LG BD390 Blu Ray Player Review
August 16, 2009
Blu-ray players are finally hitting their stride this year with very good performances to go along with lower prices. Even the “base” models are loaded with features and excellent performances. The higher end models from the major manufacturers are priced well below $400 mark. This is far lower than the previous generation players. LG’s high end model, BD390, is priced around $350 and is crammed with features. LG adds very nice features on top of the already very competent BD 370 model.
Features
LG was the first to introduce media streaming with the BD300. BD300 was the first player to incorporate Netflix streaming on the Blu-ray player. Since BD 300, most of the Blu-ray players have copied the media streaming capabilities with their player in one form or another. Some opted to use the Netflix streaming and some have opted to go with some other services. Most players already support plethora of features on top of Blu-ray playback functions. BD390 features includes the integrated WiFi capability, Netflix streaming, Youtube and CinemaNow streaming, and media playback via network connection similar to the Samsung’s new players. The Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio are natively decoded via onboard decoder. Also, BD390 includes the 7.1 analog out output. You should have no problem with audio decoding with the BD390. As with other latest Blu-ray players, the BD 390 comes with 1GB of onboard storage. As expected, the BD390 will be fully compliant with Profile 2.0.
Design
LG continues the flush front panel design it utilized on the BD370 model. While you won’t mistake BD390 for BD370, the glossy finish and flush front panel are all part of the BD390’s design. With the panel design, the front looks less cluttered. The LCD sits in the central area and is not visible until information is displayed. The playback function buttons are located on the right side of the player. A plastic cover hides the front USB port at the far right side of the player. As with any other glossy finish, the material tend to be a dust and finger print magnate. Otherwise, it is fairly nice looking player. The back of the player houses all the connectivity. The component and 2 channel audio out is provided for the older television sets. The HDMI and RJ-45 are located next to optical and coaxial digital audio output ports. We would have liked another USB port but it is not a big drawback as you don’t need a WiFi dongle like Samsung player for WiFi functionality. The big addition over the BD370 model is the inclusion of the 7.1 channel analog audio output. If you own receiver with HDMI input, you might not consider this a big addition. Otherwise, it’s nice inclusion for people with older receivers.
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Remote
The included remote is very functional remote. The layout is pretty good with directional buttons in the middle and the special function buttons separated by different colors. The playback function buttons are located below the special function buttons. The numeric buttons and other less used buttons are hidden beneath the sliding cover at the bottom of the remote. This was nice design feature as it hides away the seldom used buttons. I found this design to be really nice as it made the remote less cluttered. If you need to use the numeric buttons often, this might cause some hassle. But, most users will appreciate the out of sight numeric buttons.
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Performance
There’s not too much to say about BD390’s performance. The video/image quality is superb like most other Blu-ray disc players. The new crops of players all have similar video/image quality in Blu-ray playback as well as DVD upscaling. BD390 performed flawlessly on all three Blu-ray titles. Batman Begins and Matrix discs showed no moiré or jaggie defects. All the action sequences displayed without any blocking or blurring artifacts. The less action intense title, Marley and Me, had no problem with colors or any other defects. The area of great improvement is the loading speed over the past LG players. Samsung players all improved greatly in loading times. The BD 390 also does great job with loading time improvement. It is nearly twice as fast as the previous generation players. The loading time used to be hideously long on older players with some player taking minute or so to load certain discs.
Audio
The audio quality greatly depends on the home theater setup. As such, it is important for the Blu-ray player to have good decoding and output options. The decoding quality is similar across many different manufacturers. BD390 handles all known decoding option and includes the 7.1 channel analog output for added bonus. The overall audio decoding quality was on par with other players.
Overall
I was very impressed with all the formats the player was able to decode. The BD 390 can decode MP3, JPEG, PNG, AVI, Divx, and MKV. MKV file containers are usually used for high definition encodings as well as great many formats. This is the first player that actually managed to decode MKV files without too much trouble. The media streaming capabilities were easier to set up than the Samsung version. The included software had no problem setting up the connection to the PC. The included streaming services are more than adequate to cover all the streaming needs. Youtube and Netflix are fairly well known video services. The CinemaNow is similar to Amazon Video on Demand service that offers new video releases for rental.
