It is captivating, artistic, motivational, and not dull. Without a doubt , Gerard Butler and his army are easy-on-the-eye, but the sheer choreography of this movie throughout makes it worth viewing multiple times. Myriad artistic elements – sensual as well as visual – mesmerize the viewer; many “stand up and cheer” moments prevail – not only during battle, but for the people: brave – STRONG – women (“we bear Spartan warriors”) undaunted by formidable foes or standing up for their convictions; men who do not shirk insurmountable odds, death, or facing its prospect; children taught to believe in what their culture holds dear, true, and of moral value. I anticipated the blood baths, but was not put off by them because of the digitalization; the “slo-mo” sequences, with the graphic novel effects, especially complemented the film’s genre and delivery; the comic effects were adequate exaggerations without being “comedic” in any way. The whole presentation was a work of art, w/ a masterfully rendered musical score contributing even more to the emotion of each scene – right up to the end…how could you not leave feeling a chord deep inside your soul had been struck? The portrayal of dignity and peace, even in death, was phenomenal.

While I do know enough of ancient history to understand there were deviations from the truth, it was opportune that the History Channel chose to air the “real” accounting of events of Thermopylae/the 300 several times during the premiere week, so it was an excellent way to set the record straight in my mind. Nonetheless, I feel the movie’s portrayal of these ancient warriors and this particular battle does nothing to diminish the idea that they were noble beyond compare.

All that to say that I will purchase the special edition when it’s released – for ME…and maybe I’ll share it with my husband!

Issues experienced in first month:

1) Firmware (master operating code for the device) is not going to upgrade over Internet – it downloads, turns off by itself as it’s imagined to for upgrade, but doesn’t complete upgrade (yes, I do have a working connection and device confirms Internet connectivity)

2) Samsung knows in regards to the problem – I called them and the offered to send me a CD that might upgrade the firmware…ETA 9 business days…until then, it is a decent looking piece of furniture (NOT customer oriented company – Samsung should ship this overnight to handle the difficulty, not in 2 weeks!!)

3) Google maps app freezes the device in the event you turn traffic feature on – need to turn it off after which back directly to get control over device

4) Is not going to play Avatar or Percy Jackson & Olympians: The Lightning Thief…thus far…expecting more new releases not to work (get the red screen when looking to play movie)

5) No on-screen display ANYWHERE of model number and serial number for device. Guess what the smart guys at Samsung first ask you for if you call them (to try a fix of the problems noted above)…the model and serial numbers. You will need to pull the device from your entertainment center to search up info at the back of the device – very frustrating!! This info must be available together with the firmware version (that may be available) inside the setup/status menu or the special menu (tray open and press/hold info button). Again, not customer oriented in any respect – something that an excellent consumer company would get right.

6) Slow! It takes what it kind of feels like forever for a DVD to begin playing.

7) Privacy policy – outrageous!!! The terms force you to just accept to make use of Internet features and specify that Samsung refuses to be subject to any federal or local laws and only subject to laws of South Korea…but that I because the consumer am OBLIGATED to produce accurate, complete and immediate personal information…to which Samsung can have full access to.

In my opinion, Sony and Logitech were a bit too quick to join their wagons to the GoogleTV star. If only they were more accustomed to Google’s history of release-and-iterate, meaning get-it-out-the-door-and-fix-it-in-future-iterations, they could have waited until it was more polished or just abandoned, that’s also what Google does with such a lot of in their products after they become bored with the initial excitement, or realize they can not make it do what they thought they can.

Hopefully, the intense minds at Google will stick to and ideal GTV, and never abandon it so quickly like other Google products. In the event that they stay on top of it like Android, it will yet develop into something great and game-changing. But, Sony might want to release an NSZ-GT2 with a more in-depth keyboard/remote, a smaller better looking body, and no BD player. Additionally they should get it below the magic price point of $200, $250 at most, in the event that they want it to achieve success. $400 is really insane.

The setup was easy, and I’m getting Netflix through WiFi without any problems. I did upgrade my G-router to N-router for streaming movies.

