LG BD370 - Best Buy in HCC, July

[HenryHonda]

It's true ! see pages 64 & 65

Ordinarily, I don't take too much notice of reviews published in mags (e.g. WhatHiFi ) - but I've always had a lot of time for the guys at HCC, and never had a bum steer.

Rik Henderson reckons that his earlier review of the Panny BD80 as "...king of the affordable players..." may well be under threat - but the LG's performance as a DVD upscaler seems to let it down.

I'm also confused about the player's ability to bitstream DTS HD-MA - as the downloaded manual, and ads, only mention DTS HD. Can any owner confirm that it can bitstream the whole DTS HD-MA package (and not the core stream only)?

I'm now seriously considering this, rather than a BD-80 (I still have my Pioneer DVD player for DVDs, DVD-A and SACD discs).

 

[Kalos Geros]

I'm also confused about the player's ability to bitstream DTS HD-MA - as the downloaded manual, and ads, only mention DTS HD. Can any owner confirm that it can bitstream the whole DTS HD-MA package (and not the core stream only)?

I'm now seriously considering this, rather than a BD-80 (I still have my Pioneer DVD player for DVDs, DVD-A and SACD discs).

Why would a HDMI 1.3 Blu-ray player fail to bitstream DTS-MA? DTS-HD is practically synonimous wirh DTS-MA: http://www.dts.com/DTS_Audio_Formats/DTS_Audio_Formats.aspx...although I don't have a DTS-MA-capable decoder so cannot absolutely confirm, I'm pretty sure it bitstreams DTS-MA (HD)...

what's more, I gave it a run of HQV Benchmark and it passed with flying colors! Even falsely flagged PAL DVDs end up de-interlaced correctly! Go get it!

 

[Ian_S]

DTS-HD on it's own often refers to BOTH available DTS formats, DTS-HD High Resolution and DTS-HD Master Audio. You can find examples of both of these on various Blu-ray's. Given that apart from the very earliest machines, all HDMI 1.3 models have bitstreamed all formats, I'd be comfortable that if the LG specs say DTS-HD, it will pass all of them on without issue.

 

[KUBBY]

I read this report Again this morning.

LG certainly seem to be grabbing the standalone B/D Player concept by the horns.The startup and load times are a lesson to all of the Japanese manufacturers.The B/D performance is reported very favourably with only the S/D performance criticised.

One of these and an OPPO 983 would be a great combination and a very suitable alternative should the latter fail,for some reason,to hold to their B/2 intentions later in the year.(God Forbid )

KH

 

[Kalos Geros]

The startup and load times are a lesson to all of the Japanese manufacturers.The B/D performance is reported very favourably with only the S/D performance criticised.

KH

Yes, 20 secs to play from full standby....how was SD performance criticised?

 

[KUBBY]

It was the comments such as;

"Inadequate noise reduction and Jaggie smoothing" only upscales to 1080p50 "As well as a cheapo no brand deck"

"Limited DVD skills"

That lead me to think they were criticising its S/D performance.

These are taken out of context,however.The overall performance was praised.
Hence my comment about partnering it with a 983 for a reasonably priced duo with very good performance as a package.


KH

 

[HenryHonda]

Yes, 20 secs to play from full standby....how was SD performance criticised?

The player's ability to Upscale SD DVDs to a decent quality image is what is criticised.

Also, since my mail yesterday, I've discovered that the Audio Jitter performance of the LG is not that great (but better than the Panny BD60):

Panasonic BD80 - 155.5 ps

LG BD370 - 1,981.4 ps

Panasonic BD60 - 4,825.5 ps

However, how this translates to what difference you would hear through a decent surround system I couldn't guess?

 

[Kalos Geros]

It was the comments such as;

"Inadequate noise reduction and Jaggie smoothing" only upscales to 1080p50 "As well as a cheapo no brand deck"

"Limited DVD skills"

That lead me to think they were criticising its S/D performance.

These are taken out of context,however.The overall performance was praised.
Hence my comment about partnering it with a 983 for a reasonably priced duo with very good performance as a package.


KH

Thanks, bit this is a weird conclusion since both the reference DVD disks for testing film-mode de-interlace - SW:AOTC Chapter 11 and The Straight Story, as well as DVE motion patterns revealed no fallback to video-mode de-interlacing...and what does it mean - it only upscales to 1080p/50Hz? it upscales to whatever is needed - both 24/50/60Hz (the option on the menu that allows choosing only between 24/50Hz is confusing, true, but it will not output a 60Hz divx at 50 Hz for sure, or 24p BD to 50Hz as one might think...This is an ambiguous statement anyway - should it upscale to 120Hz or something to be considered good? I have seen cheapo, mid-range and hi-end DVD players and cheapo and mid-range players can in no way be compared to the LG - each and every one of them did nothing to eliminate jagginess on PAL film DVDs s the statment is wrong...previous generations of Pioneer decks were a real let-down idespite boasting teh Pure Cinema processing...

also, as far as it is true LG does nothing to remove "noise", I don't expect it to - film has inherited grain and that's what makes film-film...

