Reviews for LG BH200 Super Blu Blu-Ray HD DVD Combo Player

Total reviews: 5 of 19
Average Rating:

• Excellent Upconverting DVD and Blu Ray Player | Rating: | Date: 2008-07-15

  Although the LG also plays HD DVD, I got it primarily for Blu Ray and DVD.
  
  - Very fast to load Blu Ray (much faster than my previous Sony and Samsung Blu Ray players).
  
  - Excellent DVD upconversion (leaves the Sony BDP 300 and Samsung 1200 (the ones I owned) in the dust)
  
  - Decodes all the HD audio formats (I make the player convert it to DTS and output to my receiver via optical - sounds great)
  
  - Nice form factor and excellent build quality. Only the Pioneer Blu Ray player is in the same league when it comes to build quality.
  
  - No 5.1 analog out (but not an issue for me since my receiver only accepts 5.1 via optical or coax).
  
  - remote should have been backlit from this price point.
  
  This is an excellent if somewhat under appreciated product. This is a great looking and performing product.

• We're pleased with our LG Blu-ray | Rating: | Date: 2008-06-28

  Our old dvd/vcr combo was driving us nuts. We are delighted to have an efficient, hi-tech, and good looking replacement.

• Great player that plays nearly EVERYTHING | Rating: | Date: 2008-05-23

  I've had this product for about a month now (I also have the BD-UP5000) and it's been great. Personally, I like this boxier design than the more round-edge Samsung player, and gotta love the buttons. The bottons do not stick out much and it's pretty much level with the front plate of the player so it functions almost like touch operated. The blue lights on the buttons are very modern too but it will not turn on while you watch the movie so it won't be a nuisance. Depending on the format you are watching, either the bluray or HD DVD logo will be on. If you are watching DVD, no logo will be available.
  
  This player uses QDEO chip for upconversion. It's not as great as the REON chip but some say it's comparable. Personally, I found the upconverted material to be a bit softer at the edges compared to the REON so it may seem a little less sharp. And with the preset QDEO selected rather than using the user defined settings, it has a hint of bluish tint. Unless you compare the on and off side by side, you wouldn't notice when you first use it.
  
  So far, I have had no problems playing any of the discs except for loading T2 Ultimate HD DVD import from germany. It doesn't recognize the interactive mode that uses Dynamic HDi. But all american movies, I've had no problems with. This player also plays PAL DVDs and can be made into region free for DVDs. It was mentioned in the manual that it has USB port for expandable memory, most likely in the event LG plans to upgrade it to profile 2.0 (not yet confirmed). It's currently profile 1.1 compliant (via firmware update) and bitstreams all audio.
  
  There were reports of some audio dropouts and is limited to 2 analog channel output, but overall, the player's been great (I've been using HDMI only). LG did announce the discontinuation of this model starting in the 2nd half of this year, so if you want a DUO format player, it's recommended to pick one up soon before it's gone.

• Buy it for Blu Ray discs | Rating: | Date: 2008-05-23

  I don't have Hd dvd disc.
  I have a lot of Blu Ray discs.
  
  I own Panasonic BD-30K which is a perfect Blu Ray disc player.
  
  Then I happen to buy another which is this one.
  
  Don't get me wrong. Panasonic Blu Ray player was perfect. DTS-HD, Dolby Tru-HD all plays stright without compressing.
  
  But this one has the same quality with Panasonic's player.
  
  Now that I can buy HD dvd discs as well, I will buy some of the cheap HD discs since they are all in great sale.
  I also can watch regular DVD discs upconverted. All region!
  I love the design and with the latest firm ware update, this play is perfect for Blu ray...
  
  

• A Questionable Formats Reader? | Rating: | Date: 2008-05-14

  My "good news" experience with this player began with my very first impression after trying it out on two high definition types of DVD discs, one Blu-Ray (Planet Earth) and the other an HDTV-DV (The Sting). And, I thought that the image color and definition on both of these were just about astonishingly beautiful, clear and well matched. Also, I didn't find it to be an objectionably long wait for the player to make its initial determinations of the type of format being introduced, each time a new disc was loaded (although I would just a soon prefer that its designers had left out the little animated circle that kind of annoyingly pops in just about any time the player encounters even the slightest delay in performing a newly assigned task to perform.
  
  So, next, I tried out an older, standard DVD formatted disc (Dances with Wolves), which I thought had an improved appearance that came surprisingly close to that of the two higher definition discs. This led me to the question of whether it also would appear to improve the definition of some DVDs that I produced and burned myself, for a letterbox type of widescreen appearance (which used to fill the complete screen of my widescreen TV's 1.78 x 1 aspect ratio, with the TV changing to its Wide-Zoom mode). But, this is where the "bad news" began, in my experience with this player.
  
  Apparently because of the HDMI cable connection that I am using (connecting both video and audio to the player in a single cable, supposedly to achieve the best definition and quality for each), the wide-zoom mode on my TV became disabled. Instead, the entire 4 X 3 ratio of my DVD's recorded image, which includes the black, horizontal top and bottom borders, became stretched horizontally to fit that 4 X 3 image onto the wider, 1.78 X 1 screen. This resulted in a display that has letterbox black strips at the top and bottom and a horizontally stretched picture area where all the people look exceptionally short and fat, etc.
  
  So, next, I grabbed one of my favorite commercially manufactured, standard format DVDs that uses a same-as-my-screen, 1.78 X 1 aspect ratio format (the CLOUD: Wild Horse program from the PBS Nature series) and the same thing happened (only, in the virtual absence of human subjects, it was the wild horses who looked extra fat, if they were running toward or away from the camera, and exceptionally long bodied if they were viewed horizontally). After that, I finally got rid of at least the letterbox format type of horizontal top and bottom borders, when I popped in a standard DVD formated, "full screen" (4:3 ratio) disk. But, here again, it stretched the whole thing horizontally, so that I was looking at more squashed and fattened people.
  
  Then, something occurred to me about that HDTV-TV formatted disc of The Sting, that I had tried out. I remembered checking on its aspect ratio before buying it, to insure that it preserved it's Hollywood type of widescreen appearance, which is wider than a wide-screen TV, and reading that it did, indeed, have an aspect ratio of 1.85 X 1 (meaning that it should display slight letterbox borders, even on my 1.78 X 1 TV. But, it wasn't doing that. It was, instead, filling the complete screen, apparently clipping the sides of the full image. And, the complete screen even was filled when I next clicked onto the "Special Features" interviews. Only, I was back to another return of horizontally overstretched people. (I'm guessing that those interviews were produced at a less costly 4 X 3 aspect ratio.) AND, THIS IS WITH AN HDTV-DV FORMATTED DISC PLAYING ON A DEVICE THAT IS SUPPOSED TO BE AN HDTV-DV FORMATTED PLAYER!
  
  My quick-fix solution to all this, until I possibly can come up with a better idea, has been to leave my new player connected the way it is (for apparently best definition and quality in viewing the actually higher definition main features, while replacing on the shelf my old, standard format DVD player, reconnecting it with its three component video and two audio channel cables, for use most frequently with "Full Screen" DVDs. (For some reason, the new player so far has been producing absolutely gorgeous letterbox displays on most of my standard DVD recordings of the really widescreen, Hollywood type movies. Apparently, where that extended widescreen look is concerned, my new high definiation players only has a problem with my new HDTV-DV copy of The Sting. Go figure!)