Magnavox NB530MGX Blu-ray player shows up in the wild

by Steven Kim posted Jan 29th 2009 at 9:03PM

Our friends at Format War Central have spotted a new Blu-ray deck from Magnavox at their local Wal-Mart -- the NB530MGX. It's a Profile 1.1 player, just like last year's discount darling NB500 model, so this is probably just a new model designation for a Funai-sourced player with NB500 internals. Cynical, we know, but it certainly would fit with the nondescript appearance on the scene. Honestly, we can't hold it against Format War Central for not picking this up and doing a breakdown -- the Funai, Magnavox and Philips nameplates that might be tacked on to this player all fail to get us excited. The upcoming VIZIO VBR100 player looks better and better.

Filed under: Industry, Blu-ray, Players, Magnavox, Others, Philips

Tags: blu-ray, format war central, FormatWarCentral, funai, magnavox, nb530, nb530mgx, philips

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Neutral

SimbaDogg @ Jan 29th 2009 9:59PM

mannnnn...you mean the person that snapped the pic couldn't do a price check to see what this guy is going for?

Neutral

squiggleslash @ Jan 29th 2009 10:10PM

Who gives a crap? It's 2009, and they're still trying to dump Profile 1.1 players on an unsuspecting public.

At least it will not cost nearly two thousand UK pounds though. Geez.

Neutral

SimbaDogg @ Jan 29th 2009 10:14PM

i could care less if its profile 2.0. after purchasing transformers, ironman and the dark knight...i have yet to see anything that is even remotely cool about using profile 2.0. I participated in the chris nolan live chat w/ dark knight, and that was probably the closest thing to cool that i've seen. and it still had me wishing i had more hands, so i could give it four thumbs down.

Neutral

kevin @ Jan 30th 2009 2:54PM

Uhhh...price?

Neutral

Steven Kim @ Jan 30th 2009 2:59PM

Shows up on Wal-Mart at 198 (linked in the original FWC post), making the VIZIO look really good.

Neutral

Chuckles @ Feb 13th 2009 5:27AM

I bought this last week and couldn't be happier. I have one of the first (and last) CRT HDTV's (RCA F38310) (so old there's no HDMI port), and the picture quality is awesome (using RGY connectors). Bought Ironman with it and was blown away. Up-conversion is fine (watching Open Range as I type), a bit grainy, but it naturally will be. Hey, for $200, to me it's a no-brainer. I could, frankly, give a hoot about version 2.0 (or version 389.6), it got me into true Blu-Ray quality for $200. I bought this one a lot sooner than I bought my first DVD player because of the price. Of course, I was fighting against a 4000 VHS collection vs. a mere 1000 DVD collection. I got what I paid for and I'm completely satisfied.

Neutral

john billings @ Mar 2nd 2009 7:51AM

any problems with newer released blu rays? is the 2.0 deal
just for extras on the disc or do you need it to play the newer releases? ive heard both sides -but i wanna get this player if its not gonna need to be upgraded to play newer movies. i
could care less about the extras -im in it for picture quality and playability and durability!

Neutral

F Stoeber @ Apr 1st 2009 2:57PM

I just bought this at Walmart for 198. I was looking for a good player on Amazon, but it seems like the emphasis these days is on frills like Netflix and the like but hardly warrant an additional $100. Also, I was annoyed by the fact that the Sony players don't have step-by-step freeze frame.

I hooked it up via Component video cables to my 46" Sony Bravia KDL46WL140 (I only mention this because I realize that this TV should have pretty good internal upscaling capabilities and I am not sure how much this would affect final quality). At first the quality seemed really poor to me and I was rather shocked, but then I discovered that the default video output had been 480i. With Component video 1080p is not available, and I found that the 720p looked better than 1080i. I was pretty impressed with the quality. I also popped in a dvd I figured would have the optimal quality (Starwars III), and I was pleased with the results.

The only Bluray I bought and tried was Stargate the movie, and it turns out that the film quality of that is not very good so I need to get a higher quality bluray disc for my final assessment. Also I will pick up an HDMI cable today so I can get 1080p data @ 24hz.
I also want to see if it can play old dvxs and burned movies, but that is secondary because the old DVD player handles those quest fine.

I have it hooked up to an older surround sound/dvd system via the digital coax and it works great. In the setup you can mute the HDMI audio and that will output it to the digital coax.

Cons for me:
The Magnavox makes an audible fan noise about comparable to a desktop computer.
Setup features can only accessed if no disc is playing.
Fairly large unit.
power cord is permanently attached and not detachable, ie replaceable.

Pros:
Cheap
Has freeze frame, and dedicated skip chapter & ff, rewind, etc. I really like that because my philips dvd player only has one button for both fuctions and if the battery is weak it is impossible to fast forward.
Speedy (at least for Stargate Bluray) loading.
Plays and upconverts DVDs without problem and without delays.

Neutral

F Stoeber @ Apr 7th 2009 3:42PM

I purchased the HDMI cable along with the Bluray copy of Chronicles of Narnia - The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. I picked this movie because I read that the bluray transfer has exceptional video quality.

With this bluray disc and the HDMI pumping out 1080p @ 24fps I was blown away by the quality. Also, the Magnavox player perfermed beautifully and where the disc said "load time could take between 2 and 3 minutes", I was up and running within half a minute at max.

I for one am very happy with this purchase.

Neutral

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