LG HR939M 1TB Smart 3D Blu-ray Player with Twin Digital HD Tuner

Tuner was a bit dodgy first time used, but it's fantastic now. Can record 2 things at the same time or record one and watch a previous recording, plenty of room for recordings on the hard drive, the blu ray player is faultless. The GUI is a bit sluggish at times and the online sections isn't the slickest, hence the 4 stars, but it is ideal for what I needed it for.

It is complicated to set up, so I had my son do this. It is fantastic to watch love films either streaming or dvd, especially as I have cancelled sky,due to their high charges. The quality of the picture is second to none. The remote is straight forward, I thoroughly recommend this product.

This item did not play 'Skyfall' blu ray despite latest firmware updates.When recording from the on-line 'Guide' it kept omitting the end of the program (in one case the last 15 minutes of a film).The 'volume' on the remote never affected the actual volume and I had to keep using the TV remote to change volume.Two annoying 'quirks' which LG built in - when it has finished recording it informs me so and gives me the default option of switching off (right in the middle of the screen of whatever I was watching)and I have to find the remote to cancel it in a few seconds or else it goes off even though I'm watching another channel!!Also while watching another channel if a timer recording starts the recorder switches to the recording channel and I have to switch back to the channel I was watching and so miss some of my program. LG support tells me these are intentional design decisions (can you believe it)Not for me - I'm used to things that work and recorders should be unobtrusive, dependable and work properly - and do it in the background.This didn't do what it was supposed to do and what it did do was often annoying. Returned it to Amazon.

This item was purchased to replace A LG BD660 Disc player which failed just out of warranty, and a Tesco FetchTV PVR which is getting a bit long in the tooth.I don't have much to say about the disc section. It plays the CDs DVDs & BluRays as expected. I'm not a perfectionist, and I am perfectly happy with output including DVD upscaling on my 42" screen, and domestic audio system. I just hope it doesn't fail as quickly as the last disc transport!I spent a lot of time comparing various PVR/Disc units. The ability to copy to/from USB, and provision of DLNA server & client decided me. First the good points. Facilities are mostly standard Freeview+ HD. The picture is perfectly OK with a good signal. It will read most of my files from USB or external DLNA server, although not my FetchTV exports without re-encode. It copies to/from USB far quicker than my FetchTV.The following bad points are mostly software related, and could probably be cured with an update. The software is the latest currently available.My hopes were that I could record programmes during the day and later watch them in bed on my Samsung smart TV. Unfortunately the recordings do not show up as shares on DLNA client! This can be circumvented by copying to USB disk and then copying back to internal disk, when it appears as a .ts file, but this is not the simple solution I had hoped for.I have auto power off disabled in settings. When a recording event completes a message flashes on screen asking if you want to power off. If you don't respond within 5 seconds the default is to power off! Very handy if the remote is not convenient, and of course the DLNA server is no longer available!On my FetchTV, and my previous Topfield, the recordings included subtitles, and programme info. Not so with LG. Why store recordings in a proprietary format hidden to DLNA server if it's not providing these very useful extras. Why not record to ts, or give the choice. HD files aren't available for sharing or copying, but I think this applies to all Freeview boxes, due to copyright restrictions.Far to much button pushing to carry out simple tasks. 8 presses to delete a file. You press info while in the guide for programme information, but Title/Popup while watching programme.After some button sequences which I can't recall the sound mutes and can only be restored by power off.The LG Apps provided are pretty useless to me. Haven't found anything that appeals to me. This is obviously a personal thing. Your kids might love them! The premium content includes Iplayer which is OK. I am hopeful that the other channel catch-ups will become available, but as my BD660 had Iplayer over a year ago I'm not holding my breath.I can't get slomo or frame by frame to work as described in the instructions.Not possible to copy files while recording. Since it's possible to record two channels and watch a recording at the same time I don't understand this restriction.Extract the digit LG and make this my ideal player!Update 16/09/2013:I am reducing my rating to 2 stars. After nearly six months and two software updates this thing is frustrating as ever! If you are watching the climax of a programme the last thing you need is for the tuner to switch to viewing another channel set for record, (I am not recording 2 channels, when I would expect this)and (in spite of frantic button pushing) to be unable to switch back for several seconds! Another reviewer reports that this STUPID BEHAVIOR together with auto shutdown at the end of a recording is by design! I cannot believe that any normal PVR user would choose this situation. Don't LG consumer test their products? Further discovered irritations include the inability to delete a recording after watching if there is a recording in progress, and the impossibility of finding a recording without even basic information such as the channel it was recorded from. This is very annoying when you have a hundred plus recordings. Why no folders?The one positive I can add is that the tuners are better than the (LG) TV, as during high pressure weather conditions I receive good quality reception on all channels of the PVR when the TV will not produce a usable signal on multiple channels.All my original criticisms are still valid. The software updates appear to have fixed nothing. Why can't all commercial companies release full notes with software releases so we can see if it's worth the download? I purchased this machine on the specs. looking mainly at the goodies, such as 1 TB disk, DLNA server, and USB export. Unfortunately the HR939m falls down on the basics of providing a pleasant and enjoyable viewing experience. I am already looking for a replacement, and will think much more carefully before buying LG again.

