Should be interesting to hear from an expert - look forward to your post Gordon !
I can honestly say I would buy it again in a heartbeat ! - It`s so convenient - I`m about 50-50 R1 /R2 so not having to change regionsmanually or worry about RCE is a delight.The good points are still valid - it makes bad dvds look good - significant reduction in grain and jaggies - just beautiful.
It is softer,as I said before - I sometimes find myself trying to up the sharpness (I can`t because it has no user controls, and sharpness is disabled on Progressive input to the HT200).The remote is a pain at times , and the loading time is very slow.Occasional locking - have to turn off/on to open tray.There is also some question about one of the capacitors being prone to overheating - not had it myself, but as the unit does not shutdown in standby mode (just dims lights apparently) it appears this is a concern only if you don`t turn off the player when finished (or you have a marathon 24 hour session!).
Can`t wait to fully appreciate 576p(only seeing 450 lines in 16:9 at the mo -svga HT200) - The extra 126 lines must improve things significantly I would hope(and its brill at the mo!!), although with the softer picture, I`m a little concerned that the Panamorph lens may soften it further -we`ll see.
Bought mine from hivizone.com -didn`t get stung for customs.
Bodes well for new machines using sage - I would think when(if) The big boys start using this chip - they are gonna turn some heads !
It`s not the ultimate player - but it will do me until the ultimate arrives - at the current rate that could be some time!!