If I had to purchase a new Blu-ray player, this would be the player to get. It is packed with features and boasts some of the best performances. And, all this comes at relatively low price point of $350. This is a highly recommended player.
Pictures
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Description
Blu-ray Disc Player w/1GB Memory, 7.1 discrete analog output, BD-P, Netflix HD, YouTube, CinemaNow Full HD 1080P Output via HDMI, DVD 1080p Up-conversion.
Features
- Networked Blu-ray Disc player connects to Netflix and YouTube streaming video without a computer via Ethernet and Wi-Fi (802.11n)
- Full HD 1080p output for Blu-ray Discs and upconversion of standard DVD video to 1080p
- BD Live capable for accessing bonus content from BD-Live Blu-ray Discs; Dolby TrueHD/Digital Plus and DTS-HD; 1 GB built-in memory
- Outputs: 1 HDMI, 1 component, 1 composite, 1 analog audio (L/R), 1 digital optical audio, 1 digital coaxial audio, 1 discrete 7.1 channel audio
- Includes remote control and component AV cable; measures 17 x 2.2 x 10.9 inches
Video
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Great buy, great player
I researched blu ray players for months in deciding which one I wanted to purchase. It came down to the samsung 3600 and the lg 390. They are both very similar, but when the price for this one dropped down to $319 I jumped on it. It is even cheaper now, I believe $303. Excellent buy! It is rated by many sites as the #1 blu ray player on the market, and for the price it is worth every penny. Easy hookup, althouth I did have some problems connecting to my wireless at home. I had to remove my WPA security in order for the player to connect wirelessly to my home network. I read a previous review where someone had the same problem with the security. After removing it, the internet works great… Youtube, netflix and cinemanow all work great with good speed. I love the netflix streaming, you can cathc up on all the seasons on shows like Dexter, it is basically free with a membership to netflix. Youtube is very cool as well, the cinemanow is pretty much irrelevant since the netflix is there. As for the actual blu ray movies, absolutely awesome, the picture quality and sound is amazing. I started watching watchmen and it blew me away. This player has a great design and is quick and quit. A must buy in my book.
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Love everything but…
… the remote is cheesey, and the “open” and “on-off” buttons aren’t easy to operate. Other than that, the performance of this unit is superb, and the internal WiFi wireless n features put it in a class by itself. Choosing this unit was a no-brainer for me and I’ve been very happy with it. Got everything up and running in short order and haven’t faced any bugs so far.
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Perfect
I spent many hours researching my Blu-Ray options before settling on the LG. I really appreciated the written materials that came with the LG, and output is exceptional. Easy to install, especially when you use HDMI cable (get Monster 12 color).
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Works on My Mac Network.
After reading some reviews here, I almost didn’t purchase this great player, but I’m glad that I ignored the few reviewers that said that the wireless connection didn’t work with a Mac. Well. . . it works extremely well with my Mac/Airport (Extreme). I was up and running in minutes. The network, Netflix, and YouTube were all set up and configured easily.
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Probably the best BD player out there.
After weeks of research, I picked up a LG BD390 and haven’t looked back since.
Let me start from the beginning. I had just purchased a 55″ Vizio LCD TV, capable of full HD (1080p), my old HD TV was DLP based and only capable 1080i. I was using an older Philips DVD player that up-converted to 1080i as well. But, I wanted something that could give me the full 1080p HD experience on my new TV and I wanted something that could handle files as well as BDs and DVDs. My old Philips played MP3, JPEG, PNG, AVI, WMA, DivX-HD, XVID, MKV files and more. More importantly it had a USB port that you could plug a FAT32 flash drive or external HD into and it could read those files from that instead of requiring them to be burned to a Disc. My new BD player had to have all those capabilities as well.
The BD390 had everything I wanted and more. It could read a very wide variety of files types and here’s the good part. It can read those file from almost any PC, WIRELESS. Yes, it has built in 802.11 connectivity. If you don’t want to use the wireless functionality, don’t worry it works on standard 100Mb Ethernet too. All you need to install on the PC, if you already don’t have it, is a UPnP media server such as Nero’s Media home, which comes bundled with the BD390. Which means, you can browse photos, music and video clips. from a PC, without needing to burn them to a disc or hook the PC up to the TV. It has no problem displaying full size JPGs taken by an 8 Mega Pixel digital camera and it displays them in very high detail too (1080p), which is very nice. It has a handy slide show feature and it allows you to rotate and zoom in.
