Programatic Control of Consumer DVD Player

I'm working on a project where I need to control a consumer DVD player via a PC, and I'm trying to figure out what my options are. (Other than rigging a PC to behave like a consumer DVD player.) Thus far, I'm aware of two:

1) Purchase a third party IR transmitter that I can control from my PC, a la the Innotech Spitfire. Pros: Will work with pretty much anything. Cons: The PC won't have any state information about the DVD player, introduces another component into the system that can malfunction.

2) Purchase a DVD player with an RS-232 port built in for remote control. Pros: State information, reliability. Cons: Limited selection; not a lot of DVD players offer this option.

Does anybody know of other options I ought to investigate?