I have a buddy who burns a lot of his own DVD's. His XBox plays anything he has ever thrown at it. If I could only have one component to attach to my TV, the Xbox would be it. But then the XBox won't be playing GT4 any time soon.
Personally I believe in dedicated players if wires are not a problem. I just got a Phillips DVP and it is the best $69 I ever spent. It plays everything: DVD, DVD+R, DVD-R, DVD+RW, DVD-RW, MP3, MP4, CD-R, CD-RW, VCD, SVCD, DIVX 3x/4x/5x, AVI, MPEG2...etc. Anything I can buy, copy, download or burn. An amazing player!
Johnny