I am helping a friend create a home theater setup for his new place. We are now in the process of picking a dvd player for him. He doesn’t want to pay a lot for the player so I am trying to narrow down to the best low cost upconverting player or hd player. The dvd player will run thru an Onkyo TX-SR705 receiver to a Panasonic 58” Plasma HDTV (TH-58PZ700U) via hdmi cable. He simply does not watch a lot movies and doesn’t feel he must have a HD/BR player so we are flexible.
Any and all suggestions as to the best of the best for say at/under $200 would be much appreciated!

For under $200, you can get a Toshiba HD-A3 and enjoy hi-def movies on the 58 plasma.

For $199 at Best Buy you can get an A2 which will upconvert DVDs, 5 free HD DVDs by mail, 2 free in the box, and usually 2-3 additional movies for free as well. Just check the local ads.

It's the HD-A3 that comes with two free discs in the box, not the A2.

I meant to say the A3, my bad.

Thanks for the info thus far. Two questions,
Any recomendations on a upconverting player under $200 also?
Does the A3 upconvert as well or better then the a2?

If you want just a straight DVD player with upconversion, I'd recommend the Oppo DV-980H for $169. It's a great upconverting player, is multi-region, and also plays SACDs and DVD-Audio discs.

But I do agree that the Toshiba HD-A3 is the better value if you don't need those other features. It does a great job with upconversion, plus you do get HD-DVD to boot. You can find it pretty easily for $199, plus the seven free HD-DVDs, so it's a great deal.

The A3 will do upconversion better then that $169 Oppo (or thats what people keep saying at least). If you don't care about Region 2-6 DVDs (and most don't), or SACD/AudioCDs, get the A3. $30 more and you literally get 10 free HD movies as well. You can't beat that deal.

I have been searching the internet the last couple of days for a $199 or less A3 with extra movies but havent found any since the blackfriday-cyber monday deals finished up. Amazon looks to be the least at around $233 and just has the normal two in the box plus 5 mail in rebate. Am I missing somewhere that has a better price and more dvds?

Just keep looking around at the weekly ads. Its bound to happen again very soon.

If not, ValueElectronics.com has it for $189 no tax, free shipping with 5 free by mail, 2 in the box, and 3 free "sampler" type movies. Not a bad deal at all since you would be paying an additional $25-30 with tax at a local store anyway. Use that extra money for a movie or two.

I don't know how the upconversion of the A3 compares to the A2, as I own the A2. But I also own the Oppo, and the Oppo is better at upconversion than the Toshiba. They're very close in quality, but the Oppo is better. There is also no layer change on standard DVDs with the Oppo.