Best upconverting HD DVD player?

[Astrakan]

So, I've made my decision and I'm getting a Panasonic AE2000U come January.

Along with it I'll be upgrading from my 360 add-on to a standalone HD DVD player.

Now... which model offer the best upconversion of SD DVD?

And whatever model that is, are there some negatives about it that others don't have?

Also, I'm in no major rush, so please enlighten me if there's something coming down the pipe worth waiting for.

Thankso mucho in advance.

KM

[Ruined]

Currently the Toshiba HD-XA2 & Onkyo DV-HD805 are the best upconverters; they are based on the same reference design, though the XA2 is currently out-of-production with the HD805 taking its place. No real downside except cost currently, and the fact that they are much more complex than the gen3 A3/A30/A35 players. The thing that makes the XA2/HD805 so great is the Reon chipset, and personally I am running the A35's 1080i output to my pre/pro which has the same Reon chip in it for deinterlacing - as the Reon's deinterlacing in the XA2/HD805 is what makes them so great.

However if you can wait ~3-6 months the HD-XA3 will be due next spring and will offer much faster response as it will be SoC-based, and it is very possible it will feature native DTS-HDMA internal decoding as well; although the current XA2/HD805 can do DTS-HDMA via bitstream, internal decoding is better IMO because bitstreaming does not allow for sound on PiP extras.

[Astrakan]

Originally Posted by Ruined

However if you can wait ~3-6 months the HD-XA3 will be due next spring and will offer much faster response as it will be SoC-based, and it is very possible it will feature native DTS-HDMA internal decoding as well; although the current XA2/HD805 can do DTS-HDMA via bitstream, internal decoding is better IMO because bitstreaming does not allow for sound on PiP extras.

Good to know. I have no problems waiting for the HD-XA3.

Thanks for the info.

KM