Panasonic DVD-S29K DVD Player , Black
GREAT player, better than all the rest
I've own the much-ballyhooed Philips DVP642 and had nothing but problems with it.  The Norcent DP series is OK, but cheaply made and prone to flaky behavior too.  I bought this Philips because Amazon had it at a reasonable price and got pretty good reviews.  Boy, what a terrific buy!<br /><br />Pros:<br /><br />- It plays commercial DVDs and a set of DVD+RWs without any hiccups whatsoever<br /><br />- The \\"Quick OSD\\" is very TiVo-like<br /><br />- The menus are nicely laid-out, succinct, and easy to navigate (a knock on the other cheap, sub-$50 players).  While playing, a \\"Functions\\" menu allows you to change various things (time, skip to title/track, etc).<br /><br />- Component out video quality looks beautiful<br /><br />- If you turn off the DVD player in the middle of playing, or pause it, and come back later, it will ask you if you want to resume playing at the previous location.  NICE!!! The Philips DVP642 claimed it had this feature but it never worked.<br /><br />Cons:<br /><br />- The infrared (remote control) sensor is on the extreme right-hand side of the player, and was obscured by the door of the entertainment center (at first I thought the remote control signal was just weak, but it comes with a fresh set of AAs).  I solved that be taking off the entertainment center door, but that's a nuisance.<br /><br />- You can't skip the annoying FBI anti-piracy warnings on commercial DVDs (you get an error message like \\"That cannot be performed at this time when pressing Next Track).<br /><br />All in all, you can't go wrong with this one.