I heard the Sony music players sound awesome too. I think a competing company would be Creative Labs and maybe Archos. Toshiba has came out with the Gigabeat which I heard blew the iPod out of the universe. I've tried it and it overally seems very good.

FAQ:
1: How to enjoy my DVD movies on iPod/PSP/Zune/Mobile Phone and other portable devices?
2: How to enjoy videos on iPod/PSP/Zune/Mobile Phone and other portable devices?
3: How to copy my favorite videos on a DVD Disc on Mac?
Answer:
1: Most DVDs are .VOB format which can not be supported by most portable devices. If you want to enjoy your DVD movies on iPod/PSP/Zune/Mobile Phone and other portable devices you should use third-party software to rip your DVD to popular video formats supported by your devides. The following are two such programs recommended by most people
For windows users:
You can try this Best DVD Ripper to have a try. It is regared as the best DVD Ripper on the market
For Mac users:
You can try this Mac DVD Ripper to have a try. It can rip your DVD to any video formats with fast conversion speed and image/sound quality.
2: iPod only accepts H.264/MP4 video formats, PSP only accepts MP4 video formats and most portable devices can only accepts some special video formats. So if you want to enjoy any videos on your portable devices you should use a video converter to do this.
Both the following video converter can convert almost any video to other popular video formats.
For windows users:
You can try this Best Video Converter. It is also regarded as the best video converter on the market.
For Mac users:
You can try this Mac Video Converter.
3: Some Mac users want to save their favorite movies on your DVD Disc you can not only copy them on DVD Disc. If so the DVD can not be played. You should use a professional  Mac DVD Creator
It is a professional DVD Creator for Mac. Just free download it to have a try.