The BD 390 works more like a computer than an appliance. It forces you to interact with it constantly, like a computer, with error messages and occasional bugs. The video/audio was good, but I ended up returning it. I replaced it with a Samsung BD-P1600, which is $50 less, and works much better. I should note that I don't use wireless, which would require a separate dongle on the BD-P1600, because I ran an Ethernet to my A/V stack (in part to troubleshoot the problems with the BD 390 below).
As other people have noted the BD 390 networking features don't work well. I've set up both wireless and wired, and in both cases the unit initially connects to your router without any problems, but then the connection goes dead for no apparent reason. It will connect long enough to pop up a notice that there is a firmware update, but then the connection will time out trying to download it. I tried several times and finally the update installed. The Netflix streaming function will download your list of movies, but then choke when you try to play them. For a unit that costs this much that is unacceptable bugginess. If the problem is that the servers are overwhelmed then they should have dedicated servers for their high-end products.
The BD 390 does not allow you to disable BD-Live. I want the movies to load as soon as possible, so I set the BD Live connection to "disallow". The BD 390 treats that option like it's an error. Every time I pop in a BD-Live disk I get a message telling me to allow the BD-Live connection (and it's not a disk menu message, it's a message from the BD 390). So my only option was to re-enable BD-Live but to unplug the network connection (which wasn't a big loss since it didn't work anyway). To offer a service is one thing but to force users to use it is unacceptable.
If you're watching a movie and you go into the DVD setup menu (for whatever reason) and then hit the "return" key, you would think it would return to the movie. Instead, it leaves you with a blank screen, like a computer desktop. You have to hit the Play button to keep watching your movie.
On a couple of occasions it popped up a message that a disk wasn't readable. On both occasions I popped out the disks to check that they were clean and seated in the tray properly but it still wouldn't read them. I had to turn the unit off/on and then it read the disk, suggesting it wasn't a disk problem it was a software problem. Essentially I had to "reboot" it.
I understand that technologically the box is a computer, but for this amount of money computer-like interaction should not be necessary. The options and services should certainly be available in the setup menu, but once you set your preferences it should work like an appliance.
The customer support is useless. Obviously some cube-farm of low-paid contract support staff who have no personal knowledge of the unit, searching through the same thin reference material you could find on the web site.
All that being said, the sound and video is good. If you have a receiver that can handle the uncompressed HD audio it's a noticeable improvement from old DVDs. (And if you have an older 1080i plasma, like I do, the picture still looks great.) So the core A/V technology of the BD 390 is nice, but getting to the point of enjoying it is a frustrating experience.Get more detail about LG BD 390 Network Blu-ray Disc Player.
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