Philips DVP642 DivX-Certified Progressive-Scan DVD Player
Not the Best, but Worth the Money (and you can make it Region Free)..
Picture quality is not great, but the feature set is pretty impressive, and using simple remote control hack (7, 8, 9, OK, 0 with an open tray) you can make it Region Free.  Enjoy!!!    Now, a bit more detail:    PROS:   Format Support - This alone probably worth all the \\"stars\\". It supports virtually all formats, including Divx. And it DOES support DVD-R's as well, although it's not documented anywhere. MP3's, Picture JPEG's, original DVD's, burned DVD's with AVI's, MPEG's, etc. - I have tried it all, and it handled everything without any problems. Add the NTSC/PAL conversion capabilities to that (simple \\"7 8 9 OK 0\\" remote control hack with an open tray will make it \\"region free\\"), and you've got yourself one hell of a DVD player. \\"You have it, we play it\\" is the slogan of this player, and it is, indeed, true.     Design - I like the nice and sleek design of this DVD player. It's thin, and the nice matte silver color nicely compliments my Sony Wega TV that I connected it to.     Price - Just as I mentioned before, I bought this player for $50. I think it's well worth it, especially if you have a lot of \\"homemade\\" DVD's.     CONS:   Picture Quality - One word to describe it - Average... at best. My 5 year old Sampo produces a better picture using S-Video, and without Progressive Scan. Cyberhome is better too, when using component connection. I'm not even going to mention Oppo.     Support - One of the worst I have ever had to deal with. First of all, Philips website has very minimum information about this player, and not a word about firmware updates. I've tried to contact them by phone, but only wasted my time pressing buttons and holding for \\"available representative\\". I finally decided to send them an e-mail, but have yet to get a response back after two weeks of waiting period.     Summary:   If picture quality is what you are mostly looking for in your DVD player then this one is not for you (if you own or planning on buying an HDTV with DVI or HDMI inputs, then I strongly suggest you check out OPPO). On the other side, if you are not too picky about picture output, but do care about various format support, and don't want to spend too much money, then this player certainly makes a good choice.