Official LG BD690/670/650/6xx Series Thread - Page 19

I bought a BD60 a few days back. I am looking to hook it up to a new LG 42LV5500 in a couple of days.

I would prefer to do BD690's firmware upgrade manually, by first doing a PC download of the zip file from LG's service site, placing the unzipped file on a USB flash drive, and then inserting the USB drive into BD690. I would appreciate hearing of the experiences of anyone who has done upgrades in this manner.

Also, I am assuming that of the 3 service zip files on LG's site, I need only to download and work with the one with the most recent date: LG_BD_6100B33 of 2011-04.06.

TIA.

I found this forum and just thought I'd chip in with my initial impressions after owning a BD690 for a couple of days.

Disclaimer: I have not gone through the manual yet. I've just been trying stuff out by using it.

I came to the BD690 from owning a BD390 previously. Actually, I still have the BD390 but it has now refused to recognize any type of disc at all, even cleaning discs, after almost exactly two years of ownership. It is out of warranty and would have cost as much or more for LG to repair it than for me to just buy a new unit. So, I decided to "upgrade." I admittedly did so after a minimal amount of research, but thought the BD690 looked nice on paper.

Well...it's definitely a mixed bag. So mixed, in fact, that I'm not sure yet if I want to just send the thing back and start researching other units.

The good:
1. It starts up and gets to the main screen WAY faster than my BD390 did.
2. The Netflix app is cooler, since it now lets me search for and add instant-play titles from my sofa, rather than having to queue stuff up from my PC first.
3. It has a ton more apps than just the core Netflix, Vudu, YouTube and CinemaNow ones that my BD390 had.
4. Thinner, sleeker physical design.

The not-so-good to bad:
1. Sluggish response in many of the apps, despite the supposedly faster CPU. This is on a fast wireless N network.
2. The main home screen is just kind of ugly (despite a selection of wallpaper backgrounds) and badly laid out. The flashy, simple 8-tile grid of icons on my BD390 was nice. This new layout has a bunch of wasted empty space, the icons are smaller, and I don't like that media-playing from internal HDD or network shares is all grouped into "Movie," along with disc playing. I guess it's OK, just confusing at first.
3. I don't like having to click on Premium, then another icon, then finally on Netflix, in order to get to Netflix (or whatever other Premium app you want to name).
4. The BD390 had Page-Up and Page-Down buttons to somewhat speed browsing through MP3s, videos and photos. (Well, it was still slow, but at least I could go up or down a page at a time.) The BD690 has no such buttons. Sure, you can hold down the navigation arrows on the remote and it will start scrolling faster after a while, but it still takes a loooong time to scroll from A-Z when you have something like 15K songs.
5. The album cover art is kinda small and there is a ton of blank wasted space on the screen so the cover art really could be larger.
6. The free LG apps that I've tried so far are pretty laughable. Not anything to base a purchasing decision on.
7. Clicking on the "Search" function on the dock currently says "Coming Soon!"

The really freakin' ANNOYING:
1. Yes, this deserves its own category: The YouTube app completely blows. What the hell was LG thinking?? They had a nice, fast, functional YouTube UI design on the BD390. The only niggling flaw was having to hit the Display button on the remote to blow it up full screen after it starts playing (and even then it wasn't always the HD version).

But now? OK, I want to watch YouTube. Click on Premium, get over to the YouTube icon, click on that. Wait and watch a little spinning thing while the app takes too long to load (in comparison with the BD390 app). So it loads up and immediately starts playing a loud video of some fool falling down some stairs in slow motion. WTF??

There's a little bar on the bottom directing me to hit the Up arrow to Search or the Down arrow for the next video. So I hit the Up arrow to search, and a keyboard overlay comes up over the video that's playing. By now it's on the second randomly-selected video, which happens to be some fool kid spouting profanities. Well that's just awesome when I have little kids sitting on the sofa next to me.

I start to type in what I'm searching for, and to my surprise and disappointment, it doesn't auto-suggest anything, as my BD390 did. So I type in the whole darn thing. Finally the search results come up...in a stupid little horizontal thumbnail strip on the very bottom of the screen, with each thumbnail dismally small enough to be nearly indistinguishable on my 40" HDTV, and the whole rest of the screen is completely wasted space.

I click on a thumbnail and the vid starts playing. It's an HD-quality video and looks pretty good. It finishes playing, and the next thumbnail video in my search results list starts playing automatically. GRRRRRRRRR!

OK, so I discovered I can hit the Pause button as soon as an unwanted video starts playing, and get out of it. But that's just f'in stupid.

And if that weren't enough, the nice History and Favorites tabs I used to have on my BD390 are no more.

