Onkyo Launches DV-BD606 Blu-ray Player

@John - You are probably right there is such a market - but the question is how large is it? There seems to be quite a few new blu-ray players coming out. I suspect that although the general public is quite prepared to buy flash new tvs for large flat screen appeal they can't quite see the difference between their current DVD players and new boxes that look much the same.

@timple - Probably true. There are I guess 3 main segments -

(a) those who want the cheapest BR player they can get, for some of whom even the £180 players now available are too expensive. I expect a lot of buy-in when players become available at the critical £99 price point. To be honest, you could probably sell a lot of BR players at £99 even if they output SD composite. Lots of people have NO IDEA what a HD image should look like (the sort of people who think that they can buy an HD Ready TV and a cheap upscaling DVD player and all of a sudden all their existing DVDs and SKY SD / Freeview will be magically transformed to "HD") and will be satisfied that they are getting HD if they have a box that says Blu-Ray on the front and a TV that says HD Ready. Medium to long term this will be by far the largest segment of the market.

(b) Super high end consumers, who will pay way more than the price of a PS3 for a fractionally better picture and sound quality. This will inevitably be the smallest segment, but by no means insignificant. It will certainly contain a lot of early adopters, and bear in mind that £600 for a BR player (over £300 for a PS3 or about £180 for the cheapeset BR player) is small potatoes for guys who will shell out thousands for the rest of their kit.

(c) The rest of us - savvy consumers who recognise that, at £300, the PS3 is a simply astonishing bargain. Excellent (if not ultimate) BR playback, good DVD upscaling, super-quiet in operation, network streaming, Profile 2.0 and, to top it all off, a damn good games console. Result.

Different people - different requirements.

Whilst I agree about the PS3's merits (I own one), there's no way something that ugly and noisy is staying in my living room.

I'd prefer to have something bespoke - even a cheapo Sony S350 will do.

Why? On my Pioneer 42" Kuro, I don't think I'd see much difference between the 2.

Where I will find a difference is in the noise levels (PS3 can get quite noisy after a while) and remote control integration - the PS3 has a bluetooth remote control that is not compatible with any universal remote I've seen.

My PS3 is remarkably quiet - I can only barely hear it when the room is otherwise silent. As soon as there is even the faintest whisper of sound on a game or movie, the PS3 is unnoticeable.

There are solutions to the bluetooth remote conundrum. Google ps3toothfairy and you'll see what I mean. There are a couple of others as well.