Samsung P1400 at 300

Samsung today scored a minor coup by allowing sales of the BD-P1400 to drop below the $300 price level, achieving a low cost previously reserved only for some more inexpensive HD DVD players. Major deals at Amazon's store as well as similar offerings from Best Buy and Circuit City all place the Blu-ray reader at $299, at least $100 below its average selling price and $200 below its original mark. This makes it both one of the least expensive 1080p-capable HD movie players and also the first to support DTS-HD Master Audio to produce the same quality as raw audio in 7.1-channel surround while consuming only a fraction of the space available on the disc.

The P1400 ships today at the discounted price but is still more expensive than Toshiba's $199 HD-A3, which achieves its price in part by limiting output to an interlaced 1080i video signal and using older Dolby and DTS surround sound decoding. Samsung has not said whether the prices are permanent or are geared solely towards boosting holiday sales and helping the Blu-ray format maintain its lead over the rival HD DVD standard.

By Electronista Staff