Toshiba SD-K850 DVD Player with HDMI and DIVX
Great bang for buck!
At $79.99 (at Costco), this player is a steal!  I haven't seen much press/reviews for this particular Toshiba player - seems like all the focus has been on the Toshiba's SD-x980 line (which, btw are horrible and overpriced).  After playing with it the past week, here are some details: <br /> <br />Testbed: <br />- Syntax Olevia LT37HVS - 37\\" LCD <br />- Toshiba SD-K850 <br />- LG LDA-511 <br />- Cyberhome progressive scan (unknown model, circa 2002) <br /> <br />* Player comes with an HDMI cable!  This is great considering a good deal for one will set you back around $20.  Some of the Sony, LG, and Samsung models make you buy the HDMI cable separately. <br /> <br />* DVDs tested:  Star Wars III, Matrix 2, Return of the King <br />  * All played flawless - I expected nothing less than perfect. <br />  * Picture quality is comparable to the LG LDA511 (also an HDMI upconvert player).  I got this at Best Buy just for the purpose of comparison. <br />  * Picture quality vs old Cyberhome is like day and night - the Toshiba beats it hands down. <br />  * It's hard to tell the difference between 720P and 1080i.  They both resample the video using some form of pixel interpolation.  The perceived result is less graininess - my wife puts it as \\"the picture seems softer.\\" <br /> <br />* Tried various home-made DVDs (original source is DV from my Panasonic 3CCD camcorder).  Played them all fine - solid support for a wide variety of blank media. <br /> <br />* I love Anime and have many fansubs.  Almost all of them are in DivX format.  I use to have to play them on my laptop and output to TV.  The Toshiba played each and every one of them directly with subtitles and all.  I was very satisfied. <br /> <br />I'm too lazy to continue writing so I'm going to sum it up: <br />This thing played everything I threw at it.  Upconversion improves picture quality slightly - it gives the perception that the picture is smoother/softer.  It's still not HD - if you want that, go get an HD DVD player.  For $80, it's hard to go wrong especially with the free HDMI cable.