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Get a Sony Blu-ray player for $129.99 shipped

This is far and away the lowest price ever for a BD-Live-compatible player. It is a refurb, though, so you'll have to decide if a 90-day warranty is worth the savings.

Rick Broida Senior Editor
Rick Broida is the author of numerous books and thousands of reviews, features and blog posts. He writes CNET's popular Cheapskate blog and co-hosts Protocol 1: A Travelers Podcast (about the TV show Travelers). He lives in Michigan, where he previously owned two escape rooms (chronicled in the ebook "I Was a Middle-Aged Zombie").
Rick Broida
2 min read

Update: Sorry, sorry! Looks like this is already out of stock. Try checking back later, but in the meantime I'll try to find you another deal for today!

Update #2: If you're still on the prowl for an inexpensive, BD-Live-friendly Sony Blu-ray player, here's an option for $199.99. Yep, it's the Sony PlayStation 3 slim deal from a couple weeks ago. Not quite $130, but you are getting a kick-ass game console as part of the bargain.

We've seen a few Blu-ray players for under $100, but most of those were low-end models from lower-tier manufacturers.

At the SonyStyle store, which has been cranking out some serious deals of late, you can grab a refurbished Sony BDP-S350 Blu-ray player for $129.99 shipped.

(The product page shows $249.99, but you'll see the lower price when you add it to your cart. Also, it's backordered right now, but you can still place an order if you don't mind waiting.)

What's the big deal about the BDP-S350? For starters, it's a lot more compact than most Blu-ray players, measuring just under 9 inches deep.

It also has an Ethernet port for firmware updates--and there's an update available immediately that'll enable BD-Live!

That much-ballyhooed feature lets you download/stream bonus content. I don't consider it a big deal, as I'm not all that into extras, but any serious videophile will insist on it.

Other perks include a quick-start mode (six seconds from power-on to operation), a built-in Dolby TrueHD decoder, and "very good DVD upscaling," according to CNET's review.

The one and only downside here is the warranty: a refurb-standard 90 days. Even so, I can't recall ever seeing a BD-Live-ready Blu-ray player for under $200, let alone for $130. If I was in the market for one, I'd hop on this like Kanye hops onstage at an awards show.