Prices of Blu-ray players are dropping in the US now Sony, Sharp, Pioneer, Samsung and LG have reduced the retail prices for their entry-level Blu-ray players in the United States. The average price has dropped about 25% to less than $300.
Amazon, Wal-mart, Best Buy and other large electronic chains have lowered the price of the Samsung BD-P1400 to $298. The lower prices are, according to industry sources in Taiwan, to clear inventories, which could mean a new line up of Blu-ray players is waiting to enter the market.
11 Comments

Usually the argument is that what is important is to watch the movie. However, for Blu-Ray, and because this suits their interests, suddenly, being able to watch the crappy extras, is extremely important. Oh, coherence is such a lovely thing...
I got the feeling that you are right.

But don't worry johnzap, we can't live without them.

Most blu-ray owners don't give a damn about profiles. There's plenty of polls throughout the internet.
Profile 1.1 = PIP. Try to watch one and see if you like so much and it's a must. I tried a couple movies (even HD DVD movies), for me, the answer is no. Just like director commentary in DVD, I think I only watched 1 or 2 out of hundreds DVD movies last year.
Profile 2.0 = BD-Live. Same with above, I better do BD-Living from my PC!! How are you going to chat with your friends or the director using a REMOTE?? It's a joke!
Back to topic.

A friend got Samsung 1400 for $299 at bestbuy last month, quoted by the manager. I think the news is out since a while ago in the high level ranks but not official yet.
I think most Profile 1.0 players will play the main movie on most newer disks. The older player will not play (obviously) the special features of the newer Profile. I think that if the disk's menu uses BD-J and the Blu-ray player has not received a firmware update for BD-J, then the disk will not play. Some manufacturers are better than others at releasing firware updates. Sony is most likely pretty good about this. Others are not. Hence the stories about unplayable disks. I do not know anything about which specific disks may be/have been affected.
Anyway, because of this possibility, I would not be too keen on buying one of these "clearance" Blu-ray players. If there are any problems playing any disks due to firmware updates, the manufacturers of the "clearance" players may or may not have such firmware update(s).
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