[Krobar]

UPDATE:
The original supplier of 240V BH200s no longer stocks them but another user has sucessfully used here in Switzerland:
https://www.highdefinition.ch/produc...er/137892.html

Comes out at about £450 inc P&P. I'm not sure but you may be charged VAT from Switzerland.

[bradavon78]

Any idea if it uses a normal kettle lead?

Not that a Euro to UK plug adapter is a big deal.

[Jon_P]

I'm fairly tempted with this player as i've been following the developments on another forum ;-)
I've also got a mail into LG to find out where i could actually buy one in the UK (shock horror!!).
Theres actually a higher rate of duty payable in Belgium than in the UK, so in theory it should work out a little cheaper over here, and it would be easier to send for repair should any nasty faults develop. I'm not so sure if i'll end up buying a UK model given the price, if I can find a decent price on a US Model somewhere then I may go the import from the states and just plug it into a step down transformer and hope for the best. I think a little more shopping around is probably in order at the moment, £500+ will go a long way towards a new amp, or maybe nearly half way to the KEF surround setup i've got my eye on!

[Krobar]

Interestingly we can now switch the Bluray region between A and B with the remote for the BH200 so where you buy it from is less important.

Last response I got from LG UK sales was they would not bring in the BH200 unless a retailer ordered a box (30).

Mine should arrive tomorrow and I'll start an owners thread.

[Krobar]

Originally Posted by bradavon78

Any idea if it uses a normal kettle lead?

Not that a Euro to UK plug adapter is a big deal.

It use the small 2 pin connector that is very common.

I just got mine from iishop.be, only took 4 days. The Matrix Trilogy was the Dutch version which is the same spec as the USA but not combo discs and in individual standard HDDVD cases.

Owner Thread: http://www.avforums.com/forums/blu-ray-dvd-players/756827-lg-bh200-owners-thread.html#post6986770

[bradavon78]

Originally Posted by Jon_P

I've also got a mail into LG to find out where i could actually buy one in the UK (shock horror!!).

Please update the thread if you hear anything, my gut feeling is it will lead nowhere. If LG UK were interested we'd have heard something by now or some UK site selling it.

I'm pretty sure after Customs and TAX a USA Player would cost roughly the same.

Argos have it:

Originally Posted by Krobar

It use the small 2 pin connector that is very common.

Thanks.

Originally Posted by Krobar

The Matrix Trilogy was the Dutch version which is the same spec as the USA but not combo discs and in individual standard HDDVD cases.

Are you sure they're not combo sided discs? The UK set is 3 combo discs:

1. Side One Movie
2. Side Two Revisited Extras

The USA Trilogy set is three single sided discs with no extras to speak of and the Ultimate set is three combo discs (like our UK Trilogy release) with the remainder discs being SD DVDs.

[Krobar]

Hi Bradavon,

The final cost on my card all in from Belguim was £552 which is a fair bit cheaper than £700

I opened the Trilogy boxset and you are right they are combos with all of the American extras and TrueHD tracks. They just seem to have added Dutch subtitles.

[bradavon78]

Originally Posted by Krobar

The final cost on my card all in from Belguim was £552 which is a fair bit cheaper than £700

That's a good price.

I'm really kicking myself I didn't try and get this from Argos UK for £425. It was on as a "Manager's Special" up in Liverpool and I possibly could've got someone to get it for me. It's long gone now. They said it appeared to be a returned product.

I didn't go for it as it was before we knew how to switch the BH200 between RA and RB. My plan then was to still get an American Player.

[suge]

Originally Posted by Krobar

Interestingly we can now switch the Bluray region between A and B with the remote for the BH200 so where you buy it from is less important.

What is the code for doing this please.

[bradavon78]

Look here, you will see a "Info Link" inside this link:

LG BH200 Owner's Thread

It's not as simple as just giving a code, it's not much more complicated either though. I'm unkeen to copy/paste the instructions due to the amount of work that has gone into the AVS Forum threads and they'll likely quickly become out of date anyway.

You can also see the Main AVForums thread thread here:

LG BH200 Owner's Thread

[knobby01]

Hi there

I've been following this thread closely 'cos I want one of these badly.

Just foned Customs & Excise re: shipping one to the UK and is as follows:-

1. 13.9% added to total cost of item and shipping

2. Then add VAT (17.5%) on total

For example, on eBay LG BH200 is $530.00 + lets say $70 shipping to UK.

thats 600 + 83.4 = 683.4

Add 17.5% = $803 roughly £412.....

