Discount LG BD 390 Network Blu-ray Disc Player

I am currently on a quest to find the ideal Blu-Ray player for my needs.
After recently upgrading from my old Sony CRT TV to a 55'Samsung LED HDTV I wanted to complete the package with a solid blu ray player.I wanted one that would be able to stream Netflix movies in addition to being a blu-ray player. I initialy went with a Samsung BDP 3600 which was an absolute nightmare. The wifi interface is through a USB dongle and so the internet connectivity was patchy even with the router being less than three feet away. The Samsung servers for updates are painfully slow and the update took the better part of two hours. So that player did not last long and was returned within a week to Best Buy.
Assuming that the inbuilt wifi system on the LG BD-390 would be better, I decided to give it a shot. Well the first machine that I got from Amazon did not work very well and after an update the entire system froze up and I had to ship it back to Amazon. I did receive a replacement machine that worked well , so I guess the first one was just a lemon.
Setup of the system was a breeze. I was concerned about the wifi connectivity as there were some review of people having difficulty hooking onto their Apple Airport Base Stations. My internet is 5MBPS cable and I run it off an Apple Time Capsule. The network is protected but the LG had absolutely no issues finding and hooking onto the network. Updates over the wifi network were seamless and relatively quick ( definitely better than the Samsung).
As a blu ray player alone this is a fine machine. I never had any issues with it . The load time of blu ray discs was quick and dvd up-conversion was good too. My issues with this system and the reason why Iam returning it today is that the Netflix connectivity and quality is average to poor at best. The load time of Netflix movies was significantly longer than the ROKU Netflix box that I also have. Hooking the ROKU box to one HDMI input and the LG to the second I was able to compare the load time speed and picture quality on both systems. I have to say that the little ROKU box beat the LG BDP390 hands down on all of the tests. From load time of movies to picture quality the ROKU was far superior. There are some movies/shows that Netflix streams in HD 780p. The LG BDP 390 was never able to stream them in HD picture quality. The screen would be very pixelated and grainy. At times I would get a message saying that it would not be able to play the movie without interruptions as the internet speed was too slow. All the while the ROKU player had no issues.
I use the Netflix streaming service a lot and the player is definitely subpar when it comes to handling Netflix movies. It handles YOU Tube videos OK but those videos are lower resolution either way. I haven't tried VUDU or CINEMA NOW till date.Getting the home network setup to stream movies from my Pc was also a hassle, but I eventually did get it to work.
I guess if I hadn't experienced the ease of use and picture quality of the ROKU box I might not have noticed the sub-par picture quality on the LG and would have written it off to poor internet connectivity. But that is not the case. All internet streaming devices are not the same and if you want a machine that does it all and has good internet streaming picture quality, this is NOT the system. It promises alot but only delivers on the blu ray portion of it. I did not try plugging it in to the router directly , because that would defeat the purpose of paying extra for the wifi connectivity.
So the LG BD-390 is going back to the manufacturer. My advice is if you want a device that streams good quality internet video and is a blu ray player, then this is not the machine for you. In fact Im not sure there is one perfect all in one machine out there as yet, for it is conceivable that the more functions that are crammed into one device the greater the chance that it becomes a jack of all trades yet master of none.Get more detail about LG BD 390 Network Blu-ray Disc Player.