What price range are you looking at ?

As for Which player is right for you now I would suggest a mid priced universal player . One that does SACD, DVD Audio, DTS, Dolby Digital etc. etc. .
Does you television have a DVI or HDMI input on it . If you are not sure then about how old is it . If it does you may want to consider a player that up converts 480i to an HD standard .

The price on such players start at about $299 and go up from there . Samung is the cheapest I can think of ( HD 841 ) that does all the above . Although I am not certain it will play DVD Audio or not . At any rate it goes for about $149 and will do all the other important formats mentioned . There are higher end players such as the Denon 3910 at $1499, 2910 at $699 and Pioneer 59AVi at $1599. In the middle you will find players like the Samsung HD 941 with the Farajuda processor for $249 . Sony makes a solid player the DVPNS985 which does all the above except DVD Audio for about $249 . So I say again how much do you want to spend ?

As for HD DVD buy a Play Station 3 when they come out . It will support blu-ray discs and in the event that blu-ray does not become the standard for HD DVD's then at least you can still play video games on it .