Upscaling DVD Players

After buying my first High Definition TV (in the form of the very good Samsung LE32R74BDX) a few weeks back and have started enjoying the improved pictures that High Definition (HD) provides in the form of Xbox 360 gaming and videos played from my HTPC (Home Theatre PC).

I’m currently holding off on buying Sky HD due to the costs involved for a somewhat limited number of channels that are currently available, plus I’m finding I’m watching less actual TV these days, so the value for money of this ‘home entertainment investment’ really isn’t there for me. However, if the price of the Sky boxes fall further and/or the additional subscription costs dropped, I could be tempted though!

Therefore the current priority I’m looking at is getting an upscaling DVD player as I’ve been thoroughly unimpressed by the performance of my 3+ years old DVD player on the HDTV. By getting an upscaling player, you can view improved picture quality from your existing DVD collection, which mine is now approaching around 200 in total. Of which I’ve no intention of replacing all those with next-gen HD discs of whichever format ultimately wins the current format war. I’m looking at getting the Oppo DV-981HD which I have read good reviews about.

However, judging from this news story at PC World, it would appear that Blu-Ray may be winning the war by a considerable margin, in no small part by having a Blu-Ray drive in every Playstation 3 which will mean a large market base straight away. I still won’t be buying a PS3 though, no doubt by the time the format war is over, stand-alone Blu-Ray (or HD-DVD) players will be much better in performance and features - this was certainly the case with the PS2 and DVD players.

Has anybody had any experience of upscaling DVD players? Is it worth it? Is the Oppo DV-981HD a good choice? What do you think about HD in general?

UPDATE: Now that HD-DVD has lost the format war to Blu-Ray, the shops are now selling all HD-DVD players as upscaling DVD players!