LG BD570 Network Blu-ray Disc Player

LG BD570 Network Blu-ray Disc Player

Customer Reviews
tried two, both junk, move on to better brand!, February 5, 2011
By D. Brown (New England)
This is the second one from Amazon, both units skip and stutter when warmed up, it is not the type of dvd disc, I tried lots, move on to another model or brand

Great blu ray player. Love it., February 5, 2011
By Vincent Laratta (Imperial, Missouri)
I was torn between the Samsung bd-c6500 and this LG player. I chose the samsung because I have had pretty good success in the past with Samsung ---terrible mistake. The samsung would not stay connected to my network---and I had just bought a brand new Netgear router-their latest model. I had the samsung for 1 day and was so frustrated, I immediately boxed it up and sent it back to Amazon and ordered the LG570. I did have to download the updated software to get it to stay connected to the network, but after that staying connected has been automatic. Netflix movies load in less than 20 seconds--super fast. Pandora operates fantastic. Blu ray movies have great color and sound. I did have one problem, however,--the first time I turned the LG off it made a weird sound and would not turn back on for nothing. I googled this to try and find a solution and someone said LG suggested unplugging the power and holding down the power button for 30 seconds for a hard reset. This worked!!!!! I have since turned the player on and off 50 times and the problem has not reoccurred, hopefully, it was a one time thing. After the hard reset, I thought I would have to download the software upgrade and get everything working again, but that was not the case. I did the hard reset, and everything has worked 100 percent ever since. We love this player and ease of use and user friendly operation. Blu ray dvd's load faster than my other 2 samsung upconversion 1080 units. After all the frustration with the samsung and their customer service, I am now a LG buyer. I know this is a review for LG, but at the same time I feel I need to let others know about the lousy customer service and blu ray samsung has---just awful customer service. No desire to help me, desire to blame it on the router. Before buying the samsung, google the gateway ping problems and see for yourself.

Great gear for a Good price, February 4, 2011
By Patrick Boyne "Skitch" (Tulsa,Ok)
I like this product, it had features that I didn't need but like the dashboard of this product better than the others I have (Tivo, ROKU). Movies are really easy to select and the picture quality is great.

Does What It is Supposed To Do and Does It Well, February 4, 2011
By Love My Toys
This is actually my third LG Blu-Ray player (BD390 and two BD570s). You really get a lot for your money. With a 7.1 setup in two rooms and a 5.1 setup in the third I get an amazing media experience with each blu-ray disk that I watch. I especially like its access to internet content which I cannot get directly from my TVs. Setup was extrememly easy with my Cisco E3000 router and I can now watch Netflix anywhere in the house. I really have nothing negative to say about it.

Love the wireless networking, February 4, 2011
By Alfred E. Garren (south Florida)
Loads much faster than older bluray player. The wireless networking feature works great, I can play my music collection stored on my desktop through the player without touching a CD.

Purchased for Netflix Streaming, February 3, 2011
By Curt T. Stettler "boarat" (Livermore, CA United States)
This is my first Blu-Ray player, so take this review with that in mind. I was a little hesitant buying this item, due to some negative set up reviews. However, I was pleasantly surprised at how easy it was to set this up to my home network. For a non-xpert computer guy (thats putting it lightly!), it was a piece of cake, and worked the first time. I followed the directions on the manual, as opposed to the quick set up card, as it was much more detailed. Also, I did not use the wireless set-up since the player is close to my router, so I used a network cable instead.

The picture is crystal clear, the Netflix streaming is flawless! And I immediately stopped my DVD service, as I can watch unlimited movies for $7.99/month. As of the fisrt two months of owning this player, I've no reservations whatsoever about recommending this unit.

It does what it says, February 3, 2011
By A Customer
Easy set up. It did take a couple of times for me to upgrade the software. I love the stream from Netflix. I use the HDMI hook up and it helps with better clarity. Lets face it, DVD is better clarity, but the stream is very doable and I don't have to plug in my laptop anymore! . Not the fault of the player. They have acu weather that you can plug in different zip codes to check the weather. I haven't had a chance to check Pandora out yet, but plan to this weekend. Other stream options I have not had the opportunity to check out.

All in all. A great player.

LG Review BD570, February 2, 2011
By Cyn
Love the BD570. It was a very good price and goes well with my LG TV. I understand the complaints about the loading speed, but that's not something I really care about.

