PC Magazine
$675.00 – $800.00
by Robert Heron
The question readers often ask me is, What HDTV should I buy? The second most common inquiry is, Should I go with Blu-ray or HD DVD? I usually answer the first by finding out their room-environment situation and budget. I then direct folks over to my recent HDTV Buyers’ Guide for comprehensive HDTV shopping advice. My answer to the second question has remained constant since this high-def debacle began: Get a combo player—if you can afford one. A disc player that can play both Blu-ray and HD DVD movies takes the guesswork out of which of these two practically identical HD formats to choose. It also increases the number of titles you can enjoy: a win-win situation, albeit an expensive one. LG Electronics’ BH100 Super Blu Player was the first set-top player that boasted multi-format capabilities. Its successor, the BH200 Super Blu Player ($1,049.95 list) brings some much-needed improvements. Even so, the player is saddled with a number of quirks that give it a slightly unfinished feel.
Unpacking the BH200 from its retail carton revealed a box of accessories that included a component video cable and a composite video cord (that should, in my view, immediately be recycled), but no HDMI cable. The player’s remote is almost identical to the one that comes with the BH100 and has some of the smallest, most nondescript buttons I’ve seen for basic disc control. The relatively tiny buttons on the remote bundled with the Samsung BD-P1000 Blu-ray player at least feature Braille-like bumps to increase tactile feedback. The BH200’s new remote also does away with all backlighting and glowing keys. I did find that a little practice helps with use in a darkened room.
The BH200 retains the all-black styling of its predecessor. I liked that the control keys that were on the top of the old BH100 have been relocated to the face of this player, so it isn’t forced to sit atop an A/V component stack. As with the BH100, the BH200’s control buttons are touch sensitive and encircled by an intense blue glow when activated. The relatively lightweight (8.3-pound) player measures 2.9 by 16.9 by 10.6 inches (HWD)—a relatively shallow depth for a home-theater disc box.
Component video, composite video, and HDMI ports are located on the rear. Audio outputs (in addition to HDMI) include optical (Toslink) and stereo RCA-type connections. A USB port placed behind a fold-down door on the lower-right face of the player lets you access portable storage devices containing digital music and pictures using BH200’s integrated player software. This basic multimedia player handled various MP3 files without a problem, but it seems that the picture software is incompatible with high-resolution shots. It wouldn’t display 10-megapixel JPEG images, but a 7MP image of similar size displayed properly. Interestingly, the image-viewing software used by my LG 47LBX test HDTV was compatible with the same 10MP images.
The BH200 is capable of outputting 1080p60 (60-Hz) video when playing HD discs as well as (upconverted) DVD videos when using its HDMI port. It also supports component video output at up to 1080i when playing HD discs and 480p when spinning DVD video. LG claims that the BH200 automatically detects a display device’s support for 1080p24 (24-Hz, or 24-fps) input when connected to the player over HDMI. This 1080p24 video format matches the frame rate used in most films and digital cinema, and it’s the encoded format of most HD movie discs. Unfortunately, of the three HDTVs in my lab that support 1080p24 input, none were detected by my BH200 test unit. Worse, there is no way to manually enable 1080p24 output with the BH200. Clearly, the unit’s 1080p24 abilities aren’t quite ready, yet.
I confirmed that the BH200 can decode all audio formats commonly found on standard and high-definition movie discs. The player, however, is unable to pass raw bitstreams of Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD encoded lossless audio to a compatible A/V receiver (via HDMI). Also, Dolby TrueHD audio is converted to two-channel PCM stream in all cases, except when a menu-selectable DTS re-encode mode is enabled. Still, for owners of more mundane A/V receivers, these digital audio limitations will go unnoticed.
In order to qualify for official HD DVD certification (something the previous BH100 model lacked), the BH200 has an active Ethernet port. Even so, firmware updates that are a regular part of HD disc player maintenance must still be downloaded using a computer and applied to the player using a recordable disc or USB flash drive. All other HD DVD players I’ve tested, such as the Toshiba HD-XA2 and HD-A30, as well as some of the latest Blu-ray players, like the Samsung BD-P1200, and even the Sony PlayStation3, can be updated directly when connected to the Internet. Speaking of updates, during the course of this review, LG released a new firmware update for the BH200 that corrected a bug I encountered in which the player would lock up when navigating the thumbnail previews of picture files. This new firmware was used for all subsequent testing and evaluation.
