LG BD270 Blu-ray Disc Player

10 Responses to “LG BD270 Blu-ray Disc Player”

1. 

   Tecmo Superstar 29. Jun, 2010 at 6:29 pm

   Review by Tecmo Superstar for LG BD270 Blu-ray Disc Player
   Rating:
   The purpose of this review is to provide much needed information concerning this player. Prior to buying, I scoured the internet and could only find a few pieces of information here and there, so I thought it would be helpful to outline some of the player’s features.

   Technical Specifications:

   - Profile 1.1 (BD BonusView Enabled)
   
   - Front access USB port for convenient firmware updates
   
   - Full HD output
   
   - 7.1 channels of surround sound with Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby True HD, and dts-HD Master Audio technologies
   
   - Digital coaxial output
   
   - Express reaction startup

   Does not include:

   - An ethernet port or internal wireless device to access BD Live features

   This is an excellent entry-level blu-ray player. The colors are vibrant and the picture is crisp connected to my Samsung LCD television via the HDMI port. Disc loading times are miniscule, with the player initiating playback in less than one minute. I have tested both recent and older blu-ray titles (Watchmen, The Prestige, Death Race) and have experienced no problems loading the disc or enjoying the non-BD Live special features. The unit itself is very sleek and slender and weighs less than five pounds. Additionally, the player is silent during use.

   I highly recommend this player to anyone interested in owning a great blu-ray player at the low-end of the price spectrum. Although the player is not BD Live compliant, LG still deserves to be commended for releasing an affordable alternative to the price-conscious consumer.

   [...]

2. 

   C. Zhou 29. Jun, 2010 at 6:53 pm

   Review by C. Zhou for LG BD270 Blu-ray Disc Player
   Rating:
   I believe I am the first to review this product. At first, I was a little hesitant to buy, because I have not heard any comments from other buyers. Currently, I am a very satisfied customer. Blu-ray playback and regular DVD playback are excellent, fantastic picture quality and amazing sound. It has all of the Dolby TrueHD and DTS MA HD audio decoders. For those with older AV receivers like mine, it comes with a digital coaxial jack instead of the newer optical. The best feature of this player is that I have encountered zero skipping or other playback issues. I had originally bought a Samsung BDP1500, and it was absolute crap, could not play half of the blu ray discs and had multiple menu navigation issues and functionality issues. This LG has none, and I am quite suprised that this entry level model is EXcellent. I highly encourage others to buy. The only gripe I have is that the price is now $20 lower than when i had purchased.

3. 

   No Smoke 29. Jun, 2010 at 7:03 pm

   Review by No Smoke for LG BD270 Blu-ray Disc Player
   Rating:
   I also have the “top of the line” LG BD 390, and other than the internet/wireless stuff, it’s pretty much the same player. Same features and quality for less than half the price. I only need one player that I can watch Netflix and Youtube on, and so this one is for my kids in the basement.

   Very easy to set up. Literally, after opening the package, putting it next to the TV, plugging in the HDMI to my TV and the power cord to the surge protector, it took all of 3 minutes for my 3 year-old to start watching an extremely awesome picture of “Ant Bully” on Blu-Ray.

   Of course, the price dropped 10 bucks the minute after it was delivered, but I still feel like I still got an awesome deal, and that anyone even considering a Blu-Ray player should add this one to the list. It is still cheaper thsn some of the upscaling players out there, and just as good or better. Obviously, if you want the wireless internet connectivity, go with the BD 390, which is still fairly reasonably priced.

4. 

   Triple White G. 29. Jun, 2010 at 7:10 pm

   Review by Triple White G. for LG BD270 Blu-ray Disc Player
   Rating:
   As the title implies, this is an excellent entry level Blu-ray player*; however, this is my first experience with a Blu-ray player, and as a college student, I wanted a brand name with a digestible price, and as for functionality, this player has thus far been up to the task.

   Set-up was a breeze. Plug it in and enjoy. That’s all there is to it.

   As far as Blu-ray discs I’ve had the pleasure of viewing, I’ve seen Planet Earth, Hellboy 2 (boo!), Slumdog Millionaire, and Watchmen. And I must say that they all are fantastic, picture-wise, that is. But the one that takes the cake is Planet Earth – absolutely gorgeous. As for DVD upconversion with this player it has been solid. The DVD’s that I have watched (too many to list) have had a noticeable facelift, albeit nothing in the realm of Blu-ray.

   Sound, too, has been superb. Listening to the movies has been just as enjoyable as watching them. For someone that lacks the resources and space to acquire a proper sound system, this is important, but I suspect that that has more to do with the television rather than the player itself. Nonetheless, the sound has been fantastic.

