LG bd-530

Sears has it for $67 with code xmaslist.

Anyone know how this one compares in the Bluray Support Audio Comparison Chart? I don't see it listed there.
Thanks
Mike

Or more importantly doe sit have netflix?

Can't find any specs on LG's sight. Is this a new player? Is it more "bare bones" than the 550?

I just ordered one from Sears. Looks like it will bitstream all codecs, but does not support Netflix.

Manual at LG.com

That's disappointing, I wonder why, I thought all network-capable LG players supported Netflix?

It does seem like bitstream is supported. Except on Page 66 of the manual under the *1 option where it says

"*1 The secondary and interactive audio may
not be included in the output bitstream if
[Digital Output (SPDIF)] or [HDMI] option
is set to [Primary Pass-Thru]. (Except
LPCM Codec : the output always include
interactive and secondary audio.)"

That is a bit confusing. It seems they are saying on pass through (bitstream) the secondary audio may not be included.

As another side note, based on the manual and the below linked product brochure, the player will internally decode DTS-HD MA but Dolby True HD is output as a 2 channel downmix. That is, if you do not select pass through and then let the player do its own internal decoding (PCM Multi Option).

http://www.proaudioinc.com/Dealer_Area/BD530.pdf

From the LG Website, these are the audio options (as it does really seem like bitstream is supported, except for that *1 above)

PCM Stereo can be selected when the Blu-ray player is connected to a device that can only output two-channel digital stereo decoder.

PCM Multi-Ch can be selected when you are connected to a device that has multi-channel digital decoder (HDMI only).

DTS Re-Encode can be selected when you are connected to the unit’s HDMI out or Digital Audio out to a device with the DTS decoder and the audio is transmitted through 5.1channel.

Primary Pass Thru can be selected if the LG Blu-ray is connected using digital audio out and HDMI out jack to a device with LPCM (Linear Pulse Code Modulation), Dolby Digital, Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby True HD, DTS and DTS-HD decoder.

A friend who wanted a really low price player bought one. Very light and cheaply made. It is no Oppo but ok for the price. It does pass both Dolby True HD and DTS MA bitstream with no problem.

has your friend mentioned anything about the remote? i'm so frustrated with the remote on this model that i'm thinking about taking it back.

I have this unit. What is the issue with the remote?

Get a Harmony

I can confirm that it does bitstream just fine, and it is lightweight. i don't really care if its cheaply built, it was cheap, it plays discs, it bitstreams Can't ask for any more at that price.

Anyone have this?

I bought it at Sears during the deal. Let me just say it's got some serious issues with NOISE.

Every Blu-ray I've tried, excessive sharpness and noise and no way I can figure out how to adjust it.

Terrible compression too, thinking about taking this thing back.

Blu Rays seem to play fine. No noticeable noise or artifacts...Maybe your unit is defective.

I just purchased a LG BD530 and brought it home last night. I played an mkv file burned onto a DVD-RW which worked fine until about 15 minutes into playback, but then the disk would stop playing and would go back to the main menu. I didn't think much of it and just turned it off for the night. Today I put some divx and mkv files onto an old internal HD housed in an external case. This is the type that has an external power adapter; it is not powered by the USB port. I plugged the HD into the USB port and when I powered on the Blu Ray player it said Hello on the LCD panel but would not power on. It locked up and I had to unplug the player. I left it unplugged for a few seconds and plugged it back in and the "hello" was still displayed on the LCD panel but nothing on the TV. I unplugged it for over 30 seconds and plugged it back in and this time it wouldn't do anything; would not power on, nothing.

I called customer service and the lady I spoke with said she was not aware of any issues with external HD's and instructed me to do a hard reset by unplugging the player and holding the power button down for 30 seconds. I plugged it back in and still nothing. She told me then that the unit must be faulty and I could send it to them for repair or return it to the retail store for a replacement. I've seen several other cases on this forum where LB BD5xx models have fried hard drives, but none where the hard drive fried the player.

I would like to be able to use an external HD, but don't want to fry another player. Is it the type of external HD I'm using or just a faulty unit. Has anyone else had this experience?

From what I can tell the BD550 DOESN'T play MKV files whereas the BD530 CAN.
The BD530 is said to be a 'holiday edition' bluray player. I guess LG tossed in the MKV ability in this model. I tested a few 720P MKVs burnt to DVD+R and they played back flawless on the BD530. I was hoping I could access a network share on my PC to play files like that, but I don't think there's an option. Maybe the more expensive models have that.

This model lacks Netflix and Pandora that the other models have.

On BF the Sony BDP-S370 will go for around $99.... Which is the better value the Sony or the LG BD530 ??

Its pretty much a 1.1 player made to sell to the masses for Q4 who don't care about streaming.

What player are you referring tio?

I wonder if someone will hack it to do Netflix\\home media access. It appears very similar to the BD550. Not sure why the BD550 lacks MKV support though.

Can someone PLEASE tell me exactly what the difference between the LG bd 530 and lg bd 550 is??

is it just the different of streaming media services? It still plays dvd and blu-ray and will upconvert to 1080p like the 550? It appears to have all the same connections. someone please confirm!

Believe it is ONLY the amount of NetCast (streaming apps). The 530 only has Youtube/Accuweather/Picassa. Everything else should be the same. Yes it upconverts DVD's etc. Believe it has same processor etc......Great deal for $65 at Walmart.

The BD550 cannot play MKV files! The BD530 is a better option if you are into these kind of things -->

yeah i know thats why im asking because i was about to get the lg bd550 but i saw the 530 deal from walmart. and i dont care about streaming because my tv can do it so as long as everything else is the same i'm going for it. thanks for your help!

do you guys know if the lg bd 530 supports audio out from the hdmi output?

On BF, the Sony BDP-S370 igoing at many places for $99. Is this a better player than the LG BD530 ??

Not sure as I am new to the bluray realm, but the BD530 definitely can play the MKV files. It does it quite well. It also played a bunch of transport stream files captured off my MDP 120 HD card .. just .ts files burnt on a DVD.

Are your MDP 120 files just one ts file or broken up into many?
I have a bunch of old ts file movies captured from MDP 100 with multiple files I would like to playback.

I always had audio sync issues after merging multiple ts files into one.
Also is there a PC software player that will sequence thru them automatically? Sorry it's been awile since the HTPC was running.

I captured many programs the same way (many, many 40MB files) and unfortunately this player puts a 2sec gap between each one as they play in sequence. I stopped that kind of capture\\editing about 4 years ago, so only my early stuff sucks. The newer captures are single files (4.35GB) to fill a complete DVD5 media.

Have you tried running your TS files through HDTVtoMpeg2 to concatenate them? Another better option I think might be to try merging them with ProjectX; a java-based transport stream app. If I remember right ProjectX will ensure the audio and video stay in sync by adding in 'blanks' which when played back is a funky sound effect, but at least the AV stays in sync. I used to use it when transcoding TV captures to AVI from the TP\\TS files from my MSP120.