LG BD570 Network Blu-ray Disc Player

• Blu-Ray Player with 1GB memory 802.11N for Wireless networking NetCast for YouTube & CinemaNow
• BD-P NetFlix HD BD live
• Full HD 1080p output via HDMI with Cinema mode at 24 or 60 frames per second USB Media Host
• Superior audio performance with 7.1 channels with Dolby Digital Plus & TrueHD & dts-HD
• Quick boot with instant tray opening

Having reviewed previous LG Blu-ray players, including the vaunted BD390, our expectations for the BD570 were pretty high and happily, LG does not disappoint. While some of LG's competitors (notably Pioneer and Sharp), think audio/video performance is the only thing that matters, LG embraces the idea that convenience and choice of media and distribution format are also important to many consumers. So the BD570 includes one of the richest media playback offerings of any Blu-ray player, including internet streaming from Netflix, CinemaNow, VUDU and Pandora. The player also supports DLNA networking so it can access audio and video files on a home network as well. For those who have a library of videos on their computers, the BD570 supports Divx, Xvid and MKV files as well as a number of other formats and codecs.

As far as load times are concerned, the BD570's are decent but not winning any speed records. It offers a 17 second overall bootup time (while it loads all of the aforementioned content options in the menu) this makes it 3 seconds faster than the Pioneer BDP-320 which offers no multimedia options. Standard DVDs load in about 12 seconds, Blu-rays in 23 seconds, and BD-JAVA-heavy Blu-ray Discs like "Pirates of the Caribbean" in 32 seconds. This is pretty close to parity with the fastest models of 2009 (including OPPO's BDP-83) but it seems like they could have improved things a bit with this whole new generation of players.

In terms of performance, the BD570 delivers Blu-ray Discs in excellent audio and video clarity (as it should), and performs most of the difficult tasks of DVD upconversion right as well excellent diagonal filtering and 3:2 cadence detection, for example. But it does not handle noisy source material very well (its noise reduction processing could use some work). Overall, as a DVD upconverter, it's very good but not outstanding.

What is outstanding is the built-in 802.11b/g/n WiFi wireless networking. For us this worked right our of the box connecting to our wireless router, and streaming VUDU's 1080p HDX movies like nobody's business. And although the remote looks almost upside down compared to many other BD player remotes, the button layout is actually quite comfortable with the most popular buttons in easy reach of your thumb, and transport buttons (play/pause/FF/REW) raised and angled for improved ergonomics.

Overall, with its built-in WiFi, DLNA networking, multimedia playback and internet streaming offerings, combined with solid Blu-ray playback, the BD570 offers a good blend of performance and convenience for a fairly affordable price. Our complete review of the BD570 is available on Big Picture Big Sound (dot com).

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I have been waiting for this to come out for a few weeks now (seems like longer). I am tired of using stereo cables and s-video to connect my laptop to my TV every time I want to watch something from my computer. I looked for other "home media server" options originally, and ultimately found a Samsung product similar to this one. It seemed great at first, but after reading some reviews I was skeptical. Then, C-NET reported the imminent release of the LG BD750, which they saw at the 2010 CES.

The best features in my opinion, aside from the fact that it plays Blu-ray discs, is that it can stream Netflix right out of the box and also stream media from your networked computers. I set up the BD570 last night and played around with it a little. DVD playback seemed fine. Setting up the Wi-Fi connection wasn't too difficult, either. It would have been much easier if our Wi-Fi SSID were being broadcast. Also, toggling to upper case letters on the on-screen keyboard for SSID/password input wasn't immediately obvious. The built-in Wi-Fi is a definite plus, though; the Samsung I was looking at came with a Wi-Fi dongle that you had to plug in via USB and set up (seems like Wi-Fi was an afterthought). If your modem or router/access point is located close enough to your entertainment center, you could even connect the LG via Ethernet for even better streaming throughput.

Setting up Netflix was a cinch. They provide you with an activation code; you log into your Netflix account on your computer and type in the code, and presto. You can then browse through your Instant Queue, or browse by category, etc. (Other products with similar features, don't let you watch un-queued movies. That is, you have to add them manually on your computer before they appear on your TV queue.) The quality seemed pretty decent--perhaps slightly more pixelated than hooking up my laptop Netflix stream to the TV via s-video. This might just be a matter of tweaking aspect ratio settings on the TV and/or BD player. Also, the movie cover art seemed a bit slow in loading while browsing through titles, but no biggie.

