Welcome to the saloon, and to 990 ownership!

As for your OPPO thoughts, I've got reviews of both the 981HD and the 980H , as I beta tested both players. THe 980H is a better option for DVD-A and SACD, if you think you'll get into those formats (mostly meaning SACD, as DVD-A is dead in the water at this point from a software standpoint), but the 981HD can offer better video performance. The Panasonic will scale video on its own, but the benefit of a good upscaling player is that it can offer a better video scaling section than many TV's employ - either way, you are producing an HD resolution image from a source that is basically 480i, so you can't get "true" high def, but a good upscaling player can get remarkably close.