Official LG BD690/670/650/6xx Series Thread - Page 4

Spoke too soon...

The BD690 arrived today from Amazon, so I've spent the last several hours getting acquainted. The BD690 is replacing a BD390, which stopped recognizing discs recently, so I've been anxiously awaiting the 690.

Feature-wise, I believe the BD690 is virtually the same as the 670, with the addition of the 250Gb HD and Gracenote. Vampidemic posted some fantastic details on the features and 670, so I'll just add a few things that I noted.

After powerup and a few minutes exploring, I upgraded firmware with no issue. The 690 is on a wired connection, and I did turn off the Auto Power Off so that didn't interfere.
Original: SW Version: BD.7.62.158.E
New: SW Version: BD.8.62.211.E

The new interface is fine, and better than the ice cubes of the 590 (one reason I didn't buy it). When browsing movie/music/photo files, I don't care for the 3 file views. I'd like to have a pure list/details view. The most verbose view on the 690 still cuts off the longer names of many films. I do like that cover art for mp3s with embedded art displays on the file icons. No art is on the artist folders though.

The 690 sees .m4v files on my Mac CIFS/SMB file share - the 390 didn't. That's good so I don't have to switch filenames depending on the device - BD690 or AppleTV via iTunes. I rip and/or convert most of my files using Handbrake to h.264/AAC in mp4s, so it's good news the LG now sees both formats without issue.

I tried playing one 1080p file "Sita Sings the Blues" (Creative Commons licensed) but it will not play on the BD690. The warning/error message says "Video resolution not supported". The BD690 is wired to the network, not wireless, so it's not a bandwidth issue. Obviously it wouldn't seem to be a technical restriction on a Blu Ray player, possibly a licensing restriction (who?), but it seems odd for LG to prevent streaming 1080p content locally. I didn't try moving the file to the HDD to see if that matters.

I also have MediaLink DLNA server running on my Mac, along with an an expired Twonky server. Each displays with their icon in the Movie, Music and Photo folders. I couldn't connect via Medialink, though. The error is just "A network error occurred." It's a DLNA server primarily aimed at the PS3, but it worked with the 390. For now, I only really care about CIFS/SMB support in the LGs.

Premium menu:
The Premium menu itself is a little slow to load, and the street cityscape isn't what I would choose.

Netflix: activated and played fine. Search is included. No disc queue management features. HD indicator not on title line, only in full details; also in search. I haven't kept up with the variety of Netflix GUIs so can't say specifically which one this is.

Pandora: logged onto account, decent interface, better than my Denon 3311CI.

Vudu: You get a free HD rental for your email address and activation. The speed test ended 4Mbps (wired) which is only HD/720p quality. I have 16Mbps service from Comcast so expected better results.

DIVXTV is better than I expected, but the videos (tried Revision 3 and CNET) wouldn't load. Kept getting a skip or wait message.

Viewster has a few (85) mostly indie horror films, none I know.

Amazon VOD is the one app I'm hoping is in the March 25th mystery update.

After localizing Accuview weather app, the Premium background changes to reflect current day/night time and shows the local city and temp above the icon menu. It does this after displaying the app icons, so that doesn't seem to add to the Premium menu lag.

Gracenote works well on physical BD and provides decent title, synopsis and actors. It doesn't seem to work on any streaming video. I haven't ripped CD directly on BD690 yet. It did retrieve disc, artist and buying info from my well tagged library of mp3s. Pressing the "Buy Info" button just says "Available from online store". I'd like to understand what metadata is used to query Gracenote, and if possible, I'd tag my video files to get the Gracenote info.

The HDD seems somewhat redundant with streaming capabilities, but it might eliminate some network challenges and serve as a media backup. I changed the device name to LGBD690 and turned on media file sharing in the network menu. The BD690's drive now appears on my network, making it very easy to create folders and copy/move files directly from a computer. I've only copied 2 large files to the HD so far, one using 802.11n and the other wired, both at decent speeds (5-6MB/sec via wifi, not wifi direct, and a pretty consistent 7.2MB/sec wired). When I copied the .mp4 from my Mac using finder, it deposited both the .mp4 video file and a normally hidden "._" prefixed file on the BD690 (but not displayed in finder). I deleted the hidden file from the BD 690 interface and everything's fine. There was no added hidden file when I copied another file so I'm not sure when to expect these hidden files.

Overall, I'm pretty happy with the functionality of the 690. Amazon VOD had better show up in the update, though!

I also received a follow up mail from support today with a correction stating that the update for the BD670 will not include the Web browser, but the message still implies that an upgrade is coming for March 25th.

By the way, I just noticed that Amazon.com has the BD650, BD670 and BD690 all in stock now (fulfilled by Amazon).

Just to clarify, the BD670 does have Gracenote capability (this was also a feature of last year's BD570 and BD590 as well). I have used Gracenote on a variety of titles on Blu-Ray, DVD and CD and it works well most of the time. I have one DVD that doesn't get recognized at all (independent music documentary) and also found that one of my West Wing Season 1 DVDs displayed the wrong episode info. However, it has also gotten some fairly obscure titles right during my testing.

In general, I don't think Gracenote support is available for streaming files or files stored on hard drives or flash media. Gracenote's most widely used services are based on disc identification.

