From my limited experiences, my opinion on the whole DVD thing is that a more expensive player $300+ compared to $40 will be a little better in the video, but the average consumer on an average 27" to 32" NON-HD TV will not tell all that much difference. Video cables do make a difference, but don't go crazy with it. When I used a $30 monster video cable, I got noticeable noise reduction in the TV. THe TV used to have fuzzy, flickers and they were almost nonexistant after using the cable. I don't think a $100 cable would've made any most improvement.

But, if a person has a HDTV, especially a large screen HDTV, then the better DVD players will make a noticeable difference in video quality. In terms of sound quality, I think $40 DVD player will not be anything special. $300 DVD player should be as good as CD players in the past, and $1000 DVD player, it's probably better to add an external DAC instead of plutting that kind of dough in a DVD player.