LG BD300 BD-Live player with Netflix video streaming support

[aposperp]

Originally Posted by oaacdi

It only plays music (mp3-no ID3 tag support and wma) and picture (jpg, png) files from a CD-r/RW, DVD+-R/RW, BD-r/RE in ISO 9660+Joliet, UDF and UDF Brigge format discs or from external USB flash or HDD drives (FAT 16 or FAT32, up to 4 partitions). No divx, xvid, avi, vob support.

Doesn't play DivX at all?
Not even from a dvd or USB?

[aposperp]

How's picture quality with this player?
I 've read some bad reviews in hdtest etc. about video and sound quality.

[oaacdi]

Nope At least it plays more formats (mp3,wma, jpg, png) than my HD-DVD player, including PAL DVDs plus Netflix streaming

Originally Posted by aposperp

Doesn't play DivX at all?
Not even from a dvd or USB?

[Chris Gerhard]

Originally Posted by aposperp

How's picture quality with this player?
I 've read some bad reviews in hdtest etc. about video and sound quality.

DVD-V quality is not as good as my other players but Blu-ray quality appears fine to me, both video and audio. I haven't tried Netflix streaming or anything other than DVD-V and Blu-ray. I would like to read some objective reviews of player performance.

Chris

[Woodshed]

Hello,

I did a quick search but didnt find an answer to this.

Why is it when I set the HDMI to "pass-thru" I can't turn the "DRC" setting off.

This is a bad thing. Anyone have any hints for me please?

[billt1111]

How is everyone connecting this player to the internet on their wireless LAN? Are you using a Game Adaptor like the Linksys WGA54G or are you just using a USB wireless adaptor like the Linksys Wireless-G USB Adapter WUSB54G?

[craigjenh]

Originally Posted by billt1111

How is everyone connecting this player to the internet on their wireless LAN? Are you using a Game Adaptor like the Linksys WGA54G or are you just using a USB wireless adaptor like the Linksys Wireless-G USB Adapter WUSB54G?

I am using the Belkin F5D7330 wireless gaming adapter to hook up th BD 300 to my network. It was a little squirrely during set up, but now works like a champ. 95% of the HD content streams no problem

[billt1111]

I had to give up connecting the player to the Internet using the linksys WGA54G and WGA54AG game adaptors. They just would not connect. I have no idea why. However the player connected immediately with a WGA600N dual band game adaptor. I didn't do anything special. It just worked using DHCP and a static IP. Oh well.

[hifibitn]

Originally Posted by sharrowm

I have the same router (Dlink DIR-655) and was experiencing the same problems with my BD-300 connecting to netflix, downloading firmware updates, etc. Basically, it would seem to be connected at times (notifying me that a firmware update was available, show movies in my queue, etc) but would not update firmware or stream movies. LG tech support was no help. In fact, they told me that I had to update the firmware in the unit and that it will not update directly from the internet. They told me that I had to do it via a USB drive and this would fix the problem (it did not fix the problem).

I found this post and I followed the directions above and set up my unit and router for static IP, pointed it directly to my ISP DNS and now it works great! Thanks for posting this oacdi.

Yes, LG's tech support was very uninformed here and for that matter so was NetFlix tech support. This is quite surprising since this has been widely discussed for Roku players and the DLink DIR-655 router using the v1.21 firmware. Quite disappointed in this actually. Anyways, thanks OACDI for this posting as well, I believe it will solve my issues. Oh and FWIW, if you downrev the firmware in your DIR-655 to v1.11, you will have no problems with the LG player (repeating info already in this forum, but it is info worth repeating, esp if folks are uncomfortable with the router settings mentioned above).

[Fede84]

I'm new, from Italy, so excuse my english, i'll want to buy this player but i can't understand one imporatant thing.
If i make a backup copy of one of my blu ray disk on a BD-R or a BD-RE, a copy 1:1, i can see the copy in this player?
Else, for this it's better the Sony BDP-S350 ?
Thx

[hifibitn]

I saw a "No" to YouTube support on the BD300, but anyone have any idea if they will enable Amazon streaming? If Roku can do it, not sure why this player can't.

[oaacdi]

Glad that my post has been useful to others! I know about the frustration from both LG and Netflix support. At least we have the internet and forums like this one!

Oh, I read somewhere around here that an NTFS HD worked fine, while the manual specifies FAT32. I hooked up my 1 TB USB drive and it had no problem playing the pictures and audio files. Sadly they did not added xvid/divx/mkv support!

