From Blu-ray.com-

For those of you who frequent our web forums, you may have noticed users reporting seeing a Magnavox branded Blu-ray Disc player at local Wal-Mart stores for under $300. Sources have now confirmed that Wal-Mart will showcase the Magnavox NB500MG9 for $298 for the upcoming Memorial Day holiday, making it the cheapest Blu-ray player on the market.

The player, which is manufactured by Funai, is a BonusView (Profile v1.1) player, meaning it supports playback of picture-in-picture features found on many Blu-ray discs. The player also supports 1080p24 video output and decoding of Dolby TrueHD audio.

Best Buy will also release their own version of the player under their Insignia brand later this year for $350. No word on how these two players will differ.
http://www.blu-ray.com/news/?id=1292

external link: http://www.videobusiness.com/index.asp?layout=article&articleid=CA6561094&desc=topstory

Get ready for BD to be selling at 15 or 20% versus the piddly 6% of physical movie media thus far.  This is going to be a big big thing and hopefully I'll finally get two whole aisles of Blu-ray verus the half an aisle at my best buy. 

Cheers. 

 Also, the history of the PS3 has shown that when the price of the BD players move down, the PS3 will follow quickly.  When the players moved to $500, the PS3 soon went down to $500, same thing for the $400 players and PS3s.  Does this mean that a price cut is coming for the PS3?

Well, it's cheaper than the PS3, but it still isn't exactly cheap...and it's also profile 1.1, rather than 2.0.

Yes, $300. that is so cheap. I was detracted from Bluray before but now that it's 298, I can buy 3 of them for my family.

The situation of the PS3 is different from that of previous years , it's in a good position right now so the need to price cut isn't as apparent.

2008 xmas sales of bluray = very good but 2009 xmas sales of bluray >> DVD player sales.
2010 xmas sales of bluray software > DVD software.

However, I won't be part of that. DLC FTW!!!

ahhh , Buy BUy Buy!!

Yup this means PS3 price drop on the way..

I expect a Madden 09/price drop in USA

Fifa 09/ price drop in EU

& in JAP....well they should just sell em for free there..

We'll have to see if this jumpstarts blu-ray sales. They've been sitting in idle when people have been expecting them to increase... they actually decreased a lot after HD-DVD lost, the boost didn't really help.  Then it very slightly increased.

If this doesn't work, it might take till $200 players... that and a lower royalty rate then DVD should cause an industry push forcing owners into Blu. Maybe.

n/m

wake me up when there is a $99 blue ray player, as of right now I don't a two cent about blue ray and its higher price tag on movie, and I own not 1 but 2 HDTV. One is a 50' Plasma and the other one is 40' LCD, and dvd look fine on both.