   With that said, some things do need to be pointed out for anyone considering this player. The first is that this player lacks any support for a component connection, so that leaves the user with two options: composite** input and HDMI input, and really, that is no option at all (watching Blu-ray with composite is like driving a car with square wheels, but I digress). I knew this beforehand so I knew what I was expecting going into the purchase and promptly ordered an HDMI cable along with the product at the date of purchase, but for anyone who is planning to use component with this player, note that it will essentially be worthless.

   Another is that it does not include BD-Live or any other ‘important’ extraneous feature for that matter. As was the case in the preceding paragraph, this certainly was not a deal breaker, and in fact, it wasn’t a consideration. For me, I just want a decent, reasonably-priced piece of technology that does what it was intended to do and to do it well. For some that want some bells and whistles attached to their BD-player, you may want to look elsewhere.

   And lastly, the remote has a cheap feel to it. Certainly not a remote you want to step on or drop too many times (not that any of you would plan on doing so), but I can most certainly deal with it. One surprising thing with this remote was that it was able to control my TV (Vizio) without any configuration beforehand – not anything important but merely interesting.

   For anyone who is looking for a reasonably priced Blu-ray player, one couldn’t go wrong with this piece of equipment. Nice job, LG.

   * – Setup is a VIZIO 26″ 1080p Class LCD HDTV – Java (VL260M) (however, I’m in the process of acquiring an LG 32LH30 32-Inch 1080p LCD HDTV, Gloss Black and ridding myself of the Vizio) and a HDMI (2 meter) 6 foot cable HQ 1080P 1.3b.

   ** EDITED: Sorry, I had put s-video when I meant composite.

5. 

   David L. Oliver 29. Jun, 2010 at 7:53 pm

   Review by David L. Oliver for LG BD270 Blu-ray Disc Player
   Rating:
   I am rushing to put up this review before fully evaluating the unit, because issues with the specs given at the LG site as well as at least one error in the user manual need to be discussed. I will probably add more later after a full evaluation.

   First, if you have read LG’s specs, you will believe that there is a component video output as well as an optical audio output. Neither of these exists. There is HDMI, composite video, stereo audio, and a coaxial connection for digital audio.

   The only cable supplied is for composite video, useless for HD, not even very good for SD. Thus, until the HDMI cable I ordered to use with it arrives, I won’t be able to comment on video quality. Others say it is very good.

   The unit does fine with DVDs and is an excellent music player. The screen display when a disc of mp3s is inserted is much like that of a portable music player, with pretty icons that scroll across the screen.

   The remote control has a few functions that work with a TV. In the manual it says to hold the TV power button and punch in a single digit corresponding to your TV brand. What you do in reality is input the full remote code for your TV while holding the red button. That works fine.

   With these omissions and errors, do we really know what we are getting here? Are some of the really important specifications inaccurate? Was this product rushed to market too quickly, perhaps with engineering problems unsolved?

   The unit is attractive looking, and I like what I have experienced with it so far. The price seems excellent for what you get, even if that’s less than LG says it is. I would advise caution in purchasing it, though, because of the issues I have outlined. I will update this review later after a lot of use and evaluation.

   Update 1: As of today (9/27/09) it appears that LG’s spec sheet has been corrected. It still states that a component video cable is supplied. Wouldn’t be much use with no component output. I have had a chance to do more testing with mine and am feeling confident this is a good product.
   

6. 

   Sheedoe 29. Jun, 2010 at 8:40 pm

   Review by Sheedoe for Pioneer BDP-320 1080p Blu-ray Disc Player
   Rating:
   PROS: Excellent AQ/PQ for BD. Very good upscaling for DVD. Ability to decode dts-hd MA. Bd-Live enabled. Source-Direct video output option. Sleek design. Sturdy disc-loading tray.

   CONS: SLOW operation. DVD layer change delay. KURO Link doesn’t work if connected to a KURO TV via non-pioneer receiver. No blue light on Standby/On button as pictured in stock photo.

   This was my upgrade from the PS3 and as far as PQ/AQ is concerned, I am very satisfied. I’ve always put image quality over speed, but I’ve been spoiled by the speedy operation of the PS3. The 320 is slow all around, including: start-up, eject, disc-loading, fast forward/rewind command and BD menu navigation (in certain discs like ‘Saawariya’). The worst part for me is having to wait for the disc tray to open during start up. It only takes 30 seconds, but when you are standing in front of the player to put a disc in, and not on your couch, it feels a lot longer.

