I am looking for a SD DVD player that does upconversion to 1080i, preferably over component video.

My system

Toshiba 30HF85 TV monitor (1080i, it has HDMI input)
Kenwood VR 7070 receiver (no HDMI)
Dish receiver

DVD players tried so far
Toshiba HD-A3
Philips DVP3960

I get the system connected on component, since the Kenwood has no HDMI.

I got the Philips DVP3960 some days ago ($40 at Walmart) and I connected it directly to the TV via HDMI (since it does not upconvert via component)

Most of the times I get an image with rapid flickering (like a strobe light), dividing the image in 2 parts. This abnormality sometimes goes away by switching the power on and off a couple times :mad:

When it works though, I found it to have an excellent image quality (I honestly could not tell the difference to the HD-A3, that does a very good job on the upconversion ) :)

One DVD that these 2 players displayed differently though, was “Vertigo”, which has an aspect ratio of 1.85:1

The Tosh displayed horizontal black bars top and bottom (expected), *but* also on both sides. So it seems that the image had more room to “expand”, but visually the aspect ratio looked OK. However on the Philips the bars on both sides did not show. Maybe because of this it seemed somehow that the aspect ratio was not maintained, like the image was slightly squeezed vertically.

It is also a bother to switch the monitor input from HDMI to component every time I want to change source from the Dish to DVD

So, I am looking for a good upconversion DVD player, that does it over component, but regarding this it seems the choice is rather limited

After a little research, I found

Helios H2000 (new model, upconversion via component )
Zenith DVB318 (3 years old, upconversion via component with firmware)
Oppo 970HD (discontinued, upconversion via component with hack)
Oppo 980HD (upconversion via component not with CSS-encrypted DVDs)

It would seem the Oppo 970HD would be the way to go. It has excellent reviews, but it was discontinued (the silver color even matched the other machines)

Anybody got any experience with the Helios H2000 ?

Thanks so much in advance

Why not just swap Dish over to component? There's really no PQ difference. Then get a good, reasonably priced player like the Sony 77H. Or, you could go this route:
http://www.monoprice.com/products/product.asp?c_id=101&cp_id=10110&cs_id=1011002&p_id=3047&seq=1&format=2

I have that exact same TV and it sucks with HDMI, like a flaw in the television itself. Theyre just better with component for whatever reason.

im looking at the Helios upconverting dvd player right now for the sole reason of having component outs.