CyberHome CH-DVD 500 Progressive-Scan DVD Player
Technology keeps on amazing me.
I had a Philips DVD-825, an old DVD player, for a long time.  It served me well and all, but it was time to upgrade, and now that DVD prices have dropped substantially in comparison to 2 years ago, I figured I would take the initiative.<br />For me, a DVD player has to:<BR>1 - play VCDs<BR>2 - play CD-R media (kinda goes hand-in-hand with 1)<BR>3 - connect easy<BR>4 - look good externally.<br />That having been said, I went to Best Buy and saw this DVD player.  It was advertised for [a relatively low price], and I was skeptical at first, but I'd brought a CD-R-based VCD to test it.  Sure enough, it passed the test; passed #1, #2, and #4 so far.  Bought it, got it home, and set it up.  I had wanted to connect it through component video,[but due to a lack of funds], I wasn't going to buy that wire.  So I'd gotten an S-video Monster cable.  Hookups were easy as can be, and the menu is simple and easy.  DVDs play with unbelievable clarity, and the sound is tremendously clear, especially on 5.1.  This even plays MP3s and JPGs from a CD-R!!  So you could copy like 120 MP3 files to a CD and play them on this player, and if you have a surround system, you could run a party with this!! Amazing!!<br />There are two negatives to this player, which are small or large, depending on how you look at it.<br />1 - It's VERY picky about its inputs to your source (receiver, TV, etc).  My TV only has one pair of audio RCA jacks that have to be shared between the S-video and the Component Video, so I got two Y-splitters to connect both the audio from the DVD and my PS2 (which I had on the component side).  The PS2's sound came through fine, but the DVD refused to play any sound.  It would only play when directly input into the TV.  I had to use a device switcher ... to get the PS2 and the DVD both operating with S-video.<br />2 - It's very iffy on DVD playback.  There are times (and this is fresh out of the box) when you press play and it will sit at a black screen.  You can't stop it,you can't do anything.  You have to power it off manually using the switch in the back.  Also, there are times when you'll press a button on the remote and the DVD will respond late.  For example, I could press Play, and it won't actually start playing until like a minute later; almost as though it were processing something.  It doesn't happen often enough to be a big problem, but it is sort of a nuisance.  This might be just my ignorance about the product.<br />Besides these two things, this is a great product for the money.  Buy this if you need a DVD player or you need to upgrade.