I ended up buying the upconverting sony NS70 a few weeks ago. I did side by side comparison with the NS50 using my 46" TV before moving the NS50 to the bedroom. The upconverting one connected with HDMI cable did look better that the non-upconverting connected with component cables. Not a huge difference, though, but noticible. But also, the NS70 had more/better/flexible setup options - definately higher end "guts" than the NS50.

When I was in best buy a while ago there was a manager type hanging out in the video department. He said they would be getting in blue ray or HD-DVD (dont remember which) in 2006, and the price was going to be $999.

So, sure, blue-ray/hd-dvd will be hitting the stores probably in the next few months. But it will be a few years until they hit that magic $200 price.

Incidently - I needed a DVD player now since one of mine died - so HD-DVD/Blue ray never really entered into the equation. I was just trying to figure out if it was worth the extra few $$ for up-converting, and it was.

Thanks for all the opinions/info everyone.