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First, despite its claims of multi-disc format versatility, the BH100 isn't into music, refusing steadfastly to play DVD-Audio discs, SACDs or even CDs. Second, the deck can really be slow to recognise an HD disc - we noted waits of around 30 seconds before the BH100 was satisfied it knew what sort of disc it was being asked to deal with.
Third and horrifically worst, the BH100 is not compatible with HD DVD's 'HDi' functionality. In other words, it won't access the majority of an HD DVD disc's interactive features - including, unbelievably, many start-up menu screens!
Sometimes you can access some of an HD DVD's features via a tedious row of chapter and title options the LG generates along the bottom of the screen, but this is far from comprehensive and is also hamstrung by the fact that with no labelling of what feature each title section contains, you never know exactly what you're going to get when you choose one. Kind of like Forrest Gump's box of chocolates, but nowhere near as tasty.
The BH100 will, at least, play the movie track on an HD DVD disc. But the 'next generation' disc experience is about way more than that.We asked LG if some kind of firmware upgrade may be in the offing to fix this clearly unsatisfactory situation, but apparently there's not going to be one. Ouch.
Thankfully the BH100's Blu-ray playback suffers no such shortcomings. It played fully every Blu-ray disc we could lay our hands on - up-front menus, interactive features and all. Which means it's hard to escape the feeling that this was originally a Blu-ray player that's had rudimentary HD DVD playback shoved clumsily in at the last minute.
There is some good news to report though, namely that the deck's picture quality is actually good - not world-beating, but definitely quite a bit better than we'd expected it would be for a debut dual format deck.
Pictures look extremely sharp and detailed, for starters, delivering emphatically that 'snap' and clarity that's high definition's trademark. You can, for instance, make out individual pores on Tom Cruise's face during the opening sequence of Mission Impossible III on HD DVD. If you want to.
The BH100 also delivers strikingly rich and natural colours from its two HD source formats, along with convincingly deep black levels, leaving old standard definition DVDs frequently looking flat and drab by comparison.
On the downside, fast-moving objects in a picture can look a touch soft, and the picture is more prone to dot crawl than premium one-format decks from Panasonic and Toshiba. But in performance terms we guess these are pretty small prices to pay for being able to play your choice of HD DVD and Blu-ray discs in a single machine.
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The problem for the BH100 is that a likeable performance with HD DVD and Blu-ray discs is only a part of its story. We also have to consider its £1,000 price tag - a hefty sum that could alternatively buy, say, an Xbox 360 plus HD DVD drive and a PS3 for Blu-ray needs, and still leave you with plenty of change for a healthy collection of games and HD movies.
