I'm looking to buy my second HDTV. The new one will probably be a 1080p DLP set in the 52" to 58" range, currently I'm leaning towards the HP md5880n.

My first HDTV was a rear projection Toshiba Cinema series. The upconverter was not the best ever seen, worse I bought an early expensive Toshiba progressive scan DVD. Turned out it had an identical upconverter so I paid extra for a converter I already owned. The picture was OK, but not as good as any of the newer microdisplay sets and like most CRT sets; image conversion always needed a little tweaking.

Now my question concerns the newer upconverting DVD players, although they are far less money than the earliest progressive scan DVDs I'm still confused abut having an upconverter in the player when the TV basically upconverts anyway.

Any clarification would be much appreciated.