Just bought a LG BD690

[gadgtfreek]

Yeah I know, I love trying new junk.

I noticed the LG's have been getting rave reviews, and I also wanna check out how well this HDD handles downloading and playback of Vudu HDX. My old BX100 boxes are gone and the only ones for sale have some years on them. LG keeps supporting the HDX file download (my HSI sucks) with a HDD in the flagship, so its kinda cool.

Plan on watching Insidious and Black Death on blu this weekend, and download Lincoln Lawyer HDX. Will report back.

If it works well, I may migrate a lot of my rental style movies back to HDX instead of buying. Ive cancelled Netflix and Redbox is not too hot here.

http://www.lg.com/us/tv-audio-video/video/index.jsp

 

[teachsac]

Didn't you try the LG and have some bad luck with it a while ago? Hope this one works out.

S~

 

[gadgtfreek]

Nope, this one is my first. I was gonna try one last year an dbacked out, IIRC. Ive seen where a lot of the 2010 models were broken with almost each FW release and needed a patch, and these 2011's started out a little buggy. Seems to be working OK now. They use the Broadcom chip designed for streaming services and Blu-ray, and it seems to have issues with DVD playback at times.

LG seems to build a nice player in 2011, they just need to work on software implementation.

Im most concerned with Vudu download performance and Blu-ray playback.

 

[gadgtfreek]

Should get it today, hope to watch Insidious Blu on it tonight, and Lincoln Lawyer Vudu HDX file (hdd) download on it tomorrow night. Probably watch Black Death in Blu Sunday night.

 

[gadgtfreek]

Well, good looking player. I like the red/blue mixed light on the front too. Setup was easy, not a whole lot of advanced settings like some other players ( color space and deep color), but enough to do the job just fine. 

Got the vudu hdx version of Black Death downloading easy enough with a free credit, that was nice. One kink, is the player needs to stay on and in the vudu app to download the file, so I just left it on and cut everything else off. It's not too annoying, the player screen just says online and it's not that bright. 

Gonna watch the file later tonight

 

[gadgtfreek]

Some observations:

• I noticed last night that the Brightness did not appear to be correct. My brightness is currently set with the Accupel pattern, and the Oppo finds that Brightness setting to be correct on DVE and S&M.
• What I found is that 55 is needed for Blu-ray (my display was set at 57 with the Accupel) and 53 is needed for Vudu. This is a bit of an issue for tweakers, because this player offers no picture menu settings internally, so you'd have to adjust your display every time you wanted to watch something off the LG, or use two different inputs on the display.
• It would also be nice if LG offered up a Color Space setting too, so one could test different selections with Spears and Munsil. Source Direct seems to be gone except for a handful of players.
• The player is quick (little sluggish in menus at times) and the Vudu playback from the HDD came off great, but there were some pixellation hiccups about 3-5 times during the movie.
• Blu-ray PQ looks great to me, other than my picture setting complaints, and I imagine anyone wanting a nice player with built in HDD would be very happy. If not needing the HDD, the 670 would be your model. I have to decide if I want to keep this as my backup and let my 85 go now, because lacking the range of adjustments I like, the Oppo will stay. I did not expect it to outperform the Oppo of course, but I was looking for something a little more reference.
• Most likely I will keep this as the backup since it blows much of what my BD85 can do out of the water, and Ill pass the 85 along to my dad who needs a new player. In my setup itll be a great fall back, but like I said, for most everyone else, a 670 would make a fine addition. For my first experience with an LG player, Id rate it a positive, they just need to work on their controls, especially if the output is going to affect brightness. It feels a generation or two behind there.

To anyone that already owns one, make sure you check Brightness with a test disc, even if the display was calibrated.