[Overpaid Slacker]

There's merit to what E says, but, personally, I wind up spending the money anyway. When I almost bought a state-of-the-art DVD player 6 months ago, I did a boatload of research and settled on Denon. When time comes, that's what I'll buy. Best bang for buck, and you can upgrade it later if you're going to use it as an audio source as well as strictly DVD.

I know I sound like a broken record on this topic, but if your budget is $1200 and you do not yet have professional cables, spend $800 on the unit and $400 on cables. Cables never wear out, and they're the most important part of the system, IMHO.

JP