Very Good Network Blu-ray Player, February 2, 2011
By Mayank Parekh
Excellent network blu-ray player. I have purchased multiple expensive blu ray players (Sony, Sharp, Samsung, Panasonic) in hopes that they would support NTFS formatted hard drives, but this seems to be the only one that supports an NTFS formatted hard drive.

exactly what we were looking for, February 2, 2011
By D. Fokema (Wisconsin)
We bought this for our newborn sons room so we could watch TV, movies, or listen to music in his room when we feed him, etc. It works great and we love that it has Netflix and Pandora built in. I love everything about this player. It turns on and off quickly and the menus are easy to navigate. I plan to buy another one of these players soon for a different room.

Sony BDP-S570 3D Blu-ray Disc Player

Sony BDP-S570 3D Blu-ray Disc Player

Customer Reviews
disappointing failure by Sony, February 7, 2011
By K. Allen (Plano, TX USA)
For all the wonderful features it claims to have, it does a lousy job of playing various video media types (not enough codecs embedded in its OS) and refuses to play homemade Blu-ray discs. Spent less money buying a LG that doesn't have these problems.

BDP, February 6, 2011
By Fredctx
So far this product has performed very well. It is a far cry from Sony's original 300 series. The wi fi works flawlessly.

CR recommeds this DVD player, February 6, 2011
By Bobb21060
Happy with this DVD player purchase.I found out after I purchased this DVD player that It is recommended by CR. I have played a few movies and happy with the preformance so far. I have not tried the 3D yet. The wireless was a snap to setup and the preset websites were easy to access too. I thought it was a good purchase so far.

Good deal, February 5, 2011
By Teresa M. Benson (Waterloo, IA United States)
Good DVD player. We were happy with the pricing because all the local ones were higher. The only issue that I've had with it was that if you have any upper case letters in your wifi router password, it doesn't have a way to accomodate that. I contacted Sony support and they couldn't give me any help. I ended up changing my password just so I can use the DVD player with Netflix. Other than that, we've been very happy with it.

Netflix Streaming Requires a Wireless-N router, February 5, 2011
By Mark A. Wilson
In summary, if you are buying this player to stream Netflix (or other internet content) over your wireless network it will REQUIRE a wireless-N router.

I have been using an old Samsung BDP-1590 player for the last two years to stream Netflix using my LinkSys WRT56G router (wireless-G) and have had no problems. The Samsung can stream movies just fine over the wireless-G (although the picture quality is disappointing). However, when I hooked up the new Sony S570 to the G-router it was unwatchable. During a 90 minute movie, it had to pause to cache the stream upwards of 20 times (I stopped counting and watching at 20).

I did purchase a new ASUS N-Router at the same time I bought the Sony S570...in part because I had read other reviews about the poor streaming quality of the Sony. So after the terrible experience on the G-router, I hooked up the N-router and tried watching the same 90 minute movie. Not a single pause, great picture quality, exactly what I was looking for.

Awesome!, February 4, 2011
By Mojorusty
I have been hesitating on getting a Blu-Ray player, mostly because of all the bad things I have heard about them. I just got this one and hooked it up last night, and love it so far. Very easy to install, and the picture and sound is incredible. Not sure what everyone is talking about with the slow start up screen, mine started just as fast, if not faster than my DVD player. It played every DVD I put in it last night with ease, even the ones I burned from my computer on DVD+R's. It also played the ones I burned from my VCR/DVD combo unit when I got rid of all my VCR tapes. There were no glitches and everything ran smoothly. So far very happy with this player, and the price is right.

Pretty good Blu-ray player, February 4, 2011
By J. Rendon "bjjjcr1681" (Houston, Tx)
This was purchased to replace a cheap Magnavox Blu-ray player that was given as a gift a couple of Christmases ago. I was banned from getting a PS3 (already own an Xbox 360) so I did quite a bit of research on CNet & amazon.com reviews to find the best fit for me. For players under $200 that were still high quality, I narrowed it down to the Sony BDP-S570 and the LG BD570. Neither seem to be perfect: user reviews note that the Sony has issues with the NetFlix and that the LG stopped playing Blu-rays discs after awhile. I figured that it's worse for a Blu-ray player to not play Blu-ray discs, so I went with the Sony.

Setup
I was amazed at how simple this unit was to set up wireless connection. I can't compare it to other Blu-ray players for this, since this is my first with wireless...but it was simpler than even my Xbox360 or laptop. I simply ran the setup and was prompted to hit a button on my router. It detected the router after than and set itself up. It didn't require the WEP key or any other kind of input.