If you have an internet connection the BD390 can access Netflix, CinemaNow, Youtube without the aid of a PC. If your into Netflix or CinemaNow you can download movies directly to the BD390 and watch a wide assortment of new releases and older classics, for a price though. I think NetFlix has unlimited downloads starting at $7.99/mo. It’s a little awkward using YouTube without a standard web browser but you adapt to it quickly. I downloaded Big Buck Bunny, a DivX-HD file from [...] just to see how it looked. While the clip was cheesy the picture quality was incredible. The BD390 had no trouble playing a file that freezes up on most of my computers. It plays Blu-ray discs well to. But after using the BD390 for a few months now I’m pretty sure ALL disc’s DVD’s and Blu-ray are going to be a thing of the past. With hard drive space getting cheaper than blank optical media I transferred most of my DVDs to my PC hard drive and the BD390 plays VOB files without a problem, which means you can keep them in MPEG2 format. You don’t need to trans-code them. At today’s HD prices your looking at less than 40 cents per film and I’m sure that’s going to keep dropping. I’ve barely touched on what this device does.
This is definitely more than just a BD player, slightly more expensive but worth every penny.
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Too many error messages for the price
The BD 390 works more like a computer than an appliance. It forces you to interact with it constantly, like a computer, with error messages and occasional bugs. The video/sound is good enough that I won’t hassle with returning it, but if I knew how high-maintenance this unit was I wouldn’t have bought it.
As other people have noted the networking features don’t work well. I’ve set up both wireless and wired, and in both cases the unit initially connects to your router without any problems, but then the connection goes dead for no apparent reason. It will connect long enough to pop up a notice that there is a firmware update, but then the connection will time out trying to download it. I tried several times and finally the update installed. The Netflix streaming function will download your list of movies, but then choke when you try to play them. For a unit that costs this much that is unacceptable bugginess. If the problem is that the servers are overwhelmed then they should have dedicated servers for their high-end products.
The BD 390 does not allow you to disable BD-Live. I want the movies to load as soon as possible, so I set the BD Live connection to “disallow”. The BD 390 treats that option like it’s an error. Every time I pop in a BD-Live disk I get a message telling me to allow the BD-Live connection (and it’s not a disk menu message, it’s a message from the BD 390). So my only option was to re-enable BD-Live but to unplug the network connection (which wasn’t a big loss since it didn’t work anyway). To offer a service is one thing but to force users to use it is unacceptable.
If you’re watching a movie and you go into the DVD setup menu (for whatever reason) and then hit the “return” key, you would think it would return to the movie. Instead, it leaves you with a blank screen, like a computer desktop. You have to hit the Play button to keep watching your movie.
On a couple of occasions it popped up a message that a disk wasn’t readable. On both occasions I popped out the disks to check that they were clean and seated in the tray properly but it still wouldn’t read them. I had to turn the unit off/on and then it read the disk, suggesting it wasn’t a disk problem it was a software problem. Essentially I had to “reboot” it.
I understand that technologically the box is a computer, but for this amount of money computer-like interaction should not be necessary. The options and services should certainly be available in the setup menu, but once you set your preferences it should work like an appliance.
The customer support is useless. Obviously some cube-farm of low-paid contract support staff who have no personal knowledge of the unit, searching through the same thin reference material you could find on the web site.
All that being said, the sound and video is good. If you have a receiver that can handle the uncompressed HD audio it’s a noticeable improvement from old DVDs. (And if you have an older 1080i plasma, like I do, the picture still looks great.) So the core A/V technology of the BD 390 is nice, but getting to the point of enjoying it is a frustrating experience.
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Fast Feature Packed Player
2009 has been a great year for Blue Ray players. Finally Blue ray players have come down substantiality in price and more importantly to me, have finally gotten fast. There was no way I was gonna get a player that took 1-4 minutes to play a blue ray disk. Fast play times and solid picture quality, were my priorities, and IMO there are four solid choices this year. The Lg BD390, Samsung BD-P3600, JVC XVBP1 and Oppo BDP-83 are all great fast players and all worthy of consideration.
