Audio Video News

LG kicked off CES press day with a slew of impressive product announcements, including wireless HDTVs, 240 HZ LCDs TVs, and LED backlit LCD models — as well as TVs that combine several of those capabilities. So many sets, really, that they deserve a separate post. But let’s first talk about Blu-ray.

Two new players were announced: the BD370 and BD390. LG is calling these Network Blu-ray Disc Players, no doubt due to their Ethernet connections and ability to stream regular and HD movies from Netflix. For both new models, content streaming capabilities have been extended to include YouTube and CinemaNow (LG’s press release is unclear on the point, but I’m assuming HD content can be streamed from CinemaNow). The 390 also has built-in wireless networking capability and 1 GB of local storage for BD-Live features on discs.

Look out for the BD370 and BD390 to arrive in the 2nd and 3rd quarters, respectively. No prices have been announced, but with the way things are going with Blu-ray players, I don’t expect you’ll have to pay too much. —Al Griffin