Customer Reviews
Excellent Blu-Ray Player with a wide array of internet entertainment options
I purchased the BD590 from Best Buy a couple of days after it first appeared in stock. I have had some experience with LG Bluray before since I own the also excellent BD390 so when I needed another one for a different room in the house the newer model LG was at the top of my list.
Having owned it for a few weeks I have the following to note.
Pros
1. Fast Blu-Ray loading times. Very crisp clear image and fortunately since I own a receiver capable of decoding Lossless HD formats I really like the sound as well. Does the Blu ray format justice
2, My favorite aspect of this and the BD 390 by far is the VUDU functionality. I think Vudu is a tremendous service (perhaps will get even better now that's its been purchased by Wal-Mart). To have a large library of 1080p HD available at your fingertips is fantastic and the LG does a nice job displaying very pleasing audio and video off Vudu. I would buy this for this feature alone.
3, Although no shortage of Netflix ready devices in my HT lineup having this and other internet sources such as Pandora are nice options.
4. I read some complaints about the new interface compared to the older LGs but to my eyes its nicer looking and just as easy to navigate
5. I used Ethernet to connect this player but did test out the 802.11n and was able to connect to my Airport Extreme powered network with no problems
6. CD ripping is a great feature and I was able to archive a library of 200 CDs or so with little trouble. Gracenote does a nice job tagging the tracks.
Cons
I really didn't find much not to like about this player. Mostly just nice to haves. I would have liked if it supported Amazon VOD since that's my other source for video and I did think that the footprint was still a little large although sleeker and lighter that my older model.
I first lucked into the BD390 when it was highly recommended by a HT installer. I am pleased to note that the 590 is a nice upgrade with newer functionality on an old favorite. Highly recommended.
Best BD player on the market to play Blu-rays and other stuff?
Little background on me: I owned or have owned a BH100, BH200, BD300, BD370 and BD390. So pretty much every LG Blu-ray player except the 270.
Pros:
Fast - I noticed DVD and Blu-ray loaded just a wee bit faster than my LG BD390. The difference wasn't amazing, but maybe a few seconds.
VuDu, Netflix, Pandora etc - They work just as they should. VuDu is identical to that on the BD390, but Netflix is the new version that allows you to view new movies/TV to Instant, has Genres, collections etc. No, it's not EVERYTHING that [...] offers, but you probably have a rotating selection of 300 different programs to check out if you don't feel like breaking out the laptop.
GracieNotes - Wow. Freakin' awesome. I managed to pull song information from a DVD, BD and a 'movie' file. As an added bonus; Hit the Display button while watching something (I assume DVD/BD only) and at the very bottom is 'Movie Information'. Click it and it will tell you what you are watching (small picture), synopsis, actor names etc. Woah!
250GB HD - Big selling point and works well. You are able to copy directly from an external HD/USB to the intern HD or via WiFi. Your choice. Obviously a wired copy will be faster than WiFi, so I set mine to copy 100GB from my external HD and went to bed. Woke up, and watched some stuff. Works very well and was fast. Maybe it can be upgraded? Out of the box it had 246GB out of 250GB available. So everything else is stored on internal memory. I bet this can be upped...
WiFi - Faster. Before, VuDu was a bit choppy, but now it was perfect.
DNLA - Works fine on my MacBook (some had issues?)
Cons:
Pandora - Ok, it's great to finally get this, but why can't I assume the colored buttons to be an easy Thumb Up, zzzz, Thumbs Down, Bookmark? Seems like it would be much easier, but the colored buttons do other things in Pandora. Feels like a wasted opportunity.
Music on HD - Well, it won't play iTunes DMR files or ones in m4a format (iTunes automatically converts them this way when you rip from CD unless you tell it not to). I spent 2 hours converting everything in my library to .mp3 so I could import them. Funny thing is, it actually imports the folder name, but none of the tracks. Took me a while to figure out why it skipped several CDs (I did 10 right away).
Size - Why is this bigger? I get it has a 250GB HD inside, but those are the size of an iPhone and the back of the units reeks of being a Gen2 unit and not a Gen5 version.
Menu - Sigh. All of the online stuff is in the Netcast icon, which means you have to click it, wait for it to load, and then you get presented with Netflix, VuDu etc. An extra step, but c'mon, there is a ton of room on that menu screen. Which is now redesigned to look like animated Ice Cubes in a pool. Odd choice...
Picture Settings - Remember how the BD390 could allow you to add/remove Edge Enhancement, DNR etc. That's gone. I even tried using my BD390 remote and the player didn't do anything. WTF? This is the top of the line player (out of 3 now!) and this was removed? Update: FIXED! The Picture Setting Menu is now found when you hit 'Display' during a movie. There are as many options as the BD390, but its better than none.
USB - Really, under a trap door? I get that some people may not want to pull their gear out to plug in a USB dogle, but get a $2 extension. Thankfully, with the Internal HD, I'll never use it.
Meh:
Remote - I don't hate it...but I like the BD590. I'll never use the numbers, so I would prefer them to be hidden in a trap door so I would have less to look at. The Center and arrow keys do feel better, and the Power button is HUGE compared to the identical sized Power/Eject of the previous. The Play/Pause/Skip are clear white...not sure why. They don't glow. So confused.
DVD Upconversion - Looks about the same.
Great unit!
This is a fabulous player and I honestly couldn't have asked for more. I had initially considered purchasing the Oppo 83 but I'm glad I went with the LG. I essentially wanted a media player that was capable of playing Netflix, Youtube, blu-ray, DVD-ROM, Pandora, and ripped movies stored on my PC. The LG is that perfect device. I had read one review that stated you can't play movies via a USB external hard drive but that simply is not true. With the latest firmware update, I plugged in my WD500 Mybook and bam... all my movies were accessible to the LG unit. I've had this player for approximately 3 weeks and am simply in amazement of what a great system it is. It really is a do it all player with excellent quality and great speed. Streaming movies over wi-fi via Netflix or my PC has been simply flawless. Spend the time to set it up correctly and you will simply have no regrets purchasing this unit. I fully recommend it to anyone looking for such a unit.