Streaming shared media on network computers via LG's Home Link feature works great, but it took a bit of tweaking to get it set up. A couple of different shared items appeared immediately when I loaded Home Link. One was labeled "COMPUTERNAME/Username" and the other was a directory of all shared documents. The former was some form of "media server" protocol, which I couldn't get to work (I tried enabling media streaming in Windows 7 settings, to no avail). The latter directory tree, once opened, showed all empty folders (Documents, Pictures, Movies, Downloads--i.e., all "My Documents" sub-folders, but all empty). I had "Homegroup" sharing enabled for a number of different folders in Windows 7 settings, but Home Link couldn't access their contents until I added "Guest" as a user in the Share settings for specific folders. Once that was done, I was instantly able to browse and stream movies, music, and pictures. I tested a couple of DivX and MP3 files, and they seemed to run great.

All of this file-sharing trouble may be my unfamiliarity with the new Windows 7 networking lingo and how to configure settings properly without sharing everything with the world. Others may find it much easier to connect and stream media. Also, bundled with the LG player is a disc containing some Nero software called Home Essentials, I believe. It's a way to share files over a network using DLNA. I'm not sure how it works, or whether it's any good, but now that I've got Windows networking figured out, I might leave good enough alone.

Overall, my impression of the BD570 is very positive. The only reason I've given this only 4 stars is the slightly cumbersome nature of the setup process for home networking, and because some of the language used in the menus is not 100% clear (not overly technical, just poor English). We have had very good experiences with LG products--bought an LG fridge, washer, and dryer in the past 6 months or so--and I'm so far pretty pleased with this new addition. As the first to review the product, at least on here, I hope people will find my experience and remarks useful.

One final caveat: I have not tested any of the other Internet-enabled functions, such as Pandora, YouTube, etc. If they're anything like the Netflix function, then they should be easy to set up and use.

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Having been bitten by the blu ray bug, I initially purchased a LG BD370. I liked the machine a great deal, had several questions and called LG technical support which at best was indifferent. I decided I wanted a second blu ray player and would not reward LG, so I purchased a Sony BDP-S570. It came, set up was arduous as I didn't realize at first that you can scroll both up and down but eventually I got the machine working. I did however have compatibility problems. The Sony using HDMI tried to take over my Samsung LCD TV. The two fought a great deal and I ended up calling Sony support. The support person, unlike the one I spoke to at LG was very helpful, caring etc. We spent about an hour trying to make the two products compatible without success and I returned the Sony. As the older LG had worked well with my Samsung, I purchased the BD 570. The following are my observations on my system. From the time I took the LG out of the box to connecting it wirelessly to my WiFi router, setting up Netflix and Pandora took less than 15 minutes. After I set up the LG and turned it off and then on, it asked me if I wanted to upgrade the software which it did in less than 10 minutes. This entire process was much easier on the LG than the Sony. The Sony promises to be upgradeable to 3 D, the LG is not upgradeable to 3 D. The Sony offers connections to more movie and internet programs than one can imagine. The LG offers many less but has the only two I care about Netflix and Pandora. Start up( from the time the player is turned on until you can use it) was well over 2 minutes for the Sony and well under a minute for the LG; note other reviewers have said boot time for the Sony was quick but that was not the case in my system. I think the quality of a blu ray movie is slightly better with the LG give the Sony a 94 and LG a 98 not much but enough so I could see a difference. The Netflix menu is much nicer and more user friendly with the LG. In both players you see a list of your instant movies but if you want to go to a description it requires more steps in the Sony not that it is bad, the LG is easier and nicer. With regards to upscaling conventional DVDs, both players do a very good job. I did not play any old DVDs which were formatted for older cathode ray TVs on the Sony. They present in the 4:3 format on the LG and you can manually make them full screen. This is not an automatic process on the LG. I did not play an older DVD on the Sony so I don't know how it handles older DVDs formatted for a cathode ray TV. The instruction book for the Sony is useless. It refers you to the Sony website for virtually all answers. I might add, I didn't care for the web site either; this begs the question why do they have an instruction book? The LG instruction book does actually have instructions in it and seemed fairly complete.

Had I not had compatibility issues, I probably would have kept the Sony although I found the long time to boot up very annoying. I'm glad I got the LG, I think it has a better blu ray picture.

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After MUCH research and reading tons of reviews on this and the Sony S570 (I'm convinced these are the two BEST choices in the $150-$250 range), I decided to go with the LG. I'll give my reasons here, as well as my experience with the player, in hopes that this will save others MUCH pain and aggravation, in making their decision.

First and foremost, it was clear from all the expert/consumer reviews, that the LG was the most user-friendly in terms of setup, compatibility, and audio/video options. This is ABSOLUTELY true. I had ZERO problems setting this up with my audio/video system, zero problems logging into our wireless network, zero problems streaming Netflix in 720p, and zero problems playing several avi files, be it through the usb port OR from my pc. I have a new Samsung 40" 60 hz LCD, an older Sony audio receiver, and a 5 year old basic Belkin router.

For video, I used an HDMI cable to the tv, for audio I used the coaxial digital output from the player, and it looks and sounds phenomenal.