   The DVD Layer-change delay is very annoying. A 2009 BD player should not have this issue, period! Especially Pioneer since its previous generation of players (BDP-51) had been plagued with this issue and they had a long time to correct it for the newer units. Many older DVD players costing 1/10 its price don’t even have this problem. Its very dissapointing.

   HD picture quality is absolutely stunning. Its slightly better than the mighty PS3. In source-direct (my default setting), the picture is slightly more neutral and less-noisy, as if there is less video processing. You’d have to look hard to find the difference though. SD upscaling is also very good. It comparable to the Reon HQV thats in my AVR. Audio quality is about the same as the PS3 when decoded internally and transmitted via HDMI. However, I find my Onkyo 885 doing a better job at decoding. When bitstreamed, Dolby digital track sounds much more dynamic and robust and the bass is more actively present. I’ve compared it with the DRC turned off on the player. I haven’t tried the analog outputs.

   Overall this player is O.K. I would recommend the bdp-51 (its cheaper and has better build) if your AVR can docode the high-res audio and you don’t care too much about BD-live. If I had a choice, I would get the Oppo bdp-83 over the 320/51 for about $200 more. Its faster, has an excellent Anchor Bay VRS scaler, ability to play SACD/DVD-Audio, and customer service and product support you can count on to fix bugs (if any). Since the 320 is fairly new and has the potential to accommodate major firmware updates with its larger ROM, it may be possible to improve its performace in the future, but as of now, the player gets 3/5 rating in my book. Pictures posted on customer image section.

   Edit (12/28/09): With the latest FW update (ver. 3.41), pioneer has resolved the DVD layer change issue. Coupled with the recent price drop and performance improvements, this is the best blu-ray player in its price range.

7. 

   M. Carter 29. Jun, 2010 at 9:35 pm

   Review by M. Carter for Pioneer BDP-320 1080p Blu-ray Disc Player
   Rating:
   I have a BDP-320 hooked up to a Kuro PDP-5020FD. Set-up was very quick with most settings being automatic between the two Pioneer devices. The only manual setting change I had to make to the BDP-320 was to set the output to Source Direct.

   The 320′s deinterlacing was inferior to the Kuro. I used Hot Fuzz as a test DVD and the 320 produced noticeable jagged edges on the white Metropolitan Police logo on the character’s black vest. Changing to Source Direct cleared up any artifacts and made for the best DVD picture on my Kuro yet. On some other DVD material (LOTR) I found the best image to be when the BDP-320 is upconverting and the PDP-5020FD is deinterlacing. Either way the BDP-320 gives you all the flexability you need to get the best possible picture from your setup.

   The sound quality of BD using the optical digital out is noticeably improved over DVD. There is greater definition in the low frequency and it seems that sound placement is more well defined. These are subjective observations, but I was surprised to notice a difference. This makes me more likely to upgrade my receiver to a newer model that can handle the losseless audio formats over HDMI.

   Although the BDP-320 is my first BDP, from what I can tell it is not a big improvement to Pioneers previous model the BDP-51FD. Owners of both claim the load times, picture quality, sound quality and DVD layer change response are nearly identical. The improvements of the BDP-320 are a reduced chassis height, increase ROM size (good for the firmware engineers at Pioneer so good for you to), out-of-the-box support for DTS HD MA, great BD compatibility, and built-in BD-Live with included 1GB memory and LAN. I hope that the BDP-320′s larger ROM will allow future firmware updates to push its perfomance past the BDP-51FD.

   Times using The Dark Night with BD-Live
   
   Power off to tray opened – 27s
   
   Press tray close to WB logo – 42s
   
   Press tray close to start of movie – 1m.53s

   I’m very happy with my purchase but was surprised that the load times were not improved over the Pioneer BDP-51. (Okay, I was very happy with the BDP-320 but the DVD layer change delay was not acceptable. The BDP-320 was retuned, and an Oppo BDP-83 is its replacement.)

   The player’s build quality is solid and heavy. The picture quality is the best I have seen on my PDP-5020. Anyone who claims BD is not much improved over DVD is not doing it right. Although DVD looks nice, BD is dramatically improved in both color depth, black level as well as simply having a higher pixel count.

   The BDP-320 being of the same PQ/SQ of the BPD-51FD makes it one of the best players on the market. I suggest reading reviews of the BDP-51FD and keeping in mind the improvements of the BDP-320.
   

8. 

