Oh, Yeah: It Plays Blu-rays, Too
If you've been paying attention, you know that modern entertainment is a two-way street that extends far beyond the living room. Internet connectivity on a Blu-ray is now a must, not only for utilitarian needs such as firmware updates, or for disc-centric applications such as BD-Live: There's an ever-growing list of audio/video streaming options that make the right Blu-ray deck a movie/music/photo hub within the home. But how to connect? An Ethernet cable is not an option for everyone, and so Wi-Fi enabled players have been available for more than a year. Some include an Wi-Fi dongle which plugs into a USB port, but often said attachment is sold separately, and can require tricky setup.
The LG BD570 WiFi Network Blu-ray Disc Player by comparison emerges from its cardboard box with its Wi-Fi hardware pre-installed. There's nothing else to buy, nothing to lose, nothing to fumble with and no need to hog a USB port. Heck, there's nothing, not even a mini-antenna, protruding from the extremely compact yet hefty chassis. This is an elegant design feat that truly embraces the concept of an internet-enabled source component. Of course, an Ethernet port is also supplied, just in case.
Dive In
From the moment we initially power up, everything about the BD570 is inviting: The Home menu screen is an animated graphic like ice cubes floating in a vat of San Pellegrino (no wonder I was so thirsty during this review), with icons that lay bare our choices, further illuminated by subtitles: How would I like my Movies, from disc or USB? Photos, from disc or USB? Music... well, you get the idea. Within Setup, video resolution can be configured automatically, based on the TV's capabilities, or we can also select any resolution, with little icons to indicate the appropriate cable options, all the way from 480i (we don't judge our readers) up to 1080p.
Both 24Hz or 60Hz Display Modes are supported, with HDMI Color Settings of YCbCr or RGB. Audio options are deep, and easy to set, with HDMI output of PCM Stereo, PCM Multi-Channel, DTS Re-Encode or Primary Pass-Thru, as well as Digital (optical and coaxial) Output of PCM Stereo, DTS Re-Encode and Primary Pass-Thru. Audiophiles who want their DTS-HD and Dolby TrueHD soundtracks bitstreamed out over HDMI to a compatible receiver will want to select "Primary Pass-thru." But if you're still rocking with an old-school HDMI-free A/V Receiver, then the "DTS Re-encode" feature is nice in that it will re-encode multi-channel Dolby TrueHD, DTS-HD or PCM soundtracks to high quality 1.5 MBPS DTS surround. We can also set the Sampling Frequency at 48, 96 or 192 KHz, and the player also offers Dynamic Range Compression for less-disturbing late-night viewing.
To remove all doubt, yes, the player is Profile 2.0, enabling both BD-Live as well as Bonus View picture-in-picture capabilities. At least one gigabyte of attached storage is required for the BD-Live, requiring the use of the single USB port on the front of the unit, which means that the sleek full-width drop-down panel must remain open as long as the flash drive is in place. At one point during my review I needed to move the player to check a something around back and I heard an unexpected cracking sound, which was my little plastic Kingston DataTraveler being bent in a manner it didn't enjoy. It was my fault, but would it really kill the manufacturers of Profile 2.0 players to include a gig of internal flash memory? After a few unexplained early bumps, BD-Live-enabled discs from multiple studios performed spectacularly.
The BD570 offers the easiest network setup I've experienced on any Blu-ray player. Once I selected the Wireless option in the Setup menu, my wireless was promptly located by the player, I entered my password, performed a couple more clicks on the remote and I was done. The integrated Wi-Fi supports the 802.11b/g/n standards, an ideal match for my router, and together they served up a blazingly fast, extremely reliable link to my PC, and to the internet beyond, which soon came in mighty handy.
From Thin Air
First up is LG's Home Link feature, as the BD570 is DLNA-complaint to work seamlessly with a PC or DNLA server device attached to the home network. It must have performed its search in the background because as soon as I went to use it, all of the shared content on our home network was there waiting for me to access, in their familiar folders. I was playing my music in the living room, with the cover art displayed on the TV screen, as available. Clicking through to the Information button, full track listings and cover art can be viewed via the integrated assistance of Gracenote's online database. Gracenote doesn't add or change anything to the files themselves, since we're just viewing/listening to the contents of another device.