As far as jitter goes - if one is a true audiofile, he should never consider any of the BD players to fullfill his needs, but should get a dedicated CD player...

 

[KUBBY]

Kalos;

At this time,I can only quote the review.

I'm sure that someone will be along soon who has hands on experience of this machine and who may be able to clarify your queries.

KH

 

[Jack-Bauer]

why are people getting this instead of waiting for the BD390? or is this (bd370) the UK version? also does it have any restrictions on playing MKV files at full hd??


sorry noob ere.

 

[kingfats]

why are people getting this instead of waiting for the BD390? or is this (bd370) the UK version? also does it have any restrictions on playing MKV files at full hd??


sorry noob ere.

I'm sure there different players 370/390 going by the pics i've seen anyway.

 

[KUBBY]

Again,going on the review,Rik Henderson makes play of the fact that this machine will play MKV files at HD not only from a USB but also from a Disk.

There seems to be some confusion between this player and the 390.there is a question on another thread about the latter.

I don't think that we have the 390 available and it may not become so as it doesn't seem to offer much extra over the 370.

I am prepared to be Flamed over this.

KH

 

[Jack-Bauer]

i am sooo confused, so do i buy the 370? or wait for 390?? what i want is a blu ray player that'll work with my 32AV504D (which btw aint full hd, i think it's 720) but it's "HD Ready". so far the main thing i want on a Blu-Ray player is a player that plays HD files either divx and mkv without any restrictions.

is this player it?? cos i'll buy it now

wow - hang on. does this not have built in wifi?

 

[Krobar]

Its a shame the LG UK snubbed the BH200, its the same core chipset as the bd370 but with HDDDVD support and superior Qdeo video processing.

 

[kingfats]

i am sooo confused, so do i buy the 370? or wait for 390?? what i want is a blu ray player that'll work with my 32AV504D (which btw aint full hd, i think it's 720) but it's "HD Ready". so far the main thing i want on a Blu-Ray player is a player that plays HD files either divx and mkv without any restrictions.

is this player it?? cos i'll buy it now

wow - hang on. does this not have built in wifi?

You can check the 370's manual here for specs.

 

[KUBBY]

"Its a shame the LG UK snubbed the BH200"

Absolutely.

KH

 

[Kalos Geros]

I happen to have the 370 on review (and thus feel that other reviewers' findings are largely incorrect) and it does indeed play mkvs with some restrictions:

- mkvs need to be hardware decoder compliant, meaning that some 1080p mkvs will pixelate due to being encoded beyond the capabilites of hardware decoders: blame the coders not the player

- the 370 will only read FAT32-formatted USB media which puts the 4GB restriction on the filesize - since most mkvs are 4,5 GB+, it is clear that you cannot play mkvs containing full-length features on this LG unless you burn them onto a DVD-R, DVD-R DL or BD disks

- Divx and Xvid play flawlessly

- the 390 may support NTFS so would be a smarter choice for mkv needs...it will be released in Europe, it's main selling point being wireless connection...

cheers

 

[Jack-Bauer]

any idea when the 390 will be released in the uk?

 

[kingfats]

Could always email LG customer services as there seems to no news on the net regarding when it's arriving in the UK?

 

[Jack-Bauer]

just rang lg customer service, the guy didnt have a clue. told me to try a retailer instead like richer sounds! lol

anyway went on their site and found no info. but the 370 is going for £159!!

 

[bazonix]

id already mentioned the lg bd390 last week:

http://www.avforums.com/forums/blu-ray-players/1006897-lg-bd-390-network-ready-wifi-br-player.html

and when i emailed LG europe last week the reply i got was:

Good afternoon,

We still do not have information regarding the release of this product. Please email us again for an update.

Best regards,
LG Electronics UK Helpdesk

i still think this kind of player is the way forward.... especially if a service like 'love-film' agrees some sort of deal like netflix etc....

 

[Jack-Bauer]

response to my email:

Thank you for your email.

We do not at present have any information as to the planned release of this model in the UK. We would respectfully request that you check our website http://uk.lge.com periodically for any updates on release dates of our products.

Best regards,
LG Electronics UK Helpdesk

 

[Jack-Bauer]

is it poissible to use a wifi dongle with the BD370?? if so does it work just as well and which wifi dongle would u recomend?

 

[Kalos Geros]

is it poissible to use a wifi dongle with the BD370?? if so does it work just as well and which wifi dongle would u recomend?

Not likely, haven't tried but it's 99% the answer is no!

Just managed to make it DVD region-free BTW...

 

[born against]

I've just bought a 370, anybody know how to make it region free?