Design
Occupying a small footprint of just 8 inches depth, the BX580 comes with a new mirror finish and a simple layout. On the left is a thin disc tray followed by eject, power, LCD display play/pause, stop, fast forward, fast reverse buttons. On the right beneath a flip down panel is a USB 2.0 port.However in going for a clean and clutter-free look with the flip down panel, LG has introduced a fundamental flaw in design. Since the BX580 does not come with internal memory, you are required to insert a USB thumb-drive to enable BD-Live Web content download. This requires you to flip the face plate down, which is an inconvenience, and it spoils the clutter-free look. Incidentally over a period of time, dust will also accumulate on the inner part of front panel.
Connectivity
All the essential connectivity options are available. You get a HDMI 1.4 output, digital coaxial and optical audio outputs, composite audio/video and component video outs. What’s missing are multichannel 7.1 discreet audio outputs found in higher-end kits for outputting decoded high-resolution surround sound to legacy home theater receivers. Like previous LG blu-ray players, the BX580 has built-in 802.11n Wi-Fi. the BX580 also includes an Ethernet port if you prefer the stability of a wired connection.Features
Apart from playing back 3D blu-ray content, the BX580 comes with a suite of media-streaming services that is part of LG’s NetCast feature. It delivers video-on-demand (VOD) services such as Netflix and Vudu HD, YouTube videos, Picasa Web Albums for viewing online photos and AccuWeather for weather forecasts. The applications work very well on both Ethernet and Wi-Fi connections, though they cannot be activated or displayed while watching a movie. There’s also no high-def video playback for YouTube which offers up to 720p clips.The player is also DLNA-compliant and capable of streaming video, audio, and photo files from a network-connected PC via Ethernet or Wi-Fi or viewing them from a USB drive. The file and media format supported are:
Music: MP3, WMA, WAV
Photo: JPEG, PNG
Videos: Standard-definition (MPEG-1/2/4, DivX) and high-definition (MKV, H.264, DivX HD)
Like nearly every Blu-ray player available now, the BX580 offers onboard decoding for both high-resolution Dolby and DTS formats.
Nero MediaHome 4 Essential software is bundled to enable media server capability on a PC based on the Windows XP and Vista operating systems. Instead of showing plain CD track numbers, the BX580 is able to display album cover art, artist names and individual song titles automatically pulled off the Internet. The process takes no longer than a few seconds and is initiated when a music CD is inserted into the disc player.
Furthermore, you can rip CDs directly to an external USB storage such as a thumbdrive or hard drive under its CD-recording function. The soundtracks are encoded in MP3 format using 128kbps, 192kbps, 320kps data compression or in lossless quality with ID3 metadata.
Key Features
- 3D Blu-ray playback
- WIFI technology
- External HDD playback
- DLNA-compliant, allowing you to stream music, photos, and videos from a connected PC
- Gracenotes to get more information about your music
- USB connection – for playing movies, music and videos
Specifications
- HDMI Output: Ver 1.4
- Media Type : 3D Blu-ray Disc, Blu-ray Disc, BD-R/RE, DVD, DVD±R/RW, Audio CD, CD-R/RW
- Built-in Audio Decoders : Linear PCM, Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby TrueHD, DTS-HD Master Audio, DTS Decoder
- Supported Digital Video Standards: Standard-definition (MPEG-1/2/4, DivX) and high-definition (MKV, H.264, DivX HD)
- Supported Audio Standards : MP3, WMA, WAV
- Video Resolution : 1920 x 1080
- Audio Output (on HDMI): Stereo, 7.1ch high-resolution PCM, Dolby Digital, Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby TrueHD, DTS, DTS-HD High Resolution Audio, and DTS-HD Master Audio.
- Dimensions: 16.9"W x 1.7"H x 7.9"D
I/O Connectivity
- HDMI Out: 1
- Component Video Out: 1
- Composite Video Out: 1
- Digital audio: Optical x 1
- Digital audio: Coaxial x 1
- Analog audio Out: 2 Channel (L/R)
- LAN Port (RJ-45): 1
- USB 2.0: Front x 1