actually, to my untrained eyes i can only see mild difference...but blame my eyes...hehe...coz maybe my source's not very good

if u wanna try for cheap...some cap ayam dvd player like Agip already came out with HDMI functions to upscale, even to 1080i...nothing to lose there and it plays almost anything...

as for branded one, Pioneer and Philips are known to play almost anything also...other brands might be a bit sensitive

have fun!