Overall, in the event you own a Samsung 3D ready HDTV and 3D viewing is necessary to you think about this unit. The image and color quality is superb. Otherwise, if 3D viewing isn’t important consider other Blu-ray (BD) units that will do an improved job of network applications. Note, this unit doesn’t provide for direct 5.1 speaker connections.

Now for the information!

As soon as you connect your unit out of the box and configure your network performed a “network” firmware update! Look within the manual for instructions or under the “Settings” then Support menu on-screen.

If you end up resetting the unit’s network or having network problems try manually assigning a static IP network address above your router’s DHCP addresses or range. To do that first perform a “Network Status” in your unit and note the submask, gateway and DNS server addresses. Now “login” for your router and find the variety of the dynamically assigned DHCP addresses. To illustrate, on a Linksys router additionally it is 50 addresses ranging from 192.68.1.0 to 192.68.1.49.

Pick any address above this range, say 192.168.1.160 as an example. However, any address above the DHCP IP address range will do to your specific router. Next, return to BD-D6500 and press right here sequence of handheld remote control buttons for a wired connection: “Menu”, select Settings at the screen and “Enter”, select Network and “Enter”, select “Network Setting” select Wired and “Enter”, select IP Mode then select Manual and “Enter”.

Finally, enter the IP 192.168.160 after which enter the noted submask, gateway and DNS server addresses your recorded previously. Finally, press “RETURN” your done. Wireless connection is identical to the above press “Wireless” for “Wired” above. You want to perform a “Network Status” to ensure all is easily.

If you unit is hung after using the BD-Live feature or a “Smart Hub” application try the subsequent:

1. Power off the unit. 2. Disconnect the Ethernet wire from the unit if using a wired connection. 3. Unplug the ability cord of the unit. 4. Press the “Power” touch button at the front of the unit and hold in for 20 seconds. 5. Release and reconnect the Ethernet cable after which re-plug the facility cord.

If you were using the “Netflix” Smart Hub application you can re-activate it after resetting the network at the unit.

Hope this help! If not, contact Samsung and alert them of problem you’re experiencing with the unit. i have been in a position to reach Samsung support in different occasions without much delay.

I didn’t buy this for the 3D feature. i could not care less about 3D movies at home. It was great seeing Avatar in excellent 3D on the theater but i am not searching for 3D movies or etc. at home.

The one feature I do like about this unit which I did have time to check thoroughly is the facility to plug a thumb drive or external drive into it and play movies and music! It worked great for that and it is a feature I do want in my next BluRay player to boot.

This unit plays right here files quite simply*:

cd, wav, mp3

Windows Media wmv files, avi files, divx files, mpg files, mp4 files and mkv files and flash files. All played excellently and the power to only plug in a thumb drive to play files is absolutely great imho.

*Note that a few of the above files still won’t play because of codec issues. Basically that implies that the “inner workings” of the files is probably not standard and so won’t work with this player. Most do, but some don’t. I imagine most players which have this option would have an identical problem, aside from *maybe* the pricy Oppo player.

I connected the wireless reference to my new 2Wire Wireless modem from ATT (DSL) and it really works “pretty much”, though not perfect. This may for sure rely on your connection speed and your router and such so whether it plays well for you is perhaps as much a function of your other equipment and repair, because it is the function of this LG.

One thing i’m able to note is this player’s youtube interface is actually *horrible* and basically not worth using. So if you’re buying this for youtube, search for another player. Netflix works fine and the interface is fine, though inferior to ROKU’s.

POSITIVES:

*After I discovered it was the Encryption Key they were searching for when it comes to a password, my connection automatically started to work. Pretty easy to establish the streaming function.

*i attempted Netflix first and that i was ready to surf the menus and that i tried a pair movies simply to see in the event that they worked. It took maybe a minute to load the movie and after that there has been no pausing/loading. For me loading Netflix varies. Sometimes it loads a film in not up to 15 seconds, other times it is a minute or so. Mostly it plays the complete movie without interruption but sometimes it has to reload for 15 seconds to a minute. As a rule, it plays straight through. Again, this probably has more to do together with your internet connection and router/modem than it does with the LG.

