CUSTOM INSTALLATION HOW-TO

The Short Form

Price $1,200 / lgusa.com / 800-243-0000

Snapshot

LG's Super Multi Blue player has its share of quirks, but it also delivers fine video performance with Blu-ray Discs, HD DVDs, and regular DVDs.

Plus

•Great picture quality with Blu-ray Disc and HD DVD •Clean 1080i video upconversion of regular DVDs •Plays both Blu-ray Discs and HD DVDs

Minus

•No interactive features or menu display with HD DVDs •1080p video output incompatible with some HDTVs •Stereo-only output for Dolby TrueHD and PCM soundtracks •No audio CD playback

Key Features

•6-source/6-zone system •Plays both Blu-ray Discs and HD DVDs •1080p/24 video output •6-channel analog audio output •Outputs: HDMI, component-video, and composite-video; coaxial and optical digital audio, 6-channel analog audio •17 x 3 x 10 in; 9 lb

SETUP To test the BH100, I hooked it up to my system using the player's digital HDMI jack as well as its analog six-channel audio outputs. Entering the Display submenu from the setup screen, I chose the 1080p resolution option (the TV that I used accepts 1080p/ 24-format signals, so the LG's limitations there weren't an issue). I also checked out the player's video performance using its component-video outputs, but, as with other high-def disc players, resolution for both HD DVD and Blu-ray Disc playback maxes out at 1080i when you use that connection.

The BH100's audio setup menu proved to be somewhat confusing. An SPDIF option lets you select either bitstream or PCM output for the BH100's digital audio jacks, and the player's user manual recommends PCM for setups where two-channel audio is preferred - no ambiguity there. But then the manual goes on to suggest that in order to hear DTS-HD audio, you need to first select PCM from the player's SPDIF menu option. After following LG's advice, I only managed to hear stereo audio coming from both the player's coaxial digital and HDMI outputs when listening to discs with DTS-HD master Audio soundtracks. Switching back to the Bitstream option returned things to the multichannel realm, but, as LG later confirmed, what I was hearing was the core 5.1-channel DTS soundtrack, and not DTS-HD Master Audio, via all outputs.

Other options available from the Audio menu include 48- or 96-kHz sampling frequency and 5.1-channel speaker output when using the player's six-channel analog audio connection. The 5.1 speaker setting enables you to set large or small speaker size and turn on test signals when using the analog audio output, but there's no option for speaker distance.

PERFORMANCE Since the BH100 plays regular DVDs along with HD DVDs and Blu-ray Discs, I started out by spinning some old-school discs on it. The LG did a fine job upconverting the 480i-format DVD video to 1080i HDTV (the resolution limit for upconverted DVD sources on the BH100). Pictures looked clean and solid, although the TV I was using also contributed quite a bit here by deinterlacing the 1080i signal for its native 1080p screen. One issue that I did notice was a spot of chroma upsampling error - an artifact that mostly shows up as darker horizontal lines in bright red areas. But instances of the problem were few and far between.

If you pick up a BH100 to use mainly as a Blu-ray Disc player, you're going to be a happy camper, because BD picture quality on the machine is excellent. As I watched the Ridley Scott epic Kingdom of Heaven, the player delivered an abundance of fine detail. In wide shots of Jerusalem seen from the hilltop vantage of Balian (Orlando Bloom), the gobs of detail visible in the background lent the vista an impressive sense of depth. And close-up shots were characterized by even greater three-dimensional realism. When I watched a scene set in an outdoor spice market, for example, the intricate play of light and shadow on the customers' robes was clearly revealed, as were the powdery texture and deep hues of the orange and yellow spice mounds. The player's picture also held up extremely well when I used a component-video connection.