Customer Reviews

LG BD 370 Network Blu-ray Disc Player

5 star:		(120)
4 star:		(66)
3 star:		(29)
2 star:		(24)
1 star:		(46)

 

 

Of the new model year '2009' Blu Ray players, we own the LG BD370, Samsung BD-P1600, and a PS3. By far, the BD370 is the nicest for Blu Ray content. Loading is FAST and the drive is completely silent (this is not the case on the BD-P1600 by Samsung). Piano Black finish on the face is plastic, and looks good. We have found that it does not scratch easily too! The rest of the case is black-ish metal and sturdy.

One of the great things about the LG BD370 is you can customize the look of the interface on your TV. There are 4 themes and all are in high-definition. The remote on the BD370 changed from the BD300, and I feel it was a step down. It's got a faux-leather finish on it - why? No idea. The one improvement is buttons that don't get used much are hidden behind a panel on the remote.

Netflix 'Watch Instantly' is very cool and the setup is literally 30-40 seconds if you already have an account. Just after we got ours, it alerted us that a firmware update was available! It added CinemaNow - we hadn't used CinemaNow before, but a quick registration on their site and connecting was just as easy as Netflix. Rented a couple movies to try it out - VERY cool. YouTube is also available on the player and it's AWESOME. I'd easily compare it with an AppleTV, though believe it or not, the BD370 is a bit faster at searching and playing YouTube videos - it also does them in Full Screen, no problem.

One odd thing we've noticed... with Netflix and CinemaNow and YouTube we have only watched 3 or 4 movies on Blu Ray. So much other content available that this player is really a STEAL - it's a fantastic Blu Ray player (audio and video as good as you imagine it would be), but WOW is it awesome to have a player that does so much other stuff.

No wireless on this player, nor does it have built-in memory for using BD-Live. Neither of these items should be cause for concern - I haven't seen a BD-Live feature YET that has been worth while... all the good stuff is usually already on the Blu Ray disk itself.

The thing that makes it just a bit better than our Samsung BD-P1600 is the front display. The circular button assembly on the front glows a soft blue when playing Blu Ray, soft red when playing DVD, and purple on certain Netflix, YouTube, and CinemaNow video. The main display is also helpful, showing 'NETFLX', etc and most importantly, you can SEE the display (the Samsung player's display is so dim you wouldn't believe it).

For the price and feature set, I don't think there's another player I'd even consider after having used them all!

While LG broke new ground with their BD300, the first Blu-ray player to include Netflix online streaming and YouTube, the BD370 is simply more of the same, with slight improvements to their already quick disc loading times, but little to no improvement to their Achilles heel: video performance on DVD upconversion and 1080i Blu-ray content.

Choosing among current Blu-ray Disc players revolves around two things: performance (audio and video) and online content access. If performance is the most important element for you, then LG player should probably not be your first choice. The BD370 is decent at DVD upconversion but it fails to properly de-interlace 1080i material. 1080i is used for many nature documentaries and concert films on Blu-ray Disc due to the underlying frame rates not being compatible with 1080p/24 fps encoding. Because the player can't detect and correct for the underlying 2:2 or 3:2 cadence, 1080i material is actually resolved at half resolution (1920x540 pixels), which means you effectively lose half of those precious details from your high definition picture. It's true that 1080i content represents a fairly small portion of what's available on Blu-ray (most discs are 1080p at 24 frames/second) but people generally buy a Blu-ray player expecting top notch performance on ALL material and you won't get this with the LG BD370.

But the player's online content access is strong, with full BD-Live support, Netflix online streaming and YouTube. Between Netflix and YouTube, you get an enormous selection of professional (Netflix) and amateur (YouTube) videos that will keep you entertained for hours at no additional cost (above the standard Netflix subscription fee, that is).

Meanwhile, with its direct competitor, the Panasonic DMP-BD60, you'll get excellent performance on 1080i and 1080p Blu-ray discs and near excellent performance on upconverted DVDs. But the current selection of VIERA Cast online content on the Panasonic players is fairly limited: YouTube and Picasa photo sharing, plus weather and stock widgets (Amazon's on-demand movie streaming service is coming to VIERA Cast later this Spring). The VIERA Cast platform is extensible, so more content can be added without the need for a player upgrade, but based on what's available today, the Panasonic player's online offerings are fairly limited.

