Upsides: Pandora works nicely. Some other nice internet radio options.
Netflix interface decent.
The best thing here is the SAMBA, CIFs or Windows file sharing (Whatever you call it) is nice. Works fine with Linux, works fine with MediaTomb upnp server. Couldn't find right transcoding options, but didn't need it... good with mp4's ripped h.264 and does mp3. plays flip video files natively no problem. Pause, rewind, fast forward over streaming (cifs or upnp).
LCD display shows timecode when playing streams from samba or upnp.
Bought device to have single device for netflix and home media serving.
Plays mp3's nicely.
Better than ROKU for me since it does SAMBA and UPNP for home streaming, wasn't clear if Roku did that.
Wi-FI, wired.
Oh, and it plays BD's too, I tested one, but not my primary reason for purchase.
Unit stays cool, is nice and small and does what I need.
Downsides: no screensaver in pandora, fearing burn-in.
Menus kind of laggy.
No progress meter when updating firmware. LCD indicates updating but should have separate downloading and applying progress when installing firmware. Have seen samsung do this better with progress meter.
I'd like to add a special item here. LG you did this correctly --- you have a sticker for support on the device. Wow. I love you. I called, human answers. No hold time. Sat, Sun, no problem. I had an issue with firmware 268.E within 3 days there was a new 270-something to correct. 268.E added Amazon VOD for me and the other nifty items. Support was very friendly, apologized and was pleasant to work with. I've never owned home electronics where they actually had a support line with humans. And the humans called you back with updates on your problem!
First LG device I own... mad props for the useful human support! LG BD670 3D Wireless Network Blu-ray Disc Player with Smart TV
Chose this model because it had streaming, DLNA, and wireless built-in (you don't need a separate dongle). I have not been disappointed in any of its functions. Wireless connectivity was a breeze - setup was straightforward and this model accepts a 32-character WPA2 security key (unlike previous LG TVs and Blu-ray player models which were limited to 18-20 characters, as I discovered when I bought a wireless dongle for our TV!). The wireless connection seems to be much more stable than with the other wireless devices we have. I occasionally have to turn off and on again to get a connection on startup, but this is unsurprising given how flaky our router is ... :-)
Blu-ray playback is really good. Our first Blu-ray disc looked grainy and I was concerned until I read various forum discussions that criticized this movie transfer. Many Blu-ray movies are apparently intentionally grainy because this duplicates the "film" experience that the director intended. You can use the movie mode on your TV to reduce graininess as this lowers the sharpness setting. Our second Blu-ray disc was really smooth and detailed, as were most of the other discs. Playback resolution is excellent, you can see every pore on someone's face and the depth of field is amazing. There were no stutters, freezes or glitches with any of the discs we have played. DVD upscaling is also good - I decided it is not worth replacing any DVDs with Blu-ray discs as the upscaled playback in 1080p looks just as good as Blu-ray playback.
Wireless streaming from Netflix was absolutely painless, once I worked out that the "Netflix ESN" that the player provides in the network setup menu is NOT the code that you need to use for Netflix connection setup. You need to select the LG Premium menu icon which accesses premium streaming services, select Netflix and get the connection code from the setup menu there. Enter the code once on the Netflix website ("Activate a Netflix ready device" in your account settings) and Netflix streaming works automatically after that. Hopefully my experience will save other people hours of trying to connect with the wrong code! Netflix streaming is excellent quality, much better than broadcast TV for most shows. The player seems to stream seamlessly from Netflix with almost no stutters or degraded resolution issues, even for HD movies. The only issues I have seen are when my internet connection is congested (Comcast net access is pretty bad on Friday evenings and Saturdays in my area). I am impressed.
A recent firmware update (April 2011) added Amazon Video on Demand, which also works great! It is really cool to have these services. The device also offers Vudu, Pandora, Napster etc. but I haven't used those. Firmware updates are easy, although these do take around 5-10 minutes to load via wireless connection - you need to keep your nerve and not turn off the player, thinking nothing is happening. Eventually, you get a message saying that the download has loaded and the player turns off and on again. If the download fails (which did happen once), the device is not affected (good design).
I was really impressed by how painless it was to set up media streaming from a PC using DLNA. A copy of Nero Home Media Server essentials was supplied on CD - I installed this, the player automatically detected my PC and presented me with a list of files I could play from the media folder. This was *so* easy! DLNA file-streaming has worked brilliantly: I only experienced problems with one, huge (10 GB) home movie file that stuttered and stopped. Then I discovered the USB connection on the right-front panel of the player. I had been so taken with all of the streaming solutions that I overlooked the easiest way to play media files, which is from an external hard drive or flash drive! The BD670 played the huge file from an external hard drive with no problems. Since then, the player has played everything I have thrown at it: AVI and MKV, etc. using lots of different codecs. With 3 firmware updates in the month that I have owned it, I have a lot of confidence that it is being updated constantly to play all of the latest disc and file formats. So I am a very happy bunny indeed! - Streaming - 3d - Wireless Network - Netflix'
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