My experience with LG & the BD390

[OBXboy]

I purchased a BD390 on Labor Day (Sept. 7 for those not in the US). I got a great deal based on a Best Buy sale and a 10% Reward Zone coupon: $295! I set it up the following day and had no difficulty with it connecting to my Apple AirPort. I was able to access Netflix and YouTube immediately and the machine even found my server, though it listed none of the viseo files I know are there. There's a fix for this out there; I just haven't had a chance to set it up yet.

Here's the reason for that: shortly after getting set up and playing with the WiFi available features, I decided to put in a disc and try BD Live. I put in the Feature disc of WALL-E. The menu appeared with impressive speed and then...the remote stopped functioning properly. Like many DVD/BD player remotes, it has a 4 arrow circle on it for right/left/up/down, with the enter button in the center. All five of these buttons will only do one thing: down. So, I replaced the factory supplied battery with a Duracell and tried again. No luck. I shut the machine down, did some online research and read the manual. Found nothing. Turned the player on. The buttons worked again...for about two minutes. Long enough for me to access 'Set-Up' and authorize a firmware update (don't have the number handy, but I did it on 09/08/2009, so it should be the most recent update). The machine rebooted with the update, but no better response from the remote.

I called LG service after registring my player online. LG service gave me a human in very short order. The young lady asked some questions, suggested the battery change and put me on hold when her short list of standard fixes failed to produce a satisfactory result. Upon reconnecting, she gave me a 'case number' and a fax number and directed me to fax a copy of my receipt along with the case number and LG would send out a new remote. Didn't even want the old one back. I sent the fax in the wee hours of Tuesday into Wednesday, Sept. 8, right after finishing my phone call. Come Friday night, I had heard nothing from LG. I was expecting an e-mail, but nothing. So, I called. Got another courteous young person to whom I had to explain the entire story before he would take my case number. He looked it up and confirmed that my fax had been received, but no action yet. He stated that I should have the remote in '3 to 5 business days.' Today is business day #5. I have waited patiently, haven't bugged LG again. To date, no package from LG, which puzzles me as FedEx/UPS can make this happen very quickly if LG wanted it to happen that way. So, if there is no remote when I arrive home from work today, the machine is getting boxed up and returned to BB. I probably could've/should've done this sooner, but I was curious to see how LG would respond and I have a back-up BD player, so I was still able to re-watch Season 1 of Fringe this week.

ANyone else had a problem like this? I wonder if the issue goes beyond the remote as the remote has functioned BRIEFLY when I first fire up the machine. As I press the Enter button, I see a small dot flicker under the time readout on the player, so I assume something is being transmitted. I appreciate any feedback.