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LG BD300 Network Blu-Ray Disc Player | 
 enlarge | Brand: LG
Category: CE
Buy New: See price in cart
New (13) Used (1) from $340.00
Rating:  17 reviews
Sales Rank: 254
Color: Gloss Black
Media: Electronics
Autographed: No
Memorabilia: No
Batteries Included: Yes
Shipping Weight (lbs): 8.4
Dimensions (in): 11 x 16.9 x 2.3
MPN: BD300
Model: BD300
UPC: 719192173309
EAN: 0719192173309
ASIN: B001F5FI3S
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Features:
| • | Blu-Ray Disc player with BD Live and BonusView | | • | Netflix instant streaming ready with Netflix subscription | | • | Full HD 1080p output via HDMI with Cinema mode at 24 or 60 frames per second | | • | Superior audio performance with 7.1 channels with Dolby Digital Plus & TrueHD & dts-HD | | • | LG Simplink connectivity of other LG products using HDMI connection |
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| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
Introducing the world's first Network Blu-ray Disc Player that streams from Neflix instantly. Enjoy Blu-ray Discs in Full HD, watch standard DVDs in near-HD up-scaled to 1080p, gain access to over 12,000 select Netflix movies and TV episodes in standard definitions and take advantage of interactive experiences, exclusive downloads and tons of extra features with BD Live. That's innovation. That's LG.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 12 more reviews...
 LG BD-300 is a great BD player November 22, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I bought the LG BD-300 about a month ago from Circuit City for $349. I can't say enough about the machine. I LOVE IT! Let me tell you about the features.
First, the blue-ray player is first class. It has a very short start-up time. I have heard that other "cheaper" players can take several minutes to startup. I use a HDMI cable to connect to my 42" LCD HDTV. The picture is ultra- clear. To me it seems better than the HD picture from DirecTV (and that is saying a lot). The blue-ray discs play flawlessly and easily. I used the BD-Live feature once and it was fun. Not all movies have this feature.
Then I tried my old DVDs to see how they look and I was very impressed. They seem to be almost HD in clarity. The manual says that the DVD clarity is only enhanced using the HDMI cable, so be aware of that. I bought a $25 HDMI switch on Amazon to go between my DirecTV and the BD-300. It works fine. Another option is to buy a newer surround sound receiver that has a HDMI switch built in so you switch audio and video together. This is the best way to go if you have the bucks to do it.
Now the fun part. I've had Netflix for a long time and I've watched many movies on my little computer screen. Not the best experience for movie watching. This feature will definitely change the way you use your TV. If you are new to Netflix you must select your movies online first and put them in your "instant" queue. Once you have selected some movies to watch you can choose one of those to view on your TV. Some people are upset about not being able to browse any movie from Netflix on the BD-300. But I already had movies set-up in my instant queue and I was ready to go. I have about 40 movies to choose from at any given time. Choose a variety to fit a mood you might be in. One thing that is disappointing - the player does not have WiFi. I hard-wired the BD-300 to the router. This might be the best way to go in the long run because the faster the connection the better the video quality. Big difference between the highest and the second highest quality setting. This is selected automatically by the BD-300 and it depends on the quality of your broadband connection. If you have a slow DSL connection you may be disappointed.
A LITTLE ADVICE THAT CAN SAVE YOU TIME. IF YOUR ROUTER IS HAVING TROUBLE FINDING THE BLUE-RAY PLAYER - -- REBOOT THE ROUTER WITH THE BD-300 ON AND RUNNING. I DID THIS AND IT WORKED. I READ THIS IN A REVIEW HERE, THANKS AMAZON.COM
Audio is great! I use a fiber-optic cable to connect between the BD-300 and my receiver. It features surround sound even using the Netflix streaming. This was a surprise because there was a review here that said the BD-300 had only stereo capability. Not True!
In short, I love it and recommend it.
The Netflix feature is the ticket November 21, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
The Netflix option is what drove me to get this player. I was pleasantly surprised that the quality is good. This feature is worth at least half the price of the player for me.
The trick, though, was to get internet connectivity to the entertainment center, and I also neededed HDMI switching. For this I used the following:
1. Netgear HDXB101 Powerline HD Ethernet Kit
2. Netgear FS605NA 5-Port Fast Ethernet Switch
3. Terk HDMI-31 Smart HDMI Switch (3 X 1)
4. 6.6' HDMI KING Gold Plated v1.3 HDMI to HDMI Cable with Ferrite Cores
The HDXB101 provided me the ability to get networking/internet through my electrical lines. It was easy and works flawlessly. I needed the Ethernet Switch so I could have additional network outlets for my Dish Network receiver and laptop. It also worked flawlessly.
My Sony KD-36XS955 36" 4x3 TV only has one HDMI input so I needed a automatic switcher for the Dish Network and the LG BD300. This works fine, but to switch back to the Dish Network, I have to turn off the DVD Player. For me that is fine.
Unfortunately my internet is a slower DSL connection. I average 1.5 to 2.0 MB/sec connection speed. (I wish I had cable modem) Sometimes my DSL drops below 1.5 and that gives me 1 star quality for Netflix streaming. 2 star quality is fine, but 3 and above is great for me.
The highest I have acheived is 3 stars, about 5% of the time.
If the Netflix is of value to you, get this player. If you would not use this feature, I am sure there are better players out there for the money.
After 3 weeks, I love it November 18, 2008
6 out of 6 found this review helpful
I received it about 3 weeks ago, and I truly love it. 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 ranges from 1-4 "dots". 4 dots, the highest, I receive over my DSL Cat-6 gigabit switched network about 10% of the time, and the quality is about the same as blu ray -- very high indeed. All streamed movies seem to be stereo audio only, and no subtitles are available. 3 dots 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. 2 dots 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. 1 dot has a very blocky background and darks are pixelated and un-defined. If I get 1 dot, 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.
Flawless Blu + Netflix streaming November 18, 2008
I got mine a few weeks ago and it has been perfect. The Netflix streaming looks great and was easy to setup.
 Excellent Idea, a bit bleeding edge though November 12, 2008
8 out of 8 found this review helpful
I received my BD300 last monday and so far am loving most of it. The Blue ray quality is outstanding, and setup and operation is very simple. The first thing I did after I connected everything and turned it on was have to figure out how to manually change the resolution without being able to see what I was doing. For whatever reason the player incorrectly guesses the wrong resolution for my tv(an LG flatpanel via hdmi) so it's always initially out of sync. and even though I change the resolution manually, when I turn the player off and back on the resolution resets back to the incorrect one again.. this is obviously annoying, but I can live with it.
Once it's up and running it's really pretty awesome, setting up netflix streaming was dead simple, and the blue ray disc quality is really nice. One thing I've also noticed is that when viewing netflix content the picture brightness fades up and down a bit, I'm hoping that this is just a glitch that can be fixed via a firmware update later on down the road.
If the netflix instant queue could be fixed so that you could add movies to your queue directly from the device I would definately give this machine another star, but because of this, and a few other minor glitches I can only give it a three out of five.
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