And if we look to Samsung, in the entry-level BD-P1600, we see video performance that is comparable or very close to the Panasonic players, plus Netflix online streaming and Pandora music streaming, which are two of the "killer apps" of the online content streaming world. The BD-P1600 is a little slower than the newest Panasonic and LG players (and even the step-up Samsung models), but still pretty respectable compared to earlier Blu-ray player models.

The best things going for the LG BD370 right now are its Netflix and YouTube online content access, its disc-loading performance and its low cost. But if you really want top-notch video performance from your Blu-ray/DVD player, you may need to look elsewhere.

A complete review of the BD370 is available on Big Picture Big Sound (dot com).

My 5 year old finally killed the DVD player in his bedroom and, rather than buying a cheap replacement, I decided to give him my (not-so) oldPhilips DVP5990 HDMI 1080p Upscaling DVD Player. The slow response times to its remote, especially when moving back a scene, which happens often when the aforementioned five year old needs my attention, had been a thorn in my side since we brought it home.

After doing a bit of research, I couldn't find a plain old DVD player, at an acceptable price point, that fit my needs any better than the one I had and hated the slow response time from its remote.

Then I started researching Blu-ray players. I'm a gadget girl. I constantly drool over the newest technology, but I've been sitting on the fence in the whole high definition disc wars (which was fortunate, since I would have thrown my lot in with HD-DVD) for years now. By the end of the war, I was so irritated that I continued my fence sitting even though one side of it was now barren.

I have 600+ DVDs, and perfectly fine upconverting machines. I don't need a Blu-ray player. So there!

Then my Netflix envelopes started advertising their streaming service via devices that took it right to your TV (I'd been using it via my computer for sometime). Eh, I don't need a standalone player. So there, times two!

However, when I started my research and found out there was a Blu-Ray player that also streamed Netflix to my TV? I have to admit: my curiosity was piqued.

So when the kid's DVD player died, I read the reviews, both critic and consumer. I have a fondness for LG products ever since I found my plasma TV, while living in Holland, and discovered it tolerated both 220 and 110 voltage power (not to mention the picture is still spectacular). So, I figured I'd give this black box a shot.

Several days later, I'm in love. I'd read horror stories about how long it takes to load up a disc on a Blu-ray player. Not this one. It loads just as quickly as any DVD player I've had. The machine's boot up time might be a BIT longer, but not so much as to be whine worthy.

Netflix set up was stupidly easy, my only nit pick on the functionality is that I'd like to be able to search and add to my queue via my television rather than relying on my computer. If the networks teamed up with Netflix to offer their lineup on demand (as most do on their websites now) to my TV via this technology - it would be perfect. (I'd happily cancel my cable to pay a la carte for the stations I actually wanted to watch!)

I've only picked up one Blu-ray disc so far, strangely a movie I already have on DVD. The picture and sound is fantastic. I did a blind test with a friend of mine asking him to tell me which disc was the BR and which was DVD based small samples. He was easily able to do so. So, maybe, as other people suggest, the picture quality on this machine isn't the best out there, but it's still playing BR discs at a resolution easily identifiable as superior to DVD.

Sound is full and rich, even on my middle grade surround speakers.

Response time to remote commands is fast and the remote itself is quite intuitive, with rarely used buttons hidden behind a slide cover. My one, small sticking point is I would have liked to have seen the TV input button on the outside of that cover.

I have my internet router and cable modem in my living room, so it was no issue for me to not have wireless built in (which the BD390 has, for about $100 more). For the best results for streaming video you really should have it physically connected anyway.

All in all, I have no bad things to say about this player that should dissuade you from buying it. If you're in the market for a Blu-ray player and don't need the biggest, best, most expensive one - this is a strong contender.

I have been searching for a new blu-ray that would allow me to do more than just playing Blu-Ray disks. That's exactly what you get with LG BD 370. Not only you can play watch blu-ray disks in an exceptional quality, you can stream video content from Netlix and YouTube and watch it all on your HDTV. It would be nice if you could get a discount to Neflix to help you get started, but there is plenty of content on YouTube.

This device enhances your DVDs as well and provides you with PIP too. I was a bit disappointed with the Ethernet option as I was hoping to see high speed Wi-Fi support. But when you are dealing with video streaming, you can't go wrong with Ethernet. It's a bit inconvenient but not the end of the world. If you can't live with it, you can always wait for BD390.

Overall, a great device that lets you get more done with your Blu-Ray player and makes spending [...] on it much more easier.