A solidly built machine with the weight to prove it. The power lead could have been a little longer but it is about 1.5m in length. Unpacking is fast and simple and, as another reviewer has commented, the only thing that could have been included but isn't is an HDMI cable. As they can be obtained for a few pounds retail and much less from the trade, it is a silly omission. Connections are few and you will probably need to disconnect an existing aerial from the TV or another unit to bridge the connection. The complete process required less than five minutes if you include inserting the batteries into the remote.There is a printed Get Started Guide but the full manual is supplied on a disk, in typical LG fashion. Also on the disk is a copy of Nero MediaHome which helps stream media from your PC to other devices, this player included, via your network. As it is supplied, many users may prefer to install it. A full manual for the software can be downloaded from Nero's site if needed. There are alternative streaming solutions which could also be used, and possibly may be in current use by some although some will invoke a usage fee. I would far prefer to have a printed full manual for the machine as not everyone has PC access or the ability to print off what could be a lengthy document and to bind it for future use; dozens of loose pages are unlikely to remain clean or correctly arranged for very long.This is an easy machine to set-up as the 'Wizard' is the very first thing that you will see, once fully connected and powered up. WiFi ability is built-in and you will need to know or copy down the router's SSID and its WEP or WAP key as they may be needed later in the process. If connecting to wired Ethernet, you will not need them. Tuning is a two-stage affair, initially for SD broadcasts and again for HD and it had no problems in finding all the available stations in my area. Tuning itself required 2-3 minutes and the rest of the process about the same again before it is usable.When selecting an SD channel where there is an HD option, BBC 1 or 2 for example, you will be asked whether to remain in SD or switch to the HD alternative. This is excellent for the user. The remote control is very well laid out and not overloaded with buttons for things you may never need to use. This is one area where LG tend to excel. However, the positions of some buttons may cause issues due to their proximity to others.Picture quality in SD is excellent and HD is obviously somewhat better but it will depend upon your own TV's abilities.The EPG is clear and well laid-out but, unlike Humax and a couple of other PVRs, you cannot select to record a program just by hitting 'OK'. You need to press the red 'Record' button and will be offered one or more options depending on the programme, whether it is a one-off, part of a series, or split into two or more parts separated by breaks and then choose an appropriate option. Once selected, a timer icon is displayed against the programme' name but the icon is rather dim and indistinct against the background.Owners of other LG products,especially one of their TVs or Blu-ray players, will find some elements of its interface very familiar. Although some options are device specific, others are common amongst all groups of devices and will be very simple to navigate. The PVR was able to recognise the content of a NAS device that I am in the process of setting up and it could therefore play movies, album tracks etc that are stored outside of the machine and over the network. However, although it was able to act as a DLNA client I was unable to check or confirm whether it could also operate in server mode and allow playback of its own recorded content on my PC or laptop. An alternative would be to copy selected content to a memory stick or USB hard drive and then to use that to play the content on a PC. You may need player software that recognises the .TS files you will then have.As it is early days in its ownership and I have yet to record anything that I might wish to view on some other device via the network, I cannot yet comment on how easy or difficult it may be and whether there are issues. I should be able to update the review after a longer period of extensive use. Since writing the review, I have discovered a few unexpected oddities