Opinions on best/affordable upscaling DVD player

After all the upgrades I've done in the past month, I'm getting the bug again. So I figured a good place to start would be a dedicated DVD player. Right now I'm using a 4yr old JVC progressive scan. I'll keep this as my CD player since it's a 5 disc unit.

I want to keep it affordable since I'm sure I'll jump on the HD-DVD/Blueray bandwagon soon enough.

After some prelim research I've come with these options.

1. Oppo OPDV971H
2. Samsung HD950
3. Toshiba SD-6980

Everything I have read would favor the Oppo, as long as you use the DVI connection. I believe there are some Oppo owners on this board.

CTC, what advantage would you be looking for? You have a 1080p set which has to scale DVD or SDTV material so that it can be properly displayed. The fact that you specifically used "upscaling" in your description indicates that you consider this important, but since your set already does this it would only be advantageous if the scaling in the player was visibly better than that in your set. There's no way to tell whether any of the players that you list would do this. Without knowing this it may be better to kill the bug at this time and wait for the HD players.

JohnK,
Thanks for the advice. I know the Oppo uses the Faroudja to upscale. I've heard great things about it. I'll need to see what my 5678W uses.

I also recently came across this nice little device.

http://www.dvdo.com/pro/pro_ishdplus_io.php

This will take any video source and upscale it to 1080p. This will even output VGA so I can use the 1080P feature on my Samsung.

In reply to:
I also recently came across this nice little device.

http://www.dvdo.com/pro/pro_ishdplus_io.php

This will take any video source and upscale it to 1080p. This will even output VGA so I can use the 1080P feature on my Samsung.

Wallet screaming in pain! Did you see the price of that unit? YIKES!

No offense, but I could never swing the expenditure for that unit past the spousal unit...

Will bide my time and see what unfolds...

WhatFurrer

For the price of that, you could buy alot of good stuff.

I agree guys, it's expensive and would never buy it, but it's pretty cool. I really don't see a difference between 720P and 1080I so I doubt there would be much between 1080I and 1080P.

Nickbuol and I use the Panasonic S97S, I would not trade it for the world. It is highly regarded on AVS forum as well. Things look almost HD like on my Sanyo Z2 projector.

I'll look into the Panny as well. I like the slimness of the Oppo, the DVI input and cable which is included. Plus it's $50 cheaper

I bought mine at http://www.vanns.com and got a great price with very fast shipping..

Amazon has the Oppo for a great price and free shipping. I really like mine.

$186 at Amazon with free shipping, can't beat that.

I've got the OPPO and would recommend it.

But, I agree with John, let the TV do the scaling. I've tried the OPPO with scaling to 1080I and then at the 480. I really couldn't tell any difference when the Sony scaled either to 1080P.

Another vote for the panny 97... went with it because of the picture AND it used HDMI to HDMI which in my case = smaller holes to drill through existing 2 x 4s in walls as opposed to DVI to HDMI. You might not have the same problem however...