I hear ya. Up converting DVD players are if you're really desperate for a "higher quality" picture without paying an arm and a leg for a Blu-Ray player. I'm not that impress with the up converting DVD players either.
I read somewhere that HD TV's automatically upconvert a dvd to it's best, so the upconverting dvd players are a waste of money and a useless gimmick. I don't know if this is true or not.
I do know that an HD dvd will still play in a normal player with normal dvd quality, but a Blue-Ray dvd will only play on a Blue-Ray player. This could be important in that while they are still fairly expensive, most families will only buy one higher end dvd player, and have normal ones in their bedroom ,and kid's room. So if you have Blue-Ray, you need to buy another copy to watch the same movie in another room. While with HD dvd, the same disk can be played on any player. This simple fact could be a major influence as to which kind of player to go with.
One technology will win and one will go the way of the Beta. Sony already lost back in the 80's, and said they wont lose this time, but they had the better quality video tape, and still lost then.