Though some folks were less than pleased with the upconverting capabilities of this player, as compared to Sony, I must say that I don't see any major issues here. I found an immediate improvement over my Samsung player, with respect to the BLACKS. They were solid. I noticed less noise around the edges of the credits, and I found less discoloration issues, that you sometimes notice with upconversion. In fact, given all the fine-tuning options this player offers to tweak noise reduction, color scheme, etc, I submit that, with a little time to play with those settings and perhaps a few settings on the tv itself, one can get the picture looking as good as most upconverters out there. I will concede that on a bigger tv at 120 hz, I might notice more flaws, but for me, this upconverter does a great job.

Reviewers noted that the LG remote was pretty solid, but not perfect. I'll agree. Some buttons are a bit too close to one another, so you have to get used to that. On the other hand, you can program the remote to control the basic functions of your tv, so that's a helpful feature. But it is solid, and not "toy-like", as was the complaint about the Sony remote. One small downside is the slight delay when you "chapter skip." The picture doesn't respond immediately, so you can't just "surf" through the chapters. Slightly annoying.

One thing that is "toylike" is the disc tray. Proceed carefully, and never leave it open. It's quite flimsy and you could easily snap it off, if you're not careful. Thankfully, the tray has two "thumb grooves" to allow you to get your thumb under the disc, without having to put much pressure on the tray itself, when removing the disc from the player.

Where this product shines, IMO, is its versatility and compatibility. It was clear in all the reviews and product specs, that the Sony (and all other players from what I could see) was very limited in what routers it would work with, and especially what video files it would play. As for router issues, I already stated that I had none, and mine is just a basic 5 year old router. And with respect to video files, NO ONE CAN COMPETE. For instance, with Sony, AVI was only available in Canada, and MKV wasn't an option at all, except through your pc. So, the two most popular video formats aren't available to enjoy on your new entertainment system? Are you kidding? Similar restrictions and limited capability proved to be the case with pretty much every other player reviewed. Thankfully, this is NOT the case with the LG. This player plays practically everything: avi, mpeg, mp4, mkv, etc. Just download your favorite movie or tv show to your pc, and play it on your dvd player, either from a flash drive, or through your wireless connection. And the best part is that the darned thing UPCONVERTS the signal to 1080p, just like with dvds. So you're watching an episode of "Law and Order" at 640x352, but it looks like HD. AMAZING. And LG is the ONLY PLAYER that I know of, that will do this with pretty much any video format you throw it at. This feature ALONE makes this the blu-ray player of choice, IMO.

Enough reviews have already mentioned the brilliant image the blu-rays produce on this player, so I won't go heavily into it. Yes, the load time is admittedly slow, but so what? As for difficulty playing certain discs, I found that to be a complaint with both LG and Sony, and I'm not surprised. New formats and processing methods are being tried all the time, and glitches will occur. That's what the firmware updates are for. Im not worried. These are computers, after all. How often do our pcs require updates to resolve bugs? Constantly. Just be sure to check with LG customer service before downloading updates. Wait about 3 weeks after they're released, and see if there have been any complaints about the lastest update, and if so, have they since been resolved? Very important!

One other helpful feature is LG's audio options that allow you to run True HD Digital sound to your audio receiver, without an HDMI connection. This is necessary with some movies. Otherwise your sound just pops, distorts, or is cut out altogether. This option eliminates that headache, so you can pretty much watch anything, and let the player re-encode the sound, as necessary. And the sound is still incredible, so no worries there.

Finally, streaming Neflix was a breeze at 720p. No choppiness, buffering, stutters, NOTHING.

So, for my money, this player is the one-stop solution to all your entertainment needs, be it streaming, upconverting, playing your favorite video files, or just enjoying blu-ray discs. Any flaws are easily overcome by all the great features, some of which are EXCLUSIVE to this player, particularly the ability to play just about ANYTHING, and upconvert it, to boot! Bravo, LG!

I'm very pleased with the BD-570 overall. I hadn't planned on buying a Blu-Ray player standard DVDs look very good played through my upconverting Sony DVD player to my 60" HD TV. Then, about 6 months ago, we dropped HBO and replaced it with a Netflix subscription. We watched a few Netflix DVDs, and then I started watching Netflix content on my computer using their terrific network streaming. I was hooked and started researching how I could get the Netflix streaming to my big TV in the living room.

I tried software servers (PlayOn, Mezzmo) on my computer feeding to my DirecTV DVR a nightmare to set up, a lot of glitches, and very mixed results. Then I researched Roku, Boxee, WDTV, and other hardware solutions. I finally concluded that replacing my DVD player with a network enabled Blu-Ray was the way to go rather than yet another box, another remote, and more cables. For just a few dollars more than a Roku or WDTV box I could have a much simpler setup and upgrade to Blu-Ray disk at the same time.

