@ AvFan,

I hear what you're saying. I used the Audessy optimizer in the integra 885 for my father's system and wasn't impressed with with the results. It was interesting, but not accurate. But I could be doing something wrong.

I like the idea of the internal video scaling because I have basic cable and only a handful of HD channels, which only happened recently. However, I have an xbox and ps 2. I don't know if the scaler will benefit them or not, but if it does, great.

I agree that the Oppo will take care of dvd/blu-ray media and hd audio formats of said media, but that's it.