I picked this unit for the Netflix. Wireless configuration was a breeze. Was using Netflix in just a few minutes. Netflix works extremely well. Seemless kick ask video performance. It also offers Vudu. Didn't know what this was so I gave Vudu a try. Kick ask. I didn't know HD could be streamed over the internet so well. Movies look great on Vudu and so easy to use through the BD390. When I show Vudu to other people I get confused looks. "Your Blu-ray player is going on the internet? Huh."
I was not impressed with the music playing via the USB port. There is no shuffle; not even within a single folder. And then when you get to the end of the last file in a folder, instead of continuing to play the first file on the next folder, it just stops. Not kick ask. Lame. I can fit my entire music collection on a 4 GB USB stick, so I intend to use the BD390 to listen to music with the USB and not use CDs. These limitations on USB play back are lame.
I have to hand it to blu-ray player makers on how much stuff they are jamming into these small and afforable boxes. There are billions of formats (both audio and video) and media types to deal with. Really amazing. But you know, I once bought a $49 DVD player that could remember the stopped position of the last 5 DVDs played. So if you ejected the DVD and then re-inserted it, it could continue playing where you left off. I have yet to see a blu-ray player offer this feature, but near the climax of DVD player feature advancement, many DVDs offered this feature. This is a very usefull feature if disk switching occurs before finishing them. So to some degree, I'm poo-pooing all blu-ray players until I see this commonly available DVD feature on blu-ray players. Skip the non-kick ask BD Live. I can really care less about BD Live, but I'm sure thousands of hours of engineering development went into it.
-- Update 11/29/2009 --
I just realized the BD390 can remember the stopped position of blu-rays even if you eject the disc. The manual is very unclear about this feature. Manual seems to indicate it does not work for all discs. Only tried with one disc, so don't know how many stop positions it can store. The $49 DVD player refered to above could store five.
-- Update 11/29/2009 --
The picture quality is great with the BD390. It is not clear from the marketing, but this blu-ray will upconvert DVDs to 1080p. DVDs look great. The BD390 can also output either 24 or 60 Hz video. If you intend to have the HDMI AND component video hooked up, then component video can only output 480i. Otherwise, if HDMI is not hooked up, component video can output 1080i. HDMI can of course output 1080p.
The front display is not kick ask. No way to see the remaining time on a movie or even the duration of a movie through menu options. And when playing USB music, you have to have the TV on. You just cannot navigate the folders without looking at the TV. All you see is the time of play on the front display. I think they could have managed to get the display to show folder and file information on the display. My car stereo can do it. Take away a few thousand hours of development on BD Live and improve the display on the unit. Also, MP3 files only show the file name on TV. It does not read the MP3 metadata tag information, which is really better for getting the artist and song title.
One thing that is really kick ask is how the BD390 does firmware updates. You may say, "Who cares." Well you should. How long do you expect to keep your BD390? Do you really think Netflix Watch Instantly will remain the same service in the next five years or so? Will Vudu even still be in business? Well, interfaces to these services will evolve over time. New services could become available. The BD390 will need firmware updates to keep up. If you have ever done a firmware update on a non-internet enabled blu-ray player, you know it is a pain in the ask. You have to download from the internet the updated firmware, burn to a CD, then insert in player and turn unit on. The BD390 checks for updates when you turn it on. If it determines there are updates, it asks you if you want to do the update. It then goes on the internet, downloads the new firmware, and then installs it. Very painless. Totally kick ask.
So I have nit-picked a bit, but over all, the BD390 is kick ask. Netflix is just awesome.Get more detail about LG BD 390 Network Blu-ray Disc Player.
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