According to a user thread at Blu-ray.com, Blu-ray disc players manufactured by Funai have started appearing at some Wal-Mart stores priced at $298. This player is their first generation player and is branded as Magnavox, model #NB500MG9. According to the writer, Funai is a Japanese company and is the largest OEM DVD player manufacturer for North America with its manufacturing factories located in China.
This Blu-ray player at Wal-Mart features BD profile 1.1, up to 1080p video out, DVD upscaling up to 1080p and HDMI v1.3 output. Up until now, Funai has been rumoured to be working on a low-cost Blu-ray player and is a company known for manufacturing low cost consumer electronics goods. The other well-known branded Blu-ray manufacturers have previously stated that they plan maintaining their current prices, so hopefully this lower priced player will cause some competition.
