LG BD370 Blu-Ray Player

For the price, the BD370 presents an attractive combination of Blu-Ray player with BD-Live functionality as well as Netflix internet movie streaming.

Unfortunately, the player has a very slow start-up sequence. During an 'updating' phase, the HDMI signal cuts out. Depending on display and/or receiver, the signal may never sync back up after that.

Like many disc players, the HDMI output format cannot be set or reset during movie playback. While this is usually not a problem,  when combined with chronic HDMI cut-out, and the inability to continue playback at the same point in the movie after a stop (to reset the HDMI output)---you get an extremly frustrating and dysfunctional Blu-Ray movie experience.

We could never get the BD370 to provide a stable HDMI signal to any HDMI display or receiver device regardless of brand. We used cables certified for 1080P at 120Hz, and tried several brands of cables that also worked fine with all of our other HDMI equipment.

LG customer support was dismissive and extremely slow to respond. A RMA request through the LG web site took one week before receiving the first response. When talking to customer service directly, agents sounded annoyed, lacked HDMI expertise, and promised HDMI specialist call-backs that didn't happen. The LG RMA process requires customers to send in their equipment without any promise of a replacement to actually correct obvious problems.

We have also experienced HDMI compatibility problems with a LG DVD player with 1080 upconvert on its HDMI output. LG simply flunks the HDMI interoperability test when connected to other brands of displays and highly regarded AV receivers.

The LG BD370 was finally returned to the supplier for a refund.