$200 Blu-ray price point now matched by Vizio

By Sharon Fisher | Published January 7, 2009, 4:13 PM

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Vizio has announced its first Blu-ray disc player, also supporting BD-Live content and also priced at $199.99.

The VBR100 Blu-ray Player uses 1080p and upconverts from 720p and 1080i -- unlike Memorex', which also upconverts from 480p. Vizio promotes its unit's "super slim" dimensions of 17 X 11 X 2 inches. Memorex has not yet revealed the size of its player. It is scheduled to be available in April, compared to the Memorex unit, which is due to ship in early summer.

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Only girls in this household, no need for a ps3 but this Blu-Ray at that price, I'll start collecting blu-ray dvds now. Wonder if Vizio will sell it online.

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I'll take a PS3 any day over a set top BD player. The PS3 is infinitely updateable and had everything needed for the new profiles from day one. I'll kills me to say that.

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Not quite sure what the point of upconverting 720p to 1080p is - as DVDs aren't encoded at 720p...

But hey, its consistent with the historical BR marketing precedent! ;-)

At least they addressed the major issue facing BR adoption - player SIZE! ;-)

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