APEX Digital AD-2100 DVD Player
Best DVD player for the price
For the price, this is the best DVD player on the market. It will play just about any format you want to play. MP3 CD, Kodak Picture CD, SVCDs, VCDs, CD-R/W, DVD-R/W...everything.<br />As for the player not having progressive scan, it is a total non-issue. Most people on this planet don't have $5000 to waste on an HDTV. And with the new digital standards coming out in a few years, you'll have to buy all new TVs and DVD players anyways. So again, if you have an HDTV, you need progressive scan. If you have a regular TV, you don't need progressive scan.<br />As for just the basic controls on the player, again, that is a non-issue. You'd be hard pressed to find any DVD player that has more than the basic controls on the face. I work with DVD players at work and home and I can only think of a few models that have more than the basic controls. Also, your controller is designed to be dropped a lot and still work. I have a DVD player that is 3.5 years old and I've dropped the controller more times than I can count and it works. My Apex player is 5 months old and the controller still works after being dropped a lot. If your controller stops working, you may want to put in fresh batteries.<br />As for the player supposedly having bad sound, that is a load of hooey. I'm a trained sound engineer and record songs for many local bands. I know about sound. The Apex player sounds great. Most people blame the sound on the DVD player when it is their ancient stereo receiver most of hte time. I have a new Yamaha Dolby 5.1/DTS receiver and the sound is great.<br />Also, no optical outs? WHO CARES? Gods...get a life will you? It comes with digital coax out, and that sounds better than optical out.<br />Bottom line:<br />For [price], this is a really good player. You can't go wrong with it. It may not be the 100% perfect player on the market, but if you want perfection, you will need to pay a lot more money.