Entertainment Corner

6 Responses

1. wms Says:
   March 7th, 2010 at 7:34 am

   Setting up Wi-Fi was very straight forward as well as Netflix streaming, home networking and firmware upgrading.

   Blu-ray disks loading time is quite acceptable.

   Default resolution for HDMI out is 1080i and is simple to change to 1080p during initial setup.

   The reason for only 4 stars is the remote can only be configured to work on LG, Sony, Hitachi, Goldstar, Zenith and Samsung TV’s.

   Overall recommended.
   
   Rating: 4 / 5

2. Scott A. Benner Says:
   March 7th, 2010 at 9:30 am

   I got this player last evening, and am very pleased with it, so far. The first thing I liked was its small size — just 1.7″ tall and 8″ deep. It’s also simple and understated in appearance; I like the flip-down front panel.

   I was able to connect to my wireless router very quickly with no problems whatsoever. I was slightly worried about how stable the connection would be, since my router is upstairs and on the other side of the house, but I watched an entire Netflix movie with no hitches or hesitation whatsoever, and with excellent image and audio quality. I also listened to Pandora, watched a YouTube video and played a portion of a DVD (non-Blu-Ray), and all worked beautifully. I haven’t yet watched a Blu-Ray DVD with this player, but I expect that to work fine, as well.

   I’m very happy with this player, its features and price. No complaints so far!
   Rating: 5 / 5

3. Michael Rodriguez Says:
   March 7th, 2010 at 11:22 am

   First, this was my first blu-ray player. I did my research and most users really enjoyed the LG products over the less costly Samsung models. The model I was originally going to purchase was the LG BD570’s predecessor. In the end I went with this LG model expecting one of the best products at this price value. I was unfortunately let down. Here was my issue:

   I purchased this player and the new Terminator Salvation DVD to test it out. The player was a breeze to hook up and I was excited to watch the movie. However, this is where the problem started. It would not play a blu-ray disc. The LG has a “home” screen as many blu-ray players do. In order to watch a movie, you select “movie.” When doing that the player was stuck in what I will refer to as a loop. The player will flash to the beginning of the movie for a second or less, then flash back to the home screen. In order to actually watch the movie you would need to continually select “movie” until the actual DVD begins with the credits. During the FBI warning, rating, etc…it continually looped back to the home screen. Just to note, standard DVDs played without an issue. I thought perhaps this was a DVD problem, but another blu-ray DVD (Spaceballs) had the same issue although not as bad. I called LG tech support whom were very unhelpful. There idea of tech support and the only support they gave after both a phone call and an e-mail was to turn the machine off and turn it back on. I could have told them that that was likely not going to fix my issue. So, knowing that something is wrong with the player I assumed I had a bad apple and returned it for the same model. After hooking up the new one, it had the same issue. Also this issue was not firmware since there are no firmware updates for this model. I checked both the wireless network connection of the player and online. After two of these models having the same issue, I returned the second and actually purchased the Sony S570 model. After hooking that one up, both of the blu-ray movies I was attempting to play worked flawlessly, thus confirming my belief that both of the LG models were poorly made and not functioning as expected.

   With that being said, if you choose to purchase this model, here are my pros and cons:

   Pros:
   
   - Very easy to set up
   
   - Wireless network was easy to set up and worked well
   
   - As silly as it sounds, I liked the remote.
   
   - Network options (Netflix and Pandora)

   Cons:
   
   - Issues playing blu-ray discs
   
   - Very slow load times (which were confirmed when experiencing the Sony load times which were about half)
   
   - Cost (the Sony is $30 less in most places)
   
   - I did not like the flip down front

   Overall, I wanted this player to be great based on what people were saying about LG models, but it didn’t. The Sony model I ended up with has all of the same functionality, short of Pandora, at less cost. The Sony also functioned perfectly out of the box. I would recommend the Sony over this model, but it is your choice. I hope you don’t get 2 bad apples like I did.
   Rating: 2 / 5

4. Chris Boylan Says:
   March 7th, 2010 at 11:42 am

   Having reviewed previous LG Blu-ray players, including the vaunted BD390, our expectations for the BD570 were pretty high and happily, LG does not disappoint. While some of LG’s competitors (notably Pioneer and Sharp), think audio/video performance is the only thing that matters, LG embraces the idea that convenience and choice of media and distribution format are also important to many consumers. So the BD570 includes one of the richest media playback offerings of any Blu-ray player, including internet streaming from Netflix, CinemaNow, VUDU and Pandora. The player also supports DLNA networking so it can access audio and video files on a home network as well. For those who have a library of videos on their computers, the BD570 supports Divx, Xvid and MKV files as well as a number of other formats and codecs.

   As far as load times are concerned, the BD570’s are decent but not winning any speed records. It offers a 17 second overall bootup time (while it loads all of the aforementioned content options in the menu) – this makes it 3 seconds faster than the Pioneer BDP-320 which offers no multimedia options. Standard DVDs load in about 12 seconds, Blu-rays in 23 seconds, and BD-JAVA-heavy Blu-ray Discs like “Pirates of the Caribbean” in 32 seconds. This is pretty close to parity with the fastest models of 2009 (including OPPO’s BDP-83) but it seems like they could have improved things a bit with this whole new generation of players.