LG includes a CD-ROM of Nero media software for the PC, to help manage the inter-relationships; very thoughtful, since the BD570 is a powerful multimedia device, but not at all necessary in my case. My only hiccup was that if we link to a folder with incompatible contents, it simply reads as empty. To test the Gracenote capabilities even more, I popped in a random compact disc, and even a CD-R backup copy of a favorite record, and the service automatically filled in all of the track and artist info in a flash, although the cover art wasn't always correct.
The Net Cast button takes us to the player's suite of "premium" online services, paid and unpaid. The Netflix option provides the necessary, unique code to either link to our existing account or open a new one, to access the streaming portion of a monthly subscription and it behaved as expected, granting immediate access to my "watch instantly" queue once enabled. VUDU rent/purchase streaming works beautifully with minimal buffering, even for their proprietary 1080p HDX format (other quality options can be selected as desired). My testing of HDX on the BD570 led to only a couple of re-buffering interruptions, nothing too horrendous, and these were probably a factor of my internet connection itself, not the player's WiFi connection back to the router. Roxio's CinemaNow video rental/purchase service is also integrated.
Picasa Web albums--which has the niftiest little motion icon of the entire Net Cast bunch--enable online photo sharing, with the convenience of using the alphanumeric option on the keypad to enter information, cellphone style. YouTube Video is hindered by the standard no-keyboard handicap, but here has one of the more inviting user interfaces I've seen. Pandora Internet Radio reveals cool nuances like the "Don't play this song for a month" button, with a solid menu system, once we get the navigational knack, remembering where we left off and not just taking us back to the top tier whenever we toggle between screens. And there's even AccuWeather.com, configurable from a list of favorite nearby cities, buggy but potentially useful.
High-Def-ish
Video performance of the BD570 is a bit of a mixed bag. Upconverting the standard-definition HQV Benchmark DVD, image detail was more than acceptable with the tiny lines at Marker 1 of the Color Bars test clearly visible without flickering, and the player handily passed both Diagonal Filter "Jaggies" Test 1 (one big rotating bar) and Test 2 (three shifting lines). I notes some jaggies on the red and white stripes in the Flag Test, respectable detail in the bricks beyond, but also a lot of noticeable twitch on the office building, so noise began to be a concern, although in the Detail Test the key areas of the grass, the brick bridge and the metal statue all looked clean and lifelike.
The Noise Reduction tests on the HQV test confirmed my suspicions, as both the skies and trees were compromised by significant levels of buzzy noise in most shots. The Motion Adaptive Noise Reduction clip didn't look much better, with some noise in the sky and scenes that are generally soft and the roller coaster largely a blur. Getting deep into the player's video menu to bump up the Noise Reduction setting from its default of "0" to "3" improved things but only slightly. Granted, this test features broadcast video noise, less relevant to Blu-ray and DVD playback, but I still would have liked a cleaner image. The 3:2 cadence detection clip was strong, cleaning up the Super Speedway shot super-quickly.
The Assorted Cadence series of video samples revealed some definite jaggies on the newspaper and varying problems with the fine rims of the coffee cups on the counter on a few of the odd cadence tests, particularly in the DVCAM portions. These cadences represent a fairly small portion of what you'll be watching on Blu-ray Disc and DVD, which are mostly transfers of 24p film content to disc (which the player handles admirably). And on the Mixed 3:2 Film with Added Video Titles, horizontal crawl text is only slightly smeary but the guitar strings beyond are a bit jaggified. The vertical crawl text was clean but the edges of the piano keys were stair-stepped. Again, like the noise tests, this mixed cadence test is more relevant on a display device than on a Blu-ray player as Blu-ray and DVD movies are unlikely to have video titles scrolling on a film background, but they are helpful in revealing any weaknesses with the player's video processing. Overall the BD570 gets the important parts of standard def upconversion right with a few shortcomings in the areas of noise reduction and mixed cadence handling.