Hope this helps

Matthew

[bradavon78]

Thanks Knobby. That does help.

A Player from within in the EU will not incur any extra charge.

[knobby01]

Other than iishop.be, is there anywhere else that ships to UK?

Mat

[bradavon78]

It's listed here:

http://tv-video.fnac.com/a2216062/Le...-200?PID=34680

But the price is ridiculous (£635). I read FNAC have exclusivity to all LG BH200's sold in France.

Originally Posted by knobby01

Other than iishop.be, is there anywhere else that ships to UK?

Good question, anyone?

[Jon_P]

Originally Posted by bradavon78

Please update the thread if you hear anything, my gut feeling is it will lead nowhere. If LG UK were interested we'd have heard something by now or some UK site selling it.

Sorry Brad, missed getting back to you on this one. I heard back from LG, they said "ask.co.uk" sell it. Good start really as they gave me the wrong website address, but I did mail www.askdirect.co.uk and they came back with a link (that i've lost!!) and a price that i seem to remember being about £520 but can't find it on their website anymore
I think i'll just put pay to the whole idea of having a nice combi player, realistically I can build a multi-region HTPC for that price, upgrade it when I need to and use it for surfin (hooked this PC upto the 40" sammy the other day which was fun!)

[bradavon78]

Hi Jon

The link's here, but they've now removed it from their site:

LG BH200 Owner's Thread

================================================== =====================

Huh? (read from the bottom up) -

From: Discount Online [mailto:info@iishop.be]
Sent: 17 May 2008 16:32
To: bradavon78@yahoo.co.uk
Subject: RE: LG BH200 // Enquiry

We don't sent overseas anymore.
(incl. BTW/TVA & Taxes)

For more questions you can always contact us at the following number:
+32(0)473.58.31.76

Sent: 17 May 2008 16:21
To: 'info@iishop.be'
Subject: RE: LG BH200 // Enquiry

Are you sure?

A friend of mine also living in The UK received a LG BH200 from your company only the other day.

It's how I knew about you. Can you please tell me if you have the LG BH200 in stock?

From: Discount Online [mailto:info@iishop.be]
Sent: 17 May 2008 10:15
Subject: Re: LG BH200 // Enquiry

Unfortunaly we do not sent to the UK.
(incl. BTW/TVA & Taxes)

For more questions you can always contact us at the following number:
+32(0)473.58.31.76

On Sat, May 17, 2008 03:07, wrote:

Can you please tell me if you have the LG BH200 in stock? How much postage
is to the UK? And how many days it would take to arrive?

[Krobar]

I just ordered using the website, it calculates shipping to UK for you. Will still send to UK as shown below (Prices are for UK shipping):

Shipping Method

Please select the preferred shipping method to use on this order. Please Select

Delivery by UPS Express
UPS : 9 kg 28.00EUR

Delivery by ABX
Shipping to GB : 9 Kg 14.00EUR

[bradavon78]

Thanks Krobar.

I wonder what they've babbling about then. I'll just have to order to see if they have stock. Given that the BH200 maybe harder to order as time goes on I'll likely order on this week sometime. I'd hate to buy one to find out I cannot get it any more.

[bradavon78]

After 15-18 months of waiting and almost 10 weeks (LG March firmware) after a HD Player was finally available that met my strict requirements I've finally ordered a HD Player (the LG BH200 of course ).

I went for a Euro model so as to make sure the warranty was intact and I didn't have to mess around with a voltage converter. It will of course be Region B out of the box but I'll be switching it to Region A.

I could've saved about £100 by importing one from America but then that would likely have no warranty (it would be invalid as soon as I plugged it into a voltage converter), for such a product I think warranty is important. It comes with a Free copy of the Matrix Trilogy HD-DVD, which I already have so will be putting on eBay.

Thanks to Krobar for pointing me towards the company.

[bradavon78]

Yipeey! -

"The BH200 will arrive with us at the end of the week, so it we be with you next week."

[skywalker1010]

Originally Posted by bradavon78

Yipeey! -

"The BH200 will arrive with us at the end of the week, so it we be with you next week."

Congrats on your purchase any news, have you got it yet?

I am looking for a dual player, I actually have no HD-DVD or Blu ray discs currently, only a huge selection of US SD DVD and some UK SD DVD. I thought with the large catalogue of these I could buy the LG BH200 and make Region Free for SD. Then start out on my Blu Ray and HD-DVD collection, seeing as there are loads of HD-DVD bargains to be had.

