Recommend me a DVD player

[Smeghead]

Yeah, it's time for me to buy a DVD player. I've been using my PS2 for a while, but I'm hankering for a real standalone player, for various reasons. There are, of course, a ton of models out there, so I turn to the Teeming Millions to help me narrow down my options.

I'm not too picky. I don't want the cheapest piece of garbage out there, but neither am I discriminating enough that I need the fanciest gold-plated version out there. I just want a good, reliable mid-range model. A friend of mine claims to have one that will let you adjust the dialogue volume relative to the music and sound effect volume, which would be a nice feature. So what do you have? What have you had good experiences with?

Additionally, I've been looking at getting a receiver/surround sound speaker system, and I've noticed that many of them come with DVD players. Is it a better deal to get the whole setup as a package, or to get the DVD player separately? And, while you're at it, you can recommend some mid-range speaker setups, too.

Got all that? Got your assignment? Good. So get to it! And thanks in advance.

[Extraneous]

You want CD, CD-R/W, DVD-R/RW, DVD+R/W, MP3, JPEG with that?

Or just Region x (guessing 1) factory-pressed $20-for-a-piece-of-plastic capability?

[Rex Fenestrarum]

If you're looking for something region-free, I recommend the Malata:

http://www.hkflix.com/hardware/

(Lots of other RF players there too!) And no, I don't work for HKFlix. I'm just happy that I own a DVD player wheer I can play a R1 disc, open the tray and pop in a R2 disc and press PLAY and get output with no hassles!

[Doomtrain]

I have a Samsung somethingorotherelcheapo I picked up at Best Buy for $120 about 2 years ago. It plays DVDs, which is all I need.

[World Eater]

http://www.jandr.com/JRProductPage.p...uct_Id=3679571

Plays any disc you can throw at it, (SVCD, VCR, RW, DVD, MP3, etc) has component, S-video and composite video outputs, and digital optical and coaxial audio outs.

It's priced to move as well.

[Fern Forest]

I suggest you peruse vcdhelp.com for any model. If you're going to play out of region DVDs might I suggest you make sure the one you choose has an easy system of changing the region and not just buying a region free player to prevent trouble from RCE. RCE is region coding enhancement and comes on a small number of DVDs that ensure that your player has an eligible region set. Zero doesn't count for that. So you want one you can set to zero but then easily set back to one if you run into an RCE disc.

The Norcent DP300 (available from Amazon for $48 with a $10 rebate making it $38). If you check it out at vcdhelp it's got high reviews, plays a lot of formats and has an easily changed region. I got it for my mom a few weeks ago and haven't heard anything bad yet. It was a pretty easy to change the region. I used Ghoste's post at the hack page for this player.

[rsa]

I bought this Pioneer DVC-505 DVD-Video, CD, Video CD, CD-R/W Player, 5-Disc Changer last December and have been very happy with it. It seems well built and can be had for about $120.

[Creative_Munster]

I want a decent DVD player that can also play Divx. Any recommendations? Any Doper own such a device?

[World Eater]

I'm not aware of any stand alone players that play Divx.

[Ultraviolet]

Originally posted by Fern Forest
The Norcent DP300 (available from Amazon for $48 with a $10 rebate making it $38). If you check it out at vcdhelp it's got high reviews, plays a lot of formats and has an easily changed region. I got it for my mom a few weeks ago and haven't heard anything bad yet. It was a pretty easy to change the region. I used Ghoste's post at the hack page for this player.

I second this recommendation. I got mine at Walmart for about $70 Canadian. The region is easily changeable (with the remote), and I've never had any trouble with it. Mind you, it's hardly a top of the line model, but since I wanted a multiregion player with PAL-NTSC conversion, it is everything I need for a very reasonable price.