Customer Reviews

LG BD270 Blu-ray Disc Player

5 star:		(61)
4 star:		(37)
3 star:		(16)
2 star:		(18)
1 star:		(51)

 

 

The purpose of this review is to provide much needed information concerning this player. Prior to buying, I scoured the internet and could only find a few pieces of information here and there, so I thought it would be helpful to outline some of the player's features.

Technical Specifications:

- Profile 1.1 (BD BonusView Enabled)
- Front access USB port for convenient firmware updates
- Full HD output
- 7.1 channels of surround sound with Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby True HD, and dts-HD Master Audio technologies
- Digital coaxial output
- Express reaction startup

Does not include:

- An ethernet port or internal wireless device to access BD Live features

This is an excellent entry-level blu-ray player. The colors are vibrant and the picture is crisp connected to my Samsung LCD television via the HDMI port. Disc loading times are miniscule, with the player initiating playback in less than one minute. I have tested both recent and older blu-ray titles (Watchmen, The Prestige, Death Race) and have experienced no problems loading the disc or enjoying the non-BD Live special features. The unit itself is very sleek and slender and weighs less than five pounds. Additionally, the player is silent during use.

I highly recommend this player to anyone interested in owning a great blu-ray player at the low-end of the price spectrum. Although the player is not BD Live compliant, LG still deserves to be commended for releasing an affordable alternative to the price-conscious consumer.

[...]

I believe I am the first to review this product. At first, I was a little hesitant to buy, because I have not heard any comments from other buyers. Currently, I am a very satisfied customer. Blu-ray playback and regular DVD playback are excellent, fantastic picture quality and amazing sound. It has all of the Dolby TrueHD and DTS MA HD audio decoders. For those with older AV receivers like mine, it comes with a digital coaxial jack instead of the newer optical. The best feature of this player is that I have encountered zero skipping or other playback issues. I had originally bought a Samsung BDP1500, and it was absolute crap, could not play half of the blu ray discs and had multiple menu navigation issues and functionality issues. This LG has none, and I am quite suprised that this entry level model is EXcellent. I highly encourage others to buy. The only gripe I have is that the price is now $20 lower than when i had purchased.

I also have the "top of the line" LG BD 390, and other than the internet/wireless stuff, it's pretty much the same player. Same features and quality for less than half the price. I only need one player that I can watch Netflix and Youtube on, and so this one is for my kids in the basement.

Very easy to set up. Literally, after opening the package, putting it next to the TV, plugging in the HDMI to my TV and the power cord to the surge protector, it took all of 3 minutes for my 3 year-old to start watching an extremely awesome picture of "Ant Bully" on Blu-Ray.

Of course, the price dropped 10 bucks the minute after it was delivered, but I still feel like I still got an awesome deal, and that anyone even considering a Blu-Ray player should add this one to the list. It is still cheaper thsn some of the upscaling players out there, and just as good or better. Obviously, if you want the wireless internet connectivity, go with the BD 390, which is still fairly reasonably priced.

As the title implies, this is an excellent entry level Blu-ray player*; however, this is my first experience with a Blu-ray player, and as a college student, I wanted a brand name with a digestible price, and as for functionality, this player has thus far been up to the task.

Set-up was a breeze. Plug it in and enjoy. That's all there is to it.

As far as Blu-ray discs I've had the pleasure of viewing, I've seen Planet Earth, Hellboy 2 (boo!), Slumdog Millionaire, and Watchmen. And I must say that they all are fantastic, picture-wise, that is. But the one that takes the cake is Planet Earth - absolutely gorgeous. As for DVD upconversion with this player it has been solid. The DVD's that I have watched (too many to list) have had a noticeable facelift, albeit nothing in the realm of Blu-ray.

Sound, too, has been superb. Listening to the movies has been just as enjoyable as watching them. For someone that lacks the resources and space to acquire a proper sound system, this is important, but I suspect that that has more to do with the television rather than the player itself. Nonetheless, the sound has been fantastic.

With that said, some things do need to be pointed out for anyone considering this player. The first is that this player lacks any support for a component connection, so that leaves the user with two options: composite** input and HDMI input, and really, that is no option at all (watching Blu-ray with composite is like driving a car with square wheels, but I digress). I knew this beforehand so I knew what I was expecting going into the purchase and promptly ordered an HDMI cable along with the product at the date of purchase, but for anyone who is planning to use component with this player, note that it will essentially be worthless.

Another is that it does not include BD-Live or any other 'important' extraneous feature for that matter. As was the case in the preceding paragraph, this certainly was not a deal breaker, and in fact, it wasn't a consideration. For me, I just want a decent, reasonably-priced piece of technology that does what it was intended to do and to do it well. For some that want some bells and whistles attached to their BD-player, you may want to look elsewhere.

And lastly, the remote has a cheap feel to it. Certainly not a remote you want to step on or drop too many times (not that any of you would plan on doing so), but I can most certainly deal with it. One surprising thing with this remote was that it was able to control my TV (Vizio) without any configuration beforehand - not anything important but merely interesting.

For anyone who is looking for a reasonably priced Blu-ray player, one couldn't go wrong with this piece of equipment. Nice job, LG.

* - Setup is a VIZIO 26" 1080p Class LCD HDTV - Java (VL260M) (however, I'm in the process of acquiring an LG 32LH30 32-Inch 1080p LCD HDTV, Gloss Black and ridding myself of the Vizio) and a HDMI (2 meter) 6 foot cable HQ 1080P 1.3b.

** EDITED: Sorry, I had put s-video when I meant composite.

I am rushing to put up this review before fully evaluating the unit, because issues with the specs given at the LG site as well as at least one error in the user manual need to be discussed. I will probably add more later after a full evaluation.

