LG BD300 Network Blu-Ray Disc Player
Introducing the world's first Network Blu-ray Disc Player that streams from Neflix instantly. Enjoy Blu-ray Discs in Full HD, watch standard DVDs in near-HD up-scaled to 1080p, gain access to over 12,000 select Netflix movies and TV episodes in standard definitions and take advantage of interactive experiences, exclusive downloads and tons of extra features with BD Live. That's innovation. That's LG.
LG BD300 Network Blu-Ray Disc Player Accessories
 HDMI Cable 2M (6 Feet)
Fiber Optical Toslink Digital Audio Optic Interface 6 Foot Cable
Iron Man (Single-Disc Edition)
Batman Begins [Blu-ray]
Wall-E (Widescreen Single-Disc Edition)
The Dark Knight (+ Digital Copy and BD Live) [Blu-ray]
Cables To Go - 40315 - 2M (6.5ft) Velocity HDMI Digital Video Cable (Blue)
300 [Blu-ray]
Incredible Hulk [Blu-ray]
Troy - The Director's Cut [Blu-ray]
LG BD300 Network Blu-Ray Disc Player Reviews
Not all movies have this feature. I READ THIS IN A REVIEW HERE, THANKS AMAZON.COM. Choose a variety to fit a mood you might be in. Audio is great. Once you have selected some movies to watch you can choose one of those to view on your TV.
Let me tell you about the features. I LOVE IT. The manual says that the DVD clarity is only enhanced using the HDMI cable, so be aware of that.
It has a very short start-up time. Then I tried my old DVDs to see how they look and I was very impressed. I use a fiber-optic cable to connect between the BD-300 and my receiver. This is the best way to go if you have the bucks to do it. This might be the best way to go in the long run because the faster the connection the better the video quality.
The blue-ray discs play flawlessly and easily. It features surround sound even using the Netflix streaming. I have about 40 movies to choose from at any given time. I bought a $25 HDMI switch on Amazon to go between my DirecTV and the BD-300.
First, the blue-ray player is first class. I hard-wired the BD-300 to the router. This feature will definitely change the way you use your TV. One thing that is disappointing - the player does not have WiFi.
I DID THIS AND IT WORKED. I use a HDMI cable to connect to my 42" LCD HDTV. Not True. This was a surprise because there was a review here that said the BD-300 had only stereo capability.
But I already had movies set-up in my instant queue and I was ready to go. I can't say enough about the machine. Now the fun part. I used the BD-Live feature once and it was fun. Not the best experience for movie watching. I have heard that other "cheaper" players can take several minutes to startup. The picture is ultra- clear.
A LITTLE ADVICE THAT CAN SAVE YOU TIME. Another option is to buy a newer surround sound receiver that has a HDMI switch built in so you switch audio and video together. In short, I love it and recommend it. They seem to be almost HD in clarity. Big difference between the highest and the second highest quality setting. I've had Netflix for a long time and I've watched many movies on my little computer screen. IF YOUR ROUTER IS HAVING TROUBLE FINDING THE BLUE-RAY PLAYER - REBOOT THE ROUTER WITH THE BD-300 ON AND RUNNING.
This is selected automatically by the BD-300 and it depends on the quality of your broadband connection. It works fine. If you are new to Netflix you must select your movies online first and put them in your "instant" queue. Some people are upset about not being able to browse any movie from Netflix on the BD-300. If you have a slow DSL connection you may be disappointed. To me it seems better than the HD picture from DirecTV (and that is saying a lot). I bought the LG BD-300 about a month ago from Circuit City for $349.
I average 1.5 to 2.0 MB/sec connection speed. This works fine, but to switch back to the Dish Network, I have to turn off the DVD Player. The trick, though, was to get internet connectivity to the entertainment center, and I also neededed HDMI switching. Netgear HDXB101 Powerline HD Ethernet Kit. The highest I have acheived is 3 stars, about 5% of the time. My Sony KD-36XS955 36" 4x3 TV only has one HDMI input so I needed a automatic switcher for the Dish Network and the LG BD300.
I needed the Ethernet Switch so I could have additional network outlets for my Dish Network receiver and laptop. (I wish I had cable modem) Sometimes my DSL drops below 1.5 and that gives me 1 star quality for Netflix streaming. 4. The Netflix option is what drove me to get this player. It was easy and works flawlessly. It also worked flawlessly. 6.6' HDMI KING Gold Plated v1.3 HDMI to HDMI Cable with Ferrite Cores. This feature is worth at least half the price of the player for me.
