Since the beginning of the so-called format war HD DVD has had a price advantage over Blu-ray as far as disc players are concerned. While the former maintains its reputation for being the more affordable technology, Blu-ray leads the way in movie title sales and their players are getting cheaper by the day.
Today, Samsung is setting a new low price record for Blu-ray. Retailers such as Amazon, Circuit City and Best Buy are all listing one of Samsung's flagship players, the BD-P1400, at prices below $300 - down $200 from the list price of $499 in late August.
The BD-P1400 features Blu-ray playback at native HD resolutions of 1080p, 1080i, and 720p plus 1080p DVD upconversion. It also packs in Dolby TrueHD and DTS HD support along with the most current HDMI 1.3 spec. In case you need an extra incentive, they are throwing in five free HD movies to the package.