LG BD630 Network Blu-ray Price Review

If you want stunning Full HD 1080p and streaming
Entertainment, you have found it with the
BD630 Network Blu ray Disc Player.

436 of 444 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of five stars Fast loading for Blu Ray and really excels at local media playback!, April 18, 2011
By Marty Gillis (Los Angeles, CA USA) See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER) (VINE VOICE) This review is from: LG BD630 Network Blu ray Disc Player (Electronics) I was pleasantly surprised with the LG BD630! You get a whole LOT for the money! I’m going to attempt and pick this thing separately somewhat in this review , if you’re interested then Read On Mc Duff!

I bought this unit for my 81 year old father who has taken to watching Xvid and MKV files from the internet, typically documentaries on WW2 and other history programs. Of course he also watches DVD’s but hasn’t till now delved into Blu Ray or Netflix streaming. I needed something for him that had a easy to follow menu system and worked WELL with a minimum of glitches.

The player itself is basic on the outside. The BD630 features an on/off , eject, play/pause and stop buttons on it is face and a USB slot covered with a little rubber trap door on the right hand side with the disc drawer in the center. It does not exactly exude high build quality on 1st glance, but what makes this little player SO good is the software inside. (more on that soon) Mind you, it is not totally cheap looking and as the saying goes good things can and DO come in small packages.

This is a small (not deep) unit and also a lightweight one. It came filled with a decent PRINTED manual , basic cabling (you will need an HDMI or part cable) and a working remote that uses only one AAA cell, also included. It comes with a couple of printed adverts for Netflix and a small sticker on the top of the unit that screams NETFLIX at you. (easily removed) The power cable is attached. You get composite video out, stereo RCA audio outs , part Video and HDMI Out , a Coax audio out and a LAN port for connecting to your home network if you want to use the Netcast features like Netflix and You Tube.

Being at the low end of the LG food chain, this specific player isn’t DLNA enabled and to play your video files (other than blu ray and DVD) you have to stream from a USB device be it a thumb drive or external hard drive. You can’t connect this unit via the Ethernet connection to your computer. LG starts as well as THAT feature some more models UP from this one. I guess that’s understandable given the price point.

The connectivity is good really, you may be able to use this device with everything from an analogue standard TV all the way up to 1080p HDTV and your audio alternatives are just as good with the analogue stereo outs, or the Coax digital which can handle up to 5.1 Dolby Digital or DTS and the HDMI which can pass thru the uncompressed Dolby TruHD or DTS Master Audio tracks that accompany most of the blu ray releases. You may be able to set the Video output to go with your TV resolution, set picture part percentage to play 4:3 programs as is or to stretch them to fill your screen. The USB port may be used to connect a USB thumb drive or an external hard drive. It is not too picky about the formatting of the drive and may also support up to four drive partitions. That alone is amazing for the price and a nice touch.

This brings me to my 1st and only big complaint about this machine. It’s SO lightweight than when you plug in your USB drive or cable to it, the unit itself tends to push backwards. Possibly adding many non slip little rubber feet to the bottom with a couple drops of super glue could easily crack that.

Just be aware that if you aren’t cautious, you run the risk of knocking the thing over when accessing that feature. Note: To access any BD Live features you may wish to download and view, a USB drive is needed as there seemingly is minimal onboard memory. I personally disable BD Live on every machine I have as this tends to slow loading times.

Set up took less than two minutes after connections were made. The machine boots quickly. Easily as quickly as my Oppo BDP 80. Things got interesting when I loaded a Java heavy Blu Ray disc and it loaded quickly. I can honestly say this machine loads a Blu Ray disc FASTER than my Oppo (a nice fast machine) and that blew me away just to see it happen. Playback was as projected. GREAT! DVD up conversion to 1080p was average for a new machine today, but better than average for machines only a year or so old. And the disc tray itself is hard and goes in and out without any sort of deafening rattle of worrisome grinding noises. (a complaint for many Oppo BDP 80 and 83 users)

The Netflix GUI is about the same as on the current crop of LG TV’s. Your performance is going to rely more on your internet connection and speed than the LG software which I believe is good. Navigating my Instant Queue was a bit sluggish but I have the same problem on ANY of my Netflix enabled devices. Once you start playback and it loads, things work just the way you could expect and want them to.

It is noteworthy to talk about I had NO problems at all playing DVD R and CD R discs. Discs containing Xvid and other video file types also loaded quickly and played perfectly. Just for fun I put in a region free friend disc and it spit it back out with an on screen message telling me it was the wrong region. (I had to try) So just, this thing will play ANYTHING I or my Dad owns EXCEPT for friend. OH well, you can not have everything!

