubt it.

[bandigolo @ Jan 7th 2009 4:51PM]

^ case in point:

Blu-Ray looks noticeably better on my 720p Sammy DLP than does DirecTV HD channels (which are generally thought of as some of the best). I can only imagine how that gap will widen when I upgrade to a 1080p set.

[Dreamwriter @ Jan 7th 2009 4:34PM]

Awesome, finally a damn player that isn't priced as a luxury item. We really need Blu-Ray to kill DVD's as quickly as possible, otherwise we'll be left with the uber-crappy downloaded/streamed movies, which are *horrible* quality.

[Stone @ Jan 7th 2009 4:34PM]

No BD-Live, I presume?

[thedudeabides @ Jan 7th 2009 4:53PM]

Surprisingly yes,

"The super-slim player will fit in any entertainment cabinet, and is not only compatible with Blu-ray discs and BD-Live content, but it plays standard definition DVD-Video, DVD-R, DVD-RW, CD, audio CD-R and CD-RW, plus MP3 CDs."

Hopefully that means this is a full Profile 2.0 player. Right now, that's the first hurdle BD has to cover for acceptance, if theres a divide in the profile between cheaper players and higher end players it will delay adoption rates as many people (myself included) will probably wait for the 2.0 spec players to drop in price and ignor earlier specs (rightfully so)

[1stGreg @ Jan 7th 2009 4:54PM]

It is supposed to be BD Live, same for the Memorex model that is also being anounced at $199 MSRP, except that the memorex (apparently) does not decode the HD MA.

2009 will have a price war going on full swing, expect fully featured players at $99 or lower for the next Black Friday.

Now if the studio will follow suit for the price of movies, we can finally mean business here.

P.S: downloadable content? lol. It'll stay (relatively) niche as long as the vast majority of people in the US and the rest of the world will not have access to cheap and easy to setup braodband.
No need of that to just setup a player and a TV (and personally I couldn't care less about BD Live, but a connection possible make updates easy).

[alexmueller @ Jan 7th 2009 4:59PM]

Are we to assume it's Profile 2.0?

[TravisO @ Jan 7th 2009 5:24PM]

I would assume any new player that's coming out to be both 2.0 and BD-Live compliant unless they state otherwise.

[Dorf @ Jan 7th 2009 5:30PM]

Do some of you see the price of movies to be the real problem, not the player? Pineapple Express BD on Amazon, for example, is $26.99. Dark Knight was listed as $35.99 (but now it's $23.99)

It just seems a little high for the average consumer..

Though maybe it will drive more people to use Netflix and others to get their HD fix?

As for me, I'm waiting for LoTR and Star Wars IV-VI to come out on BD, then I guess I will have to take the Blu-ray plunge out of principle regardless of price. :-)

[Big Boy @ Jan 8th 2009 4:43AM]

I bought my first DVD player for 140 on clearance while the movies were still 19.99-24.99 as a high school student. Figure in inflation and the fact that their are still more DVD players then Blue ray the price is right! Give it a little time...

[ecking01 @ Jan 8th 2009 12:19AM]

Once this thing ships 3 months after that it'll probably be 150-130 and next holiday it'll probably be $80. I've actually found vizio to make pretty nice stuff.

[Brian @ Jan 9th 2009 5:32AM]

I bought my Pioneer DV-414 for $299 when the MSRP was $525. Man was it great to upgrade from VHS and my worn out Zorro tape. Now I am too cheap to think about buying a $199 BD player... what happened to me?

[raistlin2k2a4 @ Jan 9th 2009 9:48AM]

bandigolo @ Jan 7th 2009 4:56PM
@bull3964,

You have to go back a ways to find a 7.1 - nay, a 5.1 receiver without a single optical or coax audio input. With all due respect to the analogians, it's time to upgrade your receiver.

Do you even understand why he mentioned analog? You cannot get true HD sound from the BD player using any optical connection other than HDMI. So the only other alternative is 5.1/7.1 analog out which will provide the full HD sound. If you connect a BD player via Toslink you will not get HD sound.