This sounds like it has been a great device for a lot of people and so this is in the nature of an alert and not a bad review. I worked 4 hours trying to get this up and running and then another 30 minutes with LG support personnel, who were wonderful. In the end I was told if the fix they recommended did not work it would need to be serviced. After that I went online to see if any others had had issues and what the resolution was (I really wanted this to work for the extra features such as Netflix). I discovered a volley of complaints by people who had a D-Link DIR-655 Xtreme router. There seems to be a compatibility issue with this LG device, which is a shame because the D-Link is one of the more popular routers. So.... it may be that if you have that router you may want to look at a different manufacturer. Hopefully LG will address this in a future build and it won't remain an issue. LG BD 370 Network Blu-ray Disc Player

After doing a very thorough round of research on the new 6th gen Bluray players (Samsung BDP1600&BDP3600,Panasonic DMPBD-60K&dmpbd80K,and LGBD370)i picked up the LG BD370 and am blown away by it so far.It was the fastest of the new players listed above as well as having the best picture(equal with the Panasonic DMPBD60 which also offers and outstanding picture and is quite fast but missing ALL of the new addons the other players are offering)The BD370 has TrueHD and DTS Master audio decoding on board as well as being BDLive 2.0 ready, and having out of the box Youtube connectivity(free) and Netflix streaming(you need to have a Netflix sub).I got mine for $259 from my local BB(which has all the new models in stock as of last weekend)with an area price match and find for the price/performance/feature set the LG BD370 offers, that it is easily the top new BR player in it's price/class range this year.

I have never written a review before on Amazon, but this product just blows me away. I would highly recommend anyone that is looking for a blu-ray player get this one from LG. It has so many amazing features. Two is the streaming of Netflix and Youtube. I was suspicious on how good this would look, but it looks just amazing. I think it is worth it just for that alone. All the content you can get from Netflix and Youtube can keep you entertained for months, weeks, days, etc. (I will admit it was a pain in the a** to get it setup to work over the internet, but it had to do with me. Who knew a switcher and router are two different devices? ha..now, I do!) And the picture and sound on this is incredible. This next part I found so amazing. I was watching a DVD and had to stop it in the middle of it. Well, I took the DVD out of the player and didn't watch it for 5 days or so. I decided to watch it again and (this is just incredible) I put it back in the machine and it started right up where I left off. I couldn't believe it. Anyway, I am highly impressed so far and wanted to give it my highest recommendation.

Since buying this player, I've encountered an audio/video sync issue that drives me crazy. Sound is delayed by about 1/2 of a second when watching Blu-ray discs and often from Netflix content as well. (Many others report the same problem with this player.) This problem cannot be resolved using audio delay settings on the surround sound receiver because the audio is already delayed.

I called LG about this and I was told that I needed to use an HDMI 1.3 cable. I explained that I already had an HDMI 1.3 cable, but the support guy said that since my cable didn't have "1.3" printed on it, I needed to buy another one. I bought a new HDMI 1.3 cable and I experienced exactly the same problem, so I went back to LG. I was told that they would research the issue and would call me back within 2 days.

When I didn't receive a call back, I called them. This time, I was told that this is a known issue and they have a brand new firmware that corrects it. Unfortunately, I was told that the new firmware can't be downloaded and they would have to send me a disc. A few days later, I got the disc, but my player wouldn't update the firmware using the disc. I put the disc in my computer and saw that the firmware that was on it was a very old version that was much older than the version I already had. I called LG again and I was told that the disc was damaged and they would have to send me a new one. I explained to the support guy that I can read the data on the CD, but the version was much older than what I already have. He then hung up on me!

I called LG back and the new support person told me that I needed to downgrade my firmware with the old version on the disc in order to correct the problem with audio/video sync. I told her that I wasn't opposed to doing that, but I had no idea how to get the player to install that new firmware. At that point, she told me that because the player wouldn't correctly apply firmware updates, I'd need to send it in for service. I explained to her that the unit updated firmware fine and that it was an audio/video sync problem that I was reporting. She said that this would also require service.

Before I ever called LG in the first place, I emailed them and asked them what I could do about the audio/video sync problem. Two weeks later I got a response from that mail that said "You can certainly connect the player to an old-style CRT TV, but we recommend an LCD or a plasma." What? That response has nothing to do with my problem.

Bottom line: There is apparently a problem with this player that many people experience, and LG handles this by lying to customers and jerking them around. From where I stand, once a company outright lies to me to cover up their own problem, they've lost my business forever. I will never buy another LG product, and I discourage everyone I know from doing business with them.