If the Netflix is of value to you, get this player. Terk HDMI-31 Smart HDMI Switch (3 X 1). 2 star quality is fine, but 3 and above is great for me. If you would not use this feature, I am sure there are better players out there for the money. 3. The HDXB101 provided me the ability to get networking/internet through my electrical lines.
For me that is fine. Unfortunately my internet is a slower DSL connection. Netgear FS605NA 5-Port Fast Ethernet Switch. For this I used the following:. 2. 1.
I was pleasantly surprised that the quality is good.
Activating blu ray discs on your Netflix account will cost you an addition $1 per month. However, I compared regular DVD pictures to my Denon DVD player that cost about 3 times the price of the BD300, and the blacks were a little more defined on the Denon than the LG. You select the feature, and then it gives you a choice of starting them where you left off (if you were interrupted) or from the beginning. If not, I wait until another time. The background can be a little blocky, but the picture will look about like regular definition TV viewed on a high-def device.
Now, what makes this unit so special is the NetFlix features, which having set up your account online, you activate on the unit from a 4-character code which you input into your Netflix Account via your PC. 1 dot has a very blocky background and darks are pixelated and un-defined. On the whole, it plays DVDs that I use for comparison (The 5th Element, Kingdom of Heaven, Sin City) in an acceptable way, and the picture is quite crisp. Blu ray picture quality seems quite good. You will really enjoy a Netflix subscription much, much more with this unit. You can also rate the feature from your BD300 or remove it from your Netflix Queue.
You must select "instant view" movies from your Netflix Account on the PC before they will show up as available on the BD300. One is not concious of any tradeoffs in picture quality. I will await some opera or concert blu rays to make a judgment. Even fast action sequences are crisp and smooth, with no artifacts on any disc I've played.
Having everything set up, you can select the streaming to search for your Netflix Instant View features. This would be the only complaint in my book. If I get 1 dot, I stop the movie and hit replay, and then we see if the connection speed increases. Setup is simple and for me required 3 cables the power cable, the HDMI cable, and an ethernet (CAT-6) cable to my network. As a medium, the improvement in picture from a DVD is quite pronounced. This blu ray picture loads pretty fast about 20-40 seconds, so that is a real improvement over the earlier blu ray generation, and the remote is satisfactory if difficult to read in low light.
This unit will not work with wireless networks, as far as I know, because the streaming video quality would suffer on a large screen TV. The glossy black unit has a thin and elegant, understated look that should not clash with other equipment. The quality of video you will see ranges from 1-4 "dots". 3 dots is the equivalent of good DVD picture and I get that about 60% of the time. When you turn on the unit, and it's hooked into your ethernet network (no wireless), it automatically uprgrades its firmware and software first once again, this was seamless and only took a couple of minutes. 4 dots, the highest, I receive over my DSL Cat-6 gigabit switched network about 10% of the time, and the quality is about the same as blu ray very high indeed. You should also have a USB thumb drive of 1GB or over capacity for the system to download enhanced DVD content from the internet.
Plug the thumb drive into the front panel (there is a hard to see door with a latch that will flick down with a fingernail) after the unit does its self-test and upgrades its firmware. If it does, I stick with the movie. I received it about 3 weeks ago, and I truly love it. 2 dots is acceptable for all anime and many movies where there is not a lot of fast action or dark scenes, but you notice a loss of detail in those circumstances. The improvement in audio sound is more subtle on most action movies, I haven't noticed it. All streamed movies seem to be stereo audio only, and no subtitles are available.
I got mine a few weeks ago and it has been perfect. The Netflix streaming looks great and was easy to setup.
The Blue ray quality is outstanding, and setup and operation is very simple.
Once it's up and running it's really pretty awesome, setting up netflix streaming was dead simple, and the blue ray disc quality is really nice.
If the netflix instant queue could be fixed so that you could add movies to your queue directly from the device I would definately give this machine another star, but because of this, and a few other minor glitches I can only give it a three out of five.
The first thing I did after I connected everything and turned it on was have to figure out how to manually change the resolution without being able to see what I was doing.
I received my BD300 last monday and so far am loving most of it.
One thing I've also noticed is that when viewing netflix content the picture brightness fades up and down a bit, I'm hoping that this is just a glitch that can be fixed via a firmware update later on down the road.
For whatever reason the player incorrectly guesses the wrong resolution for my tv(an LG flatpanel via hdmi) so it's always initially out of sync.
this is obviously annoying, but I can live with it.
and even though I change the resolution manually, when I turn the player off and back on the resolution resets back to the incorrect one again.
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