On the LG ST600 Smart TV Upgrader

At home I have a pretty neat media center setup if I say so myself. The core of the whole setup is a Mac Mini running Plex, which indexes all media that I have. To watch any media I either use Plex.app on the Mac Mini itself (or Plex.app on any other Mac in my network), any of my iOS devices, or my LG Smart TV (a 42LV5500) with the medialink app on it.


My media center setup: Plex Media Server + a plethora of connected devices.

Not that familiar with Plex? Or not sure what the difference between Plex Media Server.app and Plex.app is? Then read the Plex/Nine introductory post first.

Earlier this week I bought an LG ST600 to expand that list of connected devices. The idea behind the ST600 is great: upgrade any “dumb” TV to a Smart TV by attaching the ST600 (via HDMI) to it. Above that the ST600 comes with the medialink app, which allows communication with the Plex Media Server. Geek as I am I got really excited when the box arrived and immediately got it out to start playing with it.


The LG ST600

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The ST600

The ST600 is a tad bigger than the AppleTV (v3) but weighs less. It comes with the bare essential ports: Wired Network (RJ45), HDMI Output, Digital Audio Output, and a Power Supply Connector on the back. On the side you’ll find a USB port.

In the box you’ll find the ST600 itself, a remote, a power adapter and some Nero MediaHome which is a DLNA server (yet I’m not using that as I use Plex as the media server software). Plug in the power, connect it to your TV and you’re good to go. Wired network is optional as the device has built-in WiFi support.

First impressions

Once booted (which takes about 30 seconds) I was presented with a rather familiar screen: the LG Smart TV interface just like the one on my 42LV5500. However, it did look a bit dated and not so appealing as it comes with empty tiles.


The empty-ish home screen (after having set up the WiFi)

As one has to do with all media devices nowadays I first set up the WiFi and looked for updates. Using the remote to enter the WiFi pass didn’t go that smooth really. Although the system is the same as on the 42LV5500 the (quite chubby) remote that comes with the ST600 is the lacking factor: pressing any of the arrow keys and holding it will only fire a pressed command once. This means that one has to click 5 times to go 5 characters in the same direction. On the 42LV5500 you can just press and hold the buttons.


Setting up the WiFi on an LG Smart TV

After having updated the device to firmware version ST.8.79.192.F I finally started playing around with. Navigating the menus felt slow to be honest. Above that it didn’t take all clicks, which can be quite frustrating when having to navigate down 10 items (which requires 10 presses on the down button).

Hmmz, not convinced by now really. But no worries, I bought the thing to communicate with Plex. A slow navigation won’t stop me from enjoying my media on any old screen I have lying around.

Cannot play the media

Having started the medialink app I again touched familiar grounds: quickly I navigated towards a 720p rip (H.264 video codec, .mkv container) which plays fine on my 42LV5500.


The medialink interface

Choosing it popped an error on screen however: “Cannot play the media”. Choosing older rips (ripped at other rates (480p, 1080p), using various codecs (XviD, DivX) and various containers (.avi, .mp4, .mkv)) all resulted in the same error: “Cannot play the media”. Sigh.

I immediately though of a connectivity issue, so I connected the device over a wired connection yet that didn’t solve the problem. Goofing around with the ST600 and eventually navigating to my Plex Media Server via DLNA (a new feature in the latest version of Plex Media Server) I got some media playing that way, yet most of them still popped the “Cannot play the media” error.


“Cannot play the media” makes me a sad panda

With a Google Search Coupon in my hand I started searching. Looks like I wasn’t the only one having these issues. Eventually I found a suggested solution on the Plex Forums: update the ST600’s firmware with a beta version (version ST.9.79.901) that should fixes a few medialink problems (and disables some DLNA features to give medialink more resources). As the update isn’t available online yet, it’s just a matter of downloading the version, putting it on a USB stick and popping in the running ST600 which will prompt if you want to install it. As said, as done.

