Need help with buying a DVD Player

[Despair]

Ok I'm planning on buying a DVD player, and creating VCDs on my computer to play on it. If possible, could anyone name the best DVD Player as far as all around compatability goes? I've looked through this forum and it seems quite confusing, everyone has their opinions about quality, etc. From what I gather, Pioneer is a good name brand to get, although I heard something about newer DVD players requiring cracking to play VCDs or something along those lines. Any input would be appreciated.

[gambit32]

For compatibility, meaning it will play most anything on most any disk I would go with an Apex.
For quality, I would go with a Pioneer, which is just a little less flexible.

[Despair]

Another newbie question... what is this Macrovision I keep hearing about? Seems to pose trouble for a lot of people. Does it prevent the playing of VCDs at all?

[Chopper Face]

Macrovision is a copyproof thing they put on DVDs so you can't tape them on a VCR and stuff. There's no macrovision unless you put it there and there's no way to get it on a VCD so I wouldn't worry about it.

[sracer]

Here's another vote for a Pioneer. I had an RCA 5220P which was a very solid workhorse unit. (But couldn't play CDR media.) My Pioneer DV-434 plays DVDs beautifully, as well as VideoCDs on CDR and CDRW media. Prices haved dropped quite a bit recently, so there is no real reason to settle for a less expensive but lower quality player.

Obviously, YMMV.