The pledge curren y The picture quality is better on the

The pledge curren y The picture quality is better on the 2011 models; sharper image, greater detail, less edge enhancement. The LG is far more dependent on the quality of the stream versus the Panasonic. If you watch a lot of movies via one of the online streaming services, this might be important to you. So many movies. So little time. One area where the BD670 isnt average, is media streaming capabilities. The SmartTV interface is a tad clunky looking not as polished as Samsungs, but its also easy to navigate and there is a lot to select from. A recent firmware update added Amazon Instant Video and MOG, and its hard to complain when you have Netflix, Vudu, CinemaNow, and Amazon Instant Video staring right at you. Hulu Plus is still noticeably absent, as is access to Facebook kickass and Twitter. But Im personally not too disappointed by these omissions. P Pandora, Napster, and MOG are your main choices for music; aside from Slacker, what else could you possibly want? editors note: LG informed us after publication that they expect to deliver Hulu and NHL to this player in a firmware upgrade next month, with Twitter and Facebook to follow some time later this year The LG apps are not on the same page as the premium ones see above, and I think that may confuse some people. Granted, the current selection of LG apps is pretty limited and I couldnt find one that interested me. Samsung clearly has a leg up in that department, though they, like Panasonic, limit their third party app catalog to their TVs their players only include the standard streaming services. One thing I didnt like about the the pledge curren y is that it lacks a button to directly access the premium apps. You the pledge curren y to navigate through an additional page to find them and with other remotes offering specific Netflix and Vudu buttons, LG needs to pay closer attention to this. The streaming video quality was generally good across the board; wired was preferable to wireless, but the LGs WiFi capability was still quite respectable in a house filled with wireless devices feeding off my up the player to work with DLNA was quite easy and I had music and pictures streaming in under 10 minutes. Okay, Im a tad slow of late. All of the various media formats that I tested worked flawlessly, but that doesnt guarantee that every format will be problem-free; theres always one to cause trouble. Hate those pesky AVI files. LG also offers a remote control app that works with your iPhone or iPod Touch lets not forget our friends at Google and while it worked, it doesnt do enough to make it something that I would go to on a regular basis unless I lost my factory remote or the dog ate my universal remote. Sanctum 3D may have been an awful film, but it did give me the opportunity to test the BD670 on both an active and passive 3D set-up and compare the two. My general dislike of passive 3D systems is well-known, but I must confess that the BD670 with the LG LED Cinema 3D passive-glasses HDTV was pretty respectable. Sanctum 3D certainly looked better on my active 3D Panasonic set-up; almost no crosstalk, deeper blacks, a true HD 3D image but the difference in picture brightness was disconcerting. Im still ready to sock Cameron in the nutz for telling folks to support passive 3D, but I can see why it would be an easier sale; cheaper glasses, brighter image. The BD670 produced terrific results on both sets, so its hard to slam either format. Animated films have kept the 3D flame burning live-action films better get good quick because the natives are restless and with a house full of kids who love movies, its inexcusable for me not to own everything that is available which isnt that tough considering how little there is. My son loves Despicable Me. My daughter loves Tangled. Both make fantastic demo material and the LG didnt disappoint. We switched between active and passive I the pledge curren y to bribe them with money and back. Both kids thought the passive LG system looked better. When I told them that the Panasonic had real HD 3D, they shrugged and returned to watching Gru on the LG. Very interesting. P From the mouths of babes, indeed. We also checked out the IMAX Under the Sea Blu-ray 3D disc, which was previously a promo title that LG distributed with its 2010 players but no longer. Minus the fact that it is narrated by Jim Carrey who is really annoying, its gorgeous to watch. Standard Blu-ray releases looked genuinely solid, but I must confess that the passive vs. active debate kept raging inside my head. Your home theater life can be very good with the BD670 regardless of which technology you decide to go with. LG has played second fiddle to Panasonic, Samsung, and Sony for far too many years, but with the BD670 Blu-ray 3D player, they come to the party packing some substantial steel. While not inexpensive, the player delivers excellent Blu-ray and Blu-ray 3D playback, and is one of the best media streaming devices available today. Throw in excellent support for DLNA and almost every relevant media format and you have the makings of a first-class device. If you can deal with the absence of Facebook, Twitter, and Hulu, and dont mind the average disc-loading speed, this is a player to seriously consider.