One restart later I was back at it. Navigating to medialink and re-selecting that first movie I wanted to watch I got it working. Yes! Finally! On to some other media my disappointment in the device was growing again: some media played, some didn’t. I couldn’t quite put my finger on it really: one episode of a TV show played one, while the other (same codec, same container, same bitrate) failed.

With the media that did play, the ST600 still wasn’t all bells and whistles really: Again the remote again responded slowly (if I press pause I want the movie paused, not 2 seconds later) and sometimes it just couldn’t handle the HD media (buffering issues).


It’s like going back in time…

The verdict

It’s no surprise that the ST600 doesn’t do it for me: the device is slow and doesn’t do as advertised. Really a shame, as the 42LV5500 — with the same Smart TV engine and medialink app — does evertything perfectly.

It looks like LG didn’t give the device enough power (CPU, RAM) and that it released it way too soon, or didn’t test things properly.


Emperor says no.

Sorry LG, but I shipped this one back to the store where I bought it from …

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What now?

I bought the LG to watch Plex media via the Plex interface. I could use any DLNA compatible device, yet I like browsing it via the usual Plex way (a requirement to me, so the Boxee Box for example won’t do it for me). Still sitting on my hunger I looked for other solutions.

One solution that looked appealing was to buy an LG Blu-Ray player, like the BP620 with Smart TV capabilities. The device itself cost only a bit more than the ST600 and I get a Blu-Ray player with it (which I don’t own yet). A few Google Search Coupons later I shelved that idea, as it turns out that the medialink app doesn’t come with the Blu-Ray players 🙁

This week someone suggested the Roku 2 to me, which has a Plex app. It’s something that indefinitely will require some testing, yet I haven’t found a distributor in Belgium (and I don’t feel like coughing up border-taxes which can’t be recovered if I were to dislike and send back the device). I’ll keep it in the back of my mind, yet I’ll search for other solutions first.


The Roku 2

One possible solution could come from Apple: As I have an AppleTV (v3) lying around (which I’m not convinced of either by the way: no extra features over my 42LV5500), and it is rumored that Apple will open up development of apps for it from next week on, my hope is in Apple’s hands for now. An official Plex for AppleTV App would be exactly the thing I need. And I know that the AppleTV is a fast device, and that the Plex for iOS apps play all media fine … so I’m sure it’ll be a hit.

Right now I’m awaiting next week’s WWDC announcement. If that won’t turn out, I guess I’ll start looking for a Roku or maybe use some of my students to build me a standalone device.

Published by Bramus!

Bramus is a frontend web developer from Belgium, working as a Chrome Developer Relations Engineer at Google. From the moment he discovered view-source at the age of 14 (way back in 1997), he fell in love with the web and has been tinkering with it ever since (more …)

Unless noted otherwise, the contents of this post are licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License and code samples are licensed under the MIT License

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7 Comments

  1. LG ST600 sucks. Slow, lousy stability, and doesn’t do subtitles properly. Firmware updates are practically non-existent, Flash is still at V9, and wireless streaming is piss-poor. I paid $40 and still feel ripped off.

    1. lol $40,
      i paid $129.00 for this when it first came out and didn’t use it for 3 weeks
      The store and LG wouldn’t refund me,
      so got stuck with a nice shiny $129 brick!!

      1. too bad for you/ not sure what all of you are complaining about. i have 3 of these lg st600 box i got from amazon for $ 37 on 2 of my LEd tv. i am streaming movies and using the plex apps. no issues/ you ofcourse have to put the beta 901 firmware or else nothing will work. dlna, or plex works great for me as well as pictures and audio.

    2. I completely agree. A useless tool, unsupported by LG. DO NOT BUY THIS! It is false advertising. It does not do what it says it will do (BTW – I DID upgrade to the beta firmware – now it plays SOME stuff… gawd, what a terrible piece of half-assed technology…). Anyone who says it actually works is NOT using it for anything substantial.

  2. I bought the ST600 and it worked fine. Then suddenly it wouldn’t turn on. I have not received any help from LG (of course, its warranty is now expired). Any ideas of why it won’t turn on or how to fix that?

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