The fast forwarding works fine but after all was slower response than a disc.

*Pandora works beautifully. Sounds rather a lot better through my 5.1 Sound system with Enhancement turned on than it does through my little computer speakers. I upgraded to the premium Pandora, i admire it rather a lot – so i may bypass the commercials and get a rather higher bit rate. Frankly, my ears don’t hear the adaptation within the bitrate, but I do enjoy it more, commercial free! Pandora is superb and that i encourage everyone to enroll and take a look at it in the event you love music of ANY genre, from classical to jazz to blues to rock and country… etc.

*i have never tried every other services as i’m really not signed as much as any of the others. HuluPlus, Amazon, Crackle, etc can be found but just don’t interest me.

NEGATIVES:

*The streaming of films depends to your connection. 3-4mb download speed is ready the minimum and that is what I actually have . It really works well by and large but sometimes it hangs for a number of seconds or a minute. Commonly it’s fine. Unfortunately the us is much behind in providing fast internet for its citizens – other countries – even “3rd world” ones – have way faster internet service than us, regularly. Go figure. So again, your service with streaming is determined by how briskly your isp’s download speed is in your home. If you wish to stream movies, get the fastest package your isp provides. Again, at 3.5mb per second, i am getting nearly perfect service, just occasionally there are delays.

*Moving throughout the Netflix categories to seem for a film is normally slow. Sometimes it takes 15 seconds or more for pictures of films to load. Jogged my memory of 1985 dial-up service from time to time. Lately it has been mostly better so maybe Netflix is doing something to make it better.

Now back to BluRay:

It loads movies pretty slowly when it’s trying to find where you left off over the past playback session. I had watched the primary half or so of “Avatar” yesterday and put it back in to complete it. It took like no less than a minute or more to load the disc, at one point i believed it was unlikely to load in any respect.

I assume it’s because it was seeking out the spot it left off at, and that’s why it was so slow; if I load a brand new bluray disc in it loads much faster. Some have said that this blu-ray player loads faster than others. i do not know as here’s my first blu-ray. All i do know is, it’s much slower than most dvd’s.

Not sure if it is a BD670 error or an “Avatar” disc error but neither my wife nor i may see the menu choices at the Avatar disc. That’s, to choose from 2 or more options at the screen shall we not see ANY indication as to which one was selected on ANY of the menus. This was very annoying as we needed to just guess where the cursor was and hope for the fitting. Anyone else have this problem? Is it the movie disc or the player? UPDATE: We even have had this problem with a pair dvd’s. Undecided if this is often an LG issue or a subject with all blu-ray players with these particular discs. Most often, in accordance with this machine and this being my first blu-ray, evidently they have got not fully worked out all of the bugs with blu-ray players. My 3 previous dvd players were less problematic.

All in all, if Netflix will work because it has thus far, and never pause or skip if watching through a complete movie, i’ll be pretty pleased with it despite the slow facing the Netflix menu and the single freeze. Obviously if it freezes regularly then, “Houston, we’ve got an issue…”

All in all i’m more than pleased with this player, especially its ability to play video files from a USB drive. (It also plays photos and music files.)

All in all this can be a marvelous Blu-Ray player but when you’re buying it for streaming or for file playing, there are some minor issues here and there so i am unable to give it 5 stars.

However i’ll say that almost all of the opposite blu-ray players that play files and stream content (The two main reasons i purchased this player) even have issues, and this one appears among the finest. LG’s lousy youtube interface and the issues that they had prior to now with bad firmware updates also play into my not giving this 5 stars. (As a result of bad firmware updates that caused issues of dvd playback I needed to take this unit back after which buy it again later when they resolved the problem; so this also plays into my not giving it 5 stars. Who knows when the following firmware problem will occur? LG seems not to do an amazing job of testing their firmware thoroughly before releasing it.)