> Initially, I avoided DVD, since I knew NetBSD didn't support it,
> and I didn't have anything to contribute to getting better support.
>(And I run NetBSD exclusively, so running Some Other OS to play
> movies wasn't really an option.)
>
> I gather that things have progressed somewhat, yes?

From what I've heard, yes - things are starting to work.  From what I remember
from a couple of beers ago, ogle has supposedly been used on a number of
laptops with success.
> If I wanted to occasionally rent a DVD movie, what considerations
> should I have for the DVD player?
>
> The system it would go in has an 800MHz Athlon, and I could use
> either PCIIDE or SCSI.  The videocard is a ~5-year old PCI
> S3Virge/GX (/DX?) with 4MB of RAM.  I could upgrade the video
> card if need be---but without DRI support, I've pretty much seen
> the video card as about as good as it's going to get.  (^&

The cpu is fine, IDE/SCSI is fine as long as we're not talking pio.

You may want to use an AGP card.  PCI cards can (and do) work for DVDs,
however, there will be some stuttering in the picture, and stranger things
have been known to happen (lip-sync problems, where the picture isn't synced
with the audio, very stuttery movement especially when panning, etc...).
I, too, have an interest in getting NetBSD's DVD support up to par, as I'm a
big home theater buff.  I've been [in my copious spare time (tm)] looking at
how hard it would be to add deinterlacing and complex aspect ratio control to
ogle (as well as getting some good spdif audio out), but I'm kind of at an
"I've untarred it" point :-(
-- 
-Jon
 "As three unwavering bands of light, we were simple and separate and
 beautiful.  As machines, we were flabby bags of ancient plumbing and
 wiring, of rusty hinges and feeble springs.  And our
 interrelationships were Byzantine."
 - Kurt Vonnegut, Breakfast of Champions