Hi-res: LG BD370 Blu-ray player

One look at the LG BD370's fascia and you can see this Blu-ray deck oozes class and quality. LG's designers have come up with an audio-visual equivalent of a Ferrari by mounting a massive silver power button in the centre of the deck that glows blue when the player is switched on. It looks amazingly cool.

We may be getting a bit carried away, but the BD370's beauty isn't merely skin deep. For starters, despite its affordable price (HK$3,690), it is built to the latest Blu-ray specifications, meaning that it can handle more downloadable content.

And thanks to the Ethernet port the BD370 uses to access live online content, users can access such internet fare as YouTube videos - a fantastic feature given the deck's price.

As with any BD-Live Blu-ray deck, the BD370's connections include a USB port for storing downloaded content, through which you can also play DivX, MPEG-4, MP3, WMA and JPEG files. The BD370 also supports both the DTS and Dolby HD audio formats. However, apart from those handy features, the best thing about this player is the performance. Picture quality, in particular, is impressive: images are rich in colour and sharp. Audio-visual aficionados may moan about the slightly jagged look of some images with curved edges, but the deck does justice to HD technology.

The Bourne Ultimatum was an aural assault of explosions and gunfire that might have had my neighbours banging on the door (if I could have heard them, that is). The BD370 is also compatible with a number of multimedia formats and can load discs in a speedy 18 seconds. Plus, it features a good on-screen menu and can play your existing DVDs and improve their picture quality.

One gripe is that it doesn't have Wi-fi built in, but that's a small problem. The multifaceted LG BD370 Blu-ray deck boasts a gorgeous fascia, great performance and features galore. And it blows the competition away.