LG has brought about a good solution for those who have been in a dilemma in choosing between Blu-Ray and HD players. LG has smashed down all the politics and wars between both the high-definition DVD formats and has emerged as the first company to overcome the technical barriers, bringing both the rivalries in the same product. It has integrated in it a lot of new features that the other such players in the market lack.

Design:

Player’s gorgeous body design:

This LG BH100 dual Blu-Ray and HD DVD compatible player has a stylish adorable look with its matte piano-black facia and metallic top panel with minimum possible buttons. The player has “The Super Multi-Blue Player” logo over the player’s disk tray just reminding us that it can play both the formats. As the player is heavy in its features, it is physically heavy too weighing around 4.1kgs. It has a small disk tray and a LCD Screen display. The top of this device has some blue-glowing controls. LG BH100 Blu-Ray/HD DVD player has not compromised in its build quality anywhere. The player plays only one at a time.

The universal remote control:

It comes with an illuminated universal remote control. The remote is quite big in size but not so heavy. It can be held comfortably. The controls that are most commonly used are placed at logical places so that you thumb does not find it difficult to reach for them. The backlight illumination is present only for the menu direction pad and the enter key that makes 5 keys.

Features and their Performance:

Connectivity:

The connectivity looks good initially. It has a HDMI, digital audio outputs, 5.1 audio line outs and a component video output, indicating that it has covered all the essentials of HD movie playback. The HDMI is of version 1.2 and not the 1.3 version hence, denying you the high bandwidth 1.3 functions such as the automatic lip-syncing, digital delivery of the high quality Dolby True HD, “Deep Colour” extended colour palette, and DTS-HD 7.1 channel lossless audio formats. LG BH100’s Ethernet port is for “Service Only” use and not for internet access disallowing you to place your hands on any future online interactive features that may be offered by HD-DVD and Blu-Rays. The player accepts BD, DVD, DVD+R, DVD+RW, DVD-R, DVD-RW and HD-DVD.

The half-baked HD DVD features:

Most of the films when put on a HD DVD are in 1080p/24Hz format and BH100 has no difficulty in playing videos of this format. This deck can convert old DVDs into high definition ones by its scaling-up process but, it produces only 1080i and 720p. The full HD 1080p resolution produces the highest quality videos which will be a treat to your eyes. LG BH100 has a few major cons. The first one is that, it takes 25 to 30 seconds to recognise what kind of it has been asked to play. Next is that, it refuses to play DVD audio, SACDs and ordinary CDs too. Hence, it is not surprisingly incompatible to WMA, MP3, DivX and can not take CD-R/-RW s too. The third most disappointing news to its consumers is that it is incompatible with HD DVDs ‘HDi’ functionality, that is, it can not access HDs common interactive features including even the start-up menu.

The complex menus:

Accessing of some of the features of HD DVD can be done using the menus which seem to be extremely complex as there is hardly any proper labelling. As a result you will not know what the option actually does unless you apply it. And this is also the impact of the player’s incompatibility with HDi.

A good Blu-Ray DVD player:

All these hassles prevail only with the HD DVD. But when it comes to its Blu-Ray playback capabilities, there are not much of such serious drawbacks. It backed all its features and capabilities completely. It is not set to take the high-tech java enabled features as it is not made to the new profile 1.1 specifications.

Audio and Video:

This LG Blu-Ray and HD DVD player has a class video quality. It proved to be more than expected for a debut dual format deck. The clarity is more precise than that of the standard DVDs. The player has 10bit video DAC and 24 bit audio DAC. The sound effects produced by the player are impressive and the audio Codecs supports MPEG 2.5 version. The digital audio out is in both coaxial and optical digital.

Warranty and box contents:

LG provides after sales service which includes one year warranty on parts and 90 days limited warranty on labour. The box contains the player, HDMI cable, component video cable, composite video cable, Remote control and Batteries.

In the players, “dual format” which is its major attraction, has half-baked HD DVD features integrated. For such a steep cost, their drawback in one of its formats is unacceptable. Still you can not neglect its elegant looks and the very good picture quality.

LG BH100 Blu-Ray & HD DVD Player Technical Specification Table

Make
LG
Model Name
LG BH100
Player Compatible type
Blu-Ray Discs and HD DVD
Dimension (WxHxD)
3 x 16.9 x 9.8”
Weight
4.1kg or 9.7lbs
Colour

Black

Form factor

Table top

Number of disk trays

one

Supported media

CD-R, CD-RW, DVD+R, DVD+RW, DVD-R, DVD-RW, Blu-Ray, HD-DVD

Video DAC

8 bit

Video standard

NTSC, PAL

Digital output
1080p
Digital audio format Dolby True HD

Dolby Digital
Dolby Digital Plus
DTS
DTS HD

Audio DAC

24 bits

Audio output

Surround sound

On-board decoding

Yes

Connections

Composite : 1 output

Component : yes

HDMI: yes

Stereo audio: 1 output

Optical audio: 1 output

Coaxial audio: 1 output

Persistent storage management menu

No

Portable Player

No

Remote control

Universal remote control

Additional features

MPEG4 capable

JPEG photo playback

Cables included

HDMI cable

Component video cable

Composite video cable

Accessories included

Remote control

Batteries

cleaning cloth

Warranty

1 Year

Share and Enjoy:
  • Digg
  • Sphinn
  • del.icio.us
  • Facebook
  • Mixx
  • Google