Denon DVD-910 ($249) might be the best "cheap" DVD player out there in term of picture quality due to its Faroudja Deinterlacer chip.
http://www.hometheaterhifi.com/cgi-bin/shootout.cgi?function=search&articles=112
<img src="http://akamaipix.crutchfield.com/products/2003/033/h033dvd910-f.jpeg">
I have a Denon DVD-910 and I am having a problem with a brightness flicker in dark scenes. The flicker is sometimes fast sometimes slow. I have it hooked up to a Sony Vega 24" TV through the component video inputs. There is not much to adjust on this player except "black level" The default is "on" which brightens the picture. The flicker is terrible with this setting. If I turn it off the flickering is less but I lose a lot of detail in dark areas on the screen even after turning up the brightness and picture levels. I was watching "Lost in Translation" this weekend and some of the Tokyo night scenes were too dark with the setting set to off. The flicker has happened on mulitiple DVDs.
I know there is a problem with this player in progressive mode with Sony TVs, but I am running interlaced.
The only suggestion Denon had was use a S-video cable instead of a component cable. I worry I may lose picture quality?? Any ideas?