Upconverting DVD players -- do they really make a difference?

[big angry]

I've got a couple of Pioneer DVD players - an upconverting one that I bought about a year ago, and another one that I purchased quite a few years ago when DVDs were first starting to really hit the market.

Anyway, I had the newer one hooked up to my Samsung HD set a few days ago watching Star Wars. Everything looked pretty good, but I got to wondering about my old player which had been doing bedroom duty.

So, I pulled everything out and put the old DVD player in the living room. And what do you know, it actually looks better than the new one. Now mind you, this player was made in like 1999. It doesn't even have progressive scan....this is from back when component video and a DTS decoder were cutting edge tech.
Nothing but a 480i signal and it looks fantastic.

Kinda makes me wonder if all the hype about 1080p upconverting is nothing but a bunch of bunk.