With its inclusion of official HD DVD support, the BH200 can now deliver the full HD DVD menu and its flashy interactive experience. Unfortunately, the same snazzy HD DVD movie menus that appeared on screen smoothly when using a dedicated HD DVD player would stutter into view on the BH200. Additionally, text entry or other interactive navigation features took about twice as long to complete as on dedicated HD DVD players. Also, on a few occasions when I switched between an HD movie disc and multimedia files stored on a USB drive, the player simply turned itself off. And without fail, my HD DVD copy of the Digital Video Essentials TV calibration tool would freeze the BH200 completely when I attempted to navigate its menus. Another HD test disc also produced a lockup if I allowed it to play until the end of a looped intro. Despite these issues, I encountered no significant playback problems with a variety of Blu-ray and HD DVD movie titles that I tried. But some downloaded content (available with an HD DVD title), however, was displayed with an incorrect aspect ratio—a big problem given that most discs make use of this ability.
Also available on the BH200 is a default processing mode that uses Marvell’s capable Qdeo video technology. Custom picture control options are available, as well, and include not only color and detail controls but also several video-noise reduction options. The primary display I used to test the BH200 was the lovely Pioneer Elite KURO PRO-150FD 1080p plasma television, which was calibrated using the TV’s pure picture preset with all video-processing features disabled, except where noted.
As an upconverting DVD player, I found the BH200 to be the best I’ve seen at preserving detail while minimizing common artifacts such as flicker and video noise. The BH200 quickly detected DVD video sourced from 24-fps material (most film and digital cinema), and its HQV Benchmark DVD results were the highest I’ve seen from a disc player, the only “gotcha” being some minor jagged-edge artifacts related to deinterlacing.
One issue that couldn’t be ignored with the BH200’s DVD video playback was a 3- or 4-pixel-thick green line that started at the top right-hand corner of the picture and extended toward the left for about a quarter of the picture’s width. This annoying artifact was visible with all DVD videos I looked at but was not present when playing HD discs or multimedia files. Televisions that overscan the video picture by even a small amount do not display this green line artifact, but being forced to enable overscan to remove this obvious distraction is, to me, an unacceptable compromise.
I found the BH200 adept at delivering exceptional image quality with interlaced and progressively encoded content. This is a marked improvement over the BH100’s performance with interlaced video, and it suggests that the BH200’s Qdeo video processor is an effective and capable performer with HD material. The BH200’s start-up time averaged just over 32 seconds from power-up to the time the tray actually opened. Comparing the disc load times between the Blu-ray and HD DVD versions of the BBC’s Planet Earth series, I observed that Blu-ray discs loaded in about 29 seconds compared with 38 seconds for HD DVD. Load times for HD DVD were similar to those of the Toshiba HD-A30.
Power consumption measurements put the BH200’s monthly operating cost at a paltry $0.83—based on 8 hours of daily operation at $0.13 per kWh. Even the most dedicated movie buff would be hard pressed to put a dent in the monthly utility bill, since the player averaged just over 25W during playback.
The LG BH200 Super Blu Player delivers excellent video quality with both HD disc formats, and its ability to upscale DVD video ranks is the best I’ve seen—that is, if you can ignore a bright green line running across the picture. While I doubt the BH200 will ever match the HD DVD menu and navigation performance of a dedicated player, future firmware updates can and likely will correct some of the other quirks I encountered—though not directly via Ethernet, as noted. Let’s hope making those updates easier for less-tech-savvy owners is near the top of LG’s to-do list.
Video Outputs: Composite, Component, HDMI
Audio Outputs: Optical (Toslink), HDMI, Stereo RCA
Height: 2.9 inches
Width: 16.9 inches
Depth: 10.6 inches
Weight: 8.3 lb
Supported EDTV and HDTV Resolutions (HD Ready): 480p, 720p, 1080i, 480i, 1080p
Disc Format Support: DVD Video, DVD-RAM, HD-DVD, Blu-ray, CD audio, CD (JPEG), CD (MP3)
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