with this machine that have caused some operational issues. For example, with all my previous PVRs, if set to a certain channel number as a 'default' they remembered it. The LG only remembers the last channel to which it was tuned either manually or by virtue of a scheduled recording of a particular programme. When playing media on a DVD or Blu-ray and you choose to stop it at a certain point, in order to have a meal, go out or sleep, you can resume play-back from that point but when playing a recorded programme, there is no position memory. When halting play-back at a certain point and you later try to continue having turned off the machine, you will need to use the Fast Forward button to jog to the approximate position. You will also need to be careful when switching from FF/Rewind to Play as a Record button is located immediately below and if you hit that by accident, you will have to start all over again.Access to online media sources, BBC iPlayer for example, was pleasantly quick courtesy of its Home menu system but not quite as immediate as it is on a PC and is probably due to a need to load the App via its in-built software. Once invoked and selecting a program to watch, there was a blip after about 15 minutes of a 30-minute show when audio and video broke sync and it took a few seconds for them to re-sync. However, as the network was busily engaged in a large scheduled download, there was a limited portion of the bandwidth available for the unplanned iPlayer usage. With less simultaneous on-line activity, there probably would not have been a problem, brief and unimportant as it was.Although I previously purchased a separate LG Blu-ray player, and the Blu-ray facilities on this were therefore less essential, it will mean that I could use the Blu-ray player elsewhere and save a power socket and HDMI socket. I purchased this as a replacement for another PVR (Humax Fox-T2 1TB) which has always had a few annoying habits but has recently decided to sometimes play 'dead' although it can work normally if switched off at the mains for a few minutes before intended use, which effectively means that it is no longer fully usable or useful. Unfortunately as it has many hours of recordings on its hard drive, I had intended to try transferring the data onto an external hard drive and then to replay them on this. It was a task that I knew would need several hours to transfer but it actually took 8 hours to transfer about 15% of its content before failing. A second attempt also failed even more quickly but I then discovered that the external drive used was not recognised by this machine and the few transferred recordings were therefore unusable. Later investigation showed the Humax to impose a Linux partition in order to use a drive as additional storage for its own recordings although it would happily use any Windows drive as a playback source.An excellent product with a good feature set although not quite as perfect for the user as it could be (I may have been spoiled by Humax's far better operational controls although many of their products have commonly shared hardware issues which can spoil the user experience), plus an excellent price with a 3D Blu-Ray player added for free. It is unfortunate that although Freeview+HD has much to offer, broadcasters seem unwilling to commit to the format and all too few channels are broadcast in HD. Many promised new channels have either been cancelled or postponed (although BBC have announced five new ones for 2014) and there is consequently limited access to HD material. LG and other equipment manufacturers are in no way responsible for this fiasco.POSTSCRIPTAfter about two weeks' use, the machine's repeated inability to remember the last played position and to permit resumption from that point has become a major annoyance. Having to scan a movie from the beginning to find the point at which it was halted is no longer acceptable. Also, finding the PVR tuned to a mostly different channel every time it was switched on was also a minor annoyance that I wished did not happen. I therefore chose to return the machine and replace it with another brand which operated in a more familiar fashion. The machine has some excellent features but a little work, attention to detail and a minor redesign could make it a superior product.