I got my LG BD390 in the mail yesterday, hooked it up with an HDMI cable to my receiver, and started playing.

It's nice.

I haven't tested an actual blu-ray disc on it yet (first titles come by Netflix today if I can access my mailbox - long story) but I'm streaming an HD-quality version of "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix" that I ahemmed. It's an x264 mkv file and is streaming perfectly over my networked drive that I have sharing from an Apple Airport Extreme.

I was extremely happy to discover that this player does NOT require a DLNA server to play files over the network. It found the shared drive the second I hooked it up to the wireless network, and is playing it perfectly, no computer or server required.

Haven't tested Netflix or Youtube streaming yet, but will later. I expect them to work fine - I'll be selling or giving away my Roku box in that case.

The interface is quick and attractive.

All in all, seems to be totally worth the $299 I paid for it ($329 listed but with a $30 discount code I found online somewhere) and of course newegg got it to me in one day.

That sounds cool Gris. Sometimes I've been shocked by how fast newegg is at getting stuff to me.

I survived a call from my aunt last night, asking for computer help. She had a paper jam and wanted me to stop by to clear it. Considering that she lives 30 minutes away, I decided to talk her through it, that only took 30 minutes so win.

At one point she was talking about having to buy a new printer and lamenting the loss of the current one. I know she was trying to guilt me into coming over in person, but it sure sounded pathetic.

I asked her the name of the printer and I got the name of the ink cartridge, then "Pict Bridge". I'm sure you can imagine the fun.

I forwarded my family the xkcd about technical support, and my sister's reply was "Does that mean you don't want to do it any more? Doesn't it make you feel closer to us?"

Not even funny. I wish I could impress upon the two PhDs how silly some of their questions are.

Yeah, or what the alt text said.

Can anyone tell me how to install a settings.xml file in Windows XP that's supposed to tell Smart Connection plug-ins where to find the server they're intended to log in to?

On the Mac just dropping the .xml file into its own folder in Library/Preferences does the trick automatically, but I have no idea what to tell a PC user about getting it to work on her computer.

Problem:

My cursor randomly moves when I am typing.

Examples from trying to post this

I have a very strange problem.pcurer moves without me doing anything,ing, my

Sometimes, when I am ty

Sometimes, whencursor moves without me doing anything. I am typing, my

Could it be sabotage? Phantom Keystroker

That is too funny!

I suspect I am accidentally doing something to cause this, but I can't figure out what!

I think you may need to clean your mouse/trackpad/trackball.

Okay, I have now tested every almost every aspect of this Blu-ray player except it's playback of, well, Blu-Ray discs. Because I don't have one yet. Because I can't access my mailbox, because my GF took our only mailbox key with her when she went out of town. Oops. She'll be back on Friday, and I'll experience Blu-Ray Iron Man and Tru Blood .

Until then, here's my final summary:

• Netflix playback is as good as the Roku player, exactly. As in, when I'm in the Netflix setting, I can't tell the difference. Both of them still have some aspect ratio issues, with lots of should-be-widescreen content only available in 4:3 and some cinemascope widescreen content coming across as full 16:9. But Netflix streaming is more for the convenience than the pretty anyway.

• Youtube is fine. You can search, it's well-organized with featured content. I haven't tried to log in to an account or anything, as I don't really do that stuff. The quality is, naturally, rather bad, though the HD stuff looks okay and it's nice to have the sound coming out good for things like "D*ck in a Box".

• Music playback over the network / off a USB key is mediocre. Folder browsing only, which isn't terrible, but it's not the fastest file browser in the world. Can't shuffle or do playlists. It'll work for me, as I only listen to full albums which are correctly folder-organized anyway, but I won't use it often.

• Picture viewing... hasn't been tried. Oops. I'll give it a spin at some point, but I honestly don't have that many pictures.

• Video playback over the network / off a USB key, as mentioned earlier, is amazing. It played every file I threw at it - mostly XviD AVIs and x264 mkvs. I didn't try anything fancy like iPod-encoded MP4s, so I may be missing some problems, but I'm fully satisfied. Did I mention it didn't need a DLNA server? It doesn't need a DLNA server! I was so happy.

• DVD up-scaling / playback is great. Definitely better than I was getting before - admittedly, I was using a PS2 for DVD playback. Even with my receiver doing up-scaling, I couldn't expect it to be good. THIS, however, is fantastic DVD playback. Quick to respond, great detailing, looks better than a DVD ever has on my TV.

Overall, I think it's one of the coolest almost-all-in-one devices I've used. I would love a Hulu setting for it, but I can always try to use PlayOn to stream it to the Blu-Ray player; I have to decide if it's worth the trouble / potential cost.