Now that the Black Friday 2008 picture is more clear, we’ve analyzed all the HDTV-related deals and have come up with a list of the best deals worth waking up early for. Looks like Wal-Mart might be one of the best places to shop for Black Friday this year. Check’em out below.
Starting Sunday, November 23, Sears.com has the Panasonic DMP-BD35 Blu-ray player on sale for $150. The player won the coveted Editor’s Choice award from CNET as one of the best Blu-ray players for the money. Unfortunately, it looks like the site quickly sold out of them. No word on if they’re getting more in stock.
*Update* Looks like they removed it entirely from their online store. Bummer.
Best Buy’s Black Friday deals have just been released. The are a few standouts, but most of the deals are underwhelming. Check out the entire list below:
Dell Home (link) will have some HDTV-related deals for Black Friday. The most impressive is an XBOX 360 Arcade with 7 games, including Rock Band 2, for just $199. Wow. Check out all of Dell’s HDTV-related Black Friday deals below:
Sony HDX275 Home Theater System$229.99. 5-disc DVD/CD changer. 1000 watts. iPod dock. DVD upscaling to 1080p. HDMI interface.
Sharp LC42SB45U 42″ 1080p LCD HDTV$779.00. This is Sharp’s bargain line of LCDs. Not a bad price. Sears will have a 46-inch Sharp Acqous 1080p LCD for $900. (Link.)
XBOX 360 Arcade With 7 Games Including Rock Band 2$199.00. The Arcade bundle includes 6 packaged games like Feeding Frenzy, Luxor 2, Boom Boom Rocket, Pac-Man Championship Edition, Uno, and Superstars Tennis. The real value is the addition of Rock Band 2, which is $60 on its own. Doesn’t come with instruments, however.
K-Mart’s Thanksgiving Day 2008 deals have just been released. They will be good for Thursday, November 27, 2008, which is the day before Black Friday. Here are all the HDTV-related deals. A star means we find the deal interesting. Check out the Sony Blu-ray player for only $180!
Sony Blu-ray BDP-S350 Disc Player $179.99 (Ed. One of the better quality Blu-ray players. See a video review below.)
Element 32″ LCD HDTV $399.99
Memorex 26″ LCD HDTV/DVD Combo $399.99
Samsung 42″ PN42A400 720p Plasma HDTV $699.99
The Sony BDP-S350 Blu-ray player received a 7.0 out of 10 rating from CNET (link), who said it delivers a superb Blu-ray picture as well as very good DVD upscaling.
Wal-Mart is getting their Black Friday bargains started a little early with a sale on November 8. They will have a Sanyo DP46848 46″ 1080p LCD HDTV for $798. The Sanyo has not been professionally reviewed, but there is a small discussion thread about it over at AVS Forums (link).
Wal-Mart is also are bringing back a previous bargain: a free $100 Wal-Mart gift card with purchase of a Sony Playstation 3 ($399). If you’re know you’re going to spend $100 on something (e.g., groceries), and it’s available at Wal-Mart, the gift card essentially knocks a $100 off the price of the PS3.
There are a few important details:
The deals are only good at 8:00am at a Wal-Mart store. (Online store will have its own specials.)
There is a limit of 1 per customer, but they are stocking at least 10 of each item at each store.
Here’s an early look at a list of HDTVs and other interesting items of note that will be on sale for Sears on Black Friday 2008.
HDTVs:
Element 37″ LCD HDTV - $599.99
Panasonic 37″ Full HD LCD TV - $749.99
Panasonic 42″ 720P Plasma HDTV - $699.99 *
Proscan 32″ LCD HDTV - $499.99 *
Samsung 19″ LCD HDTV - $299.99 *
Samsung 32″ LN32A300 LCD HDTV - $499.99
Samsung 40″ 1080P LCD HDTV - $799.99 *
Samsung 46″ 1080P LCD HDTV - $1099.99 * Samsung 46″ 1080p LN46A530 LCD HDTV - $1199.99 Ed. Great TV.
Samsung 50″ 720p PN50A400 Plasma HDTV - $899.99
Samsung 52″ 1080p 120Hz LN52A650 LCD HDTV - $2099.99
Sharp 26″ LCD HDTV - $399.99 * Sharp 46″ Class Full HD 1080P LCD HDTV - $899.99 * Ed. A lot of screen for a low price.