First, if you have read LG's specs, you will believe that there is a component video output as well as an optical audio output. Neither of these exists. There is HDMI, composite video, stereo audio, and a coaxial connection for digital audio.

The only cable supplied is for composite video, useless for HD, not even very good for SD. Thus, until the HDMI cable I ordered to use with it arrives, I won't be able to comment on video quality. Others say it is very good.

The unit does fine with DVDs and is an excellent music player. The screen display when a disc of mp3s is inserted is much like that of a portable music player, with pretty icons that scroll across the screen.

The remote control has a few functions that work with a TV. In the manual it says to hold the TV power button and punch in a single digit corresponding to your TV brand. What you do in reality is input the full remote code for your TV while holding the red button. That works fine.

With these omissions and errors, do we really know what we are getting here? Are some of the really important specifications inaccurate? Was this product rushed to market too quickly, perhaps with engineering problems unsolved?

The unit is attractive looking, and I like what I have experienced with it so far. The price seems excellent for what you get, even if that's less than LG says it is. I would advise caution in purchasing it, though, because of the issues I have outlined. I will update this review later after a lot of use and evaluation.

Update 1: As of today (9/27/09) it appears that LG's spec sheet has been corrected. It still states that a component video cable is supplied. Wouldn't be much use with no component output. I have had a chance to do more testing with mine and am feeling confident this is a good product.

This is exactly what I've been waiting for - a small, simple, brand name, attractive and inexpensive Blu-Ray player that performs well. I just needed something that plays Blu-Ray discs; I didn't want to pay extra for online features I may never use (I can get online content elsewhere such as Netflix on my Xbox 360). At the time of this review the price was about 65 bucks below list.

I'm giving this unit 5 stars because of the price/performance/features ratio. As others have mentioned (I won't duplicate their lists) it has all of the major video/audio functions anyone with an HD home theater setup would need (you're out of luck if you want component video though). Get yourself an HDMI cable and you're all set.

Some general notes:
1. The Quantum of Solace Blu-Ray disc takes 72 seconds to get from power-on to the warning about illegal use.
2. It froze on me the first time I used it, about 16 seconds into the movie. It hasn't happened since.
3. I suggest powering it on first without any disc and going through the video and audio settings to get things right for your setup.

I opened the player up and connected to a tv just to make sure it worked.

It played regular DVD's great.

I tried to play a blu - ray and none of them I tried would play at all.

I then went to LG's website and downloaded the player's update and then updated the player. Still nothing.

I called LG's customer service and they seemed clueless.

So their plan was to send me a mailing label to ship the player back. Then they said the tech would take 7 to 10 days to determine if the player can be fixed or if I will get a shipped a new player.

I received the labels after 6 days which is horribly slow only for them to pay for only 3rd rate Fed EX ground shipping. So, now do I not only do not have this for a Christmas Gift, I'm looking at the end of Jan or beginning of Feb 2010 before I have a working player.

LG's customer service is the worst I've seen since Comcast.

I paid the $99.99 black friday price.

I've only used it one day and with only DVDs, not Blurays yet. Easy to hook up via HDMI. I had to cycle the resolution button to 720p as it defaults to 1080p before I could see the menu. I had to set audio to pass thru and not multchannel pcm. DVDs look as expected except I had problems with a few 2:35 widescreen DVDs (older ones) that did not use as much TV screen space as my other DVD player. This was close to being a reason to return the player. But I downloaded and installed the firmware upgrade (not dated) and it was a full version newer. Then the problem DVDs played much better, 1 was fine, 2 could be adjusted very well via the Zoom button. The zoom button is not very user friendly but it gets the job done.

I'll update this review after I test out Blurays but I wanted to encourage everyone to install the firmware upgrade. BTW, the "driver" didn't have an update, but the "SW" (software) did. It says your model is the BD350, don't let that confuse you. I used a DVD and not USB to perform the upgrade. I hope LG emails registered users when there are newer upgrades.

12-01-2009 update
I watched Taking Pelham 123 on Bluray last night. The BD270 played the movie flawlessly. My next test will be play secondary audio tracks such as director commentaries.

03-02-2010 update
I was having trouble with Epic Conditions bluray. The disc played but the menu system did not work. Selecting a particular episode transferred me to the wrong episode. I installed a newer version of the firmware (newer than my first update) but it did not fix this particular problem. The player has now been discontinued by LG so grab the latest firmware while you can.

This is an excellent entry-level Blu-Ray player. The colors are excellent and the picture is crisp connected to my Samsung LCD television via the HDMI port.

Disc loading time is minute as the Blu-Ray loads up almost instantly. I recently upgraded from a Philips regular DVD player to this LG BD270 and there isn't even a comparison. I've heard of Blu-Ray players with a lag time for loading but I have to say that this is 10x's as fast as my regular DVD player load time.

I highly recommend this player to anyone interested in owning a great Blu-Ray player. Although the player is not BD Live compliant, LG still deserves to be commended for releasing an affordable alternative to the price-conscious consumer.

I have played movies as new as Transformers 2, and GI Joe which just came out yesterday and I have had no issues that I needed a network cable for updates.

After reading the reviews on this player, we decided to get one when Amazon offered it for $99. It set up fine, but was disappointed that you couldn't program the remote to our Panasonic tv. The real disappointment came when our DVD's started to freeze. Then the entire machine froze, and you had to turn the player off, then back on and find where you were in the movie, only to have it freeze again in a couple of minutes. This happened with both blu-ray and regular DVD's. We had no choice but to return it.

Very disappointed.