I’m quite bitter at the moment over the price of DVD players. I bought mine about four years ago when they were just starting to go mainstream, and I paid upwards of $600 for it. It’s a Sony, and we fell in love instantally. I’ve loved having a DVD player all this time even though, as and can attest, it’s quite a crappy one — if you leave it on too long (as in, while watching a movie that is over 2 hours) the sound gets out of sync with the picture, and on content-packed DVDs (like my Buffy DVDs) it has a tendancy to “skip,” repeating the same scene over and over.
So it is time for a new DVD player, and I just got the Canadian Tire flyer, and now you can buy one for $55. $55!!! At Canadian Tire! I had to go to a high-end electronics store for mine! Now I can pick one up at Canadian Tire for $55! And it’s probably better quality, too!
I don’t suppose anyone on eBay would give me $600 for my old one. Sigh.
TurtleHead 
Just a word of advice… I wouldn’t recommend getting one of the $50 DVD players. Typically these boxes have computer DVD drives in them that are slow and loud. Internal wiring isn’t top-notch either, so if you are outputting via svideo or component, you’ll probably notice the picture isn’t top quality. For about a $100-$130 you can get a decent Sony or Panasonic that is much better quality.
Thanks for the advice. You’ll be happy to know that we actually do plan to get a new DVD player in the near future, probably next month just before we move. is planning to purchase a fancy new receiver to power our new multi-room surround sound system, and we plan to pick up a new DVD at the same time.
Despite the problems we’ve had in the past, we are leaning towards getting another Sony, as it will match our other components. I think is looking at a Yamaha receiver. I’m sure both of us are interested in any brand/feature advice you might have.
I’m a big Toshiba fan. It’s served me amazingly well since I bought it 3 years ago. Still works great too. It has S-Video and everything, although I don’t use it because my TV can’t handle SVideo (old TV).
Sony is good quality, but I find them to be a little expensive.
My reciever is Panasonic, and it’s okay. I’d upgrade to something nicer if I could afford to.
Yay! This will make babysitting so much more enjoyable.