It also fails the Diagonal Filtering test, with steep jaggies on the edges of the rotating bars; players with more competent video processing, such as the Panasonic and the Pioneer, make them look completely smooth.

But Blu-ray movie discs, such as Hellboy II: The Golden Army are more forgiving. The movie's stunning troll market scene is packed with crisply rendered detail and mind-blowing colours that make the wildly imaginative characters almost burst from the screen, and when running at 1080/24p motion is tracked without a trace of judder.

However, even with movie fare you can see the LG playing second fiddle to the superior BDP-51FD and DMP-BD35. Scenes like the tooth fairy attack or shots of Nuada's underground lair aren't as distinct as we've seen on those players, and shadow detailing isn't as convincing.

DVD playback is decent enough when viewing movies, making Gladiator, look sharp, clean and filled with natural-looking colours. Switch to more demanding test patterns, however, and it tells a different story, with rotating diagonal lines juddering wildly and showing more steps than the Empire State Building.

Good sound

Sending a Dolby True HD or DTS HD Master Audio bitstream to a compatible AV receiver is the best way to hear movie sound, but pleasingly the sound is virtually indistinguishable when decoded into PCM. It's not bad as a CD player either, with those analogue stereo sockets serving up some clean, dynamic and surprisingly full-bodied music.

Let's look at the facts: for £250 you get a good-looking Blu-ray player that supports BD-Live, loads up discs in double-quick time and serves up respectable pictures. And that sounds like excellent value for money to us.

It won't give Pioneer and Panasonic anything to worry about in terms of picture quality, and you need an HDMI-equipped receiver to make the most of its audio talents, but on the whole the BD300 serves as a fantastic entrée into the world of Blu-ray.