[bdraw]

When I talked to LG at CES, I asked them about new video streaming for the existing players. They said no, you'll have to upgrade to get the new features. Although they wouldn't admit it, we all know there is no technical reason why they couldn't add it, they just want us to upgrade our players.

[samsungmaster]

You can now stream You Tube with your BD300 with the new software released today. Check your network update to download it.

[oaacdi]

For what it is, the Youtube streaming is nice and fun to have/watch. Guess less hours in the PC but on the TV streaming youtube through BD300!

Will it be close to stream the Pandora service, or something similar?

Originally Posted by samsungmaster

You can now stream You Tube with your BD300 with the new software released today. Check your network update to download it.

[JVs_Dad]

I downloaded the latest update and tried the Youtube. It's pretty cool, not something I'll be watching all the time but still cool. I watched the Letterman/Pheonix train wreck interview and the picture and sound is pretty much what you'd think. Now all we need is Hulu integrated, that would be grand.

[eyager]

The ability to watch youtube with the firmware update was a bit of a surprise to me. I can't say its really all that useful or an essential feature. Is there a way to queue up youtube vids you want to watch via an external computer as is the case with netflix? Are you just stuck watching the vids youtube preselects for you?

The feature I would like to see is a media server app for your PC that will let your BD300 play divx movies/mp3s off your hard drive. The media server app would have to transcode divx movies on the fly to a format the BD300 can handle with its hardware decoders as Hauppauge did with the Media MVP. If LG had enough free space in the BD300's flash rom to add youtube capabilties, then they can also add LAN based streaming if they wanted. The problem is there is no corporate bribery *erm* "media partnership" to compel them to add such a feature.

Maybe someone could reverse engineer the protocol the BD300 uses to talk to youtube, set up a PC to emulate a youtube server and use that as a way to get the BD-300 to stream whatever video file of their choosing. It would be a complicated backdoor method that most programmers would choose not to tackle but its entirely possible to do provided youtube isn't using any encryption.

[oaacdi]

No, there is the search function, and you can connect to international versions of youtube as well.

Originally Posted by eyager

Are you just stuck watching the vids youtube preselects for you?

Other units can do this through TVersity. Maybe the BD300 can be twicked to be recognized by this server?

Originally Posted by eyager

The feature I would like to see is a media server app for your PC that will let your BD300 play divx movies/mp3s off your hard drive.

[XBR23]

Originally Posted by samsungmaster

You can now stream You Tube with your BD300 with the new software released today. Check your network update to download it.

thanks for posting, i downloaded the update and installed with no issues.

[tji]

I went to my local Fry's Electronics to pick up a BD300 today, and was told that it was discontinued and they didn't have any more.

Is this true? If so, is there a replacement?

[Chris Gerhard]

Originally Posted by tji

I went to my local Fry's Electronics to pick up a BD300 today, and was told that it was discontinued and they didn't have any more.

Is this true? If so, is there a replacement?

The BD390 with wireless internet built in is the next model, not sure when it will be in stores.

Chris

[tennisplay]

I got this player recently and have been satisfied so far. I set it up using a Linksys WRT54G router flashed with dd-wrt to act as a wireless bridge.

The Netflix streaming content was good, but I would have liked it more if it had captions. Not sure when Netflix is going to add that feature.
The YouTube access is also nice, but it would be great if other sites such as Hulu were also supported.

If there is a working hack to support multi-region, please let me know.

[vinylprimate]

I've had the BD300 since the middle of November and have been pleased with it until recently. About two weeks ago I began noticing that anything I viewed, whether it was Netflix, YouTube, or DVDs, the video and sound was not in sync. There is nothing worse than lips moving and the sound coming later. I brought this too LG's attention, and they want me to pay $69 for a diagnostic fee. That stinks. I paid like $300 for this box. I would expect it to work longer than 3 months.
Is it possible that there is something else amiss? My HDMI cable or TV?

[ian67]

I just bought a display model LG BD300 at Circuit City was told it worked fine (my mistake for not making them plug it in and prove it, stupid I know), got it home plugged it in and when i put a disc in I get a NO DISC reading. Tried a couple different discs, same problem. The disc doesn't even spin. Put a disc in upside down, and it spins then says error reading disc.

