LG LST-3510A DVD Player / Receiver

This is a combination HDTV tuner and a DVD player that can show conventional DVD output in HD (720p or 1080i) via up-conversion. When I bought my LCD HD-ready TV, I was looking for an HDTV tuner and bought this unit, lured by the DVD up-conversion. If your TV doesn't have many inputs, this unit can be useful since you only need 1 component or 1 DVI to view both DVD and HDTV. (but see below for issues with up-conversion over component.)

Connectivity
Video out: DVI-HDTV(HDCP), RGB, Component, S-Video, RCA.
Audio out: Digital optical, digital coax, RCA.
Antenna: 1 in, 1 loop out.

Tuner performance
The HDTV can tune both over the air and cable HDTV signals. I use over the air and the quality is very good, using my ancient VHF/UHF outdoor antenna. Unlike some tuners, you only get one antenna input, and it can only tune digital signal, no analog tuner included. (I use my TV's analog SDTV tuner for regular broadcast.) I don't have experience in any other tuner, so I can't tell you about relative sensitivity, but mine can pull in signals from 38 miles away. I'm very satisfied.

Tuner idiosyncrasies
With the remote, you can directly tune into sub-channels (e.g. 7-2). The unit allows you to program a surfing list of favorite channels, but inexplicably, you have to select whole channels (e.g. 7) and not individual sub-channels. Also, in my firmware version, you cannot directly tune channel 2 by punching in numbers, though it will tune by going channel + or -.

DVD performance
Using DVI, up-converted signal looks great. I haven't done a rigorous side by side test, so I can't tell you whether up-conversion really makes a big difference or not. It sure looks good though. Depending on the source material, I have some issues with the screen scaling when showing widescreen material. It doesn't quite seem to fit perfectly. Maybe that's normal, I don't know. This is my only widescreen TV. DVD somehow feels a bit clunky and slow, but I haven't measured it. Just a subjective feeling.

DVD idiosyncrasies
You should be aware that up-conversion of copy-protected (i.e. most commercial) DVD signal only works on the DVI-HDCP connector. Component and RGB outputs can only give 480p for copy-protected DVD. If your TV lacks DVI-HDCP, then forget up-conversion. You might be better off buying a cheap regular progressive DVD player. My biggest issue with this unit is their choice of using the same button for skip and scan functions. Press once to skip, keep key pressed down to scan. Very tedious and unprogrammable on my multi-function remote. Quite inexplicable because a lot of space is used for less often used keys like A-B, Repeat, Marker, etc. The unit is capable of playing a host of formats including CD, CD-RW, CD-R and Picture CD. I've only tried to use it to view pictures off of a CD, and the performance was quite bad. Slow and not very good looking.

Audio
I'm using digital coax and it sounds great. No complaints there.

Other quirks
You cannot have component and DVI outputs simultaneously. S-video and RCA are however active at the same time as component or DVI. I was hoping I could connect this to the HDMI input on my TV so I can use DVI for a computer. Somehow it didn't work. I'm guessing it's some kind of an HDCP handshaking issue, but I don't know. Another slightly annoying thing is that you can only switch to/from component or DVI at the console front panel, not on the remote. Same for specifying 480p/720p/1080i. To make matters more annoying, the buttons that accomplish this on the front panel are quite far apart.

Final word
In the end, none of the quirks were deal-breakers for me. The output looks excellent. I might have given it a 3 star if this niche had other comparable hybrid units that may have been better designed, but this is the only unit available, so I'm going to give it a 4 star.