Review: LG BD300 Blu-ray/Netflix Player

An Odd Couple that Get Along Perfectly

October 2008 By Grant Clauser

Photos

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Playing Blu-ray discs is a pretty satisfying experience, as playback is speedy and picture quality was quite sharp. DVD playback was good, but the unit’s upscaling of standard definition was not as good as some other players we’ve used.

While a strong Blu-ray picture is great, it’s the Netflix feature that really makes this player stand out. Like the Roku player (Netflix only) launched earlier this year, the BD300 allows you to access your entire “watch instantly” list on your TV, rather than on a computer screen. From the player’s Home menu you select the Netflix icon and within a few seconds you’re presented with title thumbnails of all the movies on your list. Once selected, the movies begin playing within 30 seconds. You can pause, rewind and even stop playback to resume later, just as if you were watching a DVR recording. So far there are about 12,000 titles available for Internet streaming, and Netflix is actively adding more. The best part about these titles is that they don’t cost you anything extra if you’re already a Netflix subscriber. You can put up to 500 movies in your Instant queue.

As cool as instant streaming is, the picture quality is a little below that of a good-looking DVD, and far below Blu-ray. Also, most of the Instant titles I tried are not in widescreen.

Electronics companies like to pair products, creating Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup components that sometimes taste great together, and sometimes don’t. Of course, just because it’s an odd pairing, doesn’t mean LG doesn’t pull it off effectively. On the contrary, the BD300 is easily the most interesting video source component to hit the market since Apple TV. It can satisfy the needs of the HDTV owner as well as those who just want easy and quick access to video content. If you’re a Netflix user, this player will help you get more for your money.

LG BD300
$350
BD Live and Bonus View
HDMI 1.3
Ethernet
Front USB port
1080p 24/30/60Hz
LG SimpleLink (HDMI CEC)
Netflix Instant Streaming
www.lgusa.com/bluray