The current crop of Blu-ray players are a tough sell (unless you want to get a PS3). In my mind, there are two options. If you want to start exploring HD-DVD, don't care about DVD-A and SACD, are in a position to spend around $400, and don't mind the slow load times, the Toshiba has a lot to offer. If, on the other hand, you want to wait a bit to get into the HD format war, then the 981 is a mighty nice value: good upscaling, DVD-A and SACD support, support for an assortment of other audio and video formats, and customer service that is hard to beat. Which choice you make is not for me to decide (it's too dependent on your needs and interests), but personally I'm sticking with the 981 for the time being. In my case, it's two-fold: I already have a smal library of DVD-A and SACD, and I am unwilling to invest in either of the new formats until they mature a bit more. My plan is to wait, hopefully for a combo HD-DVD/Blu-ray player with support for DVD-A and SACD.