In short, the YouTube app is a total joke. I fired off an e-mail to LG to tell them that, and I hope that if enough people do the same that they'll eventually listen. But why the heck did they downgrade it so drastically to begin with? They had a nice YouTube interface on the BD390. This is many, many MAJOR notches down in quality from that.

So, I'm not sure I'm happy with this thing overall yet. Do I keep it and hope that future updates will fix the glaring flaws? Or do I return it and start over? Have I even had it long enough yet to make a determination? I don't know. But that's where I'm at right now.

Had the BD670 for a couple of days and I'm really pleased with it. I bought it for to watch files over a network and also to access services like youtube and iplayer on my tv. It plays all almost all my files over the wireless network without stuttering. All youtube videos are played smoothly which even my three year old macbook can't seem to manage.

The menu has frozen a few times when browsing my network drive. Another niggle is that when browsing your files you get three different views. However none of these allow you to see the full file name. Two of the views show you an icon with 12 characters you have to wait and hover for it to scroll the full file name. The other view is slightly better showing three columns of files up to 25 characters approximately. Surely it wouldn't be hard to give you a simple list view showing the full file name as TV's tend to be quite wide after all.

The youtube app updated last night and I didn't have much time to use the previous version, in fact I used it once and it seemed fine. I hated the updated version at first because it plays a totally random video but once I worked out how it works (up to type in a new search, down to browse your search results) I begun to like it because it allows you to both things at the same time as watching a video. I'm not sure if the previous version had that too.

I can see why people would be unhappy that it doesn't link in with your existing account, it would be nice to access your favourites and so on, but I think it's good to get the basics right before cluttering up the interface with favourites, subscriptions, videos you have uploaded, comments and so on. Had some friends over last night and we spent a lot of time on youtube watching music videos. Type in the name of a band and you get very good results.

One question for those whith android.iOS on their phones; Typing in stuff using the directional keys on the remote control is really slow; do you people with these phones find they can use the keypads there. Or can I plug in a usb keyboard and use that?

The BD670 It didn't play everything I threw at it. Vobs/Iso's are not supported and there were a batch of files that didn't play. Inspected these in quicktime and they have the following description.

Generic MPEG-4, 688 x 384, Millions MPEG Layer 3, Stereo, 48.000 kHz FPS 25 521.8 MB 1,401.30 kbit/s 688 x 384 pixels (Actual)

Can anyone see a reason this wouldn't play? It's an avi container.

I had the chance to try out both the 670 and the 630 this week. The 670 has a fan. I'm really sensitive to fan noise and I could definitely hear the one on the 670. I also found the LG apps to be pretty useless. So, I'm keeping the 630. It has the two streaming services I need, VUDU and Netflix, and does not have a fan.

LONG POST ALERT!

My first BR player.....bought the BD 670 player at Frys a couple of weeks ago when the price dropped to $120USD. Had my eyes on the 570 and 590 since last Christmas when the price for 570 dropped to $125USD and 590 dropped to $175. I liked the styling of 590 but could not bring myself to pay the premium of $50 for a 250Gb HDD. Oh well....

Reasons for purchase of the 670 are its network connectivity and DLNA capabilities plus the ability to play multiple file formats. Like the ease of accessing YouTube and other online content....not much of audiophile/videophile to argue or complain about the quality but the displayed video is sharp. Can't figure out which streaming option is selected by the player when the video on YouTube is available at multiple resolutions. Anyone know how to drive this selection? LG help line does not seem to be much of a help on this. Would love to see the addition of Hulu as well as the much rumored Web Browsing capabilities. My last conversation with LG Help Line regards Web Browsing indicated that they are still working on it but were having some issues with playing Adobe Flash content and thus the delay

Anyway, to my main reason for the post, I have a Windows 7 MediaCenter PC which I use to record content. I use MC-TVConverter to change the format of the recorded content from .WTV to .MPG. (Works quite fast and is pretty much a two step/click process. Would recommend it.) The MPG file is transferred to my DLNA capable Windows Home Server (WHS). The 670 connects via wireless connection to the WHS server and can see the MPG file. The MPG file plays fine for about 10 or so seconds and then it starts to choke.......i.e. it plays as if it cannot handle the throughput.....video jumps frames, audio breaks up and jumps ahead while skipping parts, etc....this is 2.3Gb MPG file at 1080 resolution and 16:9 aspect ratio 30 minute video. The file is good....I have played it on my PC, played it on the 670 via a USB hard drive.....just seems to get choked up via the Wireless DLNA connection.

Any suggestions on how I diagnose the issue? Is it the DLNA capable WHS server that is bogging down the streaming? CPU and memory utilization on the WHS server is low. Nothing out of the ordinary there.

