Looking to spend $100 or less on a dvd player. Interested in something that is not junk, good hardware, can play burned dvd's. Any brands/suggestions or translation into techno-features? 10% off all dvds at best buy this weekend.

Thanks for the advice.

What sort of TV do you have? And do you want region free capabilities?

I have 25 inch Sony and I don't know what region free capablilities are. Please enlighten me.

Like if you want to play discs other than R1, you need a region-free player (or one that is hackable).

If you want a cheap player that isn't bad (for SDTVs), I have the Phillips DVP642 and like it a lot. It plays all sorts of burned media and also plays DiVX discs. It can be also made region free (with a simple remote hack) and converts PAL discs for NTSC sets.

I'm going to get the OPPO upconverting player in the near future. But upconverting and DVI out is important only for HDTV setups.

The Philips DVP642 is a really good choice... you may also want to consider going dirt-cheap and getting the Cyberhome 300S:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...=UTF8&v=glance

Although this may be leaning closer to the "junk" definition than your comfortable with, it is only 1/3 of your budget, has good picture quality, is compact in size, plays about any type of disc you want to throw at it, and is region free with an easy remote hack. I have one as a 'backup' player... and I have a friend who has been using this as a primary player for over a year with no issues.

If you just have a basic 25" TV, you REALLY don't need anything other than the basic DVD player, which should cost less that $29 at any chain store. The $79+ players at this point have features that only someone with a higher-end TV could use, like component video connections, upconversion, etc. If you have a normal TV, you wouldn't even be able to utilize those features as your TV can't handle them.

I see a major difference in video quality between my Pioneer 285 ($80) and a former Phillips player ($60). This is on my 20" TV with the broken tuner. But if price and compatibility are the number one factors, that Phillips 642 is probably a best buy.