I've invested a lot of money into my dvd collection with some proud titles and not so proud ones (Rush Hour 2? Seriously?). I figured I'd eventually get a Blu-Ray player once DVD-HD was out of the picture, but suddenly realized that new movies cost around $30. Then I saw something in my Circuit City insert about near-HD quality DVD players. Does anyone have one and is it true about the picture quality? Can you actually see a difference? Of course I'm not expecting HD, but I want to at least know that there's some hope for my DVD collection. Thanks for all help in advance.
I got one, though not for the upconversion (i.e., wanted a DVD player that would play any type of disc format) but it's still a nice feature to have. Regarding quality? Check out this thread at AVRevForum for more advice/opinions: Kaleidescape and Toshiba Claim 1080p Upscaling Players Rival Blu-ray.
I don't know if you have an XBox 360, but if you do get the HD DVD add on. It's only $29 and not only will it play HD DVD's (cheap to find) but it upconverts SD DVD's very nicely.
Upconversion is the bee's knees. But remember - there's still only 480p lines of data per frame. A non-progressive-scan DVD player only draws half that data. A progressive scan player shows all of it (if your TV can display it). An upconverting scales the image to an HDTV resolution internally - which usually looks better than upscaling in your TV's hardware. But it's still the same amount of raw data as 480p native. It won't look as good as Blu-Ray (or HD-DVD). But it will look good. I upscale all of my movies to 1080i (my tv's native resolution), and they look awesome. My previous setup was an SDTV with a special "anamorphic 480p mode" (a Sony Wega) and a progressive scan DVD player, and that looked pretty darn good. My next step is Blu-Ray, once costs come down. I gambled on HD-DVD, and lost. At 30 bucks (!!) the drive is a great deal, despite the fact that new media aren't coming out. I should buy a second drive as a 'backup' so I can keep watching my existing HD-DVDs if my first drive dies.