For a little more than $400 you can get a Panasonic RP-91 (ecost.com has it for $439 plus shipping right now). Do a search on the DVD forum for this player - you will find more than enough information. I think you will also see that the general consensus is that it is light years better than the Sony, and the best under $500 player on the market. Many believe it is the best sub-$1000 player as well.
If you want to wait, the Phillips Q50 is coming out soon. This player has the Faroujda chip in it, and will therefore likely be superior to the RP91 at deinterlacing. Of course, it may not have some of the other goodies the RP91 has like DVD-Audio and scaling of non-anomorphic discs. It all depends on what you are looking for. The MSRP of the Q50 is $500, and it is expected to have a street price of about $400. (You can get a region-free version at ************* right now, but that will run you around $600 with shipping).