LG BD370
LG’s BD370 is a slim unit with a large central power button; press just to the left to open or close the tray, press just to the right to play or pause. Or hit power by mistake. There’s another ergonomic annoyance, which is that there’s no built-in memory for BD live, and the USB port is accessed by pulling down the right hand flap.
When using USB flash drives the flap has to stay open, exposing stop and next/previous chapter buttons as well. Also, we found the LG a bit picky with this storage method, by not loading some BD-Live titles with one of our USB flash drives. Connectivity options include component and composite, plus co-axial audio, as well as digital.
Niggles aside, this is a pretty good player. It has the best interface of the bunch, with well designed graphics, and a decent remote. The Home screen offers Movie, YouTube, Photo, Music and Setup options. YouTube is simple to use, and worked well, as did the photo browser, and the player was one of the fastest to load our test discs.
Format support is not as good as the Samsung, though there is DivX playback. However, BD-Live features on our X-Men Wolverine disc didn’t work, and that, together with the pickiness over USB memory, precludes an outright recommendation, even at this attractive price.
Rating 80%
Price £150 Click here for the best online price
More Info LG’s BD370 page
Panasonic DMP-BD60
Like most other recent Panasonic AV products, the DMP-BD60 includes VieraCast, which gives access to YouTube, Picasa, weather reports, Bloomberg stock prices, EuroSport clips and a German language news service. There’s support for AVC HD playback from SD card, as well as photos and DivX; you’ll need the SD card inserted for BD-Live, too, as there’s no built in storage.
Setup is straightforward, and the remote is quite easy to use but, overall, everything felt a bit sluggish – a fact borne out by some of the slowest disc load times in the group. And while the menus are clear and uncluttered, they lack the polish and simplicity found in the Philips or LG players, which both cost around the same amount.
Connectivity is pretty standard – HDMI, composite, and component video, plus optical and analogue audio. If you have a Panasonic TV and want to use the single remote, it’s worth looking at, but there are better performers for the money.
Rating 65%
Price £196 Click here for the best online price
More Info Panasonic’s DMP-BD60 page
Next page: Philips BDP7300
COMMENTS
XMB
XMB. I like it.
It is a simple and straightforward none-touch interface. Most of my none-gamer mates got used to it immediately.
So let me get this straight...
The PS3 has built in storage, blu-ray, fastest disc load times, iPlayer and much much more at a decent price point but because it has a "gaming remote" El Reg is practically dismissing it out of hand? Despite an official Sony Blu-Ray remote for PS3 being available for £14.99 online (a 10 second Google search BTW).
Another vote for the PS3
Quite apart from the WiFi, web, iPlayer, excellent DLNA facilities, superior upscaling and audio options, massive built in storage, announced upgrade path to 3D, and range of controller options, my PS3 Slim only cost £199.99 from Sainsburys.
Frankly, the standalone players don't even begin to compete with it.
Oh, and it can play games, rent movies and do a ton of other crap too.
WTF? Is there some kind of anti-PS3 agenda we should know about?
@Nigel Whitfield.
Hmm, you seem extremely biased aginst the PS3, despite it offering BD playback on-par with the other players on test, despite it upscaling DVD's better than most of the players on test, despite it offering features like iPlayer, video store, media streaming, Freeeview PVR (which none of the other players offer) in addition to it's gaming capabilities.
Like you mentioned, you can get the players less than list price, but you can pickup the PS3 for less than list price too. Sainsbury had the 120GB PS3 Slim for £199. Why one earth would anyone choose a basic, non(or limited) upgradable player for the same, or more, when the PS3 offers so much and does it so well.
As for marking it down on the basis of a £15 remote, that's just plain pathetic...
PS3 - Gaming remote only?!
I know the PS3 only comes with the sixaxis but you could have at least mentioned that you can get a remote for some extra ££ which makes it feel like a proper player, additionally it's compatible with newer Sony tvs so you don't even need that control if you have one.
Also since when is only having hdmi a downside for a blu-ray player? Isn't it the defacto standard for HD devices playing content with copy protection?
Games and HD content in one box, brilliant :)