All of these players are fast, generally within seconds of each other speed wise, and all offer great picture quality for both standard DVD’s and Blue ray.
I choose the 390 in part due to good reviews and the fact the I got an LG TV. The 390, looks nice, and features some great menus that are color and easy to use. The player is fast and will play a standard DVD in about 10 seconds or less, and an average blue ray in 20 seconds or less. This is also the only blue ray player with a built in wifi tuner and the only one to use the wireless N standard, versus the slower G. You can also hook it up directly through an ethernet cable, which is how I did it.
You can plug your flash drive into the usb port, for vids, pics and mp3s. Pictures and music worked fine, but I’ve yet to be able to play any vids, and that’s one of the knocks I have against this player. This other is not including a second usb port in back, to allow the flash drive to remain plugged in, like the Samsung and Oppo player do.
The biggest flaw of this unit is the remote, which is one of the worst I’ve seen for any product. It’s adequate for just using the 390, but completely sucks otherwise. Too many of the buttons are small, and there is no backlighting. Worst of all is the bottom part that slides down, with difficultly, to review a bunch of tiny TV buttons that are way too small and cramped together to use. You would not want to use this remote for your TV.
Flaws aside, this is one of the fastest players, has good picture quality, good easy to use color menus, sports an ethernet and usb port, a built in wifi tuner, and features Netflix, Cinemnow and Youtube.
My first choice though was actually the 3600. It can be had for about $50 cheaper then the 390 and I like the slim profile and sleek glossy black look better then the other 3 players. The Samsung also features two usb ports, one in front and in back. The back one is useful for either plugging in the wifi dongle or a flash drive, for pics, vids, and mp3s. The Samsung also features, Netflix and Pandora. Unfortunately Samsung has a history of problems every year with its Blue Ray players, and there are a number of complaints about problems connecting wirelessly and disk compatibility issues.
The XVBP1 is a good player, and very similar to the LG without the wireless, and the Netflix, Cinemanow, Youtube. This player actually looks quite similar to the 390 and even features similar menus, though not as good. The XVP1 is about 200 cheaper and if you don’t care about wireless and Netflix, this is a solid fast player and a great buy.
The Oppo is of course the videophiles player, and the best player for both Blue Ray and standard DVD’s, with it’s Anchor Bay processing. It plays the most formats, and also features 2 usb ports like the Samsung. It doesn’t however include wireless, or features like Netflix and it costs about 200 more.
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Excellent
This LG BD 390 Network Blu-ray disc player does what it says with excellent picture quality and streaming of Net Flix. I found it was very easy to set up and get connected to my wireless connection. From time to time it will stop the Net Flix movie to adjust to the networks connection speed to optimize performance however that is not too distracting as it takes less than a minute and does not happen too often. Other than that I have enjoyed it.
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Amazing Product
Used it for a couple of weeks. A bit slower to load than I like, but minor. The menu’s are good, sound and picture are phenom. If you must buy a bluray player, you should really consider this one
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LG BD390 does it all – and well
Based on several weeks of reading online reviews from multiple sources I settled on the LG BD390. My major requirements were finding a player that streamed Netflix, has top-notch image quality, and loaded Blu-Ray discs quickly. Found it!
In less than 10 minutes I turned on the player and configured it on my network. It found the network and I entered the WEP Key – bingo – online. I then downloaded the latest software update. It took about 15 minutes to download, but completed and installed successfully.
After updating the software I went to Netflix in the menu and it gave me an activation code which I then entered on the Netflix website. 10 seconds later, activation was complete. I put Die Hard in my Watch Instantly queue, ran back to the TV, and like magic, Die Hard appeared in my Netflix movie list. Hit play and it started streaming within 15 seconds. Couldn’t ask for this to be any easier!
Next I loaded Pirates of the Carribean on Blu-Ray and within 20 seconds the video playback began – completely tolerable (and better than I expected!). Picture quality is solid, sound is great (pushing it thru a Denon 7.1 receiver), and the menu system is slick and easy to use. I haven’t even opened the manual.
Easy, fast, high-quality video, and a great Amazon price. VERY pleased!
