LG bd-530 - Page 13

Regarding the usb functionality, would connecting to your PC allow you to rip from the standalone to a hdd just like if you had an internal or external drive or do standalones have additional restrictions built in? I've just begun exploring the idea of storing most of movies on hdd while maintaining using a traditional disc player for some in the house who are slow to adapt.

I have similar equipment (Denon AVR-1910 and Panasonic BD-65) and I just bought the LG530 and had some audio issues, with Disney Blu-rays: blue HD audio light but no sound. I did two things: first was to install the new firmware from LG's site (I did it via USB SD card). The second was a trick-fix. For the Disney discs, go to the set up menu, then audio, select some option other than English, then go back and choose English. I think the initial loading selection of language/audio from the disc doesn't get registered somewhere, so this makes sure it knows what you want.

Googling for other issues led me to this:www.disneystudioshelp.com/Blu-ray_Help.html

It basically states there's a known issue with Disney Blu-rays and pressing the "audio" button on the remote twice will switch to a different audio track. I haven't tried it but I'm guessing not "HD audio."

Hope this helps. I joined the forum just to be able to answer your post, since no-one else had.

If you're still having issues, please be more specific (which movie, connections, etc.) and I might be able to help.

I am totally new to MKV, and I just bought one of these bd 530's. Are you guys putting your mkv videos on a thumbdrive and playing them on the bd530, or are you somehow putting them on a disk? When I search for how to burn an mkv on a DVD, all I get is a flood of info about how to convert the MKV, but that would defeat the purpose of having a player with MKV compatibility, right? Do you just burn it as a data disk? I'm pretty confused.

Yes, just copy them on your device (usb pen/hdd) or burn the CD/DVD as data disk.

I will probably be investing on something like a WD Passport 500GB portable hard drive in the near future. From what I've been reading, I would need to format it to NTFS as opposed to fat32 to play full length videos because fat32 limits you to 4gb and under?

It works both NTFS and FAT32, so if you plan to store file longer than 4gb, it's NTFS is needed.

From what I can tell, its mainly new codecs. I played an mkv and the sound works now. I think you can use subtitles now too.

I updated to the latest firmware, but mkv support still seems rather limited for this player. Alot of mkv's burned to disc won't play, giving me the following error message:

"This movie may not be playable properly"

My JVC XV-BP1 (basically the same as an LG BD player on the inside, and interface looks the same as well) has the same error message from time to time, but it gives you the choice to play the file anyway, and then continues to play it perfectly. It seems LG left this option out for their BD 530, maybe because it is a budget player?

Fortunately, .ts files with HD mpeg2 video seem to work much better.

In case no one knows this, the BD530 source code is downloadable at
at LG's website - /global/support/opensource/opensource.jsp
Its 370 MB so wait a while....

You might find the file setup_view_event.c interesting - a few lines follow

static UINT8 aui1_secret_pw_clear_pw[] = {2, 1, 0, 4, 9, 9};
static UINT8 aui1_secret_pw_rd[] = {4, 5, 6, 2, 5, 8, 0};
static UINT8 aui1_secret_fa[] = {5, 1, 7, 7, 7, 7, 7};
static UINT8 aui1_secret_pw_mp[] = {1, 3, 9, 7, 1, 3, 9};

Its in the TAR file at the following path
BD551_MTK.tar\
elease\\BDP_Generic\\custom\\lg\\src\\application\\homemenu\ \

From what I see, there is no obvious secret way to edit option codes.
The file optioncode.c is also interesting.

The 5177777 code is entered at the usual place as the others (TV Aspect menu) followed by enter after digits. It invokes a Factory test menu. Anything you do in this menu is at your own risk.

Wow, interesting news.

