Funai to bring 'budget' Blu-ray player to North America this year

[Titanio]

So says the Nihon Keizai Shimbun.

http://www.digitimes.com/displays/a20070621PB205.html

Funai makes cheap electronics, under the Magnovox brands among others. No word on price yet, but..$399? $299, even? Anyway, this will probably be your best bet for the cheapest BD player this year, whatever about relative quality, and might inject some pace into the move toward lower pricing for the masses.

 

[Zaphod]

This was non-news back in February and, until someone comes up with more concrete information than 'Funai will launch a Blu-ray player before the end of the year', it's now just old non-news.

 

[Titanio]

Well, once it's out I don't think it would be non news, but I apologise if this is old. Seems they were just reaffirming those plans without offering new detail. It was new to me, and I hadn't seen a thread on it here, so my apologies..

 

[Zaphod]

Didn't mean to come off as overly negative. Guess I'm just starting to get tired of the whole next-gen 'war' thingy. Rumours, repetition and dubious information all around. For every time there is a 'Funai story' there is a 'cheap HD-DVD from China story', and we've been hearing about the latter since 2005.

It seems likely that something will materialize on the cheap end from at least one of the camps (with the big chains chiming in with in-house brands) towards the big sales periods at the end of the year, but until then...

I want pricing, specs, and information on where and when to buy. Please? :smile: