Philips BDP5010 Blu-ray / Divx player drops below $70 at Target
By Thomas Ricker 
posted March 15th 2010 7:39AM
posted March 15th 2010 7:39AM
[Thanks, Keith B.]
posted March 15th 2010 7:39AM
A look back on popular stories from today in a specific year.
Now that we've thrown 'em off the trail, use the form below to get in touch with the people at Engadget. Please fill in all of the required fields because they're required.
Capitalism strikes again! Yay for lower prices!
@Proverb
But I thought capitalism was evil because it is so wrong to turn a profit?
....
You miss the point. It's not evil to turn a profit, but it is evil when you will do anything and exploit anyone one to turn a profit as thought nothing else matters.
@Proverb Not capitalism but Philips.
@Alex Capitalism is evil and obviously doesn't work! Blu-ray players like internet access is a right. Government mandated blu-ray players for everyone!
Good luck getting that price at Target Australia.
@(Unverified)
iknowright
everything here is expensive. :
@FAP FAP FAP
Yep :( Anyway time to go to bed. Cya mate.
@(Unverified) AUSTRALIA has Target?!
@(Unverified)
It sure does. We also have Kmart.
lol its because its not BLUtooth
@emopoops what?
@Chris DPSN AggieCEO XBLThe Aggi becuase it doesnt have blootooth capabilities to connect to your tv or moniter with out cords
@emopoops
you're either trying to be really funny or you're REALLY stupid
@PBB hon, noone knows what your talking about.
how am i stupid? the things are cheap because they arent bluetooth capable. DUH.
@emopoops Apparently, in your world Bluetooth in Blu-Ray players is a standard feature. In normal world, no one cares to look for it which is why your so called joke pretty much fails.
@emopoops so, there is a blu-ray player out there that has Bluetooth that connects to other components for wireless video playing? Wireless HDMI barely keeps up with the massive bluray stream let alone bluetooth. So, yes you're stupid.
@emopoops I know its a joke, but its REALLY stupid.
@PBB i REALLY WASNT JOKING ASSHATS.
@PBB uh DUH. THATSS what they are all working on. thats why things like these with cords are going on sale. blutooth is coming to virtually everything soon to the masses
@emopoops i know that u dont know what a blu-ray player is. It doesnt need BT because. Its much like a DVD player but with capabilities for greater Quality. A violet-blue laser beam scans the surface. The beam is about 450nm.
Yeah why dont ALL companies stick TOO many features on a player and bring up its price to unaffordable again.
@IvanP91 no, i know what a blu ray is. that doesnt mean it cant be blootooth cappable. I mean for shizzle son, ive got quite a few minds of my own that need the latest techie and shizz. Im not about to pay no anti-spensive amount for some product of the past. blootooth is the new muleniom and theres bout to be some changez up in thiz engadget once the comaniez and such get thur act together and release what theyv for reals bin werkinz on!
awesome price
@GugelBot not furr whachuze get son.
what target was this found at?
Funai is as close to "fun" as their products get.
About time these players drop in price. Now, others will follow suit and Blu-Ray will become even more affordable to everyone.
It says "clearanc" on the bottom of the label. So get 'em while they are hot.
So-so reviews on image quality? So how does a purely digital device degrade the picture quality? I've never noticed different hard disks changing the quality of data I store, so what's different with a BD->TV transmission of 1s and 0s?
@SimonG156 Maybe the video decoding hardware is not the best. That's about all I can think of.
@SimonG156 IT isn't the transmission that's the problem, it is the decoding.
@tbonet I thought the DAC had moved from player to display unit. I.E. My Pioneer Kuro is decoding not my Sony Blu-Ray player?
Nah. "physical media" is so 00s!
@Marko Blu-Ray's Pyrrhic victory in the physical media war.
it would be great for my kids room, might jump on this
@Chris DPSN AggieCEO XBLThe Aggi
Be careful, it'll probably break ...
The price barrier has officially been broken. I'm happy streaming HD on Xbox though...
Do you think the difference over an upscaling DVD player would be substantial on my 50 inch 720P Sony KF-50 WE 620?
@Nitesh: If you mean Bluray movies compared to upscaled dvd's? then I can tell you it's just as much of a difference as vhs and dvd.. (picture quality wise).. especially on large tv's
@SuperDre I've heard as much, but I was wondering since my set cannot display full 1080p, if the difference would be worth the cost.
@Nitesh
Probably not so much. I've got both an upscaler (old hd dvd player) and a blu ray drive connected to my old 42 inch 720p sony. They look about the same. I have a pretty sweet audio setup, so if/when decent audio is included on the blu version it sounds better.
Not a bad amount to drop to try blu ray though if you're already using Netflix for regular dvds.
@Nitesh: Well, I can only tell you how I perceive it with my 720p Optoma H79 beamer.. The difference for me is almost as I said with vhs and dvd even at 720p, so I can only imagine what it will be like when I even go to 1080p (which is even a higher vertical difference as 720p is to PAL), I have a pretty good dvd-upscaler (oppo) but the upscaled image (to 720p) doesn't come near the same movie downscaled with my PS3 (to 720p)..
Here in the UK the players are not the problem...the disks are. New movies run for £19.99 most times. The equivalent DVD is usually half that. There's just a hard time trying to convince people the extra quality is worth TWICE the price.
@Tes Indeed, unless you have a large tv the difference is a lot less than the jump from vhs to dvd that was clear to everyone regardless of the tv they had.
@crowl
Exactly. I've only got a 40" LCD, but I can see the difference. After testing out some 1080p videos with my laptop connected via HDMI I scored a Samsung BR player for about £50 on eBay. But after 2 months I only have 4 movies and the Band Of Brothers box set just due to the prices at brick and mortar shops like HMV. The prices are all cheaper online (and ordering stuff from offshore tax havens like Jersey saves a little more too) but movies are the sort of thing I used to just get as an impulse buy. It's be Friday, I'd walk past HMV and pick up a couple of DVD's for less than £10. Now I'd have to choose between one movie on Bluray or spending the same £20 on two tickets to the movies for me and the girlfriend.
This really doesn't warrant a post here. I know this isn't your area of expertise, Engadget, but Target's clearance items are incredibly "your mileage may vary" - in other words, I'd be willing to bet that no more than 50 people reading this article will actually see that player at that price. And that's a very generous guess. There should probably be a big disclaimer: player drops below $70 at *VERY FEW* Targets.
@kevout I was about to say the exact same thing. You can literally go to a Target store down the street from this one and have a higher price when it comes to clearance items.
@BurtReynolds
Burt I thought according to National Enquirer, you're on your death bed
It's true, Prices vary by store, But this is the time that the current Blu-ray players will be clearanced to make room for the new ones because it's that time of the year where all the stores move things around and make room for new product.
I had a local Target employee explain the clearance price rotation for the 3 stores near me. I just watch for the one that carries the deepest discounts.