Basically, it works and works well. You may be able to update the firmware via the LAN port or with downloading from the LG site and burning a disc or putting it on a USB drive which is what I did before attempting to play anything. Time will tell if LG continues to support this machine with more firmware updates as they become required to play many of the more Java intensive titles like the new Alien discs. If updating firmware intimidates you, find someone you know who is an old hand at it and let THEM do it so you do not accidentally ‘brick’ your player. Really, it is not that hard. (just do not turn the machine off while updating)

I personally own an LG 47 inch LE 5400 TV and as projected the software in the BD630 is nearly same for playing computer files, mp3′s looking at photos, etc. IN many parts , they improved the software and I was duly impressed. It’s smooth, easy to see what you’re doing with logically laid out screens , easy to recognize the individual file names and the transport controls are hard and responsive when playing everything from an Xvid to a 720p or 1080i Mkv file. We did not have any 1080p files to test so I can only speak for the others. They all loaded reasonable fast and played glitch free. Pause and resume worked perfectly. You may be able to access the information screen while playing the file. Audio synch was a non issue. Just this is everything a person could want in local media file playback. (6 7 11 EXCEPT playing Divx files, see my update below) attempt as I could, I encountered NO glitches of any type other than having to set our Harmony remote answer time to shorter as it gived double commands for the left and right direction buttons.

Just the local media file playing capability of this unit alone is worth the buy price. Add THAT with great Blu Ray playback, fast loading times (depends on the Blu Ray title as many discs will load quicker than others) more than decent DVD up conversion , Netflix streaming and more and I think LG has a winner at a price point you just can not argue with. I remember just some years ago Sony selled their flagship Blu Ray Player for 999.00 and it did not do 25 of what THIS machine can do. Good stuff and a FULL one year warranty for Parts AND Labor!

Oh yeah, my 81 year old father is having NO trouble making this thing work at all. I just caught him playing a HD video file that he had loaded himself and I thought to myself “now that’s user friendly” !! If I run into any future problems or software glitches with this thing I’ll update this review and add whatever else I learned.

UPDATE 5 13 11 The LG is still going strong. We have still to run into any file that won’t play and unlike many reviewers haven’t experienced any player malfunctions with standard DVD playback as well as my Lord of The Rings expanded editions. NO freezes, disc jams or failing to loads encountered so far. I still stand by my earlier declaration about the Blu Ray disc load times. They’re faster than my Oppo BDP 80 which is pretty fast to start with.

IMPORTANT UPDATE 6 7 11 I learned the hard way last night that this player doesn’t support any Divx files. I should have read the specification sheet more carefully as they don’t list Divx as a supported codec. If you want to play any Divx encoded files you’ll have to ‘trans code’ them using a program like ‘Handbrake’ or ‘Any Video Converter’ which is MY favorite (freeware) and change it into a codec the player DOES recognize. I has been surprised to find this out as my LG HDTV WILL PLAY files with the Divx file extension. Go figure! SO FAR this is the ONLY kind of video file I have run into that won’t play. (Apparently LG did not want to pay the licensing fee to Divx)

FINAL UPDATE 9 20 11 Just wanted to say this LG player is still going strong and plays the new Blu Ray Star Wars set without issue or glitch. For the money I am convinced it is a real bargain. My 81 year father was happily playing Xvids, MKV and H264 files easily like he was doing it all his life and hasn’t once come to me for any help with a disc or file that will not load. I bought this same player for my lady friend and she gives me nothing but glowing reports. As with all electronics I’m sure at many point it’ll be out of date, but for now it’s a hard contender and I stand by my full review. Cheers! Marty Gillis

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131 of 139 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of five stars could be great if network connection worked, May 14, 2011
By Paul Kimelman (Alamo, CA USA) See all my reviews
(REAL NAME) This review is from: LG BD630 Network Blu ray Disc Player (Electronics) I bought this player to replace an present BR player because I wanted the Netflix streaming. That worked perfectly when I got it and we used it for six weeks with no problems.
Then, it decided to update the firmware. Now it’ll not connect on the network. It has no error messages, nothing you may be able to change (other than static IP), and you can not revert the firmware.
I contacted LG, who are good about answering the phone. They admitted that many firmware variant had a problem and had me manually upgrade. That didn’t help.
I contacted Netgear and through the logs from the router, they say the player is generating many of crc errors.
I contacted LG again and they had me send it to them. They sent it back with a note saying that they saw no problem. I tried it and still no luck. It’s worthless for the function.
I dont have idea if this could work better with another vendor’s networking, but I have 20 different types of devices connected wired and wirelessly with no problem (from PCs and Macs to PS3s and Wiis and music players and mobile devices). I believe that LG has made many awful change in their firmware but won’t own up to it.
So, be forewarned and be cautious about taking any new firmware from LG.
NEW INFO: after to get a network snooper, I was able to see that the LG is using bad DHCP messages. Many routers can accept them, but the netgear can not (and I suspect others can not either). I switched to static IP (and setup the assignment in the router) and now it works. You shouldn’t have to do that, but that’s what it took.

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68 of 71 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of five stars great Deal!!!!!, March 19, 2011
By Scuba Paris (USA) See all my reviews () This review is from: LG BD630 Network Blu ray Disc Player (Electronics) Great deal for only $125. Set up is way to easy. Input the HDMI cable in, input the ethernet cable in and input the power in. Turn on the Blue ray and you’re prepared to go. The menu is user friendly. Movies look great. Regular and blue ray movies.
The interface working with Netflix is top notch. It offers the instant queue and all other choices like your on the computer. Loads quickly with very clear picture.

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