LG BD-370 v Sony BDS-350

[Roman5]

Hello. I bought the LG 370 a few days ago, and while it has very good PQ for blu ray, I'm just wondering if I should have bought the sony 350 instead for better PQ?

I will never have a need for the youtube feature or any of the online features, so all I need is a basic blu ray with excellent picture quality. And I paid more for this LG than I could have done for the sony. The LG is my first ever blu ray player. I demoed both the LG and sony in the shop and for some reason went for the LG. However, I think that was mostly because I liked the physical look of the LG with the central silver fascia. The demo was done on a 19" samsung tv because at that time I somehow thought I was going to have a decent experience of blu ray on such a small set. I've now exchanged it for a 32" samsung tv, so I've no idea how much different the sony blu ray would look on this. Everyone says the sony is incredibly sharp and detailed. What hi fi says the LG doesn't make blu ray look as good as it should, and it says images have a 'soft edge' . Anyone here seen both in action and can give me their opinions? Should I stick with the LG or take it back and get the sony?

OR, is the LG picture quality actually better than the sony?

[Roman5]

Anyone had experience of either machine? Having watched iron man, transformers, dark knight and wall-e I find it hard to think how much better they could look, they all looked fantastic on this TV and LG.

[SquidPuppet]

I cant say anything about the picture comparison, but so far the LGs have not had good customer support in the way of firmware updates.

[Cortiz]

The Sony PQ is second to none plus they are very reliable and Sony's support with firmwares is top notch. Also, if you do a little research online, you will find out that the DVD upconversion on the LG sucks. Sony might no have the best upconversion but it sure does blows the LG out of the water.....I'll say go with the Sony. It's an overall better machine.

[Roman5]

Originally Posted by Cortiz

The Sony PQ is second to none plus they are very reliable and Sony's support with firmwares is top notch. Also, if you do a little research online, you will find out that the DVD upconversion on the LG sucks. Sony might no have the best upconversion but it sure does blows the LG out of the water.....I'll say go with the Sony. It's an overall better machine.

Thanks. I probably should have gone with the sony in the first place. I really think I was drawn to the LG for the wrong reason and that was.. I liked the way the exterior looks with its little silver fascia and blue circular light. Don't get me wrong, it has great PQ, but I want even sharper imaging if I can get it.

Only problem now is that I'd have to pay 15% of the cost of the LG to the shop if I return the LG because that's their policy for opened products. They sell the sony for £139.95 and the LG for £149.95. I'd end up having paid £162 for the sony. They let me off the 15% when I exchanged the smaller TV for the larger one, but I doubt they'll let me off this time. I need to try a regular DVD and see how it does on this LG.

Most importantly though, I'd still be interested to know if anyone who has seen the LG and the sony in action would say if the sony is significantly different, significantly sharper. Because the LG does have fantastic PQ. I just have nothing to compare it to so I don't know if I'm missing out on an even better bluray experience. If so, that would really push me to get the sony and not worry too much about having ended up paying for more for it.

[surfdude12]

just bought my dad teh LG370 and installed it. i thought it looked great, no complaints. i can only compare it to my PS3 which i've also used on his TV. no major difference noticed on PQ. the one downside i thought was no integrated wifi.

[Roman5]

Originally Posted by surfdude12

just bought my dad teh LG370 and installed it. i thought it looked great, no complaints. i can only compare it to my PS3 which i've also used on his TV. no major difference noticed on PQ. the one downside i thought was no integrated wifi.

Ah! Thanks, that's interesting. There is an old thread on these forums that I was reading, all about the sony 350. Some people posted that they didn't see any difference between the PS3 and the BDSP 350. Which suggests to me then that the 350 would be about the same as the LG, since you say that the PS3 and LG looked to have about the same PQ.

[surfdude12]

Originally Posted by Roman5

Ah! Thanks, that's interesting. There is an old thread on these forums that I was reading, all about the sony 350. Some people posted that they didn't see any difference between the PS3 and the BDSP 350. Which suggests to me then that the 350 would be about the same as the LG, since you say that the PS3 and LG looked to have about the same PQ.

yeah but of course, to do a real comparison, i would have had to had both blu-ray players plugged in to the TV through 2 HDMI ports, with the same BD in each, and flip back and forth between HDMI inputs

[Roman5]

Originally Posted by surfdude12

yeah but of course, to do a real comparison, i would have had to had both blu-ray players plugged in to the TV through 2 HDMI ports, with the same BD in each, and flip back and forth between HDMI inputs

Do it! This is your next project in the interests of science

[Cortiz]

Originally Posted by Roman5

Thanks. I probably should have gone with the sony in the first place. I really think I was drawn to the LG for the wrong reason and that was.. I liked the way the exterior looks with its little silver fascia and blue circular light. Don't get me wrong, it has great PQ, but I want even sharper imaging if I can get it.

Only problem now is that I'd have to pay 15% of the cost of the LG to the shop if I return the LG because that's their policy for opened products. They sell the sony for £139.95 and the LG for £149.95. I'd end up having paid £162 for the sony. They let me off the 15% when I exchanged the smaller TV for the larger one, but I doubt they'll let me off this time. I need to try a regular DVD and see how it does on this LG.

