Finally a more affordable price for those who want to enjoy Blu Ray without having to dish out hundreds. This allows for people who are not the least bit concerned with gaming to be able to grab themselves a cheap Blu Ray player.

Hell, if you are a super MS fanboy, you could even grab a 360 arcade and a Blu Ray player for the same price as a PS3! I will still say that PS3 is one of the best Blu Ray players available though.

Yes and no ...

Something that was learned when we switched from VHS to DVD was that the quality of the player in a digital format was not particularly important in producing an image at a quality level beyond the typical person's ability to see; or their willingness to care about. While you could probably see a slight difference between the top of the line Blu-Ray player and this $100 player on high-end TVs while playing side-by-side the typical person will not see much of a difference if they're playing a movie on their "Average" HDTV without anything to directly compare it to.

Now, I'm certain that features like faster load times are associated with the better Blu-Ray players, but for people who are looking for a Blu-Ray $100 today for something that works and $50 3 years from now for a "high-end" Blu-Ray player makes far more sense than buying a more expensive player today.

As an entry model yes.

^ I was mostly referring to the WiFi capabilities and being able to download updates as well as additional content. I'm sure many higher priced Blu Ray players come with this as well though.

So if Sony had gone with Dvd, you can buy a dvd player for 20$, they actually could've cut the cost with an additional 80$ ????

What's your point? 

The PS3 is also made in China..

Entry level or not.  Many reviewers including cnet reckons it is one of the best Blu-ray players on the market.

Tell me BTW what makes it entry level and what are (apart from recording which will make any BR player very expensive and more than a player) the functions required to take a BR player to the next level.

It is not only fonctions it is the quality of the player in general.

I'm not gonna make a technical comparaisons here (Im' not capable of that).

But for me, a good BR player is a Pioneer, Denon, Marantz... 

PS3 has a very good ratio value for money but is already lagging behind (noise, hd audio to be decoded with the receiver not the console etc).

But for the moment, I'm quite happy with it.

Btw : Cnet said that last year.

Lol, the whole world is made in China! Especially electronics and similar products.

- How much is the cheapest Blu ray player in America from an established brand?

- How much does cost remote for PS3? Is it needed/worth it?