Onkyo DV-SP406

March 2009. The Onkyo DV-SP406 standard-definition DVD player doesn't quite deliver every drop of video perfection, but it comes as close as any other standard DVD player in its price class. Reports say it does a good job of upscaling standard-definition movies to near-HD quality (provided you have an HDTV), adding that the Onkyo DV-SP406 can render even difficult scenes with a minimum of artifacts. Colors are natural, and dark scenes are handled with aplomb, experts note. Disc and format support is good, though not universal. Sound quality is fine for movies but isn't the best for audio CDs. If you want better audio performance, the Oppo Digital DV-980H (*est. $170) gets the best scores; the Oppo DVD player is also a region-free player, so it can play European and Asian DVDs as well as U.S. DVDs.

The best expert reviews of the Onkyo DV-SP406 come from non-U.S. reviewers, including Britain's TrustedReviews.com and What Hi-Fi? Sound and Vision. Though the players reviewed by those sites differ in some details from the version of the Onkyo SP-DV406 sold here, performance should be similar. User reviews are relatively scarce, but a small handful can be found at Amazon.com, while a much larger sampling is available at Britain's Reevoo.com