Gonk

I am in a similar situation, I purchased the Panny BD-55 BD player about three months ago and am enjoying the new lossless codecs thru the 990's analog inputs.

The sacrifice.....I have not listened to any of my cherised SACD and DVD-A via my Marantz DV-9500 DVD player for the same amount of time. (my cables are tricky to get at so I am too lazy to swap them out)

So I too am anxiously awaiting the arrival of the 997.

My question is: do you think the new Oppo BD player would upconvert standard DVD's better than my Marantz and/or improve the BD quality as well over the Panny?

I believe that the Marantz does an excellent job with DVD's however after reading several threads on the Oppo being the best DVD player out there,I am indeed curious how the Marantz vs Oppo would play out for standard DVD's?

I could save some $$ (half the cost... $600 for new Oppo vs $1200 for new 997) by buying the new Oppo, keeping the 990 and have the best of both worlds...providing the new Oppo will indeed play DVD-A.

Your thoughts

Thanks in advance