As far as setting it to upscale to 1080P, it does say 1080P on the display on the DVD player, does that mean that it is upscaling (I didn't change anything in the menu)? I also have it connected via HDMI, and yes I get the same poor video quality with all discs.

If I was to rate my old standard definition DVD player, the Samsung, and the Oppo, video quality would be as follows:

Standard definition DVD player- 0

Samsung-4

Oppo- 10

The only reasonable argument for owning a gun is to protect yourself from the police.