I bought a cheap-ass DVD player from Radio Shack (hey, it was on sale)
last year, but I only just started using it a couple of months ago.

Giving the brand and model of your player would have been a great way to help
us help you.

Besides being a piece
of Radio Shack junk to begin with, does anybody know
what's going on with this demented DVD player?

It could be that the player had a bad firmware write at the factory where it
was made.

Try to exchange it with the folks at RadioShack. They are usually very good
about consumer exchanges.

If not, and you want to replace the player. My recommended brands would be
Sony, Pioneer, and JVC. - Reinhart