Can you give me an update on the player, did it arrive safely, was the purchase from Belgium without any hitches

I have an 'older' Denon AVC-A1 SE amp with 5.1 in, does the LG BH200 allow for decoding of the HD sound formats and allow me to hook up to amp without HDMI to get the HD sound decoding?

Cheers

[bradavon78]

Thanks Skywalker. It arrived today, no problems at all. They're a good company and I'd recommend them. It took 10 days from the time I placed the order to arrive, 7 days really as I ordered it on a Saturday evening. They had no stock too, so if they had it would've been quicker.

When you say 5.1 in I presume you mean it has Analogue input, plus Optical/Coaxial connections, correct? Here is what the LG BH200 has:

* No Analogue outputs (the Samsung does but that cannot be made SD DVD Region Free and the BD Region is locked, nor can PAL be enabled on a North American model)
* Optical output - No Coaxial too!
* HDMI 1.3 output

The LG BH200 can on-board decode all audio formats (including TrueHD) except for DTS-HD HR/MA, those need bitstreaming to an HDMI 1.3 Amp. As you don't have an HDMI Amp (like me) you cannot get any form of Lossless audio I'm afraid (considering there is no Multi-channel Analogue outputs) and instead the best you can get is:

* TrueHD - As Full-rate Legacy Lossy Multi-channel DTS
* DTS-HD HR/MA out as Full-rate Legacy Lossy DTS (i.e - The DTS Core)
* DD/DD+ - 640Kbps/1.5Mbps Lossy DD/DD+ or converted to DTS

The DTS Re-encode option needed to get Multichannel TrueHD out of Optical/Coaxial (otherwise over Optical/Coaxial it's 2 Channel only) converts everything to Full-rate Legacy Multi-channel DTS. I don't think this is a big deal myself as DTS-HD is DTS anyway and DD/DD+ converted to DTS is no big deal.

This is using HD-DVD/BD btw. DTS Re-encode is disabled using SD DVDs.

IMO the lack of Analogue outputs is the biggest failing with the LG BH200 but considering all it's wonderful hacks I was happy to compromise and upgrade the Amp, later down the line. Instead of getting the Samsung which has Analogue outputs but no Hacks.

Both the Samsung and LG (both with latest firmware) can Bitstream DTS-HD HR/MA out to an HDMI 1.3 Amp and On-board Decode or Bitstream TrueHD (if Bitstreaming a HDMI 1.3 Amp is required). The Samsung can also sent TrueHD or PCM in Lossless form out of it's Analogue outputs too (DTS-HD HR/MA again needs a HDMI 1.3 Amp).

[skywalker1010]

Thanks bradavon78 for the really in-depth reply.

The analogue out is a problem for me as I really do like the Denon amp

It still looks a great player and with the software updates looks pretty up to date at the moment against other Blu Ray players.

Another solution would be for me to get a new HDMI amp, something like the Onkyo 905

Decisions decisions

[bradavon78]

You don't have to buy them both right now. That's how I'm looking at it. Do you think Full-rate DTS on DVDs sounds great? If so all discs you'll get that as a minimum, except those with just DD5.1.

It is a shame the analogue outs are missing as I too like my Amp but in the end I want the hacks much more, you can always upgrade your Amp.

[o THE CHAD o]

Originally Posted by Krobar

In Belguim,

Come out at 686 Euros including UPS shipping to UK and Matrix Trilogy HDDVD. 240V, Region B, Easy Multiregion SDDVD hack.

AFAIK there should be no VAT or Duty to pay as Belgian VAT is already paid. I spoke to them today and they confirmed it is in stock.

http://www.iishop.be/bh200-bh-200-bl...er-p-1109.html

Ordered.....

[bradavon78]

Great.

Did you go with ABX or UPS shipping? I went with the cheaper ABX (about £10 less) and it arrived fine.

Where are you from btw?

[o THE CHAD o]

Followed the link to the Belgian company iishop.

Used UPS and they have emailed already to say it should arrive in 2 weeks.

I'm happy with that,no rush.

[bradavon78]

Cool.

They told me "middle of next week" it arrived early next week. I bet it's quicker than 2 weeks.

[kj23]

Very interesting. So the 620 euros is the cheapest it's been seen, apart from a US model? Tempting, maybe a bit more than i'd want to pay though.

[bradavon78]

Originally Posted by kj23

So the 620 euros is the cheapest it's been seen

Correct. €640.20 including ABX postage.

Originally Posted by kj23

apart from a US model?

Correct. It's about £100/125 cheaper overall.