DVD recomendation

I think the last post was a bit winded. If your display upconverts 480p to 720--- Then yes a progressive player will kill any 480i player. Generally, the scaler in the better dvd players will be better than that of the display within the tv. How large an image you are seeing IS important. On a smaller set it is less important.

Winded? Do you mean "long" or "full of hot air"?
Hopefully the former and not the latter. ;>) JZ

P.S. I'm not against progressive scan DVD, I was just trying to cover some general points of "what to watch for" from Aniesen's original question and progressive-scan quality can vary a lot among different players. I think 480i should at least be considered if it's right for his system. I got the impression from his post that he was looking for some basic general guidelines. We can get more specific if he provides more information on his particular system.

P.P.S. I'll add that one important thing to watch out for with a progressive-scan DVD player is to make sure it has aspect-ratio control if the display device does not (when fed a progressive video signal). Many HDTV-ready 16x9 tv's will default to the "FULL" mode when fed a progressive signal and therefore will not display non-anamorphic DVD's properly. Refer to your set's owner's manual for details on how your set handles this. Many rock concert DVD's, for example, are presented in non-anamorphic letterbox format and will not be displayed correctly if the TV is stuck in the "full" picture mode. To work around this, make sure you can control the aspect ratio in the (source) DVD player. You can go out and buy the "best" brand/model of a component but if it doesn't work well together in YOUR system you will be frustrated in the long run.

Hey folks, it is a post like Jonh Z's that will get us all thinking. It is not what some of us say or even how we go about it; it is more like what we get and how much it gets us thinking.