Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 71
 Best netflix streaming experience among other four similarly priced devices. March 11, 2010
C. LIU
79 out of 81 found this review helpful
Recently I have tried four BD players which have Netflix streaming capability. LG BD370, Samsung BD P-1600, Sony BDP N460, and LG BD 550. Earlier I also tried Roku HD player for netflix streaming. Except Roku, all the BD players I tried all use wired Ethernet, no wireless.
(I have wired Ethernet in my house so I don't need wireless network.)
I could tell you guys: LG BD 550 is by far the best when it comes to Netflix streaming. I ended up returning all the others. BD550's Fast forwarding, fast rewinding is just way faster than any other unit I tried. It is even faster than Roku! Among these units, Samsung BD P1600 is the slowest. Also BD 550 not only shows your movies in the netflix instant queue, it also gives you option to pick movie you may like, what you've recently watched (even after you removed it from your instant queue), new arrivals, etc. It's just a perfect Netflix player. If you like Netflix's GUI interface, then just don't buy Sony N460! Sony completely screwed Netflix's GUI but Sony's GUI is just too awkward.
For other streaming sources, BD550 has Vudu, Roxio CinemaNow, Youtube and Picasa. Among all the units I tried, this is the only unit that has Vudu. Its Youtube and Picasa application UI and load speed is just awesome. I am so happy I finally find one netflix streaming device that works well.
As for BD player performance. Be honest, I really can't see much difference in terms of image quality.
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If you didn't get a chance to try other players, let me remind you that all of them are SLOOOOOOW in loading BD disc. As for Blu-ray playback video quality, actually to me as a normal user, they all perform similarly well. For loading speed, I am not sure if it is because the players all try to contact Internet first before playing (BD link) but I feel it is just way too slow than DVD. Since I found none of them outperform each other significantly, I landed on this LG BD550 becoz of its streaming speed and ease of use in GUI.
very pleased with the BD550 March 29, 2010
C. Stephens
34 out of 34 found this review helpful
Let me get this out of the way up front: This is my first Blue-Ray Disc player.
I'm very pleased with this LG BD550 product. I wanted a product that would (a) play Blu-Ray Discs, and (b) let me watch streaming movies/shows over the internet using my Netflix account. This does both.
I considered the higher-end BD570 but decided against it because I did not need the built-in wireless capability, so I got the BD550 which just has the ethernet port, but no wireless (and saved about $70 doing so). I already had an Apple Airport Express behind the media stand for streaming music from iTunes to my stereo, and I was able to configure it as a simple wireless ethernet bridge, so in order to connect the BD550 to the internet all I had to do was connect an ethernet cable from the Airport Express to the BD550. Once that was done, everything internet related simply worked "out of the box".
Blue-Ray audio/visual quality seems good to me.
The user interface is adequate and is reasonably responsive. I have no complaints with the remote.
One thing I didn't expect - the BD550 defaulted to 1080i. I'm not sure if that is normal for BD players, but I switched it to 1080p for playing BD discs.
Since it's connected to the internet, it will occasionally ask me if I want to update the firmware/software.
The unit does not generate much heat, and has no vents in the top or sides of the case, i.e. no vents to block, so I figured it was OK to place my Cable/DVR box on-top of it.
Of all the internet enabled functions (I think this is called "Netcast") I've tried four of them:
1. Netflix - Works as advertised. I have a 3Mbps internet connection and I'm pleased with the quality of streaming netflix video. Certainly it's not high-def quality, but good enough given the convenience. I wish it were easier to search for titles though. I can't really complain, it is good enough.
2. Pandora - This is really great. I'm a computer pandora user though on the computer it will occasionally throw in an ad or pause to ask you to confirm that you're still listening. I don't get either of these when playing music through Pandora on the BD550. I do wish, however, that one you've started a channel going that the interface would show a different graphic (like a near full screen CD artwork, a la iTunes, or any option besides the default screen).
3 & 4. Youtube and Picasa - I tried these out just for the heck of it, and they work, but I do not envision using these on a regular basis.
UPDATE: I recently upgraded from a 3Mbps internet connection to a 7Mbps internet connection. While Netflix was certainly usable with a 3Mbps connection, it is markedly better with the 7Mbps internet connection. I read that Netflix requires 5Mbps or greater to stream HD video.
