Off-Brand HDTVs May Not Be Such A Bargain After All

With the glut of off-brand HDTVs from Vizio, Insignia, Dynex, and more flooding the market, HDGuru did a little legwork and found the real price of these sets lies in their often inadequate extended service.

Best Buy and Safety Regulatory Commission Screw Customers on Flammable HDTVs

A voluntary recall of one of Best-Buy-house-brand Insignia's HDTVs has been issued, after an irreparable design flaw causing burns and fire was discovered. But customers are getting burned in more ways than one. Update: More »

Dealzmodo: $230 Insignia Blu-ray Player, No Rebates

It looks like some of those price drops we alluded to last month are finally taking effect, but even more drastically than predicted. The Insignia Blu-ray player has been reduced to $230 sans rebates and includes a $100 Best Buy coupon book if you buy it from there (anyone know if the coupons are actually worth anything?). We haven't breached $200 yet, but Blu-ray is getting mighty close. [Best Buy via EngadgetHD]

Sony To Drop Blu-ray Player Price $100, Others to Follow

HD Guru is reporting that Sony will drop the price of their BDP-S350 Blu-ray player $100 and sell it for $300 beginning in September. As a result, manufacturer Funai plans to drop the price of its players (under the Philips/Magnavox, Insignia and Sylvania brands) down $50 to $250 in order to stay competitive in the market. Sony also plans to release a higher end Blu-ray player, the BDP-S550 for $399 beginning in October. [HD Guru]

Afternoon News: Broadband Gridlock, Palm's Black Friday, and Cheap HDTV

• Broadband gridlock caused by increased bandwith demand could force us to return to dialup by 2010. In other "news", the sky is falling and 9/11 was an inside job. [BBC] More »

Best Buy's Insignia Releases First Handheld HDTV...Sorta

This 7-inch Insignia NS-7HTV is technically HDTV in the sense that yes, it does accept ATSC (the over the air HD signal). However, after receiving the signal the 7-inch TV displays the picture on its 480x234 pixel display. 480 x 234? That's not even the 480i that the manufacturer claims. 480i is usually 640x480, not 480 x 234. Unless we're mistaken (which we don't think we are), that's not 480i. More »

Insigna 2 Sport Video Player is Video For Midgets

This small Insigna 2GB Sport Video player plays MP3s and WMAs, has FM, and is really tiny. It also plays back video on its 2.2-inch screen—which looks actually pretty decent. Unfortunately Biggs couldn't get video to work on it, as it doesn't support DivX. And all Biggs had were pirated movies. More »

Best Buy's Insignia NS-DVxG: iPod Challenger With Bluetooth, Plays For Sure

Best Buy jumps into the fray with its own private branded MP3 player, the Insignia NS-DVxG with a 2.2-inch screen, Bluetooth connectivity and a microSD slot. It'll be supplied by Korean manufacturer Joytoto, and will place itself squarely into the Microsoft Plays For Sure camp, with Janus DRM playing back WMV video files as well as MP3, Ogg, JPEG and MPEG-4. More »

Insignia Amigo: Flash-based MP3 Player

For the anything-but-iPod crowd, there's the Insignia Amigo flash-based MP3 player, which looks nice and has some decent features to boot. It comes in 1 and 2GB sizes, has a built in FM tuner, color OLED screen, MP3/WMA/WMA-DRM/Audible/JPEG support, 18 hours of playback time, and even album art display. More »

Low End Theory

Insignia: Mark of the Least

By Brendan I. KoernerI trust I'm not alone in dreading my semi-regular trips to Best Buy. The haphazard selection of products can be truly maddening, and many of the blue-shirted sales clerks need to get with the program. Don't get me started on the nightmare that was Christmas 2003, when I ordered my girlfriend's digicam online then tried to pick it up at a Best Buy outlet. In the time it took three different "sales associates" to locate my Sony DSC-P32, I could've built my own. Out of toothpicks and bubblegum, MacGyver-style.Best Buy's been suffering the consequences of its skeeviness as of late, however, as it scrambles to keep pace with Target, Wal-Mart, and Costco. Let's face it, America's a pretty lazy nation, and if we can pick up a progressive scan DVD player while simultaneously purchasing a five-pound bag of Doritos, heck, we'll do it. So Best Buy has to compete on price, and that means pushing its low-end, in-house Insignia brand ever harder. Just last week, the chain announced a whole slew of new Insignia dreck that'll be ready for the holidays.The upshot? If you've got a cheapskate uncle who knows you're into gadgets, expect some of the following goodies come December. Should you curse your fate, or is "Insignia" synonymous with "low-end quality"? An answer (of sorts) after the jump. PLUS: More surplus goodness! More »