Several online stores including Amazon.com, Best Buy, Circuit City and Costco have dropped the price of the Samsung BD-P1400 Blu-ray disc player to between $270 and $299 at this time of writing. Going by this X-bit labs report, so far Samsung appears to have done this quietly. As this player supports Full 1080p, it puts in the same price bracket as the 1080p HD DVD players that typically sell for $299, which means HD DVD no longer has its price advantage when it comes to 1080p capable players. While HD DVD players are available for starting at the $199 mark, these players lack the 1080p capability.
With Blu-ray title sales already well ahead on the market as a result of PS3 game consoles doubling up as Blu-ray players, this Blu-ray player price drop will further boost the Blu-ray format with additional dedicated player sales for those not interested in having a games console, but would otherwise be put off with the Blu-ray player price. On the other hand, it is unclear if this price cut is just temporary.
