I've been pretty happy with the two Panasonics I own. The upconversion is top notch, and startup/load times are tolerable. My LG BD/HD DVD combo, not so much, but it's a weird beast to begin with. I would have gotten rid of it, if not for the region hacks someone thoughtfully put out there. I had pretty rotten luck with LG electronics back when they were Goldstar in the 80's. Had I known about the name change sooner, I might not have bought one of their players.

I have read Toshiba's early BD models were made by someone else, as they were in a hurry to get in the market, and make people forget the whole HD DVD debacle. Don't know if that's still the case.

My first BD player was a Sony, aside from having a noisy fan, being almost as large as a Laserdisc player, and being really slow, it did have good upconversion.

Thankfully, the days of constant firmware updates seem to be behind us.

If you can get a 3D capable model at a good price, go for it even if you don't have a 3D set yet.