dollar to dollar value

either manual is not clear, or the claimed features do not function

It is written in the manual that AD 5131 can virtually read any digital format, including JPEG. (You can display pictures from your digital camera). I have a CD that contains about 100 JPEG pictures, but I could not get it to work. Occationally it shows only the first picture, but that's about it. I tried to use "prev", "Next" and "stop" to navigate, but none of them works, and eventually the Apex DVD 5131 is freezes and I have to power off the machine.

Any tricks to share? I will appreciate it. Do I have to use Kodak software (as manual suggested)?

I called the technical support, unfortunately I didn't get much jelp on this

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none

Capability of playing all kind of formats out there (VCD, CD, DVD, MP3, CD-R, CD-RW, and even Jpeg)

The weakness? well, i don't know...let just if you have a weak heart you might prepare yourself everytime you change your discs, because the changer spin so fast you have feeling that the discs will spun out of the changer...other than that i see none so far.

Let just say that SONY kiss APEX's butt!

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I'm a first timer of DVD player.

3 disc capacity for price of single disc player
MP3 / MPEG / JPG slideshow playback is GREATLY appreciated
Apex is known for it's "hackability" for region-free
Remote is better than older apex models
coax and optical digital outputs
disc exchange function for playing music cds without interruption when changing discs

I notice a "scrambling" sometimes in the transition between the menu and the movie - perhaps it's just the titles. It's no big deal really, and you wouldn't notice it normally

The price vs features did it for me. Similar units were priced higher with less "computer-centric" features such as MP3 and JPG format playback. This thing is the swiss army knife of the Digital AV age. I dunno what the Vadim guy was talking about because my audio quality is superb. Maybe he has a crummy reciever. I have mine hooked to a Denon AVR-1801 and Harmon Kardon HTKS-1 home theatre speakers with 8 inch sub. It kicks - music and movies rock and are very clear and crisp. Video quality is superb. JPG slideshows are a highlight on recorded CD's from the computer. The screensaver is not annoying and prevents image burn. The remote could be better but then again, so could my Denon reciever's! Now the only thing I would want more than this player is some firmware hacks for region-free and macrovision-free movies ;)

Multiple format support

Sound quality playing MP3 and Audio CDs

This is my second review here, after owning a unit for several months. Not a bad unit, I had to exchange first one though -- for some strange reason the tray would never close fully in the unit. Haven’t experienced any major issues during playback. The unit does an excellent conversion between PAL/NTSC both ways during DVD and VCD playback. I also discovered that the player will play a movie simply recorded in a MPEG 1 or 2 file. The movie can be in the same directory where MP3 songs are and the player will correctly switch between playing a movie to playing music. Unfortunately, scaling does not work for these MPEG movies, so a video clip may be showing in the top left corner, or can be trimmed. Also it can be shown only in half horizontal screen scrambling colors in big squares. But for a feature that is not documented, it’s not bad. I only wish it played MPEG4 files or the firmware could be upgraded (?).

Don’t count much on slideshow feature. It does play JPEGs and GIFs, but it takes awfully much time to decode an interlaced JPEG, also the next picture in directory is played right after the first one got fully drawn and scaled without any delay. Not a great device to use as a slideshow projector. There’s no way to get back to the menu (or even switch between directories) from a thumbnail view. Seems this picture-watching feature wasn’t tested well.

Getting to main menu sometimes seems to be tricky even while watching DVDs. Pressing STOP twice sometimes does not get to menu after pressing a MENU (even with correct PBC setting). But the player has features that show entire DVD’s characteristics, as how many titles, chapters, audio tracks are on disk.

If only the quality of Audio CD and MP3 playback were better, I’d say the features of this unit are superb. I have Onkyo 787 receiver and excellent three way speakers (with 12 inch sub drives) and the difference can be heard between the players. I’ve heard players that sounded worse (keeping all other components the same), but this Apex is not perfect in these modes. It will not be noticeable on most systems. Audio signal does not get altered in DTS nor in Dolby Digital mode, so if you plan to use the player primarily to watch movies -- the unit is perfect. Cannot recommend it for high quality audio playback, though.

Lots of features for the money. 3 disk carousel.

Remote is missing some features I would like to see.

Absolute best deal for the money. The fact that it has a 3 disk carousel puts it in a price class by itself. Neat feature in that you can be playing one CD/DVD, open the tray, insert/swap another CD/DVD, and close the tray without any interruption in the playing. Great for playing single tracks on a lot of your favorite CDs. I've only had the unit for one month, but figured I could post a review now instead of waiting. Here's a list of my nits: 1) Hung up once when I tried playing a movie the day after playing a bunch of CDs that were left in the unit overnight. Unit froze and could not get it to respond properly to remote or buttons on face. Finally cycled power several times before it snapped out of it. 2) Once when I had 3 CDs in the trays, it somehow moved one CD from one tray on top of another in the tray next to it. 3) When you first turn it on, you usually have to wait for it to initially check all trays before it will slide the drawer open. 4) Unless I'm missing something in the manual, there seems no way to randomly play songs from all three CDs.

If this is all the problems I ever have with this, I'll still be a happy camper. Sorry, I could only give it 4 stars on overall rating. There are obviously better units out there, just a lot more money.

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Oritron DVD-100

Low price with all the advertised features

Some features need to be turned up manually

I purchased this product from Sam's during X'mas. Tried all
the advertised feautres including Karaoke, JPEG slideshow,
play MP3, VCD/DVD movies. They all work.
To get digital sound from DVD, you need to go to setup/audio and select SPDIF/RAW...
To do karaoke , you got to be in analog mode instead of digital mode.
At this price, there is nothing on the market that can compare to it. Things are not as automatic as the other DVD players that I have but I can deal with it.
I highly recommend this product at this price

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Sony, Toshiba

Excellent picture quality, actually improved the look of my monitor when playing DVDs. Change discs without interrupting play mode. Plays everything under the sun. A GREAT value.

Can't think of any.

A fantastic bargain. Better deal than Zenith, Toshiba, Panasonic and Sharp.

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Toshiba

Fast starting, Great picture and audio quality, plays MP3's

The remote could be a little better. The menus could also be a little better. The remote doesn't seem to be a strong as the sony remotes that I have used in the past, you have to have the remote pointed directly at the player and sometimes have to press the button a few times before the player does the command. the thing about the menus is this, I would like to be allowed to scroll through the mp3's on the disc while one mp3 is playing. whereas like it is now, you can only scroll through the mp3 list when the player is stopped.

Great product! For the money I can live with the weaknesses I have found so far. I love being able to play mp3's now!

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Sony

Multiple formats e.g. DVD, HDCD, VCD, CDR, CDRW, Kodiak Picture Disks for the price. A great value for the money!

I did not buy one sooner. Not sold at the Good Guy's

After using the player I have found it to be stable and a great value for the dollar. I put it up against my Panasonic which cost much $120.00 more and it is almost as good. This player deserves a 10++ for being able to play all the formats that it does. The DVD picture is excellent and very stable. The machine never glitched or skipped at all. While playing a VCD,I found the picture quality very good. The audio quality happened to be crystal clear and much better the most DVD players that I have used. The on screen menus that this machine uses are well done; that goes for the instruction manual also. For the price this guy can't be beat. To the date, I have had no problems whatsoever with this machine; The build quality seems to be very good.

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JVC, PANASONIC