excellent upscaler for 1080i/1080p
however, the upscaling is awful for 720p

That's interesting. I was thinking about buying one of these... but my TV's native res is 720p, so maybe this isn't the answer. Do you have a pointer to a review that describes the phenomenon?

Maybe I should just spend a little more and get the Oppo instead.

If you check on the review from Cnet, it should reflect this.
Also, previous posts under this player also mentions this.

By the way, if you have a Samsclub membership, this player can be had for $59.12 at local Samsclub or that plus shipping/handling charge if ordering online, no hdmi cable in the box though.

does this one from best buy come with HDMI cables?

Cables can be had fairly reasonably at monoprice.com. Sams Club was getting $20 last time I checked. When I was looking, it seemed that the RCA was the only upconverter that came with the HDMI cable.

No. Oppo DV-970HD is $150 on A m a z o n.

And Oppo comes with an HDMI cable.

#5- no.

This thing is pretty cool but a bit picky, e it can only read FAT 16/32 formated drives, can only read a certain number of files and folders etc.

I haven't watched a DVD on it but it plays divx files pretty well. I see some pixilation but i assume its the file and not the player. For 63, this thing is great. Also, upconversion is a snap. You just push the button on the player to changes modes.

FYI- My tv is 720P

#4 thanks for the tip, time to go to sams tonight

I bought this player. The menus are hard to navigate and the remote looks cheap. The player seemed to work well and upscale to 1080P, although i had nothing to compare to. That is right up until I stopped getting sound out of the HDMI connection. I could not figure out what happened, tried messing with the settings, and ended up returning it.