LG DVB418 DVD Player

This player claims the ability to upconvert standard DVDs to HD 720 or 1080 for better display on HD TVs. It does appear to accomplish this nominally; but the so-called improvement is minimal. I have only watched a couple of films on it; The Illusionist with Edward Norton looked about the same on 480p and upconverted mode.
This player executes the second layer changeover quite well; the momentary freeze about halfway through the film lasted a fraction of a second and was barely noticeable.
The most obvious flaw is what I call posterizing. It is an annoying stair-step rendition of what in the original analog picture would be a gradual darkening of a shadowy area. Whether this is recorded in or being added by this machine is hard to tell. My backup sansui recorder does display the same anomaly to a certain extent; as does my old zenith which shares much hardware and software with the LG. But to be fair, it should be pointed out that this effect is seen everywhere in digital pictures off the air and satellite. I seriously doubt this is an inherent flaw exclusive to this machine.
This LG player has an annoying feature which cannot be shut off; LG calls it last scene memory. The player seems to recognize the disk on a later load even after it has been powered down. The first thing it does is cue the disk to a previous stopping point. In the case of The Illusionist, the player immediately cued the disk to the point I had paused it the night before to answer the phone. It takes several punches of the reverse buttons to get it back to the start. The manual makes scant reference to this; I would prefer a way to defeat it permanently.
The changeover to the various upconvert modes is not smooth; if engaged during playback, the machine loses tracking lock and it must be stopped and restarted or backed up a chapter then forwarded. This appears to be a designed in problem and not a defect in this specimen.
This is a cheap, bargain basement upconverting player. As such, it lives up to reasonable expectations for its level. If a person can find one at a low price, they will certainly get their money's worth.