   In terms of performance, the BD570 delivers Blu-ray Discs in excellent audio and video clarity (as it should), and performs most of the difficult tasks of DVD upconversion right as well – excellent diagonal filtering and 3:2 cadence detection, for example. But it does not handle noisy source material very well (its noise reduction processing could use some work). Overall, as a DVD upconverter, it’s very good but not outstanding.

   What is outstanding is the built-in 802.11b/g/n WiFi wireless networking. For us this worked right our of the box connecting to our wireless router, and streaming VUDU’s 1080p HDX movies like nobody’s business. And although the remote looks almost upside down compared to many other BD player remotes, the button layout is actually quite comfortable with the most popular buttons in easy reach of your thumb, and transport buttons (play/pause/FF/REW) raised and angled for improved ergonomics.

   Overall, with its built-in WiFi, DLNA networking, multimedia playback and internet streaming offerings, combined with solid Blu-ray playback, the BD570 offers a good blend of performance and convenience for a fairly affordable price. Our complete review of the BD570 is available on Big Picture Big Sound (dot com).
   Rating: 4 / 5

5. Michael Westin Says:
   March 7th, 2010 at 1:14 pm

   I have been waiting for this to come out for a few weeks now (seems like longer). I am tired of using stereo cables and s-video to connect my laptop to my TV every time I want to watch something from my computer. I looked for other “home media server” options originally, and ultimately found a Samsung product similar to this one. It seemed great at first, but after reading some reviews I was skeptical. Then, C-NET reported the imminent release of the LG BD750, which they saw at the 2010 CES.

   The best features in my opinion, aside from the fact that it plays Blu-ray discs, is that it can stream Netflix right out of the box and also stream media from your networked computers. I set up the BD570 last night and played around with it a little. DVD playback seemed fine. Setting up the Wi-Fi connection wasn’t too difficult, either. It would have been much easier if our Wi-Fi SSID were being broadcast. Also, toggling to upper case letters on the on-screen keyboard for SSID/password input wasn’t immediately obvious. The built-in Wi-Fi is a definite plus, though; the Samsung I was looking at came with a Wi-Fi dongle that you had to plug in via USB and set up (seems like Wi-Fi was an afterthought). If your modem or router/access point is located close enough to your entertainment center, you could even connect the LG via Ethernet for even better streaming throughput.

   Setting up Netflix was a cinch. They provide you with an activation code; you log into your Netflix account on your computer and type in the code, and presto. You can then browse through your Instant Queue, or browse by category, etc. (Other products with similar features, don’t let you watch un-queued movies. That is, you have to add them manually on your computer before they appear on your TV queue.) The quality seemed pretty decent–perhaps slightly more pixelated than hooking up my laptop Netflix stream to the TV via s-video. This might just be a matter of tweaking aspect ratio settings on the TV and/or BD player. Also, the movie cover art seemed a bit slow in loading while browsing through titles, but no biggie.

   Streaming shared media on network computers via LG’s Home Link feature works great, but it took a bit of tweaking to get it set up. A couple of different shared items appeared immediately when I loaded Home Link. One was labeled “COMPUTERNAME/Username” and the other was a directory of all shared documents. The former was some form of “media server” protocol, which I couldn’t get to work (I tried enabling media streaming in Windows 7 settings, to no avail). The latter directory tree, once opened, showed all empty folders (Documents, Pictures, Movies, Downloads–i.e., all “My Documents” sub-folders, but all empty). I had “Homegroup” sharing enabled for a number of different folders in Windows 7 settings, but Home Link couldn’t access their contents until I added “Guest” as a user in the Share settings for specific folders. Once that was done, I was instantly able to browse and stream movies, music, and pictures. I tested a couple of DivX and MP3 files, and they seemed to run great.

   All of this file-sharing trouble may be my unfamiliarity with the new Windows 7 networking lingo and how to configure settings properly without sharing everything with the world. Others may find it much easier to connect and stream media. Also, bundled with the LG player is a disc containing some Nero software called Home Essentials, I believe. It’s a way to share files over a network using DLNA. I’m not sure how it works, or whether it’s any good, but now that I’ve got Windows networking figured out, I might leave good enough alone.

   Overall, my impression of the BD570 is very positive. The only reason I’ve given this only 4 stars is the slightly cumbersome nature of the setup process for home networking, and because some of the language used in the menus is not 100% clear (not overly technical, just poor English). We have had very good experiences with LG products–bought an LG fridge, washer, and dryer in the past 6 months or so–and I’m so far pretty pleased with this new addition. As the first to review the product, at least on here, I hope people will find my experience and remarks useful.

   One final caveat: I have not tested any of the other Internet-enabled functions, such as Pandora, YouTube, etc. If they’re anything like the Netflix function, then they should be easy to set up and use.
   Rating: 4 / 5

6. Ps3- the Most In-demand Gaming Console Says:
   March 8th, 2010 at 9:57 pm

   [...] LG BD570 Network Blu-Ray Disc Player | Entertainment Corner [...]

Leave a Comment

Name

Mail (will not be published)

Website

Please note: Comment moderation is enabled and may delay your comment. There is no need to resubmit your comment.