Sony Bravia S-Series 40″ 1080p LCD HDTV - $999.99
Sony Bravia S-Series 46″ 1080p LCD HDTV - $1299.99
Sony Bravia V-Series 40″ 1080p LCD HDTV - $1099.99
Sony Bravia V-Series 52″ 1080p LCD HDTV - $1799.99
Sony Bravia W Series 52″ 1080P LCD HDTV - $1999.99 *
Sylvania 42″ Class 1080P LCD HDTV - $699.99 *
Toshiba 40″ 1080p 40RV525U LCD HDTV - $849.99
Vizio 26″ LCD HDTV - $379.99
Vizio 37″ 1080p Full HD LCD TV - $699.99
Other items of note:
Samsung BD-P1500 Blu-ray Disc Player - $199.99
Samsung DVD-1080P Upconvert DVD Player - $49.99
Sony DVP-NS700 1080p Upconverting DVD Player - $69.99
Belkin HDMI Kit - $34.99
Logitech Harmony Remote - $59.99 w/32″ TV Purchase
Samsung 1000 Watt Home Theater System - $159.99 *
Samsung HT-BD2E Blu-ray Home Theater System - $599.99 Sony Blu-Ray Disc Player - $179.99 * (Ed. Model unknown, probably the BDP-S300)
Sony DAV-HDX275 1000-Watt 5-Disc Home Theater System w/1080p Upscaling HDMI
Sony DAV-HDX576WF 1000-Watt 5-Disc Home Theater System w/Wireless Rear Speaker - $349.99
Tech Craft 48″ TV Stand - $149.99
Tech Craft 58″ TV Stand - 50% Off
300 BluRay - $19.99 *
National Treasure 2 Blu-Ray - $18.99 *
Sleeping Beauty Blu-Ray - $18.99 *
The Sylvania NB500SL9 Blu-ray player had its priced chopped to $199.00 at Amazon.com.
The unit has not been professionally reviewed, but it shares the same internal hardware of three other bargain Blu-ray players manufactured by the Chinese company Funai, two of which were rebranded:
Of these brands, only the Insigna NS-BRDVD was reviewed by CNET. It received a 6.0 out of 10rating. CNET liked the unit’s 1080/24p video quality and its DVD upconversion. They also liked its ability to output Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio in bit stream format. They didn’t like the subpar video quality Blu-ray discs in standard 1080/60p mode, and the fact that it’s forever stuck as a Profile 1.1 player. Check out CNET’s video review below:
Rounding out the recent Blu-ray player price drops is the Samsung BD-P1500, which is now $209 at Amazon.com. The BD-P1500 is a Profile 2.0 player (after a firmware update) with 1080p output, DVD upconversion (1080p), in-player decoding for Dolby TrueHD, and bit stream audio output.
CNET rated the player a 6.8 out of 10 (or 3 stars). They liked the image quality for Blu-ray discs, but disliked the DVD upconversion quality and the lack of analog multichannel outputs. For a second opinion about the unit’s DVD upconversion, Ultimate AV Mag also reviewed the unit and had this to say:
The PS3 had a slight edge over the BD-P1500—and I do mean slight. Playback of The Incredibles on the Samsung appeared a little flatter, while the PS3 exhibited a bit more detail and vibrancy in darker scenes.
The Samsung BD-P1500 should continue to be aggressively priced as we head into the holidays and may be an ideal choice for bargain hunters to keep a watch on.
The cost of Blu-ray players continues to fall before the 2008 Holidays. Buy.com has cut the price of the Panasonic DMP-BD30K from $399 to $259 with free shipping. The DMP-BD30K is a profile 1.1 player with 1080p/24fps output and 1080p DVD upconversion.
CNET rated the player a 6.6 out of 10. They loved the picture quality, but didn’t like the lack of in-player decoding for high-resolution audio and that it has no ethernet jack for firmware upgrades. See CNET’s video review below.
We still like the Sony BDP-S350, a Profile 2.0 player (with firmware update) that can be found for around $275 on Amazon, but the Panasonic is likely to see its price fall even lower in the near future.
