The D925 and the earlier 2950 were the best players on the PAL market, but they were only midrange when compared to the top NTSC players like the CLD-97. Do you need to have the facility to play PAL discs?

Yes my D925 was used in my Star Wars transfers. The comb filter is outdated by today's standards, and unfortunately cannot be bypassed (as the D925's composite output is just the "recombined" s-video). Here's a really old thread with screenshots comparing the difference between s-video and composite connections.

What kind of TV do you have? An LCD display will show up noise more than a CRT.