The LG HLB54S is the Korean company's first foray into the emerging Blu-ray sound bar market. Though a latecomer, this kit offers quite an attractive package that boasts all the latest bells and whistles matched by very competitive pricing. These include everything we've come to expect from the next-generation DVD format in terms of sound and visuals, as well as a suite of value-added extras. Here's our quick take on why we feel the company has a potential winner under its belt.
Upside
As far as aesthetics are concerned, the wall-mountable HLB54S oozes style with its slim speaker bar and slot-in disc drive. There's minimal cabling hassle for installation, too, thanks to a bundled wireless subwoofer and in-built Wi-Fi. The latter facilitates DLNA network multimedia streaming, YouTube video playback and BD-Live (with on-board 1GB memory) to download bonus features off the web. Users can also expect a full Blu-ray experience since the HLB54S supports high-resolution Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio decoding, plus unadulterated 24p film speed through its HDMI output.
Another unique proposition is the kit's dual HDMI inputs, which is unheard of at its price bracket. This enables simplified one-cable A/V connectivity for external set-top boxes and game consoles to fully harness the HLB54S' surround sound capability. In case you need even more digital audio input, there's an optical jack which supports up to regular 5.1-channel Dolby Digital sound. To top it off, this LG will readily playback 1080p DivX HD files, MKV Blu-ray rips and ships with an iPod dock as standard for Apple fans to access their music libraries in their media players.
Downside
If there's one major area that can be improved for this Swiss Army knife equivalent of sound bars, it is analog socket availability. With only a 3.5mm stereo mini-jack for portable MP3 players, users will be out of luck when it comes to hooking up a Nintendo Wii to the HLB54S, for example. While you can use an adapter, we don't see a strong reason LG didn't include a set of analog audio sockets to better complement its generous digital selection.
Outlook
At AU$1499, this Blu-ray sound bar is a little more expensive than the Samsung HT-BD8200, but does include the extra HDMI inputs. These give the LG a more A/V receiver-like capability than the competition, though we would still suggest you audition it in stores before parting with your hard-earned cash.
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