I bought my player in December 1999, because I was fed up with watching DVDs on my computer and wanted the ability to watch them wherever I was. Fastforward 18 months, and I have bought 2 TVs, countless DVDs and a stereo to get the full potential out of it.
So, is it worth buying? My answer would be a simple 'yes, if you can get it cheap enough'. Playback is excellent on both its own screen and normal TVs; it has all the features you'd want, including DTS output and (from some retailers) multi-region playback; and it is very handy to carry around. However, it is comparatively heavy, and it's probably worth getting a newer model now. Make up your own mind...