Blu-ray and… Netflix?

Why would you want to download SD movies on your new Blu-ray player? That was my first thought when learning about the BD300 (and it's rival, the Samsung BD-P2500).

Upon using it though, I get it.

And it's really cool.

At its core, the BD300 is a pretty standard Blu-ray player. It outputs 1080p/24 and 60, and plays, you know, Blu-ray discs (and of course DVDs are well). That would make it the same as just about every other BD player on the market. The twist here is the ability to stream Netflix content directly from the player.

The BD300 plugs into your display via HDMI or component. After hooking up to your Internet connection (wired only), the BD300 auto updates. After that, and presuming you have a Netflix account, all you need to do is register this player with your account. The BD300 prompts you to do this, and even gives you the URL to go to.

If you don't have an account, then it's time to set one up. The pricing is pretty cheap, and all but the most basic plan gets you unlimited downloads to your shiny new BD300.

There is no searching for titles on the player itself. Setting up your downloads has to be done on the Netflix website, which is reasonably easy to navigate.

Not every movie is available for download. In my searching, it seemed to be around 50%. Netflix claims over 12,000 movies and TV episodes, so perhaps you'll have better luck. I did find plenty to watch, though, and that seems to be the real draw here.

After picking a few titles to watch on the Netflix web page, I selected the Netflix feature in the player's home menu. After a moment all the titles I had selected were visible.

My first download was Ice Pirates, mostly because the last time I saw it was on VHS sometime in the 80s and I wanted to see if it was as bad as I remember. In fact it was. The movie started within about 10-15 seconds.

However, it was widescreen, and while soft, it was completely watchable even on my 100-inch screen. Well, the video was watchable, the movie not withstanding.

The BD300 does the best it can upconverting the obviously SD content to 1080p. Like an upconverting DVD player, there is only so much even the best upconverting can do when you feed it a poor original.

While each movie is slightly different, all the ones I watched were somewhat softer than a DVD. There are occasional compression artifacts, but nothing too severe. The overall palate is seems somewhat muted, and the black level was rather high.

I tried Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End to see how a newer movie that looks great on Blu-ray would fare as streaming video. This was little better than Ice Pirates.

No, pirates was not an intentional theme, though I did have this great joke planned after I downloaded Pirates of Penzance, but alas, it wasn’t available.

Most disturbing about the available content is random cropping. The 2.35:1 PotC: AWE and National Treasure 2 were cropped to 1.85:1 while the 2.35:1 Sphere was hacked all the way down to 1.33:1. On the other hand Ghostbusters and The 5th Element were at their original aspect ratios (also 2.35:1)

So movies looked passable, though certainly no substitute for even DVD. If only this device could play high resolution content. Oh wait…

If you're lucky, you may stumble upon an HD download. I say stumble as there is no way to search for HD streaming content. In the Netflix interface on the player the videos are labeled HD, but
that's the only indication. I consider this a rather important
ergonomic failing on the part of Netflix.

HD seemed limited to recent TV episodes like CSI and Heroes. These looked surprisingly good. They are noisier than broadcast, but have lots of detail. Overall picture quality with these was perhaps on par with the higher compressed cable/satellite providers.

Even so, it is quite impressive for streaming video.

Audio, as you'd expect, is not given much thought. Stereo with Prologic seems to be name of the game. It doesn't sound bad, but matrixed surround is so 90s. 

It’s worth noting that I have a 10 mbps connection. Because this is streaming video, if you have a slower connection, or are downloading other things in the background, your image quality will vary (read: suffer). LG requires at least a 1.5 mbps connection, and recommends at least 4.0 mbps.

As far as its Blu-ray bits go, the BD300 is rather mediocre. It doesn't correctly de-interlace 1080i material, which admittedly isn't too big a deal as few discs are 1080i (nearly all are 1080p). Upconverting from DVD is only OK, and with some discs there are a lot of jagged edges on diagonal lines. Generally most TVs will do a better job than this.

It does load discs rather fast, with the first Pirates of the Caribbean Blu-ray loaded in about 40 seconds.

As far as Blu-ray and DVD playback goes, the Samsung BD-P2500 fares better (review here). Also odd, from an ergonomic standpoint, is the requirement for a USB thumb drive for Netflix playback. Having one of these dangle off the front of the player is rather inelegant and potentially hazardous to the life of the player (if it's in a high traffic area).

All in all, everything worked quickly, efficiently, and was all very seamless and easy to use. I thought of a movie or old TV show, and if I was lucky enough to find it on Netflix, I was watching it just a few seconds later.

This instant gratification was very addictive. I found myself remembering and looking up old TV shows that I wanted to see again, or movies I saw as a kid. The type of thing you wouldn't buy or even rent, but since it's free and instant, you give it a look.

The picture quality is decent enough for this purpose, and if you have a small TV (say less than 42-inches) the picture quality probably won't bother you as much.

I admit that at first I couldn't understand why anyone would want to stream video over their BD player. But now that I've had a go at it, I can see the draw. It's not meant to replace Blu-ray (well, not yet), it's more as an addition. For those that don't like what's on TV right now (or who, gasp, don't have a DVR) this is a great way to be entertained on demand.

PRICE: $349
CONTACT: lge.com, netflix.com