LG BD 370 Network Blu-ray Disc Player
by LG
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List Price: Our Price: $75.22 You Save: $174.73 (70%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Category: Home Theater See more product details |
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Customers in the UK,
Buy this product at amazon.co.uk
for British Pounds
Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of LG BD 370 Network Blu-ray Disc Player
Customer Review: a terrific player
Summary: 5 Stars
After reading way too many reviews on Amazon, looking at Samsung blue ray players ( reviewers complain about lack or reliability), Sony (didn't get lots of positives), I chose LG. The BD 370 at a much lower price seemed to get better reviews than the more expensive BD390. I purchased the BD 370 and tried to wirelessly connect it to my router to use Netflix. It didn't have a wireless connection! I called LG and spoke to a technical support person who told me first that the model had been discontinued, then that it had no wireless WIFI connection and connecting it didn't work well wirelessly. He sounded terribly bored. At this point, I put my only blue ray disk, Patton, in and was blown away. I don't know if it is the TV or the Blue Ray player but the picture was beyond fabulous. I always like a challenge and decided to try using the player wirelessly. I purchased a Linksys N Wireless Bridge, configured it and installed it. I think Linksys has the best support of any company I have ever dealt with and connected and configured Netflix for streaming. It took no time to do this. The system works very well. The BD 370 does not have Pandora if that is important. I spoke several days later to another LG support person who seemed clueless. All it would take for Pandora to be on the BD 370 is a firmware update. I have no idea if that will happen and the person I spoke to, again seemed totally bored.
If all you want to do is watch blue ray dvds and Netflix streaming this is a great unit but don't expect a lot of help from LG. The player will also upscale DVD's but I think this is not the strongest feature of this player. I think the Pioneer which is not blue ray does a better job of upscaling.
Customer Review: Simply outstanding...
Summary: 5 Stars
The best thing about this product is it simply works, and works simply.
Installation couldn't have been easier with my LG HD TV. One HDMI cable is all you need to connect it, and all the video settings were set perfectly right from the start.
Setting up access to my NetFlix account simply involved entering a four letter code off the NetFlix website, the entire process took all of 30 seconds. The quality of the streaming videos is better than off my PC, and provides the added convenience of a remote control.
The all the menus are straight forward and intuitive. I have not yet needed to open my owner's manual.
The "Simplink" function allows basic control of the Blu ray player with my LG TV remote. I realize this type of feature is nothing new, but LG has thrown in some convenient functions that I have not seen before. For example, when I turn off the TV so does the player. Sounds trivial, but to be honest I could not say how many times I found my old DVD players endlessly running a disc after I forgot to turn it off.
The playback of both Blu Ray and standard DVDs is excellent. For the people with an extensive standard DVD collection like me, the up-scaling feature is the best I have seen. And I have owned four up-scaling DVD players.
And the last feature I'll mention is the program update. This allows for painless updating of your player through the network connection. Maybe this is a feature some would overlook, but to me it gives reasonable assurance this product will not be obsolete in the near future.
This is a great product and a perfect match for anyone with an LG TV.
Customer Review: Nuances I've noticed but haven't seen in other reviews
Summary: 5 Stars
First of all I ordered and returned another brand then got this- wow. It's very well done. The bootup is about 30sec and all the menus are quick to pop up and their function is obvious. Network actions are quick and it worked first time.
Netflix functionaly works great only you can only review your queue- you can't add things to it or view your DVD/blu-ray queue for instance. It's a play only thing.
I was hoping there was a general net browser like on the wii but there isn't- you can see youtube and netflix only. No Hulu for instance:(
The youtube interface is less cool than the netflix one. You don't log into your youtube account- you use an on-screen keypad and the arrow keys to search and play. It's a little awkward but the interface does autocomplete and it's pretty good at guessing what you're looking for. The sound and video quality are excellent too- much better than I thought they might be.
One thing I couldn't find on the player itself is an eject button. I'm old fashioned and my eyesight is not the greatest so I prefer to walk up to the player, eject the disk manually then put it back in the netflix envelope before I forget. There's probably an eject button on the player but I can't find it.
The remote is "ok" but like most these days the buttons are pretty small and not sized proportional to their use. The bottom of the remote slides- but with difficulty- to reveal a numeric keypad and more functions. If you have kids this will be broken within a week- ask me how I know. The sliding cover moves with difficulty and is flimsily attached.
Customer Review: Performs as Promised
Summary: 5 Stars
I've been using this blu-ray player for about a month and am really pleased with it. The disc load time is really quick, as is pointed out in previous reviews. The remote is pretty much your basic, standard remote control. Not sure why companies can't make a more aesthetically pleasing remote, but I digress.
Right out of the box, I hooked it to the tv with an hdmi cable, powered it up and to my surprise it was ready to play movies. One suggestion - perform a system update first thing (it's an option from the main menu). Initially my menu options didn't include LG's "Cinema Now", essentially their pay per view option.
Netflix streaming is simple. Visit [...] and register your device. Netflix then gives you a code that you then enter with the remote control. Viola - it's set up. Now if i want to watch a netflix movie I simply select the netflix icon and all my downloaded movies appear as options. The picture quality of the movies can be hit and miss with downloaded movies (there is an icon that indicates picture quality). There have been a few that were VHS quality or worse, but mostly everything has been at least pretty good.
I've watched one movie on Cinema Now, The Hangover. The software worked fine and the movie played fine. The picture quality wasn't HD though, which was a little disappointing. At $3.99 for the movie, I felt like it was a fair price for a new release, even if it wasn't HD.
Overall very happy with this little guy. At $150 over the holidays, I think it was a steal. I would say it's worth it up to $200.
Customer Review: Loving it so far
Summary: 5 Stars
I already reviewed the problems I had with the first BluRay player purchased for Christmas (the Samsung BD-P3600). I returned it and purchased this system as the Samsung's replacement. So far, I couldn't be happier.
The system set up very easily, and played discs right away. No issues whatsoever. This was the main problem I had with the 3600. So, that problem being overcome, I moved on to the NetFlix.
I decided to skip the BD390 (WiFi version) in favor of this player for a couple of reasons. First, if you have a CAT-5 connection near your system, WiFi isn't really necessary (obviously). Second, cost - the 370 was [...] bucks cheaper and only lacked WiFi. Everything else was virtually the same.
Once the cable was hooked up, all that was required was to go to the NetFlix logo on the menu. The system located the connection, then prompted me to go to the website on my laptop to enter a code. Once entered, I loaded movies into the "Watch Instantly" queue, and that was all! Movies entered showed up on my screen for selection. I watched a few and they worked great. The picture quality was outstanding. No lag, no loss of quality.
Although I haven't thoroughly reviewed the BluRay aspects of the player, from my initial check of that feature, there seem to be no issues. Movies loaded, menu worked fine, was able to skip, scan, pause, and stop without problems.
Comparing the Samsung systems (BD-P1600/3600) to the LG systems (BD370/390), there is no doubt for me - go with LG. You won't be disappointed.