Thanks for the advice WordMan. However, as this thread is a year old, the advice is a bit late… 
In any event, I’m very happy with my DVD player. For me, the main reason to switch was the first reason I listed, the content available on DVD which is not available on VHS. Maybe next time, if we have the $$, we’ll consider an upgrade to our sound system. But for now, it’s not that important to us.
Zev Steinhardt
Zev indicated it’s a 1991-vintage TV set, which probably means only the conventional coax analog-video cable input (terminal on the back of set looks like a big headless threaded screw with a tiny hole in the center, cable is thick with a wide hollow terminal with a thin wire sticking out in the center), which will require the RF Modulator converter switchbox (Note: RFMod box needs its own power source). If it was top of the line at the time it may have the composites – Red/White/Yellow RCA plugs/wires that look like they belong on a stereo.
In any case: the RF modulator is itself an A/B switch. The configuration I use on one of my TVs is – TV feed: Conventional coax from wall into VCR then ConvCoax from VCR to ConvCoax coax input on RF box; DVD feed: RCA composite from DVD to RF boxs RCA input. Feed RF box to the TV. When DVD is off, TV signal feeds thru VCR as usual. When I turn on the DVD, the RF box (cheap Magnavox) automatically drops the on-air signal and povides instead DVD on channel 3.
zev: reserve $20 off the budget for a simple RF box (you don’t want anything too fancy for that kind of TV, by the time you replace it it’ll have something to plug the DVD directly); do make sure the box can take the conections of all gear you’ll actually plug into it. As others have mentioned, there are very, VERY well-featured major-brand players within your range. Progressive scan is worth the price, a sensible remote-control unit should be a decider between similar values. The high-q and digital outputs are standard on almost anything but the cheapest units these days.
Space Vampire and Optihut are correct about the status of multiregions vs. RCE, the industry’s grating presumption that we are all thieves, and the availability of info on what units are remote-hackable into being truly multiregional. But MeanJoe is right in that it’s only an issue for one in a thousand customers; OTOH all these hurdles slow down the real video pirates by, oh, about ten minutes.
D’oh!
I guess that’ll teach me to post replies with checking the freshness label on the OP! :smack:
Wordman I never checked the date either… Silly me, heh.
It’s easy to make that mistake, because the thread is just about exactly a year old. It’s easy to see that the thread started on June 6, but not realize that it was last June 6.
In any event, kung fu lola, I ended up getting a middle-of-the-line Sony model. I have had no regrets.
Zev Steinhardt
Ah, principles… I used to have them until someone offered me a price I could not refuse. 