LG BP620

Hey, I'm Matthew Moskovciak from CNET.com, and we're gonna take a look at the LG BP620. This is LG's top-of-the-line, 3D Blu-Ray player for 2012 and it's selling for about $130.00. The design is pretty basic, you've got the disc tray on the left, a few front panel buttons, and a USB port on the front, flip it around and there's just a basic set of ports including an HDMI output, an optical audio output and an Ethernet port, there's also built-in WiFi so you don't need an Ethernet jack in your living room. The included remote is pretty good, the buttons are laid out nicely but there's no dedicated button for Netflix or the Smart TV content portal which is a nice feature that is available on some competitors. The main homepage is pretty simple although the icons for Premium and LG apps are a little confusing; Premium is actually where you're gonna find all the apps you want like Netflix and Pandora; while LG apps is filled with a bunch of useless games and apps that you're never really gonna use; however, once you get in to the Premium section, the user interface is very straightforward; it's basically just a grid of icons and it is the best interface I've seen for streaming content on a Blu-Ray player. LG's selection of streaming services is pretty good including Netflix, Hulu Plus, Pandora, and Vudu, with MLB. TV and Mug coming in a future firmware update; the big missing app though is Amazon Instant which LG supported last year but it's not gonna be available on 2012 Blu-Ray players so if you want Amazon on your Blu-Ray player, you're gonna need to checkout some competing models from Panasonic and Sony. Image quality was excellent on Blu-Ray movies, DVDs, and Netflix but that's to be expected since all Blu-Ray players pretty much have the same image quality these days. In terms of disc loading speeds, the LG is about average, although it doesn't have a quick start mode so it takes a little longer to turn on than some other players. Overall, the LG BP620 is a solid, all around, Blu-Ray player with a great Smart TV interface and 3D compatibility but it's not quite as good as Panasonic's DMP-BDT220 which has Amazon Instant, a dedicated Netflix button, and a faster boot-up time for the same price. I'm Matthew Moskovciak from CNET and this is the LG BP620.