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lg mainstream products
As soon as I received this Lg player I put in a blu-ray in and the picture was grainy to me and I have a Panasonic at home and the picture is amazing and so I continued and put a standard dvd in and what a mess the lg was very poor picture and the other player upscaled much better. So I was not to impressed and returned the same day I got in the mail. Though the Netflix was nice to have which panasonic does not have.
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Works with Apple Airport Extreme!
This is a great unit. I bought it in spite of the fact that several people here said that it does not play nice with Apple routers. I have two routers at home, one for an 802.11b/g network and an Airport Extreme for my 802.11n network. Sure enough, when I set up the BD390 it could “see” my Verizon FiOS Actiontec router but not my Airport. I emailed and called LG. Both times I was told that the unit did not support Apple products. Then I saw a review here by Anthony Pantliano who said his unit connected to his Airport out of the box. So I emailed him. Together we discovered that the BD390 will connect to the AirPort but only when the wireless mode is either 802.11n only (2.4GHz), 802.11n (802.11b/g compatible), or 802.11n (a compatible). The 802.11n only (5GHz) setting WILL NOT WORK with the LG. So, problem solved. So far I’m very happy with the unit. NetFlix streaming is much better than I expected. The picture is outstanding on my 56″ Samsung DLP.
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BD 390 DOES NOT WORK WITH NETFLIX- using an Airport
The BD390 does not work with the Apple Airport router. So no ability to stream Netflix. Worse, the company has no plans to offer a solution to the customers who have already bought the BD390 thinking they can stream Netflix. Poor support.
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Out of the Box and Streaming Netflix in HD in 10 Minutes – Attn: Apple Airport Users, Read Note!
I really wasn’t even looking for a Blu-ray player, but I needed a DVD player and didn’t see the logic in paying money for outmoded technology when for more, quite a bit more though, I could get Blu-ray and Netflix streaming. I’m very glad I made the decision to spend the extra money.
It came down to two players for me, the Samsung BD-P1600 or the LG. I decided to go with the LG BD 390 because, unlike the Samsung, it has built in wireless b/g/n and 1GB of memory. On the Samsung you have to buy a wireless dongle and a flash USB drive for memory.
The LG is very nicely styled with only 6 buttons on the front of the unit, the playback controls that light up in blue and power and tray open/close buttons on the top edge. The display on the front of the player is very bright and fairly large. It’s very easy to see. I also like the fact that when you press a button on the remote a little indicator lights up in the display to let you know. This way you don’t wonder whether the player didn’t get the command or if it’s something you cannot do in the current mode. The remote is a decent size and has a logical button layout (see photo).
Picture quality on my 32″ 720p LCD TV is great. Blu-ray discs and regular DVDs look flawless. Additionally, when you take out a disc you haven’t finished watching and put it back in later, even if you’ve turned the player off, it will start up where you left off, nice. Netflix streams in very high quality (up to 720p HD) over my cable high-speed network. The Netflix activation process is very simple as well. My wireless router is an Apple AirPort Extreme with WPA security and the LG wirelessly linked up with it easily. You can also access YouTube, CinemaNow, and a local media server with the LG. Of these, I’ve only tried the YouTube player and found it worked well. Finally, updates for the player’s software can be easily downloaded over the wireless network through the set-up menu.
The connections on the rear are very comprehensive and included HDMI, Component and Composite video, Digital and Optical audio, and 7.1 surround sound outputs. There is also an Ethernet port if you prefer to use the player on a wired network.
The only negative I have about the LG is that the remote is quite cheesy in construction and does not feel up to the caliber of a player of this cost. Also the player itself sounds a little strained when the drawer opens and closes. I’m hoping that this is not a sign of bad things to come.
All in all…Blu-ray, plus a seamless Netflix experience, all wrapped up in a stylish box.
Note to Apple AirPort Extreme users: Someone read my review and contacted me saying that they were not able to get the LG to wirlessly connected to their AirPort, what was I doing differently? Well after some playing around with the AirPort Extreme’s settings I came to the conclusion that the LG will only connect to the AirPort when the wireless mode is either 802.11n only (2.4GHz), 802.11n (802.11b/g compatible), or 802.11n (a compatible). The 802.11n only (5GHz) setting WILL NOT WORK with the LG. I’ve included a photo of said setting.
