Yeah, budget is a pretty important concern as well as room size and what the main use will be. Don't get too caught up on wattage ratings. I would much rather have a 70 watt per channel high current amp like a Harman/Kardon or Onkyo than a 100 watt Kenwood or Pioneer.
As for DVD players, there are a lot of good pretty cheap ones on the market now. Do you have an HDTV? Do you have DVI inputs? Do you want DVD audio or SACD? There are lots of options out there, just need to figure out what you want.
A good resource is [url]www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/[/url], kinda like the AV version of this place. When you are ready to buy and wish to do so online, I can highly recommend [url]www.onecall.com[/url]. They are kinda the ammoman of the AV crowd. Great prices and service. They have some pretty good amp/speaker packages as well.
Good luck in finding what you want.