Repair broken player or buy a new one?

[J. J. Hunsecker]

My Sony BDP-S300 just died a few nights ago, after only two and a half years. (It was too young; the good Lord took it before its time!) If I could get it repaired cheaply then everything would be fine, but that doesn't seem to be the case. Sony says it'll cost me probably $133 to repair, not including the shipping costs, if I send it to their repair shop in Texas. Though it might be cheaper to look closer to home, I don't know if I'd trust a local electronics repair shop with a BD player, either. (Usually you have to leave a non-refundable deposit of around $70, too.) I'm thinking I might be better off just buying a new player, maybe one with newer and better upgrades?

My criteria for a new player would be: image quality, upscaling of SD DVDs, easy upgrades via internet, and possibly REGION FREE! I don't play video games or listen to SACDs. Streaming videos by Netflix would be nice, but it's not necessary.

The ones I've been thinking about are:

Sherwood BDP-5004 -- it's inexpensive and multi-region. I'd love to own some region B Blu-rays I've had my eye on. Unfortunately, I've read that the player is noisy and switching regions is a hassle.

Oppo BDP-80 -- $300 is the max that I want to spend, and this highly rated player just makes it under that amount. I've heard that this player is also region free. Anyone know if that is true?

Sony PS3 Slim (120 GB) -- Heard good things about this player, and it's fast loading time. I don't play video games, though. Also, it's not region free.

Panasonic DMP-BD60 -- This one is advertised as a region free version of the BD60.

I've also read good things about LG BD370 and BD570.

Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.