LG HB954PB 5.1ch Blu-ray Home Cinema System Review
*EDITED TO GIVE AN UPDATE AFTER MORE USE*
Easy to put together and physically set up, and it does look very elegant with the tall scupltured front speakers. The kit comes with an HDMI cable plus all the other cables necessary to get you up and running, and the speaker wires are colour coded for those who need it or those who have to connect in tight spots. For those with no shelves or coffee tables at the rear to put the rear speakers on, they will look a little lost on the floor, and they may look a little odd hung on the wall. If they came with tall stands like the fronts, they would probably look better and be a little more versatile in terms of placement. That’s a bit nit-picky though.
Picture quality and sound quality are both good, and the Blu-Ray disc I first tested it with (Bladerunner) started quickly and without fuss. You can change the setup without having to stop the movie, so you can add your Portuguese subtitles on the fly. Sound is all that I would want it to be.
The YouTube function works well, with no messing aroung to get it set up, but a big TV will not do you any favours as the image quality is low.
A couple of minor gripes:
My TV, a 42″ Philips LCD screen, keeps coming up with the message ‘video not supported’, but by changing the source to HDMI 2 and then back to HDMI 1 it displays the picture perfectly. I’m tempted to believe that it’s an issue with the TV, but can’t be certain, as I’ve never had this with any other unit. I changed the HDMI cable to make sure it isn’t that, but it made no apparent difference.
I also am having trouble working out whether Sky HD is utilising the surround function – I can’t hear anything out of the rears. You can select a surround mode for HDMI inputs (I’d earlier reported that I couldn’t) but still can’t get the surround sound from Sky. This is where the lack on advanced setup information quoted in the title rears its head, I don’t know what to do about this and don’t know how to find out more info.
The remote is a weak point. It feels a bit cheap, and the placement and marking of the buttons for me is a bit haphazard. Also, the fact that you have to cycle through all the inputs, rather than be able to choose the one you want from a list is a right mess about. When it gets to any HDMI inputs it has to wait and see if it has a signal, then adjust settings to display before you can move on.
On balance I would definitely recommend it, but having someone around who’s a bit savvy about working their way around units like this will definitely get a bit more out of it than I initially can. The issue about not being able to directly select inputs is the biggest single minus point.
LG HB954PB 5.1ch Blu-ray Home Cinema System Overview
The LG HB954PH is a Blu-ray/DVD Home Cinema System in a box which features tall and elegant, floor standing front speakers, full 1080p HD output and upscaling via HDMI, 2 HDMI inputs for connecting other devices, integrated iPod dock, USB connectivity for DivX, MP3/WMA and JPEG photo playback, BD-Live and Youtube Internet functionality, an FM tuner and impressive AV performance.
*** Product Information and Prices Stored: Feb 28, 2010 11:50:12
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