Hi Riff,
I recently made a change from a Sony DVP725 to a Denon 2900 and the difference so far is huge concerning the picture.
I am also comparing side by side daily the 2900 and a 12 year old Denon DCM340 5 disc carousel player and it is sort of hard to tell a difference except the new one certainly does sound better with "SACD" and it looks waaay better.

Axiom Denon Paradigm SVS