I don't think the v80 setup (bright foreground on dim background) is bad at all, but I think the background should extend all the way across instead of cutting off at the end of the text. Or in other words the "highlight" shouldn't change width. Also, the non-selected text should be bright foreground on black background, if you ask me.

The bright on dim combo is also what the player uses for the selected item in its horizontal menu, and nobody has seemed to have a problem with that. I agree that true inverse text (black foreground on bright background) looks crappy.

The other combo that might work would be black foreground on dim background, or black foreground on medium background. Then it's still "inverse" sorta, but maybe not as ugly. Try those maybe?