First Review: LG BH100 Hybrid Blu-Ray/HD-DVD

We saw an unboxing yesterday and today we get to see an actual review of the new LG BH100 dual player. I am not sure how you can do a review in a day, I guess those crazy bloggers get things done quicker. The downside to getting this player is that you do not get the HDi (interactive features) of HD DVD and they were not able to get 1080p mode to work. Other then that, bootimes were fairly speedy and they forgot to include and HDMI cable.

From the article:

But beyond that, she did play both discs. And the boot times were in the 30-40 second range for both HD formats. That's a step in the right direction compared to many of the 1st gen disc players that took about a minute. Strangely, the boot times were around 30 seconds for DVDs, too. A little long, but this is still the only way to get both formats in your home with one piece of gear. (Until those dual format discs pick up.)

Generally, if a player like this works, its quality is good enough for 95 percent of the population. But with a price tag of 1200 bucks, before tax and shipping, I had to test the player's visual qualities. Without an adequate HD synthetic benchmark, I used the tried and true HQV test DVD that gives quantitative scores for a DVD player's video processor quality with clips that aggravate jaggies, noise, moire, and frame rate cadence. The disc is the equivalent to Marine Boot Camp, so when the player scored a 55 out of 130, I wasn't too dissapointed, but I was not impressed, either. By reference, the XBox DVD player scored a 40. So, the LG is "OK".