We just bought this unit on sale yesterday for $200. Our primary purpose was to have something we could use to watch Netflix on our TV as well as to replace an aging DVD player. So far it's been great. We were able to get connected to Netflix immediately - from the player you receive direction to go to the Netflix activation page. You get an activation code from the player and enter it in on the website, and that's it! The player picks up the movies in your "watch instantly" queue. Mine needed some cleanup - sometimes you add movies into your main queue and they get picked up in the "watch instantly" queue, and sometimes they don't. It looks like the player uses the same Netflix player which is better although fast-forwarding and rewinding don't work as well as they do on a DVR. For the firmware update, it took two attempts to get that working - we got hung up on the "getting the update" page. After powering off and on the update worked fine. Ironically we haven't played a Blu-Ray disk yet - I don't anticipate owning a lot of those given Netflix's service, but I did add Blu-Ray to Netflix for $4/month.
Also, the player did come with component cables, so you don't need to buy them. No HDMI cable included though. The remote is simple - only one AAA battery needed! I was able to replicate this remote with my Logitech Harmony 720 programmable remote with some customization needed. I didn't see any issues with the DVD tray. I think the styling looks great - the circle in the middle lights up "red" just for regular disks and online movies I think, supposed to be blue for Blu-Ray? I like that LG put a 800 number for service right on the unit - I would anticipate that they would be very helpful given that they're that proactive. (We had LG service done on our Plasma and they were great.) We played a regular DVD and didn't find any issues with playback, but we're not audiophiles. We figured with a Cnet editor's choice award we couldn't go wrong, and so far that's the case.

There may be better Blu-Ray players out there, but the trick is finding the one with the features that you're looking for, at the price you want, and for me, the BD370 just couldn't be beat.

The player design, for the most part, is extremely sleek. The drive is hidden behind an automatic door, and several controls are hidden behind a flip-down panel on the right. The Open/Eject and Play controls are located on the corners of the center panel, which also includes the Power Button (I honestly didn't even notice the buttons in the middle at first aside from Power, and I was only using my remote to open/close the tray). The one potential downside is that they placed the USB port (required for BD-Live content), behind the flip-down panel. If you're like me, and you couldn't care less for BD-Live content, it's not a big deal. However, if you are interested, then having to keep that door down could be a tad annoying (and it does hurt the overall look).

The BD370 is Profile 2.0 compatible, and it has onboard decoding for the new audio formats, including Dolby Digital+, Dolby TrueHD, and DTS-HD (should be noted that it supports DTS-HD Master Audio Essential so it doesn't decode several older DTS formats found on some DVDs). Set-up is a breeze, and the interface is simple and easy to use (did an on-line update within minutes). And not only is the player quick to start-up, but it is also extremely quiet.

Blu-Ray discs load within seconds, and they look and sound great. DVDs look great as well. I'm definitely not an extreme videophile, but as far as I'm concerned, there's not much to hate as far as video quality is concerned.

One of the main reasons I bought this player was for Netflix Instant streaming, and it definitely doesn't disappoint. I'm on a 3Mbps connection, and while the quality isn't quite up to DVD standard for the most part (my resolution is set at 1080i), it is close, and some movies actually do look as good as a DVD. Youtube works fine, and the quality is just ok, as you'd expect, but I didn't see an option to view videos in HD (some other minor options were missing as well). Hopefully it's something that could be fixed with a software update. CinemaNow access is supposed to be coming soon as well.

While there may be some quibbles with the BD370, I'd have to say that they are very, very minor. Unlike other Blu-Ray players I've tried, this one doesn't feel like a beta-product. It actually "feels" complete. I am extremely content with my purchase and I'd gladly recommend it to someone who wants a great Blu-Ray/Netflix player at a great price.

UPDATE: CinemaNow access was indeed added, however I haven't tried it myself. There have been several firmware updates since I received my player which addressed a couple of bugs, and as far as I can tell, it's pretty flawless now (no more bugs that I notice anyway). I also upgraded my DSL connection (7Mbps) and I can now view the HD content available on Netflix. HD content looks better than DVD quality, and is very clean, although there are only a few hundred titles currently available (both movies and tv shows). The one downside is that all content (SD/HD) currently offered by Netflix is presented in stereo. Not a huge drawback, but it is worth noting.

Also, as discussed below, the American version of this player doesn't support playback of video files via the USB port (audio and images only).