Despite my support for the Oppo above (it is a good unit), I do too wrestle with what media player at this point. I am not going to rush out and replace our DVD collection with Blu Ray and/or HD DVD. But I am at the point where I can't see spending any more money on regular DVDs.

Unfortunately, I am not seeing a clear winner in the current format war. For a while, I was thinking that Blu Ray had the advantage. Then Paramount and Dreamworks threw a wrench in the works. And what about HD VMD?!?

I think know we will see further price drops in both formats in 2008, but I doubt we will see a winner. Then what about combi players (that play both Blu Ray and HD DVD)?

Sorry for tangent. Just something on my mind.

If you're going to go with a Bluray player at all, I highly recommend getting a Ps3 ($399) just because it is easy to update while the standard evolves. The first batch of players are not quite as upgradable. Regular DVDs are upconverted as well, and look great -- and it all goes thru the HDMI input, which is what you want. (I'm just sayin, if you WERE gonna invest in that, that's the way to go).

Of course, you can get a regular DVD upconverter for $100, so it is a rather hefty difference atm.

We went Blu-Ray primarily for Disney. If/when something comes out in HD that I HAVE to have in Hi-Def (ie Star Wars, LoTR) I'll add one of them.

Oh, and I would also note viewing distance is a BIG factor. I've compared upscaled standard and HI-Def versions of a couple of movies. To see any real diffrence you need to sit VERY close to the TV. Here is a guide that gives you an idea...

The PS3 does get good reviews as a blu-ray player but I have seen some complaints about the fan noise on it. I did not go with the PS3 because I did not want the kids playing games on "dad's tv" all the time. They have their own game system for that.

We went with the Sharp. It seemed like a great set in all the reviews plus it is pretty (and lighter!). We absolutely HAVE to have an all-region player at this point (too many other region DVDs in our collection). So we got the Oppo. At some point, maybe we will get a gaming piece with blu-ray or an additional players, but we don't have any "fancy" DVDs in our large collection.

I have to spend some time looking at the accessories you've linked to. (Or get Chris to do it ;)).

Sadly, the set won't be here for NYE so it's the old giant box for one last year of movie watching.

Now, on to Verizon for FIOS and perhaps their HDTV options (and maybe even cell service at the same time!)

.... and if you would like to obsess over FIOS then go here and read the last few thousand posts.

Somehow, I cannot envision you and € sitting around playing video games on your TV.

Congratulations on the new TV! What are you going to name it?

I have to name my TV?

Let's see. The fridge's name is Hubble. Our old heater was Beelzebub. I don't think we've named anything else. I tend to call the current TV Behemoth.

Maybe it should be named "Pancake". Chris is suggesting Flat Stanley, Slim Jim or Flatulence.

..or Heidi - after Heidi Klum, since all we watch is project runway