Question: I have a 50-inch TV and am considering a Blu-ray player. One thing the reviewers pick at in reviews is subpar DVD up-conversion. Are they really nit-picking about this? Would it be something I would notice?

With prices pretty reasonable, would it make sense to just buy a good DVD player to watch my DVDs and use the Blu-ray player for Blu-rays?

-- Don Blakeslee

Answer: All reviewers nitpick, but the fact is most Blu-ray players are lousy up-converters. If you want top-notch DVD performance, look at one of the Panasonic Blu-ray players, or perhaps the new $500 Oppo Blu-ray player, which I have yet to review.

If DVD performance is important, a strong case can be made for two players, given deals I uncovered recently.

Best Buy has their Insignia NS-2BRDVD Blu-ray player on clearance for $119. It's a very solid entry-level player with fantastic Blu-ray image quality and a full one-year parts and labor warranty. You may want to try the Insignia with DVDs to see if you are satisfied with the DVD up-conversion before splurging on a second player. Be sure to install the firmware update before using the player. The update can be found at www.insignia-products.com.

The Toshiba XDE-500 DVD player has controllable picture modes (which you may or may not like) and up-converting performance that bests most any Blu-ray player. The XDE-500 can be found for $59.

Get both, and for less than $180 you would have good DVD up-conversion, true high definition quality from Blu-ray, and your Blu-ray player would experience less wear if you do not use it for DVDs.

Question: Any results on your testing the $17 Monoprice set-top antenna mentioned in a fairly recent column? The Zenith Silver Sensor is getting really hard to find.

-- Jim Erickson

Answer: I recently completed a test of the $16.56 Monoprice HDA-3700 Indoor HDTV Antenna, and it works very well. Most small antennas are unable to tune anything at all where I live, due to surrounding terrain. In fact, a lot of outdoor antennas are pretty useless. I figure if a small antenna can reliably pull in stations for me, it should satisfy most of my readers.

In my home, the Silver Sensor, sold under the Philips and Zenith brand names, tunes every local station in my market area outperforming a lot of overpriced "gimmick" antennas.

The Monoprice antenna was able to duplicate the Silver Sensor's performance, tuning every station and locking it easily without any dropouts or interruptions once it was tuned. You can't really ask for more from a small antenna, and it should work very well for most anyone using an HDTV tuner or a converter box.

I am not prepared to say the Monoprice antenna is the Silver Sensor's equal in all circumstances. I am prepared to say for now that the Monoprice product is an excellent small antenna at an extremely low price and belongs on your shopping list if you are looking for a set-top antenna for your TV or digital converter box.

I have detailed pictures of the antenna on my Web site, and of course you can see and order it at www.monoprice.com.