Hello, I was woundering what DVD player to purchase with the best bang for the buck? I just upgraded to a 990/7125 pre/pro, and I want to uprade everything else. I have a KDF-E42A10 television which will do 720p. I will end up upgrading the TV, and putting it in the bedroom system, but the existing DVD player goes first. I have been reading topics on this site, and see the Oppo 980, and 981 are mentioned as good products with excellent reviews online. Also you can't argue with the Toshiba HD-A2 for the money, and is still available( $200.00). Which brings up the HD DVD, and Blue Ray players. They are coming down in price, but the DVD's are still pretty expensive. I don't mind spending the money, but I don't want to spend more than I need to. The Outlaw products I have sound incredible, but it is time to upgrade my visual part of my system. If anybody has any sugestions, it would be very much apreciated. Thanks.

The HD-A2 does a good job with upconversion (probably not quite as good as the 981HD, but certainly on par with the 980H). It is not the most speedy device, though, and as I recall the layer change isn't great (something that the OPPO players do extremely well). The HD-A2 does allow for HD-DVD, which certainly is nice - but if you get one I'd try to find one for somewhere closer to $150 or even less. For what it's worth, I've got both of the OPPO players that you mention and the HD-A2, and I only use the HD-A2 for HD-DVD's. For everything else, discs go in one of the OPPO's.

Thanks for the info gonk. I found the HD-A2 with 5 free HD-DVD's offer for about the same price($160.00 with shipping). I think I will purchase the Toshiba, and the Oppo 981HD for the SACD feature. All I should need is two HDMI to DVI cables, and two optical cables to make this work? Thanks, Stephen.

In addition to the two HDMI-to-DVI cables and two optical cables, you'll need a DVI cable from the 990 to your display (likely a third DVI-to-HDMI, unless you're like me and have a DVI TV). And for SACD from the 981HD, you'll need to connect the 981HD's multichannel analog output to the 990's 7.1 Direct input.

Thanks for the info. I am ordering the components this evening.Thanks for the reply.

Hello, the 981HD arrived yesterday. My wife and I have already watched five DVD's. OPPO has a great product for upscaling DVD's. I have it at 720p for my current TV. The first thing my wife said when we watched the first DVD was, we should have gotten one sooner. Thanks again for the info gonk, the TV is next!

Congrats on the new player, Stephen.

Denon "30" series!