Other Source Component Reviews

The BD590 internally decodes Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio and transmits them over HDMI as PCM to an A/V receiver or surround processor. If you have a new AVR and prefer to use its onboard decoding, the player can send the raw bitstream. I compared the two options and didn’t hear any difference in audio quality. However, with bitstream, you do lose the secondary audio with PiP commentaries and the clicks and beeps in Blu-ray menus.

User Interface
Apparently, virtually every Blu-ray player manufacturer assumes that the consumer uses a universal remote because I rarely find the stock remotes the least bit useful. Sadly, that trend continues here. The remote that comes with the BD590 isn’t backlit, but at least the buttons for the main functions are larger than the rest of the buttons, and they glow in the dark for a few minutes. After I’d lived with the remote for a couple of weeks, I learned the positions of the commands I use most, but I still kept a penlight close by just in case. I prefer to watch my movies in a pitch-black room, as I suspect most HT readers do.

I spent quite a bit of time with the LG BD390 last summer, and I fell in love with its simple and speedy menus. For some reason, LG overhauled its new batch of players with middling results. The BD590’s responsiveness is much slower. Its menus feature a stark white background and floating ice-cube icons, which are labeled Movie, Photo, Music, Home Link, Netcast, and Setup. This seems pretty straightforward, but it isn’t. For example, you’d think your photos and music would reside in the applicably named folders—and they do, but only if you’ve loaded them onto the built-in hard drive or attached a USB device. If they reside on your PC or somewhere else on your network, they’ll be under Home Link.

In order to use Home Link, you must have compatible DLNA software on your home network. I have a Windows Home Server. I found that even though the BD590 could see my server, it couldn’t stream any music or video (although it could read the file names). I had to install a third-party DLNA client (Asset UPnP) in order to utilize the streaming capabilities. Strangely, I could access all of my photos without the use of a third-party client.

Player setup and network configuration is a breeze, with the usual assortment of options for Display, Language, Audio, and Network. The player defaults to a 1080i output, but you can easily change that in the menus. You do have to stop the disc and enter the setup menu to change the resolution, however; you can’t do it on the fly. The BD590 supports video outputs of 1080p (24 or 60), 1080i, 720p, 480p, and 480i (component output only), and there’s even an HDMI Color Setting (Y/Cb/Cr or RGB). With HDMI connections, the Auto setting will communicate with your display (acquiring the EDID information) to determine the best video output. In my case, that was 1080p. You can press the remote’s Info button to access customized picture controls while a movie is playing. I found the default settings to be the most accurate.

Configuring the audio for an HDMI-equipped system is a simple matter of choosing PCM Multi-Chan for internal decoding or Primary Pass-Thru for bitstream. If you use either the TosLink or the coaxial outputs, the BD590 offers a DTS re-encode feature that decodes the lossless formats and re-encodes them as a high-bitrate lossy DTS output to your AVR. If you’re in this camp and are blown away by the video on Blu-ray Discs, do yourself a favor and upgrade to a new AVR or surround processor so you can experience the full benefits of lossless audio.

Wireless connection to my equipment rack is spotty, but the 802.11n Wi-Fi found my network without any issues. Unfortunately, due to the reception patterns in that area of my house, the signal was too weak to reliably stream video, so I went old school and used wired Ethernet. During my time with the player, LG issued two firmware updates. Each took about three minutes to perform. Fortunately, you don’t have to reset the player to its factory settings like you do with my reference OPPO BDP-83.

In order to utilize many of the player’s Netcast features, you’ll need access to a PC or Mac to register for the various online services (Netflix, VUDU, and CinemaNow). I’m a longtime Netflix subscriber, so I’m familiar with the drill of registering the player to my account. I’ve reviewed players with CinemaNow support in the past, and I think its service is outdated. Most of its content is in standard definition, although it does have a few HD offerings. Still, there’s no comparison to the selection from VUDU and Netflix.

Tests and Real-World Performance
The BD590 performed well on most of our benchmark video-processing tests. It only failed the Chroma Resolution test on the Spears & Munsil High Definition Benchmark Blu-ray Edition, where the highest-frequency patterns showed roll-off. However, this wasn’t noticeable with real-world material. Standard-definition tests didn’t reveal any shortcomings, although the player is only average at scaling DVDs. Any time there’s a bright background with a dark object in the foreground, I saw prevalent ringing around the foreground object.