I quickly settled on the LG BD-570 as the best value and combination of network services. I didn't concern myself with the actual Blu-Ray performance, assuming it would be satisfactory and it definitely is. This review focuses on the networking capability of the BD-570 and it's usability for that purpose.

The physical design is sleek and compact. A wireless network adapter is built in to the player there's no visible antenna or external device. It's the latest "N" wireless. Setup was simple and quick to connect to my Belkin N wireless router. Performance of the wireless connection is excellent.

The interface design is a little weird however. The main menu has just six choices including Setup. I guess the LG designers wanted to provide some entertainment value to this menu so it presents itself as a set of dancing ice cubes. With little bubbles rising behind them. I'm not kidding. This doesn't make the player any worse (or any better) to use it's just silly and pointless.

Anyway, this first menu simply allows choosing the source of your media. The first three choices all refer to the disk player movie, music, and pictures. Then you have "Home Link" to choose from your files on your home network and "Netcast" their range of internet services.

Insert your Blu-Ray or regular DVD, or a music CD, or a CD or DVD you have created on your computer with video, music, or photo files. A very long list of file formats are supported probably everything you might encounter. It all plays seamlessly.

If you insert a USB flash drive into the convenient port on the front of the player, the main menu disappears and you are again offered the choice of movie, music, or photo to play your media from the USB same as a disk.

Playing your own files from a disk or from a USB flash drive works perfectly a list of files comes up quickly. There are several visual arrangements available for viewing file lists just like on a Windows computer. Just point to a file and press play for any of the many supported video, music, or photo file formats. Everything renders beautifully video and photos are sized correctly for your screen resolution and the 16:9 format. Photo slide shows with your choice of music are available. You'll want to read the manual and play around to learn how to change the slide show speed, add music, etc. Controls are generally well implemented. You can fast forward and reverse video (or music) files using the controls just like you were playing a DVD. Audio/video sync is always perfect that's sometimes a problem playing computer video files.

The "Home Link" function also works very well. This is the LG implementation of the DLNA standard that allows media sharing to many kinds of devices. It automatically finds any DLNA servers on your network which basically means all your computers. It shows the folders on those computers which you have set to share their content on your network. Again, just scroll to any video, music, or photo file or folder and play it. The speed with which you can navigate large lists of music or photo files is very impressive it scrolls through them just as fast as if you were sitting at your computer. This is a very clean and high performing DLNA implementation. Others I have experienced are so slow and awkward as to be unusable. (I'm looking at you DirecTV!)

Finally the Netcast option brings up a new menu with a number of network services. Another bizarre menu design, this one shows the main street of a small town in the background, with the symbols for each of the network services scrolling horizontally at the bottom. The picture of the town changes according to the time of day day, sunset, night. Really, LG? Does this somehow improve the user experience? Instead of a single scrolling row of choices that requires you to scroll right or left to even see what all the choices are, how about a simple grid that could easily show all the choices at once and reduce the number of button presses to get to the one you want. That's how everyone else does it. But then we wouldn't be amazed by the clever cartoon background with its changing lightscape.

That's an easily forgiven minor issue once you start using the various services which all work just fine and open up a vast array of both paid and free internet content. See the product description for the full list. I'll only comment on the most important of these Netflix. To be clear, you must subscribe to Netflix to use the service. $8 a month for instant access to many thousands of movies and TV series through the network streaming service; $10 a month for the streaming and unlimited DVDs (one at a time) by postage paid mail. To stream Netflix to your LG Blu-Ray player you will need to register the player through the Netflix web site a very simple process that the LG player actually helps you with.

Netflix works beautifully on this player, with basically the same great implementation you see using Netflix streaming on your computer. You can browse your Instant Watch queue and you can also browse many genres, the content Netflix suggests for you, add to your queue, etc. This is a much more complete interface to Netflix than some other players have and you should understand this difference before you choose a device that requires you to go to the Netflix web site on your computer to look for movies.

When playing you can pause, fast forward or reverse at multiple speeds. Netflix actually shows you a set of thumbnail images you can scroll through to find any place you are seeking in your movie. This is a great feature that I believe is unique to Netflix.

The video quality is very good, assuming you have a good broadband internet connection 5 megabits per second or more. Netflix will work with a slower connection, or if your connection temporarily slows down, by scaling the video quality down dynamically to keep within your bandwidth limitations. This eliminates any stuttering or buffering pauses you might otherwise experience.

Finally, there is a huge range of free internet content available through the "DivxTV" service in the Netcast menu. This is a web service that aggregates and catalogs many other individual web content providers see the DivxTV web site () for more information.

This player is a great value, performs well and is missing very little. It might be nice to have Amazon Video on Demand in addition to the already included Vudu and CinemaNow services. I think we can expect firmware updates (easily delivered and installed via the internet connection!) in the near future that will add even more internet services. Good job overall, LG now hire some new graphic designers to clean up your silly menus!