The player itself is slimmed down from the BH100. The front is an attractive glossy black with the standard buttons. The BH100 had placed swanky touch-sensitive buttons on top of the player, but thankfully, LG has gone back to basics with this version. There’s also a USB port which can be used to connect flash drives for playing pictures or digital music. Around back there’s a surprisingly small number of outputs. The main output is the HDMI, which carries both audio and video content. There’s also a single set of component outputs, a composite video output, an optical digital audio output and one set of stereo audio jacks. There are no 5.1 analog outputs for surround sound but the unit will pass through the various audio formats via HDMI or optical. There’s also no digital coaxial audio output or S-video, though the S-video (and the composite for that matter) aren’t really necessary anyway.
LG provides a decent remote with large buttons that are easy to read, but it’s not backlit, so keep a flashlight handy if you watch movies is a dark room.
Getting started with the unit, the first thing I did was go to the main player menu. The menu is easy to follow, and the unit responds well to the remote. In the video menu there are a number of advanced settings including white noise reduction, block noise reduction and mosquito noise reduction. Those features are provided via the QDEO video processor. How well each of these work will depend largely on the display the device is hooked up to.
The audio part of the menu includes options for selecting PCM (multi-channel or stereo) DTS Re-encode and Primary Pass Through (for when your receiver includes the appropriate audio format decoders). There are some issues with the audio output settings. For instance, using the HDMI output to a compatible receiver with a Dolby TrueHD disc, if you select PCM Multi-channel or Primary Pass Through you’ll only get PCM stereo. If you Select DTS Re-encode you’ll get standard DTS. The best you can expect to get from a DTS-HD source, via either HDMI or digital audio out, is standard DTS. Same goes for Dolby Digital Plus; it’s received as Dolby Digital. In fact, there’s no way to get more than 5.1 out of this player no matter what’s on the disc unless you have a linear PCM 7.1 source output via HDMI set in Pass Through.
How much does all that matter? Well, the Blu-ray version of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix contains a PCM 5.1 track and a Dolby Digital 5.1 track. The HD DVD version contains a Dolby TrueHD 5.1 track and a standard 5.1 Dolby Digital. In fact very few of the HD DVD or Blu-ray discs in my collection include 7.1 surround. One is House of 1000 Corpses.
Where the audio may be a little confusing, the video certainly is not. True to its word, the BH200 played both HD DVD and Blu-ray discs without a hitch while it was in my hands. Startup time for an HD DVD disc ran about 35 seconds while a Blu-ray disc took about 10 seconds less—this is longer than the Sony PS3, but not by much.
The main problem with LG’s first dual format player was its inability to play an HD DVD disc’s menu and interactive features. In the BH200 all those issues are resolved and in fact the player sports an Ethernet jack to make it compatible with the online features of HD DVD discs like 300 and Blood Diamond.
The picture quality on both formats impressed the way only high-definition can. I used both the HD DVD and Blu-ray versions of Ocean’s 13 to see if there was any noticeable difference between the two. I couldn’t detect any. Both looked fantastic. While high-definition content looked great, standard-definition DVDs looked only fair. The BH200 is an upconverting player for standard-definition discs, but its performance on that front doesn’t compare to the Oppo 981 we reviewed in 2007.
Now let’s talk price. Shelling out $999 is no easy task when we’re talking new technology, especially during a format war. This player can be found for less online (Cruchfield put it in their December catalog for $899, the same price as Samsung’s dual-format player). But I heard some arguments that you could buy separate HD DVD and Blu-ray players for less than this combo. On one hand that may be true, but that’s counting on the cheapest models in each format, and that means sacrificing some features. For example, the cheapest HD DVD players don’t output 1080p. On the other hand, buying two players defeats the purpose of a dual-format player to begin with— this product is about convenience, not price. If you’re looking for peace of mind and gear consolidation, this is it. If you’re looking for a bargain, you’ll have to wait.
The audio complications may seem off-putting, but in fact issues like that are not uncommon in what is still an early stage in the high-definition player market. The BH200 achieves it’s goals of being the first truly universal high-def player that meets the functionality requirements of both formats. Samsung is also due to release a dual-format player. We hope this trend continues because it’s in the best interest of the consumer.
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I'm confused. Two other professional reviews said that the dvd upconversion was very good. It even past the rigorous hqv/silicon tests. Also it is using the Marvell QDEO chip. So what's the deal?