I am getting a new Mitsubishi Medallion series DLP on Friday and wanted to get a new dvd player also. Was considering the Pioneer Elite that runs 299 and upconverts to 1080i. For the same price though at Best Buy, the Toshiba HD DVD player is available and upconverts to the same 1080i.
Should I go with one of those, or should I even find a cheaper one just to get by with until the HD DVD/Blu Ray war is over. I own well over 1000 dvds, and just want those to look the best they can? Any help or advice from the fellow gurus out there?

there have been a number of threads on DVD players in this forum lately.

really, it is just a matter of choice.

your MITS may have its own upscalers that does as good a job as an upscaling DVD player; so you may wan to try just connecting a progressive scan DVD player and see how the Mits handles the upconversion first.

if it does a nice ob, it will save you money.

you can even hook up your old progressive scan and hook up an upconverting player to do an a/b and see if the money is worth it for a new player. if you like the way the Mits handles the upconverting, return the other player.

buying an HD-DVD player is a separate decision in my book. if that is the format you want to support, and you like the studios on board, get one. but dont buy it just for the upconverting. you end up buying HD-DVDs even though you said you wouldnt and then your $200 HD-DVD player gets way more expensive.

If you are going to spend $299 on a dvd player, how can you NOT get an HDDVD player?

I don't currently own a HDDVD player but I agree if your going to spend 300 bucks on a machine just by a HDDVD player because it plays regular DVD's.

You can get the Toshiba HD-DVD at Sam's Club or Costco for under $250, which still includes the 5 free DVDs.

I had planned on waiting the format war out, but I'm seriously considering it at that price. I've read that it's a very good up-converting player. If I buy one, I'm going to keep the movie purchases to a minimum, and just rent them from Blockbuster Online for a while and keep an eye on what's happening with the formats. There's lots of talk on the player at AVS and Satellite Guys (and I'm sure many other places).

If you were planning on spending that much on a player anyway, I'd definitely consider going that route.