Most importantly though, I'd still be interested to know if anyone who has seen the LG and the sony in action would say if the sony is significantly different, significantly sharper. Because the LG does have fantastic PQ. I just have nothing to compare it to so I don't know if I'm missing out on an even better bluray experience. If so, that would really push me to get the sony and not worry too much about having ended up paying for more for it.

You can always buy the S350 and do head to head comparison and see which one you like better, then return the unit you least liked. Just as suggestion.

[Roman5]

Originally Posted by Cortiz

You can always buy the S350 and do head to head comparison and see which one you like better, then return the unit you least liked. Just as suggestion.

Yeah, I'd like to do that. I need to find a shop that will let me buy and return the sony wihtout getting charged money for opening the box.

[sergmark]

I have just bought the LG 370 . I have only watched two movies, but so far I have no complaints. I also have the LG300 Works great had a few netflix bugs that have gone away it now works perfect.

[Roman5]

I just bought the sony BDP-S360, the higher spec model and now I can test both machines. And I got the shop to agree to let me have a full refund if I'm not happy with the sony. I was going for the 350 but they didn't have it in stock. I'm assuming the sony 350 and 360 have identical PQ?

[Roman5]

Originally Posted by Sooner_Blu

I'm not sure how the picture quality compares between the BDP-S350, and the BDP-S360, or with the LG. However, keep in mind that the BDP-S350 does not internally decode the DTS-HDMA audio, while the 360 does. With the 350 all you get is the DTS core.

With the 350 you also get a remote with the Open/Close Tray button. Apparently that's not on the 360's remote. Maybe that's because of the 360's flip down, front panel?

Oh, that's good news then because I was expecting the 360 to have the eject button and not on the 350. My LG has an open/close button and it's quite a nice feature to have. As far as audio and other online features, I'm not fussed, particularly as I use headphones through an amp, so I imagine it should still sound pretty good.

So, it all comes down to PQ. If I feel the 360 is better than the LG, and by that I mostly mean sharper because the colours and smoothness of the LG are imo flawless, then I'll get the sony 350 and return the LG. Since posting this thread, I'm told that the PQ is identical on both the sony 350 and 360.

[ijokr]

Is going to be very hard for you to find a difference in the picture quality of both players, especially in a 32 " tv. They're both great brands, Sony is better but still lg can hold on it's own. The only important difference here would be the firmware updates support, Sony seems to be always up to date but I can't say anything about lg since I don't own anything from this Rand. Maybe someone can help with that concern rather than pq.

[Roman5]

Originally Posted by ijokr

Is going to be very hard for you to find a difference in the picture quality of both players, especially in a 32 " tv. They're both great brands, Sony is better but still lg can hold on it's own. The only important difference here would be the firmware updates support, Sony seems to be always up to date but I can't say anything about lg since I don't own anything from this Rand. Maybe someone can help with that concern rather than pq.

You might be right, and I will shortly be opening the box to find out.

However, today I was in a shop watching a bluray demo on 4 different 32" LCD tvs all lined up next to each other. A Samsung, Toshiba, Sony and LG. All of these were only 720p, and a panasonic BD60 bluray player was feeding them all the same demo. The sony image was simply amazing to my eyes, just so pinpoint sharp, it easily stood out against the others. The sony looked sharper than my samsung which is 1080p! I almost decided to exchange my tv for that sony or the 1080p version but sonys casing designs are so goddamn fugly I couldn't live with it.


So, if I can see such a difference in sharpness between 4 different 32" screens, perhaps I'll see a similar difference with a different bluray player. Tbh, in one way I'm hoping you're right because that would save me hassle and money and I can just stick with the LG.

[ijokr]

Originally Posted by Roman5

You might be right, and I will shortly be opening the box to find out.

However, today I was in a shop watching a bluray demo on 4 different 32" LCD tvs all lined up next to each other. A Samsung, Toshiba, Sony and LG. All of these were only 720p, and a panasonic BD60 bluray player was feeding them all the same demo. The sony image was simply amazing to my eyes, just so pinpoint sharp, it easily stood out against the others. The sony looked sharper than my samsung which is 1080p! I almost decided to exchange my tv for that sony or the 1080p version but sonys casing designs are so goddamn fugly I couldn't live with it.


So, if I can see such a difference in sharpness between 4 different 32" screens, perhaps I'll see a similar difference with a different bluray player. Tbh, in one way I'm hoping you're right because that would save me hassle and money and I can just stick with the LG.

Of course you're going to see a difference in four different tv's. Tv's are the main reason an image looks good or not, that doesn't mean you''l be able to nitce a difference between players. You won't notice a difference between 720p and 1080p in a 32" set, but that's another topic. In my honest opinion, I would get the sony bdp350 and stick with it, of course I'm biased since I have it but that's the reason why I chose Sony over LG and will always do, because Sony is a better brand.

[Roman5]

Yes, I have a strong feeling I probably will end up with the 350.