I just noticed this thread...
First off, only buy Pioneer. I'm not saying that Sony and others didn't made some interesting stuff 15 years ago, but none of this stuff is in production anymore and Pioneer still sells parts. Also, since Pioneer was the most popular manufacturer of LD gear all through the format's life, repair advice, selection of players, etc are all massively on Pioneer's side.
If you are just getting into LD I recommend getting anything with "LDV" in the name. These are boring featureless models that are nearly invincible. They were used in museums, schools, etc and are now basically free. You can find them on almost any Craigslist in the city for as low as $0 on a weekly basis.
If you decide you really like LD, then you can get serious with a mid-90s consumer model. Buy something recently serviced and expect to pay $200+. The models the Professor suggested are all great. I would also suggest the D604 since it has a very fast turn mech, AC-3, full trick play, and the best remote.
I disagree about Laseractives being mechanically junky though. They certainly jam up, but the f*ckers are 20 years old now and most of the people who own them barely even turn them on. If recently serviced and used occasionally they aren't much different than other players. My biggest complaint is just that are too lightweight and therefor just make too much noise. This was my main issue with my old CLD-S204 as well, which is mechanically very similar. They are immune to many problems, such as busted sled gears common to the Gamma turn-era. If you do get an LA though, pull the PAC out when playing regular LDs for better trick play features.
The CD changer models though, yeah, those totally suck.
A lot of people like the 909 and 919. I was never a big fan of this thing. The DVD playback is pretty naff by today's standards, the LD playback is decent but not amazing. The good thing about them though is that they are common and some of the most recently made decks so they might not be all frozen up from lack of use or worn out from decades of play. It's also really easy to hack the DVD side into playing any region you want. Since a lot of people ask, no, the LD output will not route through the component outputs, and similarly Dolby Digital LDs will only output DD from the AC-3 output (ie: no RF demodulator).