Sadly, my 9 yr old JVC dvd player recently passed away. I am looking into getting an economical upscaling player (specifically, I am currently researching the Phillips DVP5982). My setup is simple: dvd player straight to Sony KDF-55XS955 55" LCD Projection. Will this player fit the bill nicely? Other suggestions? I would rather keep it under $100, if possible. If I get HDMI cables, what would be the best output setting since my TV is 1080i?

I am no expert just want nice picture quality. Compared to my old player (that it wasn't even progressive scan), I think I am in for a good treat!

Check out Sony upscaling players.

I was walking though my local Wal-Mart the other day, and there were several DVD players for well under $100 bucks (as low as $44 in one case). Seems like most or all of them were 1080i capable.

I was walking though my local Wal-Mart the other day, and there were several DVD players for well under $100 bucks (as low as $44 in one case). Seems like most or all of them were 1080i capable.
And most of them are crap! Stick with reputable manufacturers. After spending good money on a good display, I wouldn't skimp on a DVD player to save $20.

What BillP said.

Totally agree with you two. The OP only said economical. That's why when I saw them...I kept right on walking....

I'm not familiar with that TV, however the native resolution is not 1080i.

In a perfect world you would feed the TV its native resolution (to bypass the internal scaling algorithm). Step 1: determine what the native resolution of the TV is and then try to limit your search to players that can provide that resolution.

I know many in this forum will disagree however scaling an image to the non-native resolution and then forcing the display to scale the image again is not a good idea. Scale once!