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Harpretired
I wasn’t sure about buying this product but the wireless capabilities make it easy to watch movies on-line without worrying about long cables. LG makes great products. If you’re buying a Blu-ray player, this is the one to buy especially if you have a home wireless network. It’s worth the price.
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A piece of junk with worthless customer support
Out of the box this player gave the message NO DISK with Blu Ray and DVDs. It also recognised my network once and then never again (despite resetting router etc). Customer support was worth than useless: the telephone support gave up after telling me to unplug it. The online support recommended cleaning the disks and connecting directly to the TV. I pointed out that the NO DISK message was obviously obtained with or without the TV and that, as I had already noted, I had tried 8 different Blu Rays and DVDs, most of which were fresh out of their packaging. Did they really think that all 8 were so dirty that they would not play? To add insult to injury the only redress offered by support was to send the player to LG for diagnosis! And then wait to hear from them. Thank heavens for Amazon, this piece of junk goes back tomorrow.
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Excellent Blu Ray Player Indeed
Amazing blu ray player. My waiting and research paid off. You can’t go wrong with this player. The connection was easy to my 50″ Panasonic Viera Plasma and the wireless connection considering I am just a novice. My LG BD390 output were all 1080p resolutions on my Blu Ray disk, regular DVD disk and my Netflix streaming video.
All my regular DVD’s resolutions output were excellent almost close to blu ray disk quality. In addition, the resolutions of my Netflix streaming video even bested by regular DVD resoulutions. LG BD390 automatically adjust to its highest resolution when watching the Netflix streaming video which is a plus. Trust me, you can’t go wrong with this player. Nobody does it better, you will just feel sad for the rest of other blu ray players. I don’t have any issues and I highly recommend to own it.
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Great Blu-Ray player
This is my first blu-ray player and I couldn’t be more pleased. I am not at all technically adept but set up was very simple and straight forward. I had to get a new router and upgrade my ISP to take better advantage of Netflix and YouTube. With my faster router and more bandwidth, the picture quality for instant downloads from Netflix is very good as is YouTube. They also offer a pay per view service called CinemaNow which I don’t use since I have Netflix. Discs load quickly and play very well, blu-ray disks, of course, are most clear and crisp. Amazon shipped very quickly.
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great player , with great added features
Solid Blu Ray performance. Netflix streaming in minutes. Easy setup and great quality. solid performer.
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Great Netflix Streamer; YouTube, myMedia interface could be better
I am going to skip over the review of the BD and DVD playback features (which are both excellent, by the way) and get to the point right away. So here it goes:
NetFlix Streaming
This is where this player shines. Yes, its not perfect; selections are still limited; audio is still two channel; movies can’t be added to your queue on the fly; rewinding and ff is still a bit awkward…but boy you certainly get the feeling that you are witnessing the end of the DVD era. Picture quality in my opinion is at least as good as DVDs if not better. And most importantly, there is no so called “Netflix guilt” involved (you know what I am talking about – you watch “Step Brothers” which just came in today while “kite runner” sits on the shelf for a month unwatched). No such problems here. Fifteen minutes into a movie you realize its not your thing, you move on. There is always something else.
YouTube
This was the big feature which made me trade my Panasonic BD player for this one. But unfortunately once the novelty of watching YouTube on big screen wore off (in about 15 minutes), it was just not worth the effort to “search” for new and fun things to watch. The search metaphor robs you of the most common entry into the YouTube world – a link. Without a link to click on, the instant gratification part of YouTube is gone. Awkwardly searching YouTube using a virtual keyboard with a remote feels like work. Obviously some kind of voice enabled search technology (possibly with a tiny microphone integrated with the remote itself) is what will make this work. Hey, wait a minute – did I just give LG the next big user interface idea?
myMedia
Alright, this one is a great idea really gone bad. If you have ever played with Apple TV, Windows Media Extenders (XBox 360 is one), or Sonos, you know this implementation is a non-starter. The strict folder based browsing of pictures or music is tiresome. No playlist support; no alternate browsing by album or rating or genre; no ability to search for new music – thanks, but no thanks. LG, please go back and try again (or look at Sonos for inspiration).
