1st FOR
HI-DEF Plasma LCD dvd blu-ray
High-performance sound & Vision
FULL UK Blu-ray deck Review
LG BD370
Turn over for more‌
Want more? Visit the HCC website for daily news & reviews, or join in at our forums here...
64 LG BD370 ➜ £200 Approx ➜ www.lge.co.uk
Feasting on hi-def We didn’t see this coming: LG is the proud manufacturer of possibly the best Blu-ray deck this side of £500! Rik Henderson calls for the smelling salts…
J
ust weeks ago I proclaimed Panasonic’s BD80 the king of the affordable Blu-ray players. Then I got the opportunity to take LG’s BD370 for a spin. It seems Panasonic’s reign has come to a premature end… This Blu-ray deck is a budget AV-Holic’s dream. Available for around £180 if you shop around, it offers excellent BD video performance, can bitstream DTS-HD Master Audio and Dolby TrueHD (as well as decode internally), and is fully ‘profiled’ to 2.0. It offers, like the BD80, YouTube connectivity via Ethernet and a USB 2.0 port. But that’s where the similarities end. To my mind. it’s much prettier,
Home Cinema Choice July 2009
aesthetically. There’s also a charming simplicity to its menus and general operability, and a Blu-ray disc can be viewed a mere 20-30 seconds after it’s been inserted (about the same as with a DVD). But although these are all highly impressive features, none of them explain why I’m so enamoured by LG’s latest. You see, there’s one distinct reason that this player is a
must-have accessory for tech aficionados everywhere, and it’s little to do with video and audio DACs, jaggie smoothing or socketry. No sir, the BD370’s premium talent lies in its ability to play high-definition MKV files. Oh yes!
Product: BD deck with USB input and YouTube connectivity Position: Entry level, but bizarrely so chock-full of features that it surpasses more expensive rivals Peers: Panasonic BD60; Samsung BD-P4600
For those who aren’t familiar with the format, files with the designation .mkv are similar to those that are DivX or XviD-encoded, but with a couple of major benefits in picture and sound quality. In fact, mkv is not actually a codec as such, rather a PC-oriented glue that binds two streams (video and audio) into one format. For example, it allows an HD clip encoded at H.264 to be married to a 5.1 AC3 or DTS stream and then neatly repackaged. Generally, an MKV file will feature video encoded at 720p (or, more rarely, 1080p) and full surround audio. And, as it’s the file type of choice adopted by naughty BitTorrenters, it will also most likely
Reviews 65 be associated with a rip of a Blu-ray movie or HD TV show from the US.
It’s another seductive string to the LG’s bow, especially as the DVD option is highly attractive. USB sticks can only store file sizes up to 4GB (as the hardware uses Bill Gates’ FAT32 architecture), which is not enough for a full HD movie with 5.1 audio. It’s fine for a TV show – which weighs in, on average, at around 1GB – but you’ll need to crack out those single- and double-layer discs for anything more substantial. This is useful, as you may, for example, have hi-def footage of your first child’s birth that you want to condense using a modern codec, but not so much that it hampers quality. You won’t fit that on a USB stick.
Future format The fact that the BD370 can play these files is a revelation. The only machines to offer such compatibility in the past are computers or HDD-based media players, and they’re rarely living room- or consumer-friendly. Even the mighty PlayStation 3 is incapable of opening an mkv (owners have to convert such file-types via software such as mkv2vob first). Given that MKVs have become the standard for internet- delivered high-definition, having a BD deck that is so wellequipped is quite an attraction and, dare I say it, goes a long way towards future-proofing. I’d also like to point out that while internet forums are understandably buzzing about the BD370 playing MKV files stored on a USB stick, few have sussed that they can also be read when burned onto a blank DVD. I managed to spin a variety of MKV-laden platters and, although they are accompanied by a brief warning that there may be playback problems, I didn’t encounter any such errors – they all played impeccably.
➜ Specifications
Video upscaling: yes Up to 1080p24 Multiregion: no Region B (BD); R2 (DVD) HDMI: yes 1 x v1.3a Component: yes Blu-ray playback up to 1080i Multichannel phono audio: no Older ampowners look elsewhere Digital audio: yes coaxial & optical outs SACD/DVD-A playback: no Not a Blu-ray standard Dolby TrueHD/DTS-HD MA decoding: yes/yes Dolby TrueHD/DTS-HD MA bitstream: yes/yes Profile 2.0: Yes with BD-Live functionality via Ethernet Dimensions: 430(w) x 54(h) x 245(d) mm Weight: 2.7kg Also featuring: USB 2.0 port; AVCHD, DivX, MKV, MP4, MP3, WMA, JPEG, PNG playback; Ethernet port; YouTube portal
Playing the field
LG’s Blu-ray: Simple, uncluttered but surprisingly accomplished
That said, this player is impressive regardless of its ability to munch on dubiously-sourced material. It is, in fact, a highly capable Blu-ray player. The BD370 passes all of the HD HQV Benchmark tests as ably as the rival BD80, and in the real-world spins Quantum of Solace as well as any other deck under a grand – better, even, than most. Outputting at 1080p24, the images are stable and feature admirably smooth motion, retaining crispness like a foil-packed bag of Rice Crispies – even during fast camera pans. Colours, too, are accurately rendered. And, even using the onboard decoders, audio matches the player’s video panache in both channel separation and dialogue audibility. Unfortunately, the same can’t be said for its standard-definition DVD playback, which has inadequate noise reduction and jaggie smoothing. The player does upscale SD footage to 1080p50, but only as well as a cheapo no-brand deck. It’s here, then, that Panasonic’s new players have an advantage. Personally, though, I can overlook the LG BD370’s limited DVD skills (and its lack of multichannel audio outputs), because the rest of its offerings are incredibly attractive. I haven’t really mentioned the player’s YouTube playback (which, incidentally, I found easier to use and aesthetically more alluring than Panasonic’s VieraCast service), and only briefly raved about its speed in both playback and start-up times. They are both merely icing on the cake. A big, tasty cake crammed with flavour and variety. Welcome to the table, LG. This is one Blu-ray deck worth feasting upon
➜ Tech Labs
DVD Playback Audio jitter: 1981.4ps Video jitter: 5ns Video S/N ratio (composite): -68.5dB Video S/N ratio (interlaced component): -73.5dB Chroma AM: -75.1dB Chroma PM: -71.2dB Response @ 5.8MHz (composite): -1.99dB Response @ 5.8MHz (component): -0.61dB HQV Benchmark Jaggies test: PASS HQV Benchmark Text Crawl test: PASS Performance results for LG’s BD370 are a mixed bag, with unexceptional audio jitter and signal-to-noise ratio, but fair frequency response and pleasingly confident HQV benchmark results. Power consumption is 12W playing, 1W in standby mode
Verdict LG BD370 £200 Approx Price check: www.techradar.com/596930 Highs: Excellent BD performance; MKV file compatibility; YouTube connectivity Lows: Limited DVD performance Performance: Design: Features:
Overall: July 2009 Home Cinema Choice