Playback
The Blu-ray has gotten plenty of use from my 2yr old between Toy Story & Beauty and the Beast. We really like the fast start setting that dramatically cuts down on the wait time for an impatient toddler!
The NetFlix has been hit & miss. I've watched ~7 hour long episodes of Spartacus on different nights. The NetFlix picture is very good...it seems better than on my Xbox360 and maybe better than on my laptop. As far as speed: The first couple of nights, it kept stopping to buffer and I ended up watching on my laptop. After that, I watched several episodes with no issues. I tried one again last night and had problems again. I can't completely blame the Blu-ray player because my laptop & xbox 360 will also have buffer issues when I watch NetFlix, depending on the available bandwidth. The difference is that NetFlix doesn't seem to adjust to a lower resolution to compensate for lower network speeds on the Sony like it would on my laptop.

An excellent blu ray player, February 3, 2011
By K. Colon
I bought this for my husband for Christmas and it turns out that I use it more than he does! My primary use is watching Netflix, Hulu, and watching DVDs/Blu-Rays.

My favorite feature is that the unit remembers where you left off while watching a DVD in case it shuts off while you are away. I also really like how quickly it starts up - it just takes 2 or 3 seconds.

Great network BlueRay player!, February 3, 2011
By Mark in Ohio
I bought the 3D version for future use, as I do not have a 3D-capable TV, but the price difference was not much at all. So, I haven't used the Blu-Ray disk or 3D features yet, but the network features are great. I had been streaming Netflix to my TV through an old laptop and my wireless home network - with moderate success and poor resolution. With the same exact wireless home network and service, I get high quality Netflix downstreaming with this unit - just love it! Adding Pandora was pretty easy too!

Not as impressed as I thought I would be, February 3, 2011
By grandmamamama
For over a year I have checked out reviews for a multitude of Blu-Ray players. I bought this one because it was highly recommended through a Best Buy employee, and it had extremely high ratings on Amazon. Unfortunately I am not that impressed with this unit.

The idea of being able to watch YouTube, Netflix, Crackle, Fearnet, and Amazon On Demand was a great idea. But unfortunately this player does not have the speed of downloads that my home computer has -- which is odd considering both are on wireless systems. In the end, I prefer to watch these type of shows on my computer, rather than on my Blu-Ray player.

Reliability may be another problem in the future. Unlike my older DVD players this unit hangs occasionally when you fast forward a show. This is quite annoying because when the player returns, it starts the disc up from the beginning. Another thing I dislike about this model is it does not keep a memory point in the disc (like my older DVD Player) so if I stop a show to watch another DVD, it will start again from the original position it was in.

Finally the clarity issue. I always heard that Blu Ray was much clearer than DVD. But unfortunately I do not see it. But then again I had a hard time seeing the difference between VHS and DVD (other than home recordings). In the end if you are wanting to buy a Blu Ray player before they quit making DVD players, then this one may be for you. But if you are willing to wait, I am sure they will make something much better than this Blu Ray player in the future. IN fact considering there are NOT that many impressive Blu Ray titles available yet (and many have the same quality as DVD), I believe I would wait before spending the money on another Blu Ray Player.

LG 50PK550 50-Inch 1080p Plasma HDTV

LG 50PK550 50-Inch 1080p Plasma HDTV

Customer Reviews

Great TV for the price, IR problems, February 4, 2011
By chofmann88
This is an excellent tv, definitely the best for this size at this price level. The picture quality is amazing when it is set up properly, which can be a little difficult due to the number of options. This plasma has many more options than most TVs for changing color levels, which allows you to get that perfect picture, but it is difficult to manage all of them. Truly, I would like to give this tv 4.5 stars because it does suffer from image retention problems. If you leave any static image on the screen for more than 3 seconds at a time, it will remain there for a few seconds when you change the channel. This isn't really a problem because as long as there is something on top of it, you won't even notice, but still an issue.

I would highly recommend this tv at the price (I got mine for about $850 after shipping/taxes, not from Amazon). Some people have complained about a buzzing noise, but I can't hear it unless my ear is up to the back of the tv... an unlikely scenario for most users.

The best value out there!, January 24, 2011
By Nick "k96nb01" (Michigan)
What an amazing TV this is, and what an amazing deal! I have had the TV for a week now, and have had the chance to watch several movies, including Blu-ray, DVD, and mkv from my blu-ray player, as well as hi-def TV from my cable hookup. I am blown away by how nice this TV is. The picture is huge, but the TV fits in the space much better than my old 32" tube TV. It looks great when it's off, too.

I rated the features a little lower, because this TV doesn't do much besides be a TV, which is why it is such a great deal. My blu-ray player already has all of the other stuff I would need, and seeing as a blu-ray player will be much less costly to upgrade later on, I don't see why you would want a TV with lots of included extra features.

