The S&V ad featured the 971H also, so it may be sold concurrently for a while. My guess is that if they are very close to releasing the 981HD, they have probably stopped production of the 971H - they will just let the current supplies run out.

You had expressed interest in replacing the S1500 and the 971H with one product. I don't think this is the product. The SQ (same as 970HD) will be good, but you may not notice a difference between it and the S1500 (I guess ordering and testing one is the only way to tell for sure!!). For that, you may have to wait till 1Q 2007 when their "high-end" universal player is released.

For me to upgrade (and make it my LAST SD universal player), that player must have:

1. SQ better than the 970HD (better DACs, etc.,including native DSD to analog conversion)
2. Video same or better than the 981HD
3. HDMI 1.2 (PCM+DSD over HDMI).
4. Price less than $350.