Toshiba SD-3109 DVD Player
Superb, flawless, high quality, inexpensive!
In december I purchased this (Region 1 player) for a reallygood deal and I didn't go wrong.  I'm only 16, so this was no smallpurchase for me; and I learned it was well worth the money!  I'm not just saying this because I'm blown away by DVD in general, but because I've seen other players, and this one holds strong against others. I use the built in DD (Dolby Digital) decoder because I have no DD decoder in our amp (just 6 channel discrete input).  I've heard it when hooked up to a DD amp with a optical digital cable, and it seems better, but mine was still a lot better than VHS, and I also don't have really high end speakers, but still have low-end Infinty.  The picture looks great on the 35&quot; JVC TV, but I can't use component video on it, just S-Video, still looks fine though.  I've tried 3 CDs with HDCD encoding, but the player didin't realize that they were HDCD compatible, i don't know why, maybe 'cause I've got it hooked up with anolog cables with the 6 CH Discrete.  The zooming isn't really necessary, but that doesn't mean this player is a waste of money!  The dual disc system is an added bonus, not really an extra cost, so hey why not?  All the outputs are gold plated too.  I've played at least 25-30 discs, and haven't noticed a flaw in playback at all.  The only (MINOR) &quot;hickup&quot; was during &quot;The Bone Collector&quot; where for about 1 or 2 seconds, the picture sort of froze and sound was lost, then it came back, the disc may have been dirty though - rented.  As for the remote, i don't know how much better other players' remotes are, but this one is fine, a lot better than the Panasonic A-120s is, easier to use in terms of setting up anyway.  The shape is kinda weird of the remote though.  One thing that was a real bonus, like mentioned below, is how easy it was to set up.  Once hooked up (I don't know what the heck people are talking about when they say they couldn't even get it hooked up) you do about 2 minutes of set up with the easy on screen menu of stting up sound, tv screen size (4:3, 16X9) and a bit others, and then your ready! It would be nice to get a widescreen HDTV though, they say the Widescreen DVDs especially, look better on these TVs, the &quot;compressed&quot; image is supposed (and does!)  look even better.  The only annoying thing is, is that I haven't gotten my 5 free movies yet, maybe the mail is extremely slow and it didn't get there in time. You can't go wrong, honestly!