LG Electronics BP250 DGBRLLK Blu-Ray and DVD Disc Player with Full HD Up-scaling and external HDD playback, Black (UK Plug)

If you keep abreast with my reviews, you might have seen the review I recently did for a new TV wall bracket and, consquently, a new TV after my old wall bracket parted ways with the wall and brought my old JVC TV/DVD combi crashing to the floor. Rather than see it as the audio-visual disaster that it evidently was, I instead looked upon it as an opportunity to replace the now-slightly-knackered combi unit and decided almost immediately that I'd get a standalone TV and Blu-Ray player because I have little doubt that 99% of the TV/DVD combi units on sale are cheap and nasty. Lady serendipity intervened and it come to my attention that Amazon were holding a 'Prime Day' event a mere two or three weeks later, so I bided my time and waited with anticipation in the hopes that I'd be able to grab myself some bargains. When it came to the day, I ultimately ended up with a swanky new Panasonic 'Smart' TV and decided to go for one of these wee LG Blu-Ray players as it looked very compact and was well-reviewed here on Amazon. Both of my new gadgets (as well as a few other things) arrived the very next day thanks to Prime, so I only just resisted making a 'squee' noise in delight at the prospect of playing with my shiny new toys. >>>WHAT'S IN THE BOX? In the box for this player, you'll find the gadget itself, its power lead, remote control and a set of instructions. It doesn't come with an HDMI cable, so if you've not got one of them I'd highly recommend going for one of the Amazon 'Basics' ones as I did. >>>IT'S DINKY! When I removed this Blu-Ray from it's box I knew that it was going to be compact, but I couldn't help but marvel at the diminutive size of it. At only 27 by 19.5 by 4.3 centimetres, this thing really is tiny and as a result would be absolutely perfect to sit on top of the wardrobe just behind my wall-mounted TV. >>>A PROPER DRAWER One thing that always irked me about the combi unit that I had was that it had one of those annoying slot-loading DVD mechanisms, which never worked all that well. I was therefore glad to see that this player had a 'proper' DVD tray - and that it works absolutely perfectly. >>>SETTING IT UP This player is a breeze to set up - it's really just a case of connecting it to a TV via HDMI, turning it on, popping a disc into it and Bob's your uncle. You can tinker with the settings if you wish, but there's nothing that needs changed in order to get up and running. >>>FEATURES GALORE This petite thing is actually more feature-packed than its dimensions suggest; it has a USB port on its front that you can plug USB storage devices into and access the video, audio and picture files on them. I've not really tried this yet (and probably won't to be honest as I've got a NAS in my house) but it should support most of the most popular file formats. >>>SOUND AND VISION As you might expect from any new Blu-Ray player, the audio and picture quality is sublime when playing Blu-Rays. This little thing can also upscale DVD discs so they look sharper than normal, too - which is a great added bonus, >>>SHOULD I BUY ONE? Well, if you need a new player and are short on space, this should tick just about every box on your list. It obviously doesn't offer some of the features offered by more expensive players (4K, 3D, networking, etc.) but as a basic Blu-Ray player it's absolutely brilliant and I have no doubt in recommending it to all and sundry.

Our previous player died, and in the meantime I've acquired a YouView box and a smart TV, both of which have plenty of online apps, therefore I just needed a basic DVD/Bluray player. This one fits the bill perfectly. Very intuitive to use, and just has HDMI out and power in on the back panel, and no display, just a green LED for "on", one button for power, and one for open/close. That's it! It's quite nice-looking - the embossed-feeling case is good, and the thing is pretty small anyway. PROS: Quick to load DVDs and Blurays Quiet when running Excellent bluray picture quality and excellent sound (via the HDMI so you need an AV receiver) Good remote which works well Plays USB content (music / video / photo) from front socket, which saves delving around the back of your TV CONS: Only one really: DVD (as opposed to Bluray) video can look a bit noisy. Not sure if that's the upscaling doing that.

I dont have any Blu-Ray discs to try on it yet, but it works well as a DVD player. It seems to play most AVI and MP4 files that I've thrown at it via the USB port, and will even accept multiple memory stick devices in a hub, even though the instructions say otherwise. It doesn't like full DVD ISOs, and won't play VOB files properly either. So forget ripping your DVDs, menus and all, to hard drive. You'll have to extract the parts you want and then encode them to MP4. Also, it doesn't like some of my really old AVI files unless I change the FourCC code in them to 'XVID'. The files play fine without reencoding as long as I do that, though. The remote control needs to be pointed directly at the player, rather than in its general direction. I'm also not a fan of the button layout for play, pause, stop, fast forward and rewind. It just isn't intuitive. It will turn my old Toshiba TV off and control its volume, but won't turn it on for some reason. Odd, since it's the same button as off, on the original remote. Also, if you want to use a hard drive, the only socket is on the front. It would have been tidier with the socket on the back, and maybe an optional cable if you wanted it accessible from the front. In all honesty, I wish I'd paid the extra £30 for the model with Wi-Fi and Netflix. But still can't knock this for the price.

