I bought this LG BD530 and Sony BDP-530 at the same time because Sony had the highest ranking in terms on voting on many sites including bestbuy,com. After connecting both players to my TV i used Bly-ray and it played very well on both player, I tried same Bluray disc on both player couple of times alternatively and could not see the difference. Bluray played brilliantly When i came to DVD playing, after couple of runs with same DVD on same TV (with same settings) I found that LG has a excellent DVD upconversion as compared to Sony, Sony pics were a little more blurr as compared to LG BD530. I tested 2 different DVD movies (lord of the rings and American beauty) to check the DVD quality and I have to admit, LG was awesome. Also somehow I felt the LG remote is much user friendly than Sony remote, but that’s a matter of individuals preference.
After carefully reading Sony’s review I figured out that it;s sony blu-ray players internet abilities which took it;s rating so high and not the DVD upscale conversion qualities. If you have an old TV with no internet on it and want internet connectibility to watch netflix online, then probably Sony is your candidate. But if you have a new internet enabled TV and have a huge collection of DVD which you wanna keep it for a while and wanna enjoy over and over again, then LG is your best candidate.
It plays all my discs and most of my multimedia files. It will not play wmv files and doesn’t seem to like my AAC files (plays MP3′s okay), but will play H264/mov files if you rename them as .mp4, a common trick with these cheaper players. It powers my two external portable hd’s and will play one of my two pen drives, but not both. Its upscaling of 420p material from the usb side not as good as my WD or my PS3, but plays native 1080i/p files with very impressive results.
It does have the BD live function if you want to plug a pen drive into it since it needs external storage. It has limited internet options right now, who cares about accuweather? LG updates their firmware online and my other LG equipment has seen third party hacks that improve it so I look forward to when this is hacked to provide either Netflix, or better yet Playon support.
The LG BD530 is connected to the Sony Home Theater via HDMI and from the Sony Soundbar I have an HDMI cable connected to the TV. Just like the 42″ plasma upstairs, both BD and DVD look great using it even though they are not connected the same way due to equipment differences.
I have read some negative reviews about this unit, but so far my experience has been great with it. I cannot comment much on the network connectivity for internet usage as my means of going online are by way of a Verizon air card that I use on my laptop. I don’t have a router or any other means to connect this player to online services. I have to go to the LG website, download any updates for the player to a flash drive and then load them on the player. So far I have not done this, so I don’t know if there are problems doing it this way. But, as far as watching Blu-rays or upconverted DVD’s I highly recommend this unit, especially for the price.
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Topic:aac files, blu ray disc player, blu ray players, impressive results, internet abilities, mov files, old tv, pen drives, upscaling, wmv files