Working now with the HQV Benchmark Blu-ray to test HD de-interlacing and noise reduction, the HD Noise Test was noisier than I would like, frankly, but a realistic level of detail was maintained on the close-up of the flowers and the long shot of the sailboat. The Video Resolution Loss Test revealed fine horizontal lines in the corner boxes, proving the BD570's full-resolution processing and excellent HD de-interlacing. No doubt about Diagonal Filter "Jaggies" Test Pattern A, all the edges of all three bars were smooth at all times, ditto the big single bar of "Jaggies" Test Pattern B. And no problem with the fine horizontal lines in the moving corner boxes of the Film Resolution Loss Test, but the upper deck of the stadium goes from seriously noisy to an undeniable moiré pattern during the slow camera pan, not the worst I've seen, but more noticeable than on two other Blu-ray players I tried under identical conditions (the PlayStation 3 and the Sony BDP-S350). Once again respectable performance, but not ideal.
Boot and disc-load times remain an issue with the Blu-ray format, but some manufacturers are making greater strides than others at reducing the wait times. LG has led the pack in disc access times in previous generations (e.g., the BD390). The BD570 improves again on these times, but only slightly. With an empty tray, the BD570 needed a middlin' 17 seconds to boot from powered off to its main menu screen. Considering how many features and service providers it's loading up in the background (Netflix, Vudu, Pandora, DLNA, USB media, etc.), this isn't too shabby, and it's a few seconds faster than last year's model.
A standard DVD (Gladiator) loaded its animated menus in 12 seconds, runner up only to the OPPO BDP-83--among the speediest players of 2009--by one second. The LG player took 32 seconds to load the BD-Java-enhanced Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, the first movie in the trilogy, faster even than the BDP-83 by three seconds, and less than half the time of the Pioneer BDP-320 (a-minute-six). And one of Sony-s first-round discs, the non-BD-Java Underworld Evolution needed 23 seconds for the disc menu to first appear on the BD570, off the pace of Oppo's 19 seconds for the same-batch Sony disc Hitch, although well ahead of Pioneer's 42 seconds on Hitch. These times should be acceptable to most late adopters of the technology and will be a welcome improvement to those upgrading from a first or second generation player.
Blade Runner is still one of the most demanding (and rewarding, when properly displayed) discs out there, and the quality of the video presentation on the BD570 was gorgeous, with natural smoke and shadow and smooth transitions across the vast expanse of the simulated Los Angeles cityscape. A quick look at Sleeping Beauty revealed the exquisite texture of the paint, made possible by the meticulous cleanup and restoration that is in full evidence here, with that gentle hint of film grain also beautifully preserved. Upconversion of standard DVD movies such as Gladiator was enjoyable enough, although the image was often noisy, except on simple, well-lit/focused shots. No mistaking DVDs for Blu-ray here.
Turn-Ons:
Turn-Offs:
Final Thoughts
The greatest strength of the LG BD570 is surely its one-two punch of integrated, unobtrusive, state-of-the-art 802.11n Wi-Fi and a collection of the best online movie/music/more services available, which make it so much more than your run-of-the-mill Blu-ray deck. Audio/video feature-wise it's solid as well, albeit with one of the noisier images I've seen in some time. If DVD upconversion performance is paramount, I'd keep looking, but if you're all about up-to-minute infotainment choices, and are amassing a collection of high def Blu-ray Discs, the BD570 might be just what you're looking for.
Features/Specifications of the BD570:
Connectivity:
What's in the Box:
Company Contact Information
LGE US (LG Electronics U.S.A., Inc.)
1000 Sylvan Avenue
Englewood Cliffs, NJ, 07632
Tel: 201-816-2000
Fax: 201-816-0636
On the web: us.lge.com/bluray
Where to Buy:
| Overall | |
|---|---|
| Value | |
| Performance | |
| Features/Ergonomics |
