The price of $500 is actually less than I'd expected it to be - I'd been telling folks to expect $600. The price will not come down. As for the Panasonic BD35 being half the price, it's because you're getting less than half of the player (which may or may not make a big difference depending on your needs). The BD35 lacks multichannel analog output (a big deal for Model 990 owners), lacks SACD, lacks DVD-Audio (which the BDP-83 will have before much longer), and lacks the Anchor Bay video processor. Having used both the 983H and BD30 (and having spent quite a few months testing the BDP-83), I can say that Panasonic's Uniphier chip is not on the same level as the ABT2010 that the BDP-83 is using.