Many friends and family I know have purchased an HD TV or are looking at them. None of them have ever considered watching traditional 480p DVDS on an up-scaling dvd player.
So, word to the wise: Do yourself a favour and buy a dvd player that can play your old movies in 1080p.
I was so pleasantly surprised watching Serenity and Band of Brothers at 1080p. If you concentrate you can definitely tell it’s not true 1080p but I challenge anybody to tell me it’s not thoroughly enjoyable. It looks almost as good as 1080p and, for enjoyment sake, it’s equivalent.
If you don’t want to get a blu-ray player or just don’t want to move to new format get an up-scaling dvd player and enjoy yourself! I bought mine used for like 40 bucks. Great value!