LG BD670

Pros: Good variety of features and content. Easy to setup. Interface is intuitive and easy to navigate.

Cons: Often won't finish video files on USB
DVD audio glitch causes gap in audio at chapter breaks (perhaps fixed)
Online streaming regularly crashes or hangs the system
Many system updates that often don't succeed

Summary: I've had this unit for around six months now. I bought it to replace an older Blu-ray player and media center PC in order to get online content. Overall, I'm really frustrated with it because there are so many annoying problems. I will be replacing this device soon and getting whatever I can on craigslist for it.

*** First the good: ***
As others have said, the setup is very easy. It recognized the network quickly and easily and I could access both online and local-network content right away.

The features list is very good. It supports Netflix, Amazon, Hulu Plus, Pandora, YouTube, DailyMotion, and many others out of the box for online content. It also has a USB port in the front to play video, music, and photos from a USB drive.

Video playback quality seems on-par with other Blu-ray players.

Updates and improvements are constantly being made to the software/firmware.

*** Now, the bad: ***
In short, none of the good works without issues...

The most frustrating is that the online video applications - what the system refers to as "Premium" content - consistently freeze (where the system will be locked on a blank screen or loading message or some other random screen, and the only way to back out is to hold down the power button until the unit shuts off) or crash (where the unit will save you the trouble and shut itself off). I've seen this in the Netflix, Hulu Plus, and DailyMotion services.

When you watch DVDs in Dolby Digital or DTS, there is a small gap in the audio stream between chapters. I can see my receiver disply flicker to "Pro Logic" and immediately back to "Dolby Digital" or "DTS". While the receiver catches back up with the stream, the audio cuts out for a fraction of a second. This does not happen with Blu-rays. I guess I didn't watch any DVDs in the first month because I didn't notice it until after my 30-day return window closed. I called LG and was asked a lot of irrelevant questions, was told that they had never seen this before, that it was probably a problem with my receiver (though my older Blu-ray and DVD players didn't have this issue), and they were of no help. I ended up putting my receiver into Pro Logic mode when I watch DVDs to "resolve" the issue. Obviously not happy about this. @time4areview mentioned in his review that a recent system update fixed this now-known problem. I have yet to try it to see.

The unit frequently announces software/firmware updates. This generally would not be an issue, and I'm happy to see that improvements are being made. The problem is that the updates fail more often than they succeed. I seem to always have an update pending, and when I allow the unit to go through the update, it sits for several minutes just to tell me that it was unsuccessful.

The USB port seems a bit buggy, too. The system will sometime hang when you put a drive in the port at the wrong time (like if it's thinking about something else). I've also noticed that many videos will cut off early (it's at a consistent time for each video but at a different time between different videos). The videos play fine on any computer in my house. Even at the best of times, the video playback is noticeably choppy.

The system does not recognize or play the native MTS HD video files that come from my video camera. I can't complain too loudly about this because support for these files is very limited everywhere.

All of these issues together leave me cursing quite a bit at my TV and remote. Roughly 3/4 of the times that we try to access online content, we experience some form of nuisance. 1/4 of the time it's bad enough that we turn off the TV and do something else.