I bought an LG BD550 BD player from Best Denki last week for RM399. Here are some of my findings for my set but not sure if it is the same for others since it was the last unit when I got it. For BD it is for Region A which is normal for all BD player sold here while for DVD it is for Region 3 only where usually it is region free for other brands or hackable. Worse still, I could not find any region hack for the DVD on the net for the BD5500 so it may be a problem if you have plenty of DVD that are not region 3. Also the local BD550 does not have any Netcast Acess to things like Youtube, Facebook, Picasa, etc while the same model sold in UK/US has this feature.
When I first tried to play Avatar BD from the 3-disc Speedy steelbox, it could not play but luckily it can played after I have upgrade the software from version BD4.598 to BD5.012 and I am just wondering if the problem is only with my unit or common with other units sold at this price. Can other owners of BD550 share their experience here?
Luckily, it can read HDD formatted in FAT32 or NTFS but there is no Audio or Subtitle buttons on the remote so you need to acces these by pressing the Info/Display button, a bit inconvenient. So potential buyers please be aware of the above or check if these are true of all the BD550 sets. Will share other findings later.

This post has been edited by ronaldkwok: Jan 26 2011, 08:04 PM

If I am not wrong I also saw this unit (just only 1) at Gurney Plaza when I went searching for the Sammy BD player a month ago. Also able to play HDD and USB I rmbr.

Did not take this cos I did not quite like LG items now (previous experiences) . Not too user friendly and I find it to load a bit slow and likes to hang.

This post has been edited by braveheart: Jan 26 2011, 11:41 PM

u always need to update new firmware if there are available...
some new BD need your new firmware before able to play it..
so i very common for your problem...
just see the player loaded with which firmware

Thanks braveheart and maskedchan for your feedback. I have upgraded the player to the latest software, version BD5.012 by connecting to the net via the LAN port. Since this version of BD550 does not have any Netcast Access at all, LG should have given it a different model number to differentiate it from the BD550 sold overseas that has Netcast Access.
Anyway, the PQ and AQ for BD playback seems to be similar to the Samsung BD5500 and also for DVD upscaling. The user manual is well written and easy to understand. I find the front display rather dim and the remote control has a narrow angle, maybe because the transmission is low since it uses only one AAA battery. More first impressions later.

Any more review abt this player? Saw this player at Tesco selling RM399, thinking to buy this player. Please give more feedback, such as external USB HDD support, MKV 720/1080p playback any issue, and so on.

I intend to buy this player, saw Carrefour Subang Jaya selling at RM 379 and Onking also can be reduced to RM 379.

However I also need some feedback about this player for those using it now. Is it region free?

The LG BD550 is locked to Region A for BD and Region 3 for DVD. This refers to original discs; for ahem discs, all can play. I am refering to my LG unit that is made in Malaysia. Not sure about the one I saw recently in Speedy Video selling at RM399 that is made in China, it could be Region-free! Anybody bought one from Sppedy before? Please report here for the benefit of others. If it can, then it will solve the problem for those looking for Region B BD players to play BD from Amazon UK and other European countries and Australia.

I was at Best Denki, KLCC today. They have relocated to the new wing and is having the LG BD550 for sale at RM299!!! This is the price of a branded HDMI DVD player and must be the cheapest price for BD player in Malaysia. If you don't mind the poor remote control (read my BD Player blog for details), it is a damn good price.

Is this BD550 region free for DVD and Blu Ray?

Best Denki KLCC at RM299, how about otherd Denkis?

Aiyah, this question answered many, many, many times before; all locally available BD players (other than Oppo and Dune) are locked to Region A for BD and Region 3 for DVD except Sony that is region free for DVD.
I think the RM299 price is only at Best Denki KLCC for their relocation promotion; not sure about the rest.

This post has been edited by ronaldkwok: Jun 20 2011, 06:34 PM

Bro... sorry for the trouble.

Is it possible to hack the region for DVD so that it can play all region discs?

I saw and ad today in the Star by Best Denki Subang Parade for branded BD player at RM299 so I suspect it to be LG BD550, the same one offered in KLCC recently. Though this is not the best player in the market, you cannot really complain at this price. For playing BD, DVD and music CD it is OK for normal use.

Just got this from Best Denki KLCC for RM299
Like ronaldkwok mentioned before
It is different from UK model, missing Netcast option, static menu
But other than that it plays bluray disc just fine, only tested with Transformers 2(the only one I brought since I'm only in KL for 2 days)
Didn't bother much with mkv playback since I already have WDTV Live that does the job just fine
I think it's definitely worth the money just for the basic function

hows the mkv playback for this? on par with samsung 5500?

and when you play mpeg-4, do you get audio...some players just only show picture, no audio

thx

This post has been edited by silbii: Jun 28 2011, 01:30 AM

I think it was fine, I only tested for 720p tv shows
I just couldn't get subtitles(srt)to display, but dvdrip(avi) with idx/sub files can be displayed
Also couldn't really get it to detect my 640gb 2.5' hdd, maybe it requires another update?

guess i need to bring my external hdd to try multi format types just to confirm play ability...really afraid if it can only play a few mkv type and don't produce audio for mpeg-4

oh, try check your 640gb hdd..is it fat32? try to format to ntfs ... maybe i can detect ntfs better

The BD550 will read HDD formated in both FAT32 and NTFS but not sure if there is a limit on the size. In order that it will read your HDD, make sure that it is the only media connected when you switch it on, i.e. no disk in the tray. If playing media files on HDD is your main aim, I still beieve that you should get a stand alone HD Media player (for less than RM200 can get a decent one) that can play all the usual file formats. Leave the BD550 for playing BD, DVD and CD. Just my view.

That's just the thing, it's already in ntfs, probably there's a limitation for it?
And if you have other mkv file that can't be played just remux them with mkvtoolnix(v4.1.0)
Got a few of those and they played just fine right after muxing them.