$78 Magnavox NB500MG1F , anyone got one?

[HDPlasma]

Walmart still has a lot of these left for $78.
They look different than the 530 model they have for $128.
Of course, the Magnavox website has no listings for such a model since I assume they are a Walmart exclusive.

For $78, it seems like a good deal for someone who just needs a profile 1.1 blu-ray player but I'm wondering if it's a repackaged 500 series from last year which doesn't appear to be as solid as the new 530 models.

Just wondering if anyone took a dive over the weekend on one of these players and their thoughts on boot up time, load time, any issues, FW version and if they can make any comparisons to the older/current Magnavox models.

[dannyk8232]

Originally Posted by HDPlasma

Walmart still has a lot of these left for $78.
They look different than the 530 model they have for $128.
Of course, the Magnavox website has no listings for such a model since I assume they are a Walmart exclusive.

For $78, it seems like a good deal for someone who just needs a profile 1.1 blu-ray player but I'm wondering if it's a repackaged 500 series from last year which doesn't appear to be as solid as the new 530 models.

Just wondering if anyone took a dive over the weekend on one of these players and their thoughts on boot up time, load time, any issues, FW version and if they can make any comparisons to the older/current Magnavox models.

I bit this weekend...but almost every moving object had a trail or ghost, so I'll be returning it due to lackluster picture quality

[Shawn2009]

Yeah my mother picked one up for Christmas and I have not used it yet so I can't comment too much on it. Hopefully it won't have the problems the above poster stated. I'm looking forward to using it. It's a great deal for a blu ray player. Even though it's not sony.

[Jack Torrance]

Bought one of these too this BF as a second BD player. Watched ZODIAC on it and did not see any of the PQ issues the poster above is mentioning.

[Shawn2009]

Did it look great jack or just okay?

[Jack Torrance]

Originally Posted by Shawn2009

Did it look great jack or just okay?

To be honest, it was on a 32" in the living room (I have a seperate set up with the big screen and PS3 elsewhere, the walmart player was bought for this room as I have a couple of kids who put a lot of mileage on everything and hopefully this player will stop them from overusing my ps3!)

It's harder to judge on a screen smaller than a 32", but I didn't see any of the issues the other poster was talking about, and the PQ I saw was more than "just okay". I definitately would rank it above "very good" (need to watch more movies on it) at this point.

If you can score one for around the $78 price point, it's hard to grumble.

[Shawn2009]

Yeah that's exactly what I was thinking. The TV I would use it on is about 32 inch I believe and if you say the picture quality is pretty good that's what I like to hear. I won't be able to judge for myself till Christmas, and if it isn't good I will have money to buy a sony one, but I'd prefer this one if it's great so I can save money. If you watch more on it and have more opinions on it and don't mind please let me know. Thanks!

[outofline]

I hooked ours up today on our 42" plasma and it looked and played great! There was no ghosting issues, we have it hooked up with Component and Coax audio out. The first blu disc we tried (new Night at the Museum) had a slow load up time the second (Momma Mia) loaded pretty quickly. So far we are happy with it!
I will have to play with it some more tomorrow but so far thumbs up on this cheap player!

[myaddow]

I've got one and it works great. I dont have any of the PQ problems dannyk8232 had.

[outofline]

Just ran 7 or more discs Blu and DVD and this thing preforms flawlessly. It's a lot quicker loading then my Olevia down in the theater and a lot faster responding to commands. This acts as fast as any DVD player with FF/RW and skips. Just watched the 2nd Transformers and am just blown away with the picture on this Hitachi 42". As long as it remains reliable this is a clear winner for only $78 IMHO!

[Brainsick]

Same here, no picture quality loss AT ALL. I did Cars, The Devil's Rejects and Transformers 2 so far with no problems on a 52" Philips plasma.

I got scared at first when it said something like, "may take several minutes to load" and then ~30 seconds later loaded. And that was only on Cars.

An associate of mine said he download the updated firmware online -- um... WHERE?!

[CaptainVideo]

I saw a story on ABC news that Blue Ray players are the hottest selliing item right now, with prices dropping BELOW $100. Now, the question is NOT picture quality, because they all have great picture quality, BUT it's durabilty. How long will the players , 6 months, 2 years ?
We shall wait and see, there. Here's the article,
http://abclocal.go.com/wls/story?sec...mer&id=7147630
Capatain Video

[swifty7]

who cares if a $78 blu-ray player lasts only for 1 to 2 years, by then I'm sure most will want a better player anyway.

[outofline]

OK, I have tried and successfully ran: DVD-R, DVD+R, CD, any Burned DVD I put in including a DVD VR. The only thing so far it will not run is a Win Media burned disc! Again I love how responsive this player is, around 10 sec. to open drawer from power on with no disc 15 with a disc! Any where from 30 to 60 sec to get video on a bluray depending on the disc, 10- 15 sec on DVD from drawer close!

[kyman]

glad to here somes good reviews. mine will be hooked up to a 37in sharp so hoping for the best.

[outofline]

Just went to Wall Mart, the $78 mag is now $128 same as the Mag with the front display! Oh ya I thought I would miss not having a front display but really it's not a big deal. You can bring all that info up on the tv from the remote! Still no complaints or issues!

[mike7904]

I bought this player on black friday. Hooked it up as soon as I got home as I hadn't seen any previous reviews. Initial hold seemed slow but then worked fine. Put several different movies in to make sure they loaded, Dark Knight, Sleeping Beauty, Nat'l Treasure and had no problem. This will be primary unit for now hooked up to a Magnavox tv. Might add a Roku for streaming netflix or pick up a streaming blu-ray player down the line and move this to the spare room.

[ernesto0260]

I bought the Magnavox nb500mg1f and the Sony bdp-s360 on sale and did a side by side comparison to see which one would be better. This project took me a couple of hours of obsessive watching. I had them hooked up to a Sharp 52" lcd tv.
Their are pros and cons to each of these players in my opinion.
I played "Braveheart" and "Gladiator" on blue-ray. I would have to say that the Sony was slightly sharper, and brighter in color in its picture quality. Although, the difference is minute. I played "Spiderman" and "Shawshank Redemption" on regular dvd, there are no visible differences between the two players. The audio quality was noticeably better on the magnavox. The loading time was also slightly faster.
Sony has a display screen while the Magnavox doesn't. The Magnavox has a sd reader which is nice. The Sony is built better, the Magnavox is smaller and lighter. I would say that the Magnavox is a good player for price and was $40 cheaper than the Sony. I decided to stick with the Sony because of its reliability and built quality. It is likely to last longer based on my experience on owning both brands. If it was for the short term, I would have kept the Magnavox.

[garageinc2001]

Nice. Thanks to everyone for posting your findings with this player. Should be very helpful to others.

[HiDefRev]

Go to http://www.funai-corp.com for updates on Magnavox, Sylvania, Insignia and all other brands made by Funai. You'll need a CD or DVD recorder and a blank disc to record the updates and transfer them to your disc player. And, by the way, I've had my Magnavox Blu-Ray player for over a year. The grandkids play the daylights out of it when they visit ( every weekend and ALL summer long ). I have had no problems whatsoever with it.