I live in the United States, but do have some UK releases of DVDs and blu-rays that have not been released over here. Many of the studios are no longer putting out region 1 discs (especially for TV shows) for anything but the big blockbuster movies, so I purchased this to have a player which can play the region 2 DVDs and blu-ray discs in my collection. This is a very bare-bones player. It is not Wi-Fi enabled so it does not have any streaming apps which more expensive, higher-end players have. But it plays all my region 2 discs just fine, and so far no issues with the firmware being out of date. There is no display on the player itself, but the remote makes it easy to see information like time elapsed and time remaining. For anyone in my situation, in the United States looking for a region 2 player, this will work fine in the US, you just need an inexpensive plug adapter which can convert a UK plug to a US plug. Once you have that, it powers fine from the 110v outlets over here. For those in the UK looking for an inexpensive blu-ray player, this is a great option as long as you don't need or want something like a 4k player, or a player that can connect wirelessly to the internet.

We are playing blu-ray disks on a 15 year 1372 x 768 screen so although the picture quality looks fine you would need a better screen to tell if there was any shortfall. Can just say that we are not aware of any poor quality. I like the remote control because its simple to use. A feature I like is that you can pause films, switch it off and then you get an option to start from where you left off. From memory the price was around £60, so quite cheap. For most normal users would recommend it. (Maybe if you got a large 4k screen something more expensive would be better but I speculate).

Rarely watch the collection of discs these days but discovered that my existing player remote clashed with the Sky Q remote. This box solved the problem and seems to work perfectly. As some others noted there is no display on the box which I thought may be a problem but then realised that it is totally unnecessary. All the info needed is clearly shown on the tv so there is no reason to squint at a tiny display. It looks OK, it works OK and the price is good. What else is needed? I find reviews help my buying decisions. If this helps please click “helpful” so I know I am not wasting my time. Thanks.

This is one great little bluray player. Really surprisingly fantastic quality picture. Watched a few live action movies so far and every one has looked perfect. It's completely silent when playing a disc, it's light as a feather and very compact. Looks modern and sits beautiful in our TV unit. Took only one minute to set up via the easy set up and controls are simple and straightforward if you want to tweek the settings further. Cannot fault it for the money I paid. Does exactly what it says on the tin! Only gripe - the remote control is minuscule. We've lost it multiple times already. Please note - this blu ray player DOES NOT come with an HDMI cable so you need to buy your own.

Some on here have said it is a difficult machine to update. I'm not the most technical person out there. I updated it less than an hour out of the box. I went to the LG site and downloaded the driver they had for this particular machine. I unzipped it. Opened the folder and copied the driver. Then pasted it outside the folder. So I had a copy in the folder and out side the folder. Copied both versions to a USB memory stick. Put the stick in the USB slot of the player. In mere seconds it shows up as an update has been found. You get the choice to stay as is or update. It is that simple. There is nothing complicated about updating the player. The reason I had two copies of the driver (in the folder and out) was I didn't know which version would be detected. Other than if I put both on one would be. Common Sense 101. The Blu-ray player is really quiet when it's turned on and while it is running as well. It has neither Wifi or Ethernet. Because there's no ethernet socket for the cable and there doesn't seem to be any WiFi looking spot on the machine. It's a case of updating via the laptop. Downloading the driver and slapping it onto a USB stick. Also the whole Netflix and YouTube advert on the box is misleading since you can't connect to the net with the machine. No big loss I don't do Netflix. The machine does play AVI/Divx files. It might not play every one of the ones you have. But it will play a good portion of them. This Blu-ray player is a budget priced unit. Good to get people started with the format. EDIT on 07/09/2024 I ended up purchasing two of these machines. One a short time after this initial purchase. I am still using to this very day the machine this review is based on. So the second player is still in it's box untouched. It seems to be very durable to say the least. I use it for DVD's and Blu-rays. EDIT on 05/03/2025 It is now three years since I purchased this machine. I am still on the first unit. The second one is still untouched and in it's box.