RCA DRC225N Progressive Scan DVD with Slim Tray Design
Very good; feature-rich for the price
I want to come to the defense of this player a bit.  I think a couple of the reviews had more to do with support problems rather than specific hardware problems.  I bought this player in November of 2005 so I have been using it for about 9 months now.    I purchased this DVD player because my previous DVD player (a Sony 300-disc library model) was beginning to fail.  I chose to try this player primarily for these reasons: (a) price--I think I paid about $56 through amazon; (b) it is a progressive scan player, which I think makes for a better picture than interlaced; (c) it has component video out (and my TV accepts component video in, again for the best picture); (d) it claimed to play mp3 disks and I was looking for a way to play mp3's on my main entertainment system.    This DVD player lived up to all its claims and more.  It does indeed provide progressive scan through component video cables for an awesome picture, and it plays mp3 disks (music, audio only) that I create on my PC.    Additionally, it will also play DVD's that I create myself using Sonic's MyDVD software, and also will play VCD's that I create (like a DVD, but on a CD-size disk).  I recently backed up all of my music and pictures onto a DVD as a data disk and stuck it in this RCA player just for fun--it displayed jpeg images on the TV and would play the mp3 music as well.  Additionally, it's very thin, a feature that allows me to put two separate components into a single slot of my entertainment center's cabinet.    All in all, I was very impressed with this player's capabilities, especially given the great price.  I'm considering buying one or two more for other rooms in my house.  The reason I gave it 4 stars instead of 5 is because the interfaces are a bit primitive.  It will indeed play mp3's and display jpg's, but the number of characters of a file's name is limited so if you have long file names, it may be hard to distinguish them on the screen.  Also, you can't create playlists on the fly,so you have to create them when you burn an mp3 disk by placing songs in a specific folder.    But those things are minor nit-picks.  If you want an inexpensive player that will do progressive scan, component video, play mp3's  and display jpg's, this is a great player for the price.    UPDATE: May 2008: I've had this unit for 2.5 years now and it's still performing well; I watch all my movie rentals on it and still play CD's and mp3 CD's on it as well.  One small problem has developed over the years: the drawer onto which you place a DVD has a tendency to close by itself sometimes, causing you to have to be careful and quick when placing or removing a disc.  However, this doesn't happen often and I still consider this to be a 4-star player.