I know, I know, this might be kind of an apples to oranges thing, but I'm just throwing it out there (because I kind of new to all this). I can get either of the above mentioned players for $499 right now. I have a fairly large collection of non-blu-ray movies. My TV only goes up to 1080i. And I can't see myself buying a large amount of blu-ray movies any time soon (or maybe I'm scared I'll buy too many!). Anyway, I guess what it comes down to for me would be:

Video quality: processing and upscaling on standard DVDs
Sound quality

I'm leaning toward the Denon, but perhaps there have been such major advances in components over the last couple of years that the Sony would kick the Denon's butt in both video and sound.

Thanks in advance for any input.