I have a Netgear WNR 834B as a base station hardwired to the WHS with a Netgear WNDR3300 acting a repeater to help boost the signal strength/reach. No problems with the Netgear connectivity via wireless connections from laptops and other wireless devices at home.

The 670 has no problems playing YouTube and other online content. The LG help line has not been able to provide any good suggestions/guidance. Would appreciate ideas/suggestions from this forum on how to diagnose this issue. Thanks.

Chances are pretty good you're not going to get files with this high a bitrate to play cleanly over wireless. Run a cat5e/cat6 and it'll probably be fine.

Well, I decided to keep the unit since I like a good number of the other things it does. I am just hoping that LG will wake up and do a major overhaul of this pathetic YouTube app.

The background picture on the Premium Apps page is also really lame. Yeah, it's a small thing, but hey, 1995 called and it wants its wallpaper back. Seriously.

They also need to get a better English translator for some of their free apps. The on-screen instructions for the (rather useless) free Eye Chart Test app are unintentionally hilarious.

Most if not all of the free LG apps are a joke. Some of the Premium apps are also a joke -- iPlay.tv, Viewster, and several others are ones that I checked out once and will probably never look at again.

But there is enough there to keep me busy, so I'm keeping the unit. Just hope it doesn't die in two years' time like my BD390 did.

I tried playing country strong and my 690 said disc error and ejected it repeatedly. Then I tried tangled and it asks me to pick a language but won't do anything else. Help!

I previously posted about the menu troubles I had with my BD650. After I read about your "fix" I decided to give it a go. So I loaded the s/w and firmware files onto a USB stick and did a reflash. That didn't make any difference so I burnt the files onto a rewriteable cd and reflashed again. This time it worked and now all my menus and functions are working as they should! Now I'm pleased as punch because one of the big reasons I chose this player was for the DLNA capabilities.

farkem, can you spare some details on your thought process......I am thinking that the entire 2.3Gb file is not transferred at one shot but that the DLNA and Wireless capabilities are sending out the file in bits....and if file size matters, then wireless/DLNA capability is pointless? How do you play music or pictures or anything else unless they are tiny/small/lower resolution? Not questioning you but trying to understand/learn more about the mechanics.

Farkem referenced the bit rate, which is the number of bits sent per second (based on the file size and running time you referenced). Higher bit rate generally means higher quality because a higher bit rate file typically has less compression and/or higher resolution. These players seem to have trouble handling higher bit rate files over network connections, especially over wireless.

Based on my own experience, I would agree. I have had similar issues playing back files of comparable bit rate over wireless (results are hit or miss for me). I don't have issues playing back lower bit rate files though.

Ambala, did you eventually try the update for your 690 with a stick? I just got mine and have not updated any F/W or H/W. Did everything work out with the update? I don't want to screw it up with an update that may do the system more harm than good. Going to attempt to install my first wireless network in the next couple of days using Netgear 3700 router. Here goes nothing. Everything seems to be working out with my 690 so far.

BD690 owners...........

Have any of you had issues with the internal HDD? I will be sending in my second unit for replacement. The first one lasted 28 days before I got an "unable to access HDD" error.

This replacement one has had an issue from day one with the HDD. Plug it in and it's fine but as soon as you power down\\up again it cannot access the HDD (no error but it does not show up in the device list). If I refresh the list it still does not show up if I power down\\up it still does not show. The only way to get the HDD to show again is if I unplug & plug back in.

Just wanted to see if the failure rate is just my luck or if there are serious issues with this model.

Kpic,

The disk drives in both my BD590 and BD690 units continue to work just fine. My BD590 has been in use for 16 months at this point. Make sure that you don't have your BD690 mounted in a high heat location (like just above a power amp or a receiver).

Both of my units occasionally "lock up" and usually require unplugging and replugging back into the AC power to recover, but I have never seen the HDD fail to appear as a symptom. I think all but one of my BD "lock ups" have occurred when I was doing some CD archiving work. The "lock up" problem is not too severe; it happens about once every 30-50 hours of run time.

I have noticed recently that my BD670 tends to lag/audio drop for a few seconds around BD chapter changes, which is very annoying.

Also, since day 1 audio CDs have not been able to play trouble-free, with various second-long pauses throughout songs - very annoying!!

I am on the latest firmware, upgraded through ethernet cable.

Anyone else experience this? Any tips?

Thanks.

I just got my 3 month old BD670 back from LG's service department for the same stuttering issue. They told me the stuttering was caused by the newest firmware (I forgot the number) update. They deleted that and told me it's fixed. I haven't had a chance to check it out yet so who knows.

