What DVD player to choose?

[FSUguy]

I just picked up the Pioneer Elite DV-48AV yesterday from a magnolia store (on an awesome employee price I might add). It rocks, the upscaling is the best I've seen, even compared to a PS3 that I am currently borrowing from a buddy. I don't think you could go wrong with this unit. When I went to pick up the player the Mag guy told me the new Denon's video upscaling is, and I quote, "so bad that being a disappointment would be an improvement". This is the reason I went with the Pio and it looks like it is definitely a wise investment so far.

Mike

PS. I had a thread asking the same question about the HD-DVD players, the overwhelmingly consistent response was that they are sluggish and very slow to respond which is the reason I went with the Pio

Option 1:
So I think I'm going to probably sell my Denon 1930CI and look at either the Oppo DV-980H or the Pio Elite DV-48AV or maybe an HD DVD Player (Toshiba A-30 or A-35). I don't have any SACDs so that's not a big deal, but I definitely want USB 2.0. Also would like to be able to bitstream audio over HDMI if possible to my Yamaha RX-V1800.

Option 2:
Get an inexpensive Upconvert DVD player and use the ABT chip in my V1800 to do the upscaling, and save up for a PS3 or other Blu-Ray player eventually.

Will I see a performance difference in PQ if I use a DVD player from option 1, or just an inexpensive one and let the V1800 do the work? Any suggestions?

This will be played on my 50" Hitachi 720p rear projection

Thanks