   HomeTheaterFan 29. Jun, 2010 at 9:57 pm

   Review by HomeTheaterFan for Pioneer BDP-320 1080p Blu-ray Disc Player
   Rating:
   When buying a blu-ray, or for that matter any dvd/blu-ray player, a great dividing line in quality is the player’s ability to upconvert standard dvds. Most manufacturers market their players as “able to upconvert standard dvds to near 1080p levels.” But what does this really mean? And are all upconverting players putting out satisfactory upconverted images? And are all upconverted images alike? And most importantly, can a really great upconverted image avoid having to replace all of one’s standard dvd library? Well, in light of my experience with the Pioneer 320…..

   But before answering the above questions, a word about the basis of this review. I own a Misubishi 54″ 1080p rear DLP projector, purchased new about one year ago. Blu-rays are displayed by use of a very good Sony 350 player—a player itself worth buying for use in displaying blu ray dvds (if you can find it). I also have a 110″ Grayhawk screen, displaying images from a Sharp 1080i DLP front projector. And, I own many legacy dvds and their blu ray counterparts. The 110″ grayhawk is an outstanding real world laboratory for evaluating the ability of a player to “upconvert” standard dvds. A 110″ screen, is, in short, unforgiving, as any player’s shortcomings are very apparent. So too, however, a player’s strengths. And since I can do A/B tests of the same movie in blu-ray v standard upconverted versions, using both the Sharp 1080i and Mitsuibishi 1080p displays, this review is offered for your consideration.

   The Pioneer 320 is outstanding in its ability to upconvert standard dvds! The resulting image with most (not all) of my dvds has been astounding. The result is new life and appreciation for my large dvd library. The Pioneer’s color and detail abilities are worthy of being marketed as “near 1080p levels”. Previously I used a Denon dvd player for use with the 110″ grayhawk screen. The Denon is a very good player, but its upconverted images displayed on the 110″ screen do not come close to the upconverted dvd images produced by the Pioneer 320. With my Denon, most standard dvds had a grainy unappealing image, sometimes so bad I was forced to reduce the image size. Similiarly, my Sony 320 was less than satisying when upgrading older DVDs. Not so, however, when I use the Pioneer 320.

   As with most blu ray players, the Pioneer displays blu rays very well.

   Sound: Amazing! Surround sound was very improved with the Pioneer 320, and most importantly, VOCAL INTELLIBILTY is stellar.

   And now, a word about criticism over the Pioneer’s delay in turn on, chapter search, etc. The pioneer “delay” is often descibed as maddening, nearly 30-45 seconds slower than the faster Oppo 83 when turning on. This criticism may be well intended, but its must ado about nothing. By the way, my Pioneer turn on time etc is faster than that suggested in some reviews posted here. Perhaps the time delay critics’ units are early models which have now been sped up by modifications .

   In any event, by the time you turn on the player, put in the disc, get to your seat with your favorite beverage, dim the lights, you are ready to go. Movies are to be enjoyed, and the extra seconds (seconds) is an issue only for the very impatient, “I want it right now ” crowd. Incidentally, front projectors have a “turn on delay” as well; expect a minute or so before quality imaging is possible. The projector must warm up too. So the best strategy for the very impatient: (1) Turn on the Pioneer blu ray, then (2) turn on the projector (or whatever ) then (3) select disc then (4) put in disc (in a now booted up and ready to load Pioneer blu ray player). Finally, Go to seat: push play! And you wont have missed a thing. Not a second.

   Upconverted images produced by most players really turn out to be very disappointing, especially when comparing the standard dvd images to blu-ray images. The satisfaction gap grows wider with the width of the screen. Viewing upconverted images on most players well supports a conclusion that the old legacy dvds must be replaced, especially where the image is displayed on a large screen. Of course, Blu ray dvds, without question, do offer a “better picture” over their standard dvd versions (all things being equal in use of source material, etc). But can the PQ ” satisfaction gap” between blu ray and standard dvd movies be narrowed such that most standard dvds look great, even on a large screen? Yes, at least with the Pioneer 320!

   With my equipment, the difference between the images of blu-rays on my Sony 350/ 54″ Mitsuibishi and images of upconverted standard dvds on the Grayhawk/ Pioneer 320 are usually very minor, despite viewing the Pioneer’s upconverted images on a very large screen . Of course, poorly done dvds still look, well, poorly done. An example is the Dirty Harry DVD—-that is one I must replace with a blu ray version in order to enjoy it on the big screen. Fortunately, poor quality dvds constitute but a small percentage of my dvds. The point here is that the Pioneer 320 player usually produces very satisfying upconverted images on a very large screen.