Don’t get me wrong. This is a great machine – just needs a bit more polish.
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Wait until the Problems are Fixed.
Like others, I had a problem with sound synchronization on some (not all) blu-ray discs. There was no such problem when I played the same discs in my PS3. On some discs, I had to try several times to get them to load – no problem with the PS3. I bought the 390 because of its ability to bitstream 7.1 Dolby and DTS-HD to my Onkyo receiver (PS3 can only send 7.1 PCM DTS-HD). I wanted to give the decoding circuitry in the receiver a chance to do its thing (although theoretically, there shouldn’t be much of a difference in sound quality). The 390 does indeed bitstream both codecs. The built in wireless is a very neat feature – it’s fun to be able to listen to music or view photos that are on my big computer upstairs. Online Netflix movies sounds like a good idea but the current poor quality of the picture and sound (on any streaming device) make this feature valueless to me. Bottom line: the occasional sound sync and loading problems make this machine a ‘don’t buy now.’
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false advertising
This player does not work with Mac products, including Airport. I called LG customer service six times, and finally I talked to someone who said it is not Mac compatible, but their engineers are working on a patch and she will call me back. This was 2 weeks ago; still waiting. I am returning the player to Amazon.
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LG BD 390 Blu-ray Disc Player
I purchased the LG BD 390 Blu-ray Disc Player in early June, 2009. After researching the various brands and models of Blu-ray players available, I decided on the LG BD 390. My decision was based primarily on reviews I read on Amazon, and other online reviews sites I visited. I ordered this unit from Amazon, and it was received without a hitch, as has been my experience with other items I have purchased from Amazon over the years.
I have utilized this player only for viewing Blu-ray and standard DVD discs. I have not activated any of the online options, such as Netflix, at this time. The quality of the Blu-ray video and audio experience on this player, is, in a word, superb. Standard DVD discs also play very well. I use an HDMI cable to connect the LG player to an Onkyo AV Receiver, which allows me to receive DTS audio and, of course, 1080p video on a plasma flat screen TV. The technology we have today, is very impressive in terms of the entire viewing and listening experience, and thus far, I am very pleased with the performance of the LG BD 390 disc player in my system.
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Incredible
Everything that I read about this device turned out to be absolutely correct. It’s a wonderfully sleek and well designed Blu-ray player, with plenty of outputs, nice interface, and a seamless wi-fi connection. I’ve ended up using the Netflix service more than the Blu-ray player, and I’ve been able to hook it up to my computer and play all sorts of computer files.
The only, slight complaint I can levy against it is the CinemaVision/Youtube components. I don’t find either of them very useful, especially since its so hard to find anything watchable on Youtube anymore, and the ‘rental’ prices of CinemaVision are a little high.
Otherwise, this is a great product.
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Great Blu-Ray Player and how to make it work with DLink DIR655
This DVD Player is great and for details on how good it is, look at the other reviews on Amazon. The purpose of my review is to help people who purchase this player and own a DLink DIR655 router. Most likely, you will find that you can’t run Netflix or YouTube videos over the wireless connection. I was very frustrated trying to get the wireless interent to work on this DVD Player. I kept thinking the signal was weak. After wasting a day trying to get it to work, I went online looking for a solution. After checking everything I could find, I discovered what needed to be done. My router had firmware version 1.21. The LG BD390 won’t work with the DLink DIR655 via wireless if your router has this version or older of firmware. You will have to upgrade to version 1.31. (Warning: Once you upgrade to 1.31, you can’t go back down to 1.21 and some people have claimed it has problems. But I’ve only seen an improvement in my router). Follow DLink’s instructions on upgrading your firmware. You’ll have to reset your modem and then put your settings back like you had them. After upgrading to v1.31, a new feature will be added called “SecureSpot”. You’ll have to log into your router and in the menu under “Advanced”, disable “SecureSpot”, then save your settings. After doing this on my router, I retried connecting to Netflix and it worked flawlessly. So did YouTube. I noticed too, that the signal strength indicator on the LG menu, now showed full strength instead of only half, as it had previously. So yes, the LG BD390 will work with the DLink DIR655 but you may have to do a little work if the firmware is outdated. Hope this helps all the frustrated DLink DIR655 users!
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