Review of The Insignia $149 Wireless Netflix-Ready Blu-ray Player

I have a Sony PS3 as a Blu-ray (and Playon) test device in my office, but I decided to buy an Insignia Blu-ray player for testing. I was hesitant to buy a Insignia branded player from Best Buy, but at $99 for an ethernet Blu-ray player, and $149 for a WIFI & Netflix-enabled device, I was curious. I bought the more expensive WIFI-enabled Blu-ray player to test WIFI streaming. 

 

It's worth noting that for $50 more than a Roku Player you get a WIFI-enabled Blu-ray player, so as player prices drop I'm wondering how Roku is going to respond to $99 Blu-ray players (more exclusive channels?). 

The Insignia Blu-ray player doesn't come with Netflix support built in, but after I got the player on the network, it only took a few minutes to download the firmware update (it did a second update today). Some Netflix-ready devices support YouTube, Flickr, and other "channels," but the Insignia is limited to Netflix.

 

The video quality of DVD upscaling and Blu-ray playback was ok, but the PS3 was noticeably sharper (at double the price), so the Insignia might be a good player for a bedroom or first player for people with low-end home theater setups. When loading a Blu-ray the unit was a bit noisy, but a lot quieter than my Xbox 360 during playback.

Netflix Streaming worked well, with no rebuffering and it supported HD titles. The user interface is similar to the Windows Media Center player, with tab options such as "Instant Queue," "Recently Watched," "New Arrivals: Movies," "New Arrivals: TV," genres, and selections "Like" titles you've watched.

Did you take advantage of the $50 coupon that came with your Netflix movies this week?

Comments

[Dave]

I go through 6 movies a week and I didn't get a coupon.

[Larry Pfister]

i received 3 netflix movies this week, bu didn't get a coupon.

[Mike]

If you didn't get a coupon, I would expect to see more offers for $99 and $149 Blu-ray players towards the holidays. BestBuy ran a similar promotion for their Reward members. - Mike

[MH]

This inexpensive Blu-Ray/Netflix player presents an interesting quandary for other manufacturers. Is higher quality enough to justify the higher cost of other players or will people flock to a cheap player like this one? I think a larger question is whether or not Blu-Ray has a future especially since this unit in addition to the Roku box support HD streaming. I'm looking at replacing my current DVD player simply out of age and performance issues. I know I want to get a Roku box, but do I get a cheap upscaling DVD player or do I actually get a Blu-Ray player? I'm not a big fan of Best Buy so I didn't use the coupon that came with my discs earlier in the week.

[Seth]

This is not good for Roku. But it's very good for Netflix.

[PatB]

I got a Panasonic Blu-ray player for $162. It has top rated Blu-ray play back and DVD upscaling. It has YouTube, Amazon and some other Internet services but no NetFlix at least yet. But I already have a Roku box.

No regrets.

[David G.]

I bought this very player just last week. It's my first blu-ray player, and I was motivated by the coupon that came with my netflix discs to get it for the wireless netflix streaming. It works great! I've been able to stream netflix on my mac for a while, but I never really took advantage of it because the (seemingly trivial) effort of hooking up the laptop to the tv was enought to keep lazy-old-me from ever really using the streaming service. Now that it's just a few button-presses on my blu-ray remote away, I use the netflix streaming all the time. And a (netflix) rented Planet Earth Blu-ray disc looks beautiful on my HDTV. AT ~$164 (including CA sales tax), this was a MAJOR value to get the netflix streaming box and a blu-ray player.

[David G.]

Oh, by the way, the reaction from Roku has apparently already come: Instead of $99, Roku players are now $79, according to netflix.com.

[pass a hair drug test]

I subscribed to your blog when is the next post,Thanks for such a nice post.

[Blu-Ray Player Reviews]

It is a great awesome player,though the prices of the Blu-ray discs are higher than that of DVDs. But, they are growing popular among the buyers due to the picture and sound quality.This is a blu-ray player with nice video quality and the interface is clean.I'd recommend this player. The picture is gorgeous, especially when paired with a new 1080p, 120Hz LCD HDTV.

[Dave]

I bought one of the Insignia netflix bluray players, and was a bit ticked to find that it will not play netflix in HD, only SD. Bluray titles play fine in HD, and standard DVDs are up converted to 1080, but netflix is stuck at 480 resolution. That is a big problem IMHO.