The TV is plenty bright, even though it's a plasma, and TV watching during the day does not suffer from noticeable reflections.

What else can I say? This TV is amazing, and after more than a year of agonizing over which TV to buy, I am completely satisfied with this LG!

excellent, January 17, 2011
By Marty
Great TV at a great price. Love the picture quality. Very satisfied with the purchase. Bought it through Amazon.com. When it was delivered they come right in & set it up. Dont get no easier than that.

Another Mistake, January 16, 2011
By Joshua Jones (Auburn, CA)
This is now the second tv that I've bought.I'm not going to do a long drawn out review on this. Basicly the tv looks really good, but...Day 1 i was really happy. when i got home from work and turned it on, I could still see a faded image on the tv from a show I was watching earlier in the day. So if theres a still image on the tv for a while, even as little as ten mins, you can still see it when your on a black or dark screen. However, if i put on a movie for a few mins and go back to a black screen, it goes away. I believe if you watch something or play xbox for hours that has a still image, that its possible for the image to stay burnt in forever. I also saw a weird patten in a game i was playing that should not be there. it was like the tv could not process it. Im sending this tv back. buy a new led and spend the money its worth it.

LG Plasma - It don't get no better'n this, January 9, 2011
By Riverlander (Minnesota)
It would be difficult to write the review without devolving into nothing but superlatives: Fantastic!, Marvelous, Extremely Groovy!

But that's what this TV is. The picture (when customized) is As Good As It Gets. Bar none. I shopped for quite a while before ordering this TV, and it lived up to every expectation. The price I got it for was outstanding. The shipping was spot on. The set-up was easy.

I own a Panasonic 55" plasma, and I love it. I brought this new 50" LG up to my cabin, and it's given me another reason to never want to leave. I just watched the Wild Card football weekend, and I had a better view of the game than the people on the 50-yard line. Watching sports on this TV is reason alone to buy it.

Go out to Best Buy or Ultimate Electronics and compare this TV with any of the others. Then go to Amazon and buy it.

It is simply the best.

Wonderful value here, January 8, 2011
By Sean
This is an outstanding set for the price. Was pondering this or a 1080p Panasonic 42 inch plasma. It's important to note that it's thin frame and depth are not just aesthetic, it allowed this 50" monster to fit in an area I previously had a very, very old 37" LCD. It is also very light for a TV of it's size much to my delight. I know the weight is published but it seems lighter while lifting than you'd think. That combined with a 10 foot test at a store and not being able to differentiate the 1080p 42" from this by much sealed the decision. My very small gripes would be that it could use a 4th HDMI these days and the capacitive buttons on the front, while lovely, make groping for them in a darkened room to turn it on virtually impossible.

As of this review 6th Avenue still has the best price on this. They shipped faster than I thought possible and it arrived on the absolute first day of the delivery window. Very impressed.

LG 50PK550 Review, January 1, 2011
By BrandonWangler
When my LG 50pk550 arrived I was very satisfied. It looked so much bigger than the 46" we had in the living room. I put this one in my room, and hooked it up to my DVR and blu ray player. Right away, I noticed a small buzzing noise coming from the back of the TV; I then called LG and they sent a repair man from my city to come look at the tv. The TV repair man did not think it was a problem because after turning up the volume, the buzzing noise couldn't be heard. The buzzing noise was very small, I just wanted to make sure that it was not a problem. When all the HD channels were registered on my DVR, the picture quality was and is just complelely amazing. I watched Apollo 13 on Blu Ray and it was great. I have noticed some image retention though. This happends mostly on channels where there is a logo in the bottom of the screen. For example, when I watch the history channel, there is a dark yellow H(standing for History) and a dark red HD symbol. If that image stays on the tv for over 10 minutes or so, after changing the channel the image stays burnt in for a few minutes (but it never stays permanently burnt in, it always go's away after a couple minutes, so it isn't much of a problem) Overall, I am very satisfied with the picture quality, the sound quality, the classy look of the tv, the great customer service from LG and Amazon, and the whole Plasma/HD expierence. I would recommend this TV to anyone. My advice is just right away be careful of the image retention and just make sure that you don't leave any image on the screen for over 20 minutes when the TV is brand new. I'm not sure how long it takes for an image to be completely burnt in, but I wouldn't mess with it at all due to the ghosting I have expierenced from mine (which I said goes away in a couple minutes and is not a problem).

