Ok, so, here's the deal: I've got one of those Sony sponsored credit cards and I earn points that can be redeemed for Sony products. Gimmicky, I know, but every five years or so I actually have enough points saved for something decent. I've been checking out DVD players on the Sony site and it looks like I can pick one up and even have points left over! Woot! :cool:

My TV set is a Panny 720P job, so I'm not looking for a Blue-Ray player. I'm looking for something that can be connected via HDMI since I've got an extra cable already threaded through the wall. It seems everything out there is an 'upscaling' player - I understand what that's all about, but here's my question: Sony is advertising one of the players I'm interested in as "1080p/1080i/720p video output through HDMI."

Sooo, is the player going to scale the source up to my TV's native 720P, or is it gonna try and punch it though to 1080p and I'm going to be looking at a black screen?

Your display already "upscales" all inputs to it's native resolution. The player can also send whatever resolution the display will support. You should be looking at a BD player, you will still benefit from the increased resolution as do many folks with 720p displays. You won't really gain anything with a Sony DVD player over any other DVD player that can send 480p up to 1080p.

I had no idea a BR player would even be an option for me considering my TV set. So, I can expect great rez despite my set not supporting 1080p?

There are plenty of brands out there I consider superior to Sony, but being as though this player would cost me nothing but points, it's a very attractive option.

I don't know of any BD players that cannot output 720p. In most cases this will be automatic based on an HDMI handshake. But they mostly also have settings to force a specific output. If it costs you little or nothing, pick up a Sony BD player and start checking it out.

Some quick math:

DVD
720x480 = 345,600 pixels

720p
1280x720 = 921,600 pixels

1080p
1920x1080 = 2,073,600 pixels

Even though you won't be taking full advantage of Blu-ray on a 720p TV, you'll still be seeing over 2.5 times more resolution than a DVD. And if you eventually upgrade to a 1080p TV, those Blu-ray discs will look better still, while your DVD discs will look about the same as they do now.

A Blu-ray player is a smarter investment for both the short-term and long-term than an upconverting DVD player, especially since all Blu-ray players will also upconvert DVD content anyway. If the thing is basically going to be free with your points program, you'd be foolish not to go for a Blu-ray model.

Josh, thanks - that basically sums it up for me.

I had thought that since my set isn't 1080, that BR was a pointless investment. Thanks for clearing that up.