With any blu ray player hooked to that Sony LCD (per Sony Support), you must switch the source from movies to music to get a 'simulated' 5.1 sound! Incompatibility or what? We tried a Panasonic Blu Ray same thing, impossible to get true 5.1 out of a Blu Ray period! (tempted to try a Sony though... support claims it will work)

I'm new to this forum and have had my LG BD530 for about 6-7 weeks now. I'm happy with it. Before reading this thread I had convinced myself that it would not play .mkv files (or .m4v files). Tried both some old small files I had downloaded a few years ago and sever different encodings that I did to try to get mkv to play without success.

The computer that I will test the re-encoding on is currently tied up, will be for a while. Would anyone who does have the ability to play mkv on their BD530 please post a link to a short legal piece of video in a mkv container? I would like to confirm for myself that it will play on my BD530 before I spend too much more time fighting with this.

One reason that I'm concerned that it might not play on my BD530 is that I have not upgraded the firmware yet. This is due to the "if it ain't broke ..." school of thinking. I asked LG what the updates involved. After several non-responsive answers I finally did get a technical response, but all it seemed to address was Avatar playback and some foregin language support, so I decided to not risk breaking anything else by doing a firmware update. If I can determine that my BD530 needs the update to play .mkv I'll go ahead an do it, if not I would rather not.

I do wish the BD530 would directly play ISO files from hard disk. So far everything that I've been able to make that it would play back has suffered some quality issues, still searching for an optimum format.

The BD530 has played back most things that I have thrown at it, but a few just flashed by at high speed and a couple crashed the player bad enough that it had to be unplugged to get it to respond again. It will not play videos in the native format taken by my Canon A590IS digital camera. So I need to convert them to something, and h.264 mkv files seemed to be a good choice, if only that had worked.

(post edited)

So the BD-530 will stream video, but only from YouTube. People here have expressed the desire to play other videos from their own computers or elsewhere on the web. Has anyone considered this:

The player can play from many different national YouTube sites. It must use DNS to look these sites up and connect to them. So:

1) On A PC, set up a simple DNS server that checks the contents of the HOSTS file and provides the IP from there if found, otherwise looks up the IP through normal DNS and returns it. Tell the local router to provide that new DNS server when doing DHCP.

2) Add a HOSTS file entry to point some YouTube entry (such as YouTube Poland) to a local computer's IP address.

3) Put together an app to let that computer pretend to be YouTube. Google publishes the YouTube API. Serve whatever video that you want when the BD-530 connects and asks for it, either video from locally stored files, or better yet, let the app go out to Hulu or similar sites and get video to serve to the BD-530, when it assesses the particular national YouTube site. Of course, the normal YouTube link would continue to function as expected. No actual hack to the LG BD-530 (or other LG BD player) is required.


I have not actually done this yet, but it seems like it could be done and is not an unreasonable personal project. Any thoughts?

I too am very interested in this. On some players/ tvs, it may even be easier. Some of them are able to accept video from network cameras (e.g. the Panasomic with VieraCast). It should be "easy" (for someone who knows the protocol) to set up your pc or mac to stream its screen as a network camera. (You would still need to control the pc directly).

Can LGBD530 passthrough TRUEHD/DTSHD in mkv?

For what it's worth, I recently upgraded my BD530 from firmware BD4.784.00.C to BD5.084.00 and the one bug I had noticed -- that the first subtitle in a MKV container file was hardcoded to always show -- has been fixed.

Downloading the firmware on my PC and upgrading via USB flash drive seemed much faster than connecting the ethernet cable and doing it online from the player itself, which is what I had done previously.

Ok, I'm still confused and have read through the whole thread... Which one is the correct firmware to download?

as of today the support page for this model lists the following:

-Firmware update for BD550/BD555/BD530/BD5550/BD630 BD640 (Ver:H08LGN0901/ Date: 2011.03.14)

-Firmware update for BD550 (Ver:BD5.152.00/ Date:2011.04.04)

-Firmware update for BD550/ BD555/ BD630/ BD640 (Ver: H08LGN0902/ Date:2011.03.25)

so what's the deal here? which one should i download and install on the lg530 unit???

anybody?