UPDATE 2: I've tried out the Vudu service. As a new user, they were offering a free rental for a while. I never got round to trying it before they changed the free rental to a $20 credit (which gets you four rentals at "HD" quality - even better). Just in case this is useful to other users here is what I found. Vudu currently supports 3 levels of streaming quality: SD (480p), HD (720p), "HDX" (1080p). What I've found is that with about 7Mbps I just don't have enough bandwidth to reliably stream HDX/1080p video. I've watched 2 full movies at HD/720p quality and there were no problems, glitches, or stops to buffer whatsoever. Of course SD works fine (requires even less bandwidth). Vudu allows you to watch trailers for free in HDX, so that's an easy way to tell if you've got enough bandwidth (if you don't, it will periodically stop the video to buffer the stream). There appears to be an option to 'downgrade' (e.g. from HD to SD) in the middle of a rental if you need to. I think the Vudu HD stream looks better than my Netflix stream (to my knowledge, Netflix sets video quality based on available bandwidth, so you don't know what quality you're actually getting from them). Vudo offers more recent titles than Netflix has, so I can see myself occasionally using Vudu from time to time in addition to Netflix.
Love the online Content March 25, 2010
Squirrel Dad
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
First off, I'm not a highly technical user, if an item works the way its suppose to, I'm happy. The 550 was extremely easy to set up, one hdmi cable, one ethernet and a power plug. The unit does not come with an HDMI cable or Ethernet so if you need one, you should get it separately. The first movie I played was a DVD (battle 360) and it looked very nice on my screen and was easy to navigate. Then I tried a blueray (2012)and it loaded up rather quick and looked fantastic.
I am loving the online content from vudu. The selection is pretty good and it streams with no problems that I noticed. I didn't try the HDX because my connection is not fast enough for that. You need at least 5mbps to do the 1080 (hdx) content and 2.5 or so to do 720 hd which i do. Very cool option. The movies run 3.99 - 5.99 for rental depending on quality requested and a lot more to buy.
The remote is OK, nothing to brag about. I would definitely recommend this to a friend.
Wonderful Netflix Streaming June 2, 2010
K595 (Dallas, Tx)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
I bought this BD550 at Amazon.com using the SuperSaver Free Delivery on a Saturday. It arrived on my doorstep the following Tuesday. I don't see the point of paying extra for a faster delivery.
The player is very easy to use, and I didn't even read the written menu. All I did was plugging in the powerline and ethernet cable to my router, playing with the remote, scrolling the various menu up and down, and making some setup choices including network connection and the firmware update. The firmwares did take several minutes to load and update though.
What impresses me the most is the Netflix streaming. I didn't encounter any of the problems mentioned by other reviewers (I guess probably because I updated the firmwares before I even downloaded the first movie). I chose the titles in the Netflix website using my laptop, and saw the same titles showed up quickly on my TV using the BD550 streaming. It took about 10-15 seconds for the movie to load, and then the HD quality pictures (HD availability depending on the titles. Netflix will tell you on the TV screen) showed up right away. A slight negative: in the middle of the showing, Netflix did white out the picture for about 10 seconds for 're-buffering'. I don't know if it's normal or it's a LG or a Netflix problem. But this short interruption really didn't spoil the movie for me at all considering how convenient it is to get an instant movie download. Later I also realized that I could choose the movies titles using the LG remote without having to use the computer. The $8.99 monthly Netflix subscription fee for the unlimited movie streamings (although not all movies are available for straeming) has got to be the best entertainment value I've ever had.
The upconvert quality of this machine is also amazing. I used it to watch the standard DVD, Mad Men Season 2, and was constantly in awe by how clear and sharp the pictures looked. I had to eject the disc to see if it was truly a regular DVD. I began to wonder if it's really necessary to spend extra $ to get the BluRay discs, specially on the recent movies or TV titles.
Overall I owned this player for about 3 weeks now, and it worked flawlessly and gave me lots of joy.
obxrayz April 15, 2010
Gift Card
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This unit does it all and setup is a no brainer. In fact, all you have to do is plug it in.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 71
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