LG BD300 Network Blu-ray Disc Player
From the Manufacturer
Now you can enjoy more movies and TV episodes in the blink of an eye. LG’s new BD300 Network Blu-ray Disc player is a full-featured player that also gives you unlimited instant access to over 12,000 Netflix movies and TV episodes. All you need is a broadband internet connection and Netflix subscription. With Full HD 1080p resolution and 1080p upscaling, this Blu-ray Disc player is the ultimate source for home entertainment. What is the BD300 Network Blu-ray Disc player and why is it better than standard Blu-ray Disc players?It is a fully functioning Blu-ray player that plays Blu-ray Discs and standard DVDs, plus it offers instant access to Netflix catalog of over 12,000 movies and TV episodes. with no ad breaks or trailers. A Netflix subscription with unlimited Blu-ray Discs and DVDs is required. Unlimited refers to the number of Blu-ray Discs and DVDs you can receive in a month. Most Netflix plans are unlimited and start at $8. 99 a month. To see what…more
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13 comments
Anonymous on July 23, 2009 at 7:20 am
I just received my player a few days ago, so there are definitely some out there in the market. So far, I am very impressed. Netflix setup is easy, and the quality of the streaming video is better than I expected. Blu-Ray and standard DVD’s play great. My only nickpick so far is that standard 4×3 DVD’s are stretched to fill my 16×9 screen, and there doesn’t seem to be a way to turn that off. (Netflix 4×3 content is correctly displayed with sidebars. ) Hopefully they’ll fix this with a firmware update. Oh, and firmware updates are pretty much automatic, directly through the internet. Update 11/23/08: This weekend, the player downloaded a firmware update. The aspect ratio problem described in the previous paragraph has been fixed!!!
Gita on July 23, 2009 at 8:37 am
2.0 out of 5 stars
Same problems as other have reported
Like many others here, our player started having “issues” with playing regular DVDs within months after purchasing the player (skipping, some of them not loading, etc.)…
Utah on July 23, 2009 at 8:53 am
1.0 out of 5 stars
Can’t Play BD after 6 months
I bought an lg bd 300 6 months ago. It has stopped playing blu ray disks. I was told by LG I need to pay 69 to get fixed. it failed in 6 months! Don’t buy it
Orenthal on July 23, 2009 at 10:04 am
January 19, 2009 addendum — I bought this the first week of November, and I truly love it. However, in the past two weeks (January 2009), the unit started having intermittent trouble connecting via the Internet to Netflix. Finally last night, it failed to find the network connection at all. Reinitialized the unit, connected it to a new cable and known-good ethernet plug to no avail. Now not only is the unit not finding the Internet, but Network Magic is no longer finding the unit. So I called LG’s tech support, which was adequate and after a little “did you buy it from an authorized dealer” (the answer was “yes” if you bought it through Amazon — but you have to have the dealer’s zip code for LG to verify it, so SAVE YOUR BOXES — that’s where I had to find it). I got an RME, which disappoints me. I know things fail but if it had failed two weeks later, it would have been OUT OF WARRANTY, so I highly recommend you consider buy the extended warranty on this item through Amazon. I would probably change my rating from 5 to 4 stars based on this, but “stuff happens. “ This is a joy and will change your viewing habits when it’s working though. The glossy black unit has a thin and elegant, understated look that should not clash with other equipment. Setup is simple and for me required 3 cables — the power cable, the HDMI cable, and an ethernet (CAT-6) cable to my network. This unit will not work with wireless networks, as far as I know, because the streaming video quality would suffer on a large screen TV. You should also have a USB thumb drive of 1GB or over capacity for the system to download enhanced DVD content from the internet. Plug the thumb drive into the front panel (there is a hard to see door with a latch that will flick down with a fingernail) after the unit does its self-test and upgrades its firmware. Blu ray picture quality seems quite good. As a medium, the improvement in picture from a DVD is quite pronounced. Even fast action sequences are crisp and smooth, with no artifacts on any disc I’ve played. The improvement in audio sound is more subtle — on most action movies, I haven’t noticed it. I will await some opera or concert blu rays to make a judgment. However, I compared regular DVD pictures to my Denon DVD player that cost about 3 times the price of the BD300, and the blacks were a little more defined on the Denon than the LG. On the whole, it plays DVDs that I use for comparison (The 5th Element, Kingdom of Heaven, Sin City) in an acceptable way, and the picture is quite crisp. This blu ray picture loads pretty fast — about 20-40 seconds, so that is a real improvement over the earlier blu ray generation, and the remote is satisfactory if difficult to read in low light. This would be the only complaint in my book. When you turn on the unit, and it’s hooked into your ethernet network (no wireless), it automatically uprgrades its firmware and software first — once again, this was seamless and only took a couple of minutes. Now, what makes this unit so special is the NetFlix features, which having set up your account online, you activate on the unit from a 4-character code which you input into your Netflix Account via your PC. You must select “instant view” movies from your Netflix Account on the PC before they will show up as available on the BD300. Activating blu ray discs