Some of the really cheap players introduce an annoying amount of jitter into the bitstream which can make things sound a bit shrill, even with a good outboard DAC.

If you listen to SACD or DVD-A, you'll also want a player with decent onboard DACs since you can't get those signals out of the player digitally.

Otherwise, I agree. Bits is bits. I spent a somewhat embarassing (in hindsight) amount having my DVD player modified by a specialty tweaker shop. They did the usual...upgraded the power supply, replaced all the cheapo caps with expensive "audiophile" replacements, put fancy WBT connectors on the outputs, installed an expensive low jitter clock...yadda yadda. Does it sound good? Yep. Does it sound better than it did before it was tweaked? I'm not so sure. Do I wish I still had that wad of cash around for something else more tangibly useful? You betcha.

If I was going to do things over today, I'd probably just pick up something like a Denon 2910 and call it a day.

Cheers,