Did you find out if it works? What version are you on now? Check under "setup" at the home. Then scroll down to "others" and press "software". Then click on "information". It will then show you what main ver your on. I'm currently running BD.8.62.221

I find no problems running my blu-ray movies. Only once I experience on a DVD a freeze issue during the first 5 minutes of play. So I had fast forward through the frozen screen to get the DVD playing again.

I just checked mine. It is ver BD.8.62.280.
I have only had the player a couple of weeks but it seems fine so far.

After getting it back from LG today and playing a DVD.....I still have the audio drop offs at certain (but not all) chapter changes. I checked my software and I'm on version 8.62.280. I'm almost certain that is the current version and the version the LG rep said was causing the problem and the version the rep said he was going to delete. I did not update the software myself and I checked the settings and I couldn't find anything about the player doing any kind of auto update so I can only guess that the LG tech did absolutely nothing to my machine. I'm surprised because the guy called me on the phone once he received my player and he seemed to know what he was talking about. He said that LG was aware of the problem; that the problem was caused by the newest software update (.280 I believe); that LG was working on a newer update to correct the issue and that he was going to delete my current software and replace it with the previous version. This is becoming very frustrating and I'm near the end of warranty.

From what I hear from users of the BD 6xx series DVDs aren't perfect playing on any of these players. You are right .280 is the newest and supposedly better update because before that there was a problem even more so with freezing (if you read previous comments on that matter). I guess if watch alot of DVDs then this might not be the best player right now. Well until LG finally sits on an improved update. I would notify LG right away that there is still an issue and demand that they somehow extend the warranty for your case and blame them. I don't see why LG wouldn't want to satisfy a customer.

Yes, the last two firmware updates have had the audio drop out after DVD chapter change issue. Prior firmware updates did not have this issue, but those updates will not work with the software update for Premium streaming services, so I wouldn't suggest a rollback for anyone that uses any of the Premium services. Hopefully LG will release a fix soon.

I spent an hour and a half with LG customer service today and in the end their response is they know the players don't work right, they are working on a fix and until then too bad, they won't do anything about it.
So basically LG manufactures and markets a $250.00 DVD player that won't play DVD's properly and their policy is "that's the customer's tough luck". I've never dealt with a manufacturer with that kind of business model before.
I'll never buy an LG product again.

I've tried returning it to factory settings and both versions of software on LG's site and nothing corrected the stutter. Is there something else I can try?
Yes I was ranting, after spending over an hour with LG with no results I guess I needed to vent.

wow, I'm sorry it didn't work out. At this point I would get creative and point out all the DVD viewers on this forum site have the same issue. And you shouldn't get blamed for waiting on all the fixing and waiting periods so it should prove to another LG rep that you deserve a extended warranty. I wouldn't count out all LG products for this. More than likely its a focused issue on this one product. Overall I am happy with my LG TV and player. It just seems you have a rep battle to deal with. It just depends how far you want to take this. I know you can go as far as you want for these specific problems.

Unless you want to track down and install an outdated firmware version (not on LG's site) which will break all of the Premium streaming apps on your player (Netflix, Amazon, YouTube, DivxTV, etc.) you just need to wait for LG to release an update to fix the problem like the rest of us are doing.

As I stated previously, this wasn't a problem in the previous firmware releases. The problem is easily reproducible, its not unique to your player, it has been reported to LG by many owners (myself included) and LG has stated they will fix the problem in a future update. I think they will.

Really, unless you are unhappy enough to return your player, there is not much to be done until a fix is developed and released. Maybe you have an old DVD player laying around that you can keep hooked up until a fix is available?

I know it's frustrating to have these issues. However, I think it's important to keep in perspective that these internet enabled BD players are exponentially more complicated than their DVD and CD predecessors. They are more like stripped down computers and all of the manufactures seem to be struggling to find the right balance between price, features, quality and support. Even the most reputable BD players have periodic software glitches, just like computer software does, that's just the reality of the industry now.

Sorry to bother everyone with this but I cannot seem to find an answer in the owners manual.

Just picked up a BD670 as part of the package deal last week at Best Buy. I was trying to play a file via USB port on the front of the unit. the files was a 1920x1080 resolution WMV file. When trying to play the file it started to load and then I get an error message stating that the device does not support that resolution.

Where can I find a list of supported formats and, more importantly I guess, supported file resolutions.

I know I have to be overlooking it in the manual somewhere but I cant figure out where.

I don't want that. I think it does a good job with video streaming and media sharing, that's one of the reasons I went with this player.

I'm having a big problem with Pandora on my new BD670. Every other app works fine, but every time I try to open Pandora the player shows the Pandora loading screen, and then the player turns itself off. Has anyone else been having this issue? Is there a fix?

I would like to buy this BD690 and ship it to Europe. Will bluray work in Europe ?