VUDU on the LG BD390 review
By Ben Drawbaugh 
posted Sep 30th 2009 11:00AM
posted Sep 30th 2009 11:00AM
Setup
Lets start with the VUDU on the BD390 out of the box experience. At some point next week, when you turn on your network connected BD390, you'll see that there's an update waiting for you. Once you click OK to install it, you'll find a new icon on the player's main menu. Upon selecting the new icon with the remote, you'll be faced with the main VUDU menu -- one that's remained virtually unchanged since the initial launch of the service. You can pretty much browse the entire selection, but when you try to buy or rent a movie you'll be presented with a simple activate screen that instructs you to go to your PC and navigate to a site. At which point you can enter an activation code from the screen and then eventually your credit card and other personal information. That's pretty much all there is to it, which couldn't be easier. We did also noticed that there is a overscan correction setting that's on by default, which you'll want to disable if your TV supports 1:1 pixel mapping.
Picture and Audio quality
Lets start with the good stuff which is the picture and audio quality. Like we said back when VUDU HDX was initially released, it is virtually indistinguishable from Blu-ray. Now we don't want to go as far as to say the quality is the equal to Blu-ray -- honestly we're not qualified -- but we will say that the picture quality has no noticeable compression artifacts like HD on cable and satellite does. The bottom line is that we'd be shocked if anyone had anything bad to say about the picture quality and the audio quality is pretty much in the same class. Thanks to the ability of the BD390 to bitstream Dolby Digital Plus or decode and output as LPCM, the VUDU HDX movies offer the next best thing to Blu-ray's Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD and the difference is so subtle that we can't tell the difference -- assuming it's even possible, we wonder what type of equipment you'd need to hear any difference that there might be. Of course we should mention that you might need as fast as a 9Mbps connection to get the same quality. In our tests we used a 20Mbps FiOS connection and the player always managed to negotiate an HDX quality stream for us -- more on that later. We do imagine that it might be a different story on a Friday Night at 8pm when more people are trying to stream a movie at the same time, but we suppose that's a problem VUDU would like to have.
Selection, Price and Usability
Now that we've covered the good, lets talk about the bad. We only wish the price and selection were as good as the quality. Just like the VUDU service on the dedicated box, the new release HDX movies are pretty expensive and don't offer the options we'd like to see. For example, you can pretty much only rent HDX titles and the cost is usually $5.99 with a 24 hour limit. As if this wasn't bad enough, although there are over 2000 HD titles most aren't what we're looking for. What we mean is that not all the Blu-ray new releases are there and most of the catalogs we own on Blu-ray aren't available to even rent in HDX.
Another issues we ran into was the fact that there aren't any English subtitles. Now obviously forced subtitles are there, but this hardly helps those who have hearing issues or that simply find it difficult to understand people with heavy accents. The other thing we noticed that's different in a bad way is that there are only 15 chapter markers in a movie and they seem to be based on time rather than the scenes of the movie. This isn't a huge deal and we did like the overall navigation -- we do prefer this to the original VUDU box, thanks to the standard remote. We were also disappointed to see that the next chapter button on the remote doesn't do anything, so you have to hit info, then the chapter icon, then browse the thumbnails, sans descriptions.
The last thing we want to mention here is the new preview feature that wasn't a part of the VUDU box back when we tried it. The cool thing is that you can sample most -- but not all -- of the movies and TV shows before committing to pay to watch it. The problem is that rather than show you an actual trailer of the movie or a specific sample that is a good example of the feature, it just shows you the first minute of the movie. This obviously doesn't always work as it might just be beginning credits, instead of something that will help you decide if you want to pay to watch the movie.
We'd also like to note that during our testing we checked out a variety of HDX content, but we only had time to watch one movie all the way through. The good news is that the overall experience was enjoyable, but the bad news is that the movie stopped a few times to rebuffer. This is really puzzling and concerning to us because we were able to verify FiOS was delivering the full 20Mbps to the BD390, and VUDU's bandwidth indicator always showed the full three bars. We just can't believe that this is normal, and are sure that VUDU is working diligently to ensure HDX streaming works, but it is something to consider as a pause in the action at the wrong time can really ruin a movie. We did ask VUDU what the deal was, and received a prompt response that it was a known issue in the early release build we were given, and unfortunetly we didn't get the fixed version -- that users are getting today -- in time.
Your movie viewing options
VUDU is actually a pretty good supplement to both Blu-ray and Netflix Watch Now. We say that because all three services seem to have HD content that you can't get anywhere else. Of course it would be nice if you could just choose one, but you really can't complain about having more options. So maybe you rent Blu-ray Discs from Netflix or Redbox, but when the latest title isn't getting to you fast enough, then you could hit up VUDU to watch something without waiting -- or for adult content. Then if you wanted to catch up on your favorite HD show, you switch over to Netflix Watch Now and stream that -- of course the big problem with Netflix streaming for movies, and even TV, is that Netflix doesn't offer surround sound. So the fact that the BD390 offers all three of these great sources of HD is pretty compelling, add in the fact that the player supports MKV so you can playback other HD content you might have, and you pretty much have access to more high quality HD content then you have time to watch.
