I have commonly encountered remarks in many fora that an entry-level SONY DVD player is one of, if not the worst DVD player you can get for the money. I probably wouldn't espouse that, but just say that an entry level Sony has the least features you can get for that price which many CHina-made unbranded DVD players are more than happy to fullfill. A $40 DVD player I saw has all the features you can find in a branded player costing 4x plus regionless, macrovision-free playback and NTSC-PAL conversion.
But I guess, it all depends on your value perception. Others I know would stick it out with branded players considering their arguably better aftersales services and reputation. Personally, unless there is a compelling feature I want that I cannot find in cheap players, like DVD-A, SACD, etc., I'd still get a china-made player. You'd be surprised at how excellent some of their features are: 192/24 audio DAC, 10bit/54mhz progressive scan, 10x zoom, Jpeg/Mp3/Wma/CD-R/RW/DVD-R/VCD/SVCD playback, DTS/DD decoding, frame advance, variable slow-motion, multichannel analog outs, component outs, and many more. Some even has a VGA output to connect to your high definition PC monitor, pre-empting the DVI interface. (Talk about digital display viewing)
I should know, I've had three unbranded DVD players in succession (no reliability and disc problems, just had one sent to my parents and another bought by a friend). These, together with a Yamaha S830 for DVD-Audio and an Onkyo Sp301 as my main DVD player.
Very soon everything will be made in China. Except babies.