Has anyone else experience some image jumpiness in the middle of a BD movie? It happens to me on a pretty regular basis and would only occur one time and last about a couple of seconds per movie. The sound would continue, but the image would freeze a little, jump a few frames for a few seconds, then return to normal playing the movie as it should. Is this happening to anyone else? And is there a fix? Thanks.

I see it all of the time on DVDs in the player; have not noticed it on BluRays yet but only have a few BluRays (and very disappointed with the quality of those). With DVDs it is the transition to the second layer that I'm seeing, that could well be what you are seeing on the BluRay also, as long as the disc is a double layer disc.

fernando.lds,

Download both of these:
EX. H08LGN0902 (and future updates) are for the blu-rays keys and,
EX. BD5.152.00 is for the blu-ray player's software.
So download both or always the latest version for both and install. When networked LG usually will have an update before they post it on their website. All updates are rolled meaning all previous updates are rolled into the latest.

Current:
Firmware update for BD550 (Ver:BD5.152.00/ Date:2011.04.04)
Firmware update for BD550/ BD555/ BD630/ BD640 (Ver: H08LGN0902/ Date:2011.03.25)

To MKV users: file has to be 4.1 profile or none will play. If you need to convert a profile there is a very easy way to do so, takes about 20 minutes and you don't loose any quality at all. I'll post it if there's a need.

I'll be posting all tweaks for optimum playback for this discontinued model later.

Yes, please do.

Noticed very weird thing with my unit... After recent firmware update (or may be even after the previous update) my player stopped recognizing any of the DVD5 disks! It plays everything else fine (blu-rays, DVD9), but refuses DVD5! Anyone else experienced this? I already placed a service call to LG and currently waiting for their response, but i was just curious to get some info from here :-)


quick guide was posted in this thread earlier -- see if it helps:
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showp...&postcount=167

Hey All,
Couldn't return from holiday til now but Many Thanks to 'creator2000' for the mKv info which is what I've used but with the exception that this player won't play anything above or below profile 4.1! I believe its the container LG used for playback. Luckily most mKv vids were ripped with 4.1!

OK here's Optimum Settings:
Go to SETUP Folder;

DISPLAY TAB:
TV Aspect Ratio: 16:9 Full
Resolution: Auto
1080p Display Mode: Find out what your TV supports and tick it. I know the manual says it will default Auto but haven't found this to be true.
HDMI Color Setting: YCbCr (You should be using HDMI of course)
Language: ?
Audio: If connected to TV use default settings otherwise contact me with Home Theater specs.
Lock: ?
Network: ?

Others - Initialize (You can always use this to reset the player to factory default settings but be warned it will also wipe out all On-Line App info stored)

If you calibrated your TV you NEED to use this tweak otherwise it will throw off the picture: This last tweak involves watching a video of any kind and using the remote; PRESS INFO/DISPLAY button and make sure the very last setting on the bottom of window is on 'User Setting'.
Also, if you watch subtitled vids you control it from this feature too but make sure both the movie and srt file have the same name and that the srt file is checked before playback.

creator2000, I don't have any DVD5z to help confirm. Sorry!

Happy Viewing and Best Wishes,
Basil

These tweaks are meant for your TV to do most of work so that's why I encourage you to calibrate your TV.

You are very welcome!


It's OK -- no big deal at this point. LG offered to buy my unit back for...$30! They said that unit can not be repaired and it's already out of warranty (it's 90 days may I remind you all!).
Anyway, I'm moving on to a different player now... Cheers!

PICASAS:

I still can not access this feature?!? _ALL_ other devices [computers (desktop, netbook and notebook which if have WiFi has that feature turned off!] and other brands of BluRay players] that I have that can access the web have no troubles when connect to the same network cable.. the other two web access feature connect with no troubles!!

Still looking for any ideas!

Can you update the firmware on these things?

has anyone tried to play mp3 from a dvd on this player? can't find a player at a local store to try. most players only play mp3 from a cd but Sony plays mp3 from DVD's

Link to firmware page: Current is the last (2) only.

http://www.lg.com/us/support/product...roduct-profile