Target Corp. (NYSE: TGT) has started selling a Blu-ray disc player for what is probably the lowest retail price you can find one at: $229. I've said many times in the past that this new format will not catch on with consumers until retail prices routinely get to less than $200, so this new price from Target is nearing that mark. Of course, panicked U.S. consumers probably won't be buying any Blu-ray players the remainder of this year as they watch what wealth they did have evaporate in the markets.

The Target model is an Olevia brand player (yes, that's an off-brand), which marks a $70 reduction from a recent Sony Blu-ray player that is being sold alongside the Olevia player for $299. Still, unless there is some breakthrough difference that Blu-ray manufacturers and retailers can market correctly, most U.S. consumers will stay with their progressive-scan DVD players that sell for $75 or less and have a perfectly fine picture (although not true high-definition).

So, perhaps sometime in late 2009 -- roughly a year from now -- the market will see $99 Blu-ray players and regular consumers may finally feel the urge to buy one and start re-purchasing their movie libraries in yet another format. That is, until super-duper, high-fidelity Purple-ray players hit the market sometime in 2014 and the cycle repeats yet again. Perhaps by then, we'll all be out of this economic funk and won't be protecting our cash hoards, however little they may be by then.