Wrap-up
The bottom line here is that VUDU to the BD390 is a nice addition as owners now have a another source for HD content. Now because of VUDU's price and selection, we doubt anyone would use this as their primary source of HD content, but it does supplement Blu-ray better than any other streaming service. We would like to mention that if you're mostly interested in TV shows, just move along as the HD shows selection on VUDU is pretty pathetic. But to sumerize is in one nice and clean statement; Blu-ray is still our favorite source of HD, but HDX on VUDU is really the only acceptable source of on demand HD content available right now. Which means that now that we can access the content without yet another set-top-box, we look forward to using it.
Brilliant lets use an animated films so people can't tell the difference in detail.
You dream is to have video at an acceptable quality? Come on and dream big Engadget!
Haha, good point, a definition of acceptable is required. I'll add it, but just for the record, Netflix Watch Now (because there's no surround sound) and Cable or Satellite HD is NOT acceptable. So yeah, we have high standards.
Nice...im in the market for a device that plays both Netflix and Vudu. i think ill be looking into this piece of hardware.
uh, you might want to confirm that the update is actually available before you post the story...
otherwise, my BD390 (one week old) is everything I wanted. replaced my VUDU box, DVD player, and Popcornhour, plus added Netflix streaming. Awesome so far. keep pinging daily for the VUDU update...
I'm very sorry, I was told it would be released today. I have confirmed that it has been pushed back to next week. Sorry to get your hopes up.
PMF this LG390 what audio codec support does it have to go with MKVs? Does it support DTS/AC3 or *crosses fingers* FLAC or DTS-MA/TrueHD passthrough?
from the manual:
Playable Codec format: “DIVX3.xx”, “DIVX4.xx”, “DIVX5.xx”, “XVID”,
“DIVX6.xx” (Standard playback only), DIVX-HD, MPEG1 SS, MPEG2
PS, MPEG2 TS
Audio format: “Dolby Digital”, “DTS”, “MP3”, “WMA”, “AAC”, “AC3”,
Sampling frequency: within 32 - 48 kHz (WMA), within 16 - 48 kHz
(MP3)
most of my stuff is x264/AC3 in MKV. don't think flac or HD codecs supported...
hm.. nowdays all new player must have network abilities. lol VUDU.
I think that youtube need faster action for on-demand market. In this screenshot, youtube give me short funny video feeling than VUDU, netflix.
I'd be careful and would wait to see what else LG has in its line up . I'm a BD300 user and they unveiled the BD390 3 months after I bought my BD300 (which, at the time, had been on the market only 6 months). Since the 370 and 390 came onto the market, there hasn't been any update to the 300 so buyer beware as LG does not believe in backward compatibility.
What consumer electronics company does? I mean recently Sony wouldn't even add Netflix to its brand new player and instead added it to a new player, which was really the same old player with a different model number.
are you kidding? they threw VUDU in as a bonus to a player that's been out over 6 months. that's a point in their favor, if you ask me. things move and new products get rolled out. obviously the 390 has a lot more HW capability than the earlier models.
Vudu needs to make an MCE plug-in for their service... Compatibility with all extenders is a must.
I second that. There are millions of potential users if they created an MCE plugin for VUDU.
The irony is that I used to work for VUDU, now I work for a manufacturer or Media Center based servers.
Any comment as to if Pandora access is included with Vudu? I'm assuming not since noone's saying anything about it anymore.
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Yeah, I've been checking daily for the update. Only purchased the BD390 once I read VuDu would be added to it. I had hoped they wouldn't have waited until the last day of the month, but then I rush home lastnight upon reading this review..and see there is no update. Later see the article was changed to reflect a release date to the update "sometime next week." C'mon guys.. what happened to the "end of September?" Why the delay and not announcing a specific date like Apple?
There is no VUDU on the BD390. Yet no one seems to have made any correction to the statement that it should be available end of September 2009. Its October 9th and no mention of this delay on the LG website or on VUDU.
It's disappointing and the lack of information on why its been delayed is also frustrating.
Maybe Engadget or one of the other sites will actually do some research and find out why the delay instead of just writing what the company gives them.
I'm told it'll go live sometime on Monday 10/12/09.
I am considering returning the LG BD390 that I purchased when it was announced in September that Vudu would be released on it. Only to be disappointed when September turned into October and still no update, and as Srini stated, no communication to when it would be released and why the delay. Not very good customer service. I have a limited amount of time to return the unit. I will NEVER purchase anything else on an announcment especially LG. I did contact LG and was told Monday, Oct 12th. If not, it's going back!!
VUDU is live on my BD390 as of Mon. Oct 12th. I had to perform a software update this morning, however.
Yes as Ben pointed out...it finally arrived on Monday. I upgraded my BD390. I watched a preview of Toy Story on VUDU, the quality was amazing and comparable to Blue Ray (but then I am not an expert).
I signed up to get a free movie from VUDU. Although they want your credit card number and need you to select an amount to put on your account $20 being the lowest amount, they did not actually charge my card. They just put in the credit for a free movie.
Now I am hoping for Amazon VOD and Pandora...wishful thinking?
A quick comment on the YOUTUBE implementation on BD390. In a word it sucks.
1)You can't use playlists that you have on your youtube account on the BD390.
2) It also does not show all your favorites you added to your YOUTUBE account (it must not be able to play certain types of youtube videos)
3) Sometimes it will hang trying to play a video and does not time out, you have to push the OFF button, and turn it on for the player to be functional. This also happens when it tries to play a video or audio off my home network. They really need to have a timeout and say the video/audio cannot be played instead of hanging up the machine.
I am puzzled as to how come a big company like LG does not notice and fix these very basic issues that I discovered within an hour of owning it.