   The Pioneer’s audio/video performance is wonderful. Its solid build quality and A/V qualities easily reveal that Pioneer put its design attention and money largely into A/V values, that is, picture and sound. I think thats where our consumer money should be spent as well! Current pricing makes the Pioneer 320 the player to buy if the Oppo 83 ($500) is too much for your budget. With the Oppo, well, you will get 15-30 seconds or so of faster turn on time, and I would bet a slight improvement in AQ/PQ over the Pioneer 320. But for bang for the buck , I suggest you give the Pioneer 320 a home test; you wont be disappointed! Big Thumbs Up!!!

9. 

   Chris Boylan 29. Jun, 2010 at 10:01 pm

   Review by Chris Boylan for Pioneer BDP-320 1080p Blu-ray Disc Player
   Rating:
   With the Pioneer BDP-320, Pioneer has finally begun offering a fully functioned Blu-ray Disc player with Profile 2.0 support (BD-Live), and unlike many competitive models, the BDP-320 has enough on-board storage (1 GB) so that BD-Live works right out of the box with no need for a USB drive or SD memory card. The BDP-320 also offers excellent video and audio performance, including both Blu-ray playback and DVD upconversion. That’s the Good News.

   The bad news is that this player is slow… really slow. Slow to boot (20 seconds) and slow to load (over a minute to get to the first screen of a BD-JAVA based Blu-ray Disc – even longer to get to the menu). When you compare it to the OPPO BDP-83, the differences are pretty substantial: 34 seconds to load a standard DVD on the Pioneer (11 seconds on the OPPO), 42 seconds to load a basic Blu-ray Disc (19 seconds on the OPPO) and 1 minute 6 seconds to load a BD-Java Disc (35 seconds on the OPPO). If you put on a crazy BD-Live-heavy Blu-ray title like “Crank 2″ in the drawer, then you may as well press play *before* you start making the popcorn. Chances are it will still be loading when you get back.

   Also missing from the BDP-320 is any sort of IPTV or web streaming functionality. No Netflix, Amazon Videos-on-demand or VUDU. If you only want your Blu-ray Disc player to play Blu-ray Discs (and CDs and DVDs), then this will not be an issue for you, but once you’ve experienced the convenience (not to mention value) of Netflix instant streaming or Amazon video on demand, it’s hard to go back. Of course, if your TV already has these features, then you don’t have to worry about it being in the player.

   In terms of video performance, the BDP-320 is top notch. Other than a slight delay locking to film-based sources (3:2 cadence) and some really minor issues with diagonal filtering (jaggies), the player is very good at upconverting standard DVDs to 1080p. And if you’d prefer to outsource the de-interlacing and scaling to an outboard processor or high-end display, Pioneer’s “Source Direct” feature will output discs in their native resolution (1080p/24 Blu-rays at 1080p/24, 1080i Blu-rays at 1080i/60 and standard DVDs at 480i). And Blu-ray Discs, as on most players, look simply stunning on the Pioneer player.

   On the audio side, although the set-up menus are a bit confusing, the player can and does decode all Blu-ray audio formats (including DTS-HD Master Audio and Dolby TrueHD) to either multi-channel PCM (over HDMI) or to multi-channel analog outputs (5.1 or 7.1). This multi-channel analog output is helpful if you’ve got an older receiver that lacks HDMI audio support. Unlike many competitive models (Panasonic DMP-BD80 and Samsung BD-P3600, for example), the Pioneer player allows you to increase (not just decrease) subwoofer level output over the multi-channel analog outputs. Though I found I had to crank this up to the max (+6 dB) and adjust the analog gain for the subwoofer input on my preamp to its max in order to get decent bass over the analog outputs. But this is common to all Blu-ray players with multi-channel analog outputs due to the way low bass is stored and transmitted over analog connections.

   Really the only things keeping me from an unqualified recommendation of the Pioneer are the slow loading times and the lack of video streaming capabilities. If neither of these issues is important to you, then the BDP-320 will make a fine addition to your home theater system.

   A complete review is available on big picture big sound (dot com).

10. 

    Harneloot 29. Jun, 2010 at 10:24 pm

    Review by Harneloot for Pioneer BDP-320 1080p Blu-ray Disc Player
    Rating:
    I’ve had a Sony BDP S550 for over a year and have been less than impressed with its ability to upscale normal DVDs to 1080p which is the resolution of my television. I purchased this pioneer unit last week and have been more than pleased with its ability to produce clear, sharp images on my 1080p plasma from regular DVDs.

    Lets face it, MOST Blur-Ray players play Blu-Ray disks just fine. Its their performance on normal DVDs where they stand apart – and this Pioneer unit is the best I’ve seen!

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