From my (very limited) understanding, Blu-Ray player prices are being slashed because stand alone player sales are awful and the manufacturers are trying to unload outdated/obsolete players.

In what ways are they obsolete? Start-up times? Quality?

If you want to get the best deal it would be on black friday (if you are in NA) but the clutter fuck of the stores is just unbearable.

I'm pretty sure they are blu-ray 1.1 profile players that can't be upgraded to 2.0.

 They don't meet up to the finalised Blu-ray player standards.

It should be functional enough for the most part, but some movies may require you to have a certain profile version for certain features, and stuff.

They are obsolete because the first Blu-Ray players were designed, manufactured and released before the Blu-Ray spec was complete and the only Blu-Ray player on the market that can be upgraded is the PS3 ...

We don't (really) know what the consequences of having a player that isn't the latest and greatest spec, but I suspect that in the future some discs won't play while others have different problems.

1.1 will at least let you watch any blu-ray movie right ? if that's the case then it's good enough for the price tag .

s300 has been outted. s500 stole its place.

****, thanks for taking the wind out of my sales.  Why the **** would they release something that would not play movies in the future?