Stunning, but you must watch it in a dark room., December 29, 2010
By J. Zwergel (Travis AFB, CA)
Stunning. Reviewers at cnet and plasma tv buying guide love to split hairs over color shift and black levels and motion lag and "dancing blue pixels." They nit pick every tv to death and leave you scratching your head. They have to say something, right? I'm no expert, but I've never seen a television that more closely reproduced the image from a movie theater screen than this one. The reason I was attracted to the pk line is because they display 24 frames per second from a blu-ray disc, which means your television is not trying to translate a movie's number of frames per second into video format. It shows each frame of the movie 3 times in a row 24 times in a second (72hz). I think it makes a difference. I can imagine myself in a movie theater as I'm watching the screen. Make sure the blu-ray player you buy also puts out 24 frames per second. Maybe they all do, I don't know. My dad bought me an lg bd530, which doesn't have netflix but I have a Roku so it doesn't matter. You might want the bd 550 if you want netflix, or the bd 570 if you have to have a wireless one, i.e. no ethernet cable close to your theater set up.

I do not recommend this set to anyone who has light emitting from a source directly in front of the screen. It should be watched either at night or in a room with blackout shades. A little ambient light from the ceiling is okay. If you can find one, you might do just as well to purchase the pk250, which is the exact same screen but without a usb input and there maybe a few picture tweaks that are not available. I bought mine at Sears for $699.00. I'm amazed that there is a tv this good at this price. I felt a little guilty for a few days because I don't feel like we're the kind of people who can afford a tv like this, but I guess we can because there it is in my den.

I've tried some of the calibration settings online and I hate them. Maybe I haven't found the right one. Right now I'm using the cinema setting, with sharpness turned to 0 and the color temperature to w2. That's right, I said the sharpness is set to 0. I want my plasma to look like a movie screen, not a pc monitor. I watched Christmas Story in blu-ray yesterday and it was the first time I've ever seen an image on a television that truly looked like a cinema screen. Next time you watch a movie in a theater notice how the images are much softer than on a television. If you doubt me, try my settings yourself. Even Pixar looks crisp and vibrant with sharpness at 0.

Also, though I try to be environmentally conscious in general you have to turn off the energy saving features on this tv. There is no point to buying a set of this quality and then having the set constantly turning the brightness up and down. I believe the tv companies were pressured to include these features but if you want to save electricity you're better off watching less television.

Oh, and one final thing. I picked up a pair of rabbit ears at Ace Hardware for $7.50 and we now have ABC, NBC, CBS, and PBS, all in 1080i HD. Don't let a salesman trick you into expensive antennas or hdmi cables. Digital is digital, the signal is the same no matter what it travels through.

I hope this review saves you time and hassle. I just condensed two months of research into 5 paragraphs. I'll happily answer any questions you may have left.

LG 50PK550 HDTV, December 27, 2010
By D. Jones "Jones" (Mobile, Ala)
Great picture. Beautiful color rendition. Good looking TV.
The screen is reflective when black images are shown, but it's not that bad.
As stated in earlier reviews, the speaker are pretty good. I really like the
option which boost the audio frequency of dialogue.

Excellent Picture and Sound, December 16, 2010
By Johann Cat "Grauer Kater"
I have had this set for two months and it still has considerable "wow!" factor. First, it was a steal. (A few years ago a set approaching this quality could been priced at 2500 bucks.) This TV has an excellent image, especially for movies and sports. High resolution black and white movies look especially sharp, "resonant" and film-like. The 550 affords lots of fine tuning depending on the program one has. An unusual degree of sharpness may be dialed in if one wants it. I'm not sure this is a criticism, but with certain settings, the facial make-up of performers in news casts and made-for-TV dramas (like "Dexter") is obvious, but the image may be adjusted to soften the "hey, I see their make up" factor. I know many viewers may not use the on-board speakers of big TVs, but the 550's on-board speakers are quite good. These speakers are NOT thin or boxy sounding--even rock music sounds nice, but they are great for dialogue. Read reviews of other TVs--speaker quality is often neglected in contemporary TVs (and I have beheld many junk speakers--I think Samsung sets' speakers are often weak). Also, this TV affords a visual difference between 720 and 1080 broadcasts--1080 is a visible, not a hypothetical, benefit. I watch a lot of up-converted-to-1080 DVDs (the DVD players do the up-convert) on this set, and they look great, so one doesn't have to have a new library of Blu Ray to get real benefits from the 550, if like me, one has scads of old movies on conventional DVDs. The 550 also has lots of inputs, and a useful and intuitive remote, and, as I say, lots of available color adjustments. I am a nut for color adjustments, and I'll note that this machine has layers of fine-tuning for tint adjustments that I haven't ventured into yet.