If you’re looking to get into the Blu-ray game at a cheap price, and don’t care much for BD’s full features or waiting in Black Friday retail lines, then go ahead and Woot! it up.

The one-day online sale outlet has the Memorex MVBD 2510 Blu-ray player on its site today, November 17, for $139.99 plus $5 shipping and handling.

Keep in mind that this player doesn’t have the full BD-Live 2.0 Profile, but if you’re not into all that jazz and just want a high-def movie player with BonusView 1.1, you might like the Memorex.

Here’s the good news/bad news perspective from one commenter on Woot!’s forum:
The Bad:
1) deinterlacing capabilities on this deck are EXTREMELY sub par. Any older, regular DVD will not look good, so make sure you hang on to your old upscaling dvd player.

2) Does not handle the new profile 2.0 discs

3) Was a bit finicky in its HDMI handshake. The Panasonic plasma it was connected to at the CEDIA show kept giving errors on the encryption handshake

4) The Blu-ray spec is extremely flaky. Many new discs require even Sony to update the firmware to view (lots of the James Bond discs had this problem). The key question - Can a ‘value’ brand keep up with the updates, or will this player just sit on top of my now nearly-useless HD-DVD player :>

5) It’s missing a couple of the new audio formats, and doesn’t look like it will down convert to SPDIF if necessary (like the PS3 does). Basically this means you better have a receiver that can handle audio via HDMI, or you may not get audio on all the discs.

6) Not compatible with AVCHD discs. If you happen to have a AVCHD video camera, your disks won’t work.... same goes for those ‘other’ AVCHD discs that may be out there....

The good:
1) CHEAP - holy cow cheap. This is a real deal

2) Fast - I noticed it started discs significantly faster than Sony’s first- and second-gen Blu-ray players. The slow ‘startup’ gets on my nerves

3) Small - this can be good and bad, but is good for this type of player. Don’t need a tank if its output isn’t going to be the best anyway.

So do those goods outweigh the bads for you? Will you hold out for a cheaper one this holiday season, or bigger brand name? Keep in mind Woot!’s a one-day sale.

About the Author:
Arlen Schweiger - Managing editor of Electronic House Magazine

Arlen contributes product news items to electronichouse.com along with his role on the print publication. Got a tip? Send it along!