New LG BP325W Smart 3D WIFI player now released. Looks like under $100 too

Originally Posted by Mark_Venture 

Any updates?

Specifically any info on playing those supported video files via CIFS/network file shares? Or upconverting of DVD's? How does it compare to older models like the BD390 of BD570?

EDIT: Looking at the manual online, it doesn't mention anything on DLNA, or playing fles other than via USB.

Originally Posted by briankeith513 

Hey Mike,
This is Brian from the VCC. I just bought the bp325w from Target yesterday, and I can confirm that it doesn't have DLNA. What's weird is that I read that it didn't have BD Live ability, but the player has that feature in it's settings.
Sent from my iPad 2 using Tapatalk

Originally Posted by Mark_Venture 

Cool. Are you going to doing a review in the VCC Forums for us
How does it look on playback? The no DLNA or CIFS support is a draw back for us. We have many movies ripped to HD that we play back. Our BD 390 and 570 are good for this.

Originally Posted by Mojo_LA 

I got the BP325W two weeks ago, here are my impressions:

First off, I don't have a 3D TV yet, so I can't comment on the 3D playback, although I have every reason to believe it's fine.

Overall, this little $70 player (what I paid at Target) packs a pretty solid punch and does just about everything you could want a BR player to do - and then some.

First of all, let's look at the reason you bought this player: it's CHEAP. So let's not complain about build quality or features it doesn't have - for well under $100, this thing gives you far more than anyone has a right to expect at this price point, so if you're the type that wants everything no matter how little you paid, please just go away.

BR playback is perfect. This is my first BR player and a lot has been made about boot up times, but you'd never know it using is player (I'm sure slow response is a thing of the past in general, but it's still worth mentioning that is player is more than snappy enough).

Not sure what else to say about this; the picture is great, all special features including BR Live are present and the in-movie menu system is excellent; changing audio or subtitle options in the fly is very easy. Plus, I like that the player itself gives you preset and user controlled options for brightness, contrast and sharpness from within - very convenient for a quick picture adjustment without having to bother with your TV and changing your much-agonized over presets (I was watching a movie that had way too much sharpness added in post, so with just a few clicks I was able to fix this from within the player and got excellent results).

The main reason I got this player was it's ability to play all the video geek formats you could want - all varieties of mpg, mp4, xvid and MKV should cover 99% of anything you might download, but about a dozen other formats are also covered.

Playback from burned discs or from a USB drive is supported and playback is perfect. I have tons of downloaded content on my PC, and all I have to do is copy the stuff I feel like watching to a thumb drive, insert it into the player and bob's your uncle (although I highly recommend a USB 3 thumb drive - it significantly cuts down in transfer time. An average 5 gig MKV files copies in just 2 mins).

The manual says the player can also read from an external hard drive via USB, but when I connected my 3TB Western Digital MyBook, it didn't recognize that anything was attached. I'll experiment more in the future and see if I can get it to work, but in all honesty it would probably take just as much time for me to unhook the drive from my PC, take it downstairs and hook it up to the player and plug it into the wall as it would to just copy what I want to watch to the thumb drive.

The player also supports multiple audio formats and can output high resolution audio, such as 92 and 128khz material. I popped in a home burnt DVD audio disc of the quad mix of Dark Side of the Moon and it played instantly and perfectly.

It's also supposed to be able to rip CDs to a thumb drive, although I couldn't get this to work. Waiting for LG support to get back to me on this.

The last major feature of the 325w is it's wifi connectivity. It found and connected to my router with no issues and there is an on screen key board for password typing and any other apps that require input. The first thing I did was check for new firmware, and there was an update, so I downloaded and installed it. Nice! LG is very good about frequent FM updates that fix bugs or add new features, so I plan to check for updates often :-)

Now a lot of people's main gripe about this player is it's lack of Internet apps. It doesn't come with a browser so you're limited to what LG offers as far as apps that access the net. This includes YouTube, Netflix, Vudu, Picassa and a weather app.

And that's it!

Now some may balk, but let's face it - this is a movie watching machine, not an all purpose computer with unlimited Internet access. And for watching movies, if you can access Netflix, Vudu and YouTube, what more do you want?? As we all know you could sit there for the rest of your life with just YouTube and keep yourself entertained. I went into Vudu (I'm not a subscriber) but had fun watching trailers, all in glorious 1080p.

If you purchase this player you also get one month free trials of Netflix and Vudu, so that's a nice little perk.

Overall, the 325W gives me so many viewing (and listening) options it really is a little miracle box. For $70 is lets me watch anything I can buy or download, and gives me access to 90% of whatever I'd want to watch or rent online.

So really, what more could you want? It's sparse on connectivity, offering a single HDMI and coax digital audio output, but again, what more do you need? If your TV doesn't support HDMI you can easily get an adaptor to convert it to whatever video signal your TV does accept, and you can get your audio over the digital coax output. So you're covered for 99% of any situation.

Is there anything I wish this player did that it doesn't? Only one - it would be nice if the player could connect via wifi to my computer; this would allow me to instantly access all my content without needing to transfer anything to the USB stick. Technically I'm sure it's capable, LG would just have to add that option via a firmware upgrade. But even if it never happens, for $70 I'm very, very happy with what this player gives me (and copying content to my USB drive is a small price to pay for the small price I paid :-)

Sure, the build quality is cheap and one day it may break down, but by then I'm sure they'll be another $70 player that offers even more features.

Although what extra features they could offer is a mystery to me!

Highly recommended.