I've got an Apex that I bought at Walmart for the (back then) low price of $99 in 2000. It works well except on some of my "backed up" DVD's.(Aarrr!)
I also use a Sony Playstation to play a lot of DVD's in my sons' room and it works fine after 5 years. I bought them a $40 Symphonic from Wallyworld because they were out of the $40 Apex's.
When my wife moved in with me, she brought a $50 Apex with her, it stopped ejecting, I replaced it with an identical Apex for $40. It acts funky sometimes, ehhh.
I also have a Panasonic DVD-VHS combo, the VCR part is sort of crapped out, but the DVD part is perfect. There are a few movies that I notice the layer change occur. Funny thing is, my buddy spent nearly $300 for his uber DVD player and it practically stops when the DVD changes layers for every movie.