[Chris Gerhard]

Originally Posted by ian67

I just bought a display model LG BD300 at Circuit City was told it worked fine (my mistake for not making them plug it in and prove it, stupid I know), got it home plugged it in and when i put a disc in I get a NO DISC reading. Tried a couple different discs, same problem. The disc doesn't even spin. Put a disc in upside down, and it spins then says error reading disc.

Same exact thing happened to me with a Samsung BD-UP5000. I had to send mine to Samsung for warranty repair at my expense for shipping. No returns are accepted according to all signs I saw at my local Circuit City and the written terms on your receipt probably override any verbal guarantee of a working player. I would say try to return it with the explanation that you were told it was working which I expect will get the response that it was working when they checked but you will have to deal with LG since it is no longer working. LG should be able to repair the player but my guess is you will have to ship it to LG.

Chris

[Chris Gerhard]

Originally Posted by tennisplay

I got this player recently and have been satisfied so far. I set it up using a Linksys WRT54G router flashed with dd-wrt to act as a wireless bridge.

The Netflix streaming content was good, but I would have liked it more if it had captions. Not sure when Netflix is going to add that feature.
The YouTube access is also nice, but it would be great if other sites such as Hulu were also supported.

If there is a working hack to support multi-region, please let me know.

I have the WRT54G and would like to be able to use it with my BD300. How do I flash the WRT54G with dd-wrt?

Chris

[tennisplay]

I used the instructions on the web page below to flash my wrt54g router with dd-wrt. It is specific for v8.
http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php...h_the_WRT54Gv8

Specific instructions for other versions are also available on the same website. You may have to dig through this page to find the right one:
http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php...GX#v7.2_and_v8

It is important to follow the instructions verbatim, including the wait times, otherwise, you may end up bricking the router. There are ways to get around this as well, though.

I used the instructions here to configure the router as a wireless bridge:
http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php...Bridge#Example

Hope this helps.

[Chris Gerhard]

Originally Posted by billt1111

I had to give up connecting the player to the Internet using the linksys WGA54G and WGA54AG game adaptors. They just would not connect. I have no idea why. However the player connected immediately with a WGA600N dual band game adaptor. I didn't do anything special. It just worked using DHCP and a static IP. Oh well.

Originally Posted by tennisplay

I used the instructions on the web page below to flash my wrt54g router with dd-wrt. It is specific for v8.
http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php...h_the_WRT54Gv8

Specific instructions for other versions are also available on the same website. You may have to dig through this page to find the right one:
http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php...GX#v7.2_and_v8

It is important to follow the instructions verbatim, including the wait times, otherwise, you may end up bricking the router. There are ways to get around this as well, though.

I used the instructions here to configure the router as a wireless bridge:
http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php...Bridge#Example

Hope this helps.

Thanks guys, I am not much with a wireless network and the instructions to get dd-wrt working were a bit overwhelming so I went to Circuit City and purchased a WGA600N adapter and it set up like a charm and finally I don't have to walk my 50ft ethernet cable to get connected. I guess I will see if there are any issues with speed and connection quality but so far it seems to work great.

Chris

[bradavon]

Originally Posted by samsungmaster

The BD370 is a slight upgrade from the BD300, I would wait on the BD390 which will have wireless capabilites and DLNA. There will also be several home theater systems coming out that will have netflix/youtube/pandora if those are of interest to you.

I wish LG would release some bloody BD Players outside of North America. All we got is the BH100 (properly) and BH200 (on extremely limited, barely non-existent). We've never got the BD300 at all, even with Netflix or removed or something else added. It seems they've given up on the rest of the world (maybe Europe) entirely. The BH200 could've definitely sold well enough here, if given a chance.

Originally Posted by samsungmaster

You can now stream You Tube with your BD300 with the new software released today. Check your network update to download it.

What's the quality like? Youtube is so low quality, surely it looks awful?

[Tom Negrino]

Originally Posted by bradavon

What's the quality like? Youtube is so low quality, surely it looks awful?

"Awful" is a relative term. The YouTube videos normally appear embedded in an interface, so they don't take up your whole screen; perhaps a quarter of the TV screen is used by the video.

Given that it is being upscaled, it's actually not so bad. I would certainly not say that it is anything close to HD, but for what it is -- Internet-quality Flash video being streamed -- it is acceptable. YouTube is not a "serious" viewing experience anyway. But I've enjoyed using the streaming with the BD300 to view a bunch of rare music clips of some favorite performers. Sure, I can do that on my computer, but I've got lots better speakers in the living room.