on your Netflix account will cost you an addition $1 per month. Having everything set up, you can select the streaming to search for your Netflix Instant View features. You select the feature, and then it gives you a choice of starting them where you left off (if you were interrupted) or from the beginning. You can also rate the feature from your BD300 or remove it from your Netflix Queue. The quality of video you will see appears in the new firmware on a fuel gauge that at its highest setting displays “HD” for high definition video. About 10% of the programming appears to be HD so far, with television series leading the way. The quality I receive over my DSL Cat-6 gigabit switched network about 10% of the time is about the same as blu ray — very high indeed. All streamed movies seem to be stereo audio only, and no subtitles are available. About 75% on the gauge is the equivalent of good DVD picture and I get that about 60% of the time. One is not concious of any tradeoffs in picture quality. A half-gauge is acceptable for all anime and many movies where there is not a lot of fast action or dark scenes, but you notice a loss of detail in those circumstances. The background can be a little blocky, but the picture will look about like regular definition TV viewed on a high-def device. Less than half-gauget has a very blocky background and darks are pixelated and un-defined. If I get less than half-gauge, I stop the movie and hit replay, and then we see if the connection speed increases. If it does, I stick with the movie. If not, I wait until another time. You will really enjoy a Netflix subscription much, much more with this unit. December 23 Addendum — after around seven weeks, we are loving this more and more. The regular firmware/software updates online have made this better and better. There is a fuel gauge display now on quality, and we are receiving some movies in true HD quality (I can’t say for sure the limit is on the movies so offered or on the network speed), but the true HD streaming of Netflix Instant movies is awesome. I also forgot to note that it has an effective shifting screensaver that will prevent burn-in on succeptible plasma displays. It just keeps getting better and better. Thank you, LG, and especially thank you, Netflix.
Lindy on July 23, 2009 at 11:31 am
1.0 out of 5 stars
run away
This blue ray player is total garbage. Three months after buying this waste of money it completely stopped playing standard dvd’s and it has zero internal memory.
Helia on July 23, 2009 at 12:03 pm
My wife and I got in the habit of using netflix’s streaming service. I just got tired of hooking up my laptop to the plasma everytime we wanted to stream. Then I saw this on LG on the netflix website. It seemed like the perfect solution as I was looking for a blu-ray player for the living room anyway. And it was!! I have now owned it for 4 weeks. Love the easy setup. It took literally 5-10 minutes before it was hooked up and streaming netflix. The blu-ray player is exceptional. I am comparing it with my PS3 which I love as well and it is as fast if not faster at loading blu-ray discs. The quality of dvd’s is truly exceptional via the hdmi. The remote control is easy to use- even my wife who is technically challenged loves it and uses it frequently with no issues. The streaming quality is good- looks like really good SD signal, but it is fine for watching and really convenient. Once you add shows or movies to your watch it now queue online they will show up on the LG BD300 when you access the netflix from “home. ” The setup for the streaming involves hooking up a ethernet cable to the back of the player and putting in a code from your pc where the player tells you to (it gives you simple directions in the set up including the web address to get the code). Point being they have made it real easy for just about anyone to hook up and use this baby. The only cons I can think of is it has no wireless solution and there are no real attachment cables worth anything in the box. You will need your own hdmi cable, ethernet and whatever else you need for your system. But those are minor as the pricing is still pretyy competitive for what the player does and is does it all very well.
Anonymous on July 23, 2009 at 12:31 pm
5.0 out of 5 stars
super player
Works wonderful for us. We have had ours for a year now and we love it. All the features are user freindly and does great with our harmony remote system.
Emilie on July 23, 2009 at 3:28 pm
1.0 out of 5 stars
Problems after 12 movies
Don’t buy this machine!! I only used this for 4 months and watched about 12 blu ray movies and it started skipping and then would not read at all.
Jovie on July 23, 2009 at 3:49 pm
4.0 out of 5 stars
How to fix your BD300
If your BD300 has stopped playing regular DVDs, try this simple fix.
1) Go to the LG support site
2) Download the Version 8.11.
Shomecossee on July 23, 2009 at 6:11 pm
1.0 out of 5 stars
LG BD300 A disappointment
If Life is Good for LG that is good for LG but life is not good for those of us who bought the LG BD300.
Etana on July 23, 2009 at 8:22 pm
5.0 out of 5 stars
As good as I had hoped
Great stuff. I haven’t even used a Bluray disc in it yet. Upconverts normal DVD’s nicely. Netflix streaming is excellent.
Jennis on July 23, 2009 at 9:04 pm
1.0 out of 5 stars
Stopped playing regular DVDs
A nice product with nice features at a good price, BUT after a few months it began having issues playing regular DVDs (while still playing BluRay fine).
Acton on July 23, 2009 at 11:42 pm
1.0 out of 5 stars
Broken after 5 months
This player does not read DVDs after just 5 months of light use! I called the company and was told that it would be a minimum $69.00 charge to look at it.