Oppo DV970HD or Oppo DV981HD are both universal players and decode HDCD. The 981 has better video of the two and does 1080P upconverting. They are both under $250 shipped directly from Oppo. Hope this helps.
Universal player with HDCD
Unless I'm missing something, there would appear to be almost no universal players that include HDCD decoding. (Maybe a Denon model, but that would seem to be about it, at least from what I can find.) Is there a good reason for this? If one is going to make the leap to SACD and DVD-A, shouldn't one also be able to enjoy the most from those (admittedly few) HDCDs in one's collection? I'd appreciate your thoughts. Thanks. -- Howard