Toshiba SD-5970 DVD Player with HDMI
Definitely the best "bang for your buck"
If you're anything like me - you know that spending even one penny over $200 for a DVD player is just ridiculous - especially with the upcoming release of HD-DVD and BluRay just around the corner.<br /><br />Anyway - I did a lot of research on the \\"reasonably priced\\" upconverting players for my new HD set and pretty much came down to the Samsung HD841, the LG DVB-418, and the Toshiba SD-5970.<br /><br />After having read the poor reviews on the HD841, I decided to try out the DVB-418 - that was a BUST.  The picture quality on the LG was just terrible - grainy and washed out.  The LG didn't even pass the first \\"4 Shades of White\\" Test on the THX Optimizer.  In fact, my old NON-progressive scan DVD player looked MUCH better.  I quickly exchanged it for the Toshiba - and I'm not looking back...<br /><br />For the price, the Toshiba is great.  It comes with an HDMI cable (which is at least a $30-100 value in itself) that works great.  (And don't buy into the whole \\"Monster cables are better\\" jazz - they're just more expensive.)  My first test was to check out the THX Optimizer - sure enough - passed with flying colors.<br /><br />Bottom Line - for $150, this is the way to go.  If you're looking for a combo DVD/VCR unit, check out the SD-v592.  That's another Toshiba model thats been getting rave reviews itself (even better than this unit actually)...