LG MS450H

With its youthful good looks and double HD TV tuner, the LG MS450H makes for an attractive proposition on paper--especially because the chip it relies on promises impeccable HD decoding and 802.11n WiFi comes as standard.

Handling: an average interface, but the screen isn't much use

When we saw the packaging, we were left wondering whether it was a media centre we'd received or a Blu-ray player.  The unit is comparable in size to the PopcornHour C-200 and is styled like a standard DVD or Blu-ray disc player.  Better still, it's easy on the eye and LG has chosen its materials wisely.


But in this case, beauty is only skin deep.  The first problem is the one-line external display, which uses VFD technology, which offers less detail than an LCD.  It means you can't flip through your content without turning the TV on.  It's of little use at all really, and only gives a few pieces of information like the time since you started playing the movie.

Things are a little better with the remote control: although we were disappointed to find it felt a little too plastic, we have to admit that the buttons are well laid-out.  It has another big strength too: you can use it to control your TV, as long as it appears on LG's list of supported models; it can't learn how to access other models it doesn't already recognise though.

Next up is the onscreen interface, which we weren't too pleased with: the homescreen looks good, but LG doesn't seem to have put any work at all into the way you navigate through the menus.  The basic options installed by Realtek, which supplies the chip, are all there, but all LG has done is add its own colour scheme.

Plenty of options are missing: for starters you can't create a video jukebox with the details of every film and TV series, just like you can't view a thumbnail preview of an album full of photos.  And while there is a 24 Hz mode, you have to activate it manually each time you want to watch a video that goes with it.  You can't adjust either the subtitle or audio tracks to sync them with the video.


Decoding: plenty of HD support

Decoding on the MS450H is taken care of by a Realtek RTD1283 chip, which, although it's slower than the more recent Sigma Designs SMP8640/8650 chips, still supports a relatively wide range of formats.  HD video is on offer, as are high definition still photos.

Let's into the details: you can decode MPEG-1/2, MPEG-4 ASP (DivX, XviD), MPEG-4 AVC (H.264, x264) and VC-1 (WMV), all in standard or high definition.  Be careful with x264 videos encapsulated in MKV files though, as the chip isn't fast enough to deal with these if the bitrate is above 50 Mbps.  If, however, you use the M2TS container format, you can reach much higher bitrates--we went up to 90 Mbps.

The choice of container formats is just as wide: AVI, DIVX, MP4, MKV, WMV, MOV, MTS and M2TS are all on offer.  You can't, however, play ISOs of DVDs or Blu-ray discs, as only RIP and BRD files are supported.  Even then, though, you only get the bare minimum: the menus are gone, as are the subtitles, and all that's left is the option to change the audio track.  RIPs from DVDs aren't supported.

We'll finish with support for audio formats, which is pretty average.  Lots  of formats are supported (AAC, WMA, OGG, FLAC and MP3), but metadata isn't displayed, nor are album covers.  DTS is available as a bitstream, and can also be provided as a stereo downmix.  That means that you can play DTS audio tracks, and the MS450H will decode the original 5.1 channel audio signal, transposing it to 2.0 channel sound that your TV's speakers can play.

Connectivity: HDMI, WiFi and Ethernet

We've got nothing more to add about the connectivity, which is very complete.  With HDMI, composite and component video, optical audio and coaxial, LG has included everything.  USB ports are also available, including one at the front, allowing you to get USB keys or external hard drives.  All that's missing is an SDHC card reader.

Network connectivity is handled by a 100 Mbps Ethernet port and the 802.11n WiFi module.  The antenna earen't actually included though, so you need to plug in a WiFi USB key that LG supplies.  However, the options actually available over the network are fairly limited because you can only use a Windows network or UPnP.  It's impossible to add files to the hard drive of the MS450H from your computer: only the opposite is available.  Online services from YouTube and Picasa are available, but they haven't been well-integrated and aren't much use; you can't even connect to your own Picasa account for instance.