While we're discussing upconverting DVD players and HDMI, allow me to briefly rant about the Toshiba SD-5980, which we recently got to go with my dad's new Sharp Aquos LCD panel.

Setup is painless. You run one cable and you're done. Use is painful. When you power the thing up, its HDMI output is 1080i. If you DVD happened to be 4:3, then it will be stretched out to 16:9. There's no "aspect" setting anywhere in the thing, but there is a button on the remote helpfully labelled "HDMI", which cycles between 1080i/720p/480p. The only way to watch a 4:3 aspsect video in 4:3 is to cycle to 480p and then the TV will let you adjust its own aspect settings. And, to make matters more annoying, there's no way for the DVD player to remember it's output settings. When it powers up, it goes back to 1080i. I don't know if it's at least smart enough to ask the TV for its preferences, or if it's just always 1080i no matter what.

My feeling, for what it's worth, is that it's better to have a DVD player that specializes in the deinterlacing part (480i -> 480p) and then let your TV do the rest of the work.