Awesome Blu-ray players keep getting cheaper. The new BD670 from LG is currently $166 on Amazon
Is it worth getting? Read on…
Even taking the price into account, the BD670 is pretty plain looking. With all the stellar designs coming from arch-nemesis Samsung, I would have thought a little more care would have gone into making the players attractive. Not that it really matters.
There are hard buttons on the front for basic navigation. The remote is decently laid out, with the disc controls in a raised hump about where your thumb rests. They look like they’d glow or be backlit, but nope. There’s no dedicated Netflix button, like some other players have. Not a huge deal, but it would have been a timesaver.
The player launches to its home screen almost instantly. Here you can stream photos and music from your computer, or access your favorite apps, which you download from the LG Apps store, also here. The popular streaming services are under Premium, which is a little unintuitive. The menus and Apps store are a little sluggish, but I’ve used worse.
Out of the box, my player’s driver version was H90301 and the SW Version was BD.8.62.211.E. I was able to upgrade this to H90358 and BD.8.62.280.E manually. One odd setting was a toggle between 60 Hz and 24 Hz, not both. What this actually does is enable 24p when it’s available, not that it converts everything to 1080p/24 (which would be weird and occasionally bad).
Stream me up, Scotty
The Netflix interface is of the newer variety, with big cover art and search. Interestingly, the menu looks soft, like it’s upconverted SD. Not a big deal, but add that to the overall sluggishness, and the interaction with the player isn’t as good as other gear.
Like many new Netflix streaming devices, it will output 1080p 60 or 24, though it is doubtful it is a real 1080p stream (likely scaled from 720p, to my knowledge Netflix hasn’t specified).
Picture quality is decent, though a bit noisier than some other devices I’ve reviewed recently. Star Trek 
In addition to Netflix, you get VUDU, Amazon Video on Demand, Pandora, and a bunch of other services. The inclusion of Amazon is welcome, as not all streaming devices give you a way to buy/rent current TV/movie content.
Discs
Upconverting quality from DVDs is again decent. Like with Netflix, the image is detailed, but noisier than other players I’ve reviewed. Even with the player in the 24Hz mode, it won’t output DVDs at 1080p/24. Oh well.
Using the HQV Benchmark DVD, the rotating bar test looked ok. The jaggies were small, but they started in the “yellow” area, around 20. The flag test on the same disc had small jaggies on the flag, and some noise in the bricks behind. In all, performance was average, at best.
As you’d expect, the BD670 had no problem picking up the 3:2 sequence with 480i and 1080i.
Blu-ray performance was much better, with the rotating bar on the Spears & Munsil disc looking excellent, almost no visible jaggies. With the 1080i “Ship” test on this disc, there were some small jaggies in the rigging, but overall above average performance.
Loading Blu-ray discs from off went fairly quickly. I clocked 46 second for Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl
There is no 2D-to-3D conversion on the BD670, but it was able to handle 3D Blu-rays just fine, as a few clips from Despicable Me 3D
Conclusion
While the BD670’s performance doesn’t set any benchmarks, it performs well (sluggish navigation aside). Mostly, though, it’s the inexpensive nature of the player, with its inclusion of streaming and wireless for a low price that sets it apart.
The LG BD670 3D Blu-ray Player
â€â€Geoff Morrison – Follow me on Twitter @TechWriterGeoff
Have a question for the HD Guru?
HD GURU|Email
Copyright ©2011 HD Guru Inc. All rights reserved. HDGURU is a registered trademark.
Stay connected