I am shopping for a DVD player to go with my new Sony 34" HD Direct Tube TV (KD34XS955) which has an HDMI input. At Sears, which has a weak selection of players, we connected a Samsung 841 to a Sony 42" LCD RPTV (they didn't have my model in stock) and the difference between the Component input and HDMI was dramatic. Then I started looking into upscaling players and thought I wanted that. Then I heard about the problems with the Chroma Upsampling Error and only a few players don't have that problem and those without CUE seem to have Macroblocking problems. I thought I might wait for Secrets DVD Shootout to review the Denon 2910, Yamaha S2500, Samsung HD941 and Panasonic S97, however now I read in CNET they do not recommend upscaling players for CRT based TVs. I also would like a universal player that handles SACD and hopefully DVD-A but these aren't deal breakers. Any feedback would be appreciated. Also, is it best to use HDMI on both the Direct TV HD box and the DVD? If so I will need to invest in a Gefen switcher which is another $250.
CNET does not recommend upscaling players for CRT HDTV's? Does that mean that the upscaling is unnecessary, or that it is actually worse than not upscaling?