Just chiming in with every one else: I have a Panasonic 720p 50in plasma that I'm sitting about 10 ft. away from. There is a dramatic difference between BR and DVD. At that distance, you can't make out the difference between 720 and 1080.

Go for the BR, he'll like it i swear! ;-)

My new system: M80s, VP-150, EP-350 and QS8s, Denon AVR-889, Samsung BD-P1500 and XBox360