Best Standard Def DVD Player under $8,000 used?

"I personally think in most cases my KRELL standard def player will look better than $300 bluray. Everytime I see one at the store I think to myself that my Krell looks
better."

Tom, that's the first clue that you're wasting your money. You compare what you have to what's in the store? I don't care how high-end the shop(pe) is, you can't tell until you get it home and tweak it for your system.

Do this: buy one of the less expensive blu-ray machines and use it exclusively in your system for a little while. Tweak the set-up properly. Watch both DVD and Blu-ray.

Then go back to the Krell and be happy.

One word, Seditious3- Delusion!
It's the equivelant of thinking your Krell reference CD player sounds better than a cheap SACD player/disc, basically. Sure you're Krell might do things like dynamic contrast, noise floor, etc, better. However in terms of resolution, body, detail, etc, it's no contest. The SACD stomps the standard 16bit/44khz CD playback in the dust,for the most.
Digital processing has improved much over the years for sure. I used to own a $700 DVD player from 1998 that was reviewed as "Better than Levinson separates" from Absolute Sound, and that was indeed the case overall! Old Digital, no matter how well executed, was never perfect.
Yeah I would be simply using one of these old CD players or expensive DVD's if that's all that was needed to get the job done, but it doesn't. Those old formats leave too much on the table compared to newer, more improved technology.

"However in terms of resolution, body, detail, etc, it's no contest. The SACD stomps the standard 16bit/44khz CD playback in the dust,for the most." Skippybo.

Me thinks you have not heard what GNSC is capable of with Wadia product in redbook.

Any upsampling of standard 16/44 is equivalent of upscaling 480p dvd's to 1080p...not the same.
But that's OK! You all keep thinking that old cd and dvd is capable of transending higher rez and better digital. Again, after all, someone's gotta buy up all that old gear. Might as well be ya'll...
Seriously, if I didn't need to consider better audio/video through SACD, DVDA, HD-DVD and Blue Ray's, I wouldn't! I'd be using upsampling players and high quality CD players and transports instead

01-11-09: Tom92602
To all: If you have no experience with these 4 players
do us both a favor and post elsewhere. If you have a/b'd
these I'd love to hear of your experiences.

We're not alone in our assessments. Check out www.ultimateavmag.com for their rankings of video disc players.

Their Ultimate Choice category is entirely populated by HD disc players, from $1500 Pioneer Blu-ray all the way down to an entry-level Toshiba HD DVD player.

The next level down, "Premier Choice," is populated by expensive battleship-build-quality boutique std-def DVD players ranging from a thousand to $11K:

Ayre DX-7e $5,999
Lexicon RT-20 $4,495
Linn Unidisk $11k
Marantz DV-9600 $2,099
Meridian G98DH $6,000
Pioneer Elite DV-79AVi $999
Simaudio Moon Orbiter $6,500
Sony DVP-NS9100ES $1,300

Most of us have moved on and consider the purchase of high zoot std-def DVD players as throwing good money after bad. Read the reviews for the better Blu-ray playes, such as the $2K Marantz.

Most of the better Blu-ray players do great upconversion of std def DVD, so they'll take good care of your 500 std-def DVD collection. If your TV doesn't accept HDMI, you'd get better picture for the money by getting a modern 1080p display and feeding it a 1080p upconverted or native mode Blu-ray signal--even if it's from a (gasp!) $500 player.

Your assessment of the Oppo DV 983H based on component video output is missing the point. Even my 720p display looks significantly better when it's fed an upsampled signal via HDMI. I have compared component vs. upconverted HDMI video from four different DVD players in my house and the HDMI trumps component every time.

Not that long ago, state of the art home theater was anchored by a 480p Pioneer Laserdisc with AP3 1st-gen Dolby Digital 5.1 with the video signal fed to an outboard $20,000 Faroudja video processor. These were superseded by the disc players of which you speak--high end std-def DVD players with the Faroudja circuit built in. These have since been superseded by the Blu-ray players of which *we* speak.

Quit shooting the messenger.