Player. Have Oppo OPDV971H which is fine but I HATE THE HORRIBLE remote. Can I just buy the $99 Panny upscaling DVD player from CC and get equal or better picture quality?

If not, what do I have to buy to get bettr PQ? ANd for how much?

I'm giving the OPPO away to my daughter, probably.

To add to the problem, I ran into a lot of good press on the Toshiba HD-A2 so I bought one to try out. It only upscales to 1080i, but my Panny 42PX6U is a 1024x768 unit, so I assume that doesn't limit me in any way (I need a 139x by 9xx screen to display true 1080p, yes?).

So that'll be here in a couple days.

And then I ran into a review of the Oppo 981HD which was less expensive than the Toshiba A2 and upscaled to 1080p, which might be useful if I upgrade my TV.

So--what are some good choices given the limitations of the Panny 42PX6U? Is the HD player worth having on its HD merits, and is it's upscaling (as one or two review indicated) substantially better than all the other upscaling from DVD players? Is the Oppo 981HD a better choice (even though it has the same awful remote that I want to get rid of)?

Other 100-250 dollar player to consider?

Thanks to all and to all a good night.

The 981HD has the Faroudja deinterlacer, and as great as it is...it is also known to cause macroblocking on some plasma screens so you might want to stay away from that one. Have you considered the just released Oppo 980H? It has an updated Mediatek chip like the 970HD along with some other improvements. I've heard that the Toshiba HD players do a good job of upscaling regular dvd's but the drawback is that they are pretty much strictly for HD-DVD and DVD's....and not an all around media player.