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The photos look amazing, and music sounds great. I'm very extremely happy with this setup for movies and music. Contrary to popular rumor, a movie looks and sounds every bit as good on an HD-DVD as a Blu-Ray, and personally I prefer the HD-DVD menuing system to that used on Blu-Ray discs.But wait, there's more.What's not addressed in any of the reviews or the descriptions here is how excellent the LG SuperBlu player is as a high-def digital photo viewer and mp3 player. Once I have it playing what I want to listen to from the very-easy-to-navigate 'music' menu, it's simple to shut off the TV and enjoy hours of continuous music through my Yamaha receiver. Just move the SD Card from the camera to the IOGEAR reader, and pop it in the USB port on the front of the SuperBlu player. I don't view the capacity to play HD-DVD as a waste, and have built up a huge collection of HD-DVDs, often buying a movie for less in this abandoned hi-def format than the same title would've cost on a regular DVD. I'm a multi-media junkie who likes to be able to play anything I find on any format, and still have a sizable collection of VHS & Beta tapes as well as LaserDiscs and CEDs.
As much money as this has saved me buying movies, the extra cost for this player (vs. a less expensive Blu-Ray player) has been well worth it. As there are plenty of reviews that address how amazing and versatile this player is for Blu-Ray, HD-DVD & up-scaling DVDs, I won't even address that, beyond confirming that it lives up to the hype and I absolutely love it.As my HDTV is an older Sony 62" rear-projection model that predates HDMI, I'm running this player in 1080i via component video cables, and run an optical cable to a Yamaha HTR-5630 surround-sound receiver. I use it with a SanDisc micro-SD card reader and simply load a 2-gig micro-SD card with one directory of photos I wish to view and another with music I'd like to listen to. Pop it in the front USB port on the LG SuperBlu, press a few buttons on the remote from the 'photo' menu, and I've got a 62" hi-def photo slide-show and music for hours.As just an mp3 player it delivers as well, and also works great to play files from standard SD cards using the IOGEAR Pocket Card Reader. This same adapter also makes the SuperBlu a very handy way to view the photos taken with my digital camera without any tedious downloading. However, if you use your home A/V system for more than just watching movies and TV shows, and also like to look at photos and simply listen to music, the LG BH200 SuperBlu will become your best friend. (The lack of complete front-panel controls and displays makes many other DVD & Blu-Ray players quite annoying for just playing music and mp3 CDs) With the optical digital output, the sound is just amazing.If you want the ultimate in format versatility from a Hi-Def player, you simply can't do any better than the LG BH200.
I purchased my SuperBlu player in December of 2008, well after Blu-Ray won the Hi-Def format war. In it's photo menu, there's even a simple option to rotate the image from the remote for those photos taken sideways.The LG SuperBlu also a hell of a great player for good old-fashioned audio CDs, using either the remote or the handy front-panel controls. Using either a burned CD-ROM, or the front panel USB port, this unit can simultaneously display a slide show of your digital photos in 1080 hi-def resolution, perfectly re-sized to fill your screen, and play mp3s. The GUI for doing this is by far the best I've seen on any DVD player, with full support for long file names and mutli-layered directories. The buttons and display on the LG player are functional enough that when using it as an audio player you don't need to have your TV on or remote handy to use it. Get one (or two) while you still can.
LG is still updating firmware as we speak(a year and a half after they stopped making them) to keep up with the stupid idiotic constant blu-ray updating crap. After doing all the updates and hacks, this thing plays everything and does everything(even 1080p/24hz, wasn't able to do before update). Those same titles just came out yesterday in the U.S. To my surprise, it never hit the states on either hd format. You won't regret it. It only comes in R2 format so this little player comes in handy. I have the Phantasm collection sphere in region 2.
Some movies only come out on dvd or blu-ray overseas because of rights issues. Friday the 13th parts 2 & 3 came out on blu-ray back in february in the U.K. Unlike some reviewers spewing garbage, this thing is downright awesome. I got The Fog(1979) hd-dvd from the U.K. last year. If and it's a big if, you can get your hands on one of these on ebay, do it. There is nothing different whatsoever but the price, and I just got it for [.]. If the movie is on both hd-dvd and blu-ray(lets say Top Gun for example), it's the same exact 1080p movie in different packaging.
You want something overseas on blu-ray, hd-dvd, or regular ole dvd, get it, this sucker will play it. Every player has to do it sooner or later, it's just the way Sony does things. on blu-ray. So, this is a pretty convenient little thing to have if you can't wait for that certain title to make it to blu-ray, dvd, or hd-dvd for that matter. One last thing everyone who owns one or doesn't yet should keep in mind. bucks new on hd-dvd.
I was treated rudely by customer support, and promised a disc within 10 business days which has yet to materialize well after that. I purchased an BH 200 Blu-ray/hddvd player, with the expectation that I could update it as needed. Do not buy an Lg Dvd player. When I called to find out why, they curtly told me that they ran out of discs, and had to order more. It turns out that LG has not supported anything other than Windows 2000 or XP for downloads. Vista doesn't exist for them. It is hard to imagine a more lame excuse. This is a pathetic company for customer service, which seems to be more important what we are accustomed to.
i love this player,i bought it from best buy as a display model for 120 bucks and love it.great picture and sound.LOVE IT
NO BRAINIER. Go to the web site http://us.lgservice.com and get the newest firmware, save it on your USB portable card and plug it into the front port, follow updating instructions as provided on the web page with the updates and you are golden. So this player offers up conversion on DVDs, HDDVD and Blu-ray all in one. You can still get awesome deals ($3 and up) if you shop around and still get that great picture quality. I got this unit when the HDDVD vs Blu-ray war just finished. and then the up converter of your DVDs. Fortunately this unit falls under the easy category. Now some players make this easy to do (via USB port) and others make it hard (Ethernet port only).
Bottom Line is I have been VERY happy with the unit and the recent upgrade to the firmware addressed alot of the issues plaging the unit. What does that mean. Reason I did was because I knew I was about to find some HD-DVD's for REAL cheap now. These firmware updates are KEY TO HAVE A ENJOYABLE EXPERIENCE watching these blu-rays as they fix sound/picture/compatibility issues that occur every time they add more features to these blu-rays (Blu-ray Live and U-control are the biggest offenders of BLu-ray player lock ups out these). Now something new to the mix now is that now you have to periodically UPDATE your firmware. You are upgrading the software the unit is using, much like updating the software in you computer to run the newer stuff. The price is steep but look at it this way, it is almost $200-$300 for a new blu-ray player, yes HDDVD is dead but there are thousands of those movies out these for BARGIN prices and they ARE HD format, enjoy the benifits of them loosing the war. I also recommend if you have any questions or need help with any feature of this unit check out the web page: http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php.t=1009104
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