Some general info about Gracenote, as implemented in LG players:
http://www.gracenote.com/casestudies...ontent_owners/

if you go to LG's website for the 670, and click on "Specifications"... and then expand "Wireless Lan" it states:

Wi-Fi® Certified
802.11b/g/n (2.4GHz band only)

Has anyone been able to confirm whether BD6XX series player have 24Hz skipping problems - like the problem on BD5XX players (consider this a heads up)? http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...3#post20136513

From the same lg.com website, if you download the BD670 and BD690 user's manuals from the "support" page, you will see the following statement from LG for each player on page 22:


"This player is equipped with an IEEE 802.11n (Dual-
band 5 GHz and 2.4 GHz band) wireless module,
which also supports the 802.11a/b/g standards."

On this same page, each manual also describes the specific 5 GHz RF channels that are supported by the players. I'd say the marketing guys goofed up on the LG website and both of these players actually DO support both the 2.4 GHz and the 5 GHz wireless RF bands.

Yes, I have been able to verify. As per my original review, my Wi-Fi network showed up twice on my BD670 and I was able to connect to both. Today I set up my router (Apple Airport Extreme) to name the 5 GHz band differently and now each band shows up with the corresponding names. I then connected to the 5 Ghz band successfully. The player shows that the signal strength is slightly lower (4 of 8 bars instead of 5 of 8 bars) for the 5 GHz band in my case. My signal has to go through two walls, so I have heard this is pretty typical for 5Ghz.

I haven't noticed any issues on my 24Hz setup with the BD670. Plays smooth for both blu rays and steaming files. I've had some skipping with the mkv files, but think that is do to my wireless connection since it happens at the very beginning of movies and then completely resolves after 1-2 minutes.

I upgraded firmware last night and all the apps were still there. This morning, they were gone as you described. I think the app store contents can be controlled remotely (which makes sense) as they would have to push an update every time an app was added. It seems likely that, since the app store is literally days new for the bd6xx series, LG is troubleshooting its functionality, content, and UI. I wouldn't worry. Look at it this way: At least someone out there is doing something to it. I think we'll see improvements to the store in coming weeks. The Premium Apps, on the other hand, are probably controlled by firmware which means an update would be necessary to change its contents (ie addition of Amazon Streaming or whatever they have in store for that "coming soon" tile).

So LG posted my question on the BD650 product page under Q & A. The question was will it have the web browsing features of Smart TV and what apps, specifically will Amzon VOD be added. They posted it but didn't answer it
http://www.lg.com/us/tv-audio-video/...uestion=400689

If you have a smart TV with web browser and apps is it necessary to purchase a player with same functions?

No

Thanks for the answer. I'm wanting to replace my ps3 with a newer generation 3d blue ray player that will give better picture quality and audio any recommendations since my new TV already has all the bells and whistles

Thanks for taking one for the team, jmolli. I'm on BD690 v8.62.211 and only see 4 apps in the store. They all show up on the top Hot shelf and the bottom "All" shelf. I can scroll up and down the shelves. I had previously downloaded the same 3 as you (Rev3, WH, Boing Boing) and they all still show up on my menu, but none had been functional...until I tried just now. Previously they said they were missing some .prc(?) resource. I can now successfully open the apps and and they all work.

Can anyone confirm that 24Hz is working correctly with the 670/690? As I'm sure folks are aware, there are many 24Hz issues still with the older BD570.

I'm about ready to pull the trigger on picking up the BD670, given the 5GHz support, if the 24Hz support also works correctly.

24Hz playback would need to be tested with some of the more notorious discs: Robin Hood, Avatar SE, Terminator Skynet Edition, Inception, just to name a few.

Just received the BD650. Only had a few minutes to play. Instant thought, wow this thing is about half the total size of my BD390. Power cord tethered as opposed to detachable, boo. Activated MLB, but got a sorry message when I tried to stream a game that I can on my PC? Investigating this on MLB site now. The player also found an update and I let that run. I also installed Rev3 and started to watch a stream successfully.
Will investigate more later.

No spring training on the LG device. ST games only on Ipad, IPod etc

"Spring Training games on MLB.TV can be viewed using the following devices: PC, Mac, Apple TV, iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad

Spring Training games are not available on other supported devices such as PS3, Roku, Samsung, and LG. 2011 games will be available on these devices at the start of the Regular Season.

http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/subscriptions/devices.jsp"

I've watched inception, gladiator, expendables, watchmen so far with the 670 on 24hz with no stuttering or playback issues. Streaming files have had some minor choppy playback, but I'm pretty sure it is due to my network speed.

Not too sure if the stuttering problems were BD570 specific or compatibility issues with other AV equipment, but my setup includes TV Pioneer 5070, AV receiver Onkyo SR607.

That's encouraging, thanks

Confirmed, BD640 doesn't have app store. *sarcasm alert* Now this makes perfect sense. Let's package the 640 with a wireless USB adapter (which sticks out the front ~3in), but no access to the app store. What planet are these guys from? Totally bogus, IMO.

This is my 2nd BD player. I just returned the Samsung BD-BC6500 which had built-in WIFI, app store access (loved their Pandora app), Facebook and Twitter, which I didn't really care about. That's nice and all but the Sammy had a couple of drawbacks, namely its slow response at startup, BD loading, and responding to user guestures. But the most annoying part was that it suffered from really bad lip syncing. Unfortunately, it wasn't consistently off, so I couldn't just do any compensation from my receiver or TV.