Play almost every Compact Disc

Could look better, actually none so far

Good picture, despite the fact that I use the single coaxial video output. I have had no trouble with zoom, fast forward, rewind or any other standard feature.
I have it connected to a Sony DTS receiver and it sounds great, the MP3 navigation is slightly weak, but truthfully it is good enough.
Overall a great value, and performs at least as well as other more expensive DVD players I have seen (not owned)

Similar Products Used:

None

mp3 compatibility, price

Quality control

Got this mainly to replace broken CD player. First unit played mp3s with lots of audio artifacts and was crashing frequently. Got replacement from Circuit City and plays fine so far. I would recommend testing it in the store before bringing it home. Being able to random play from a selection of 10 hours of music on each disc is very cool. I have my doubts about it's durability but hopefully it will last until it becomes obsolete.

Similar Products Used:

first DVD player

Price,able to play all formats,decent video and audio.Very quiet.

Looks,no optical out,hand control a mess.

Apex is a good player that is very flexiable to tailor to a viewer or listeners needs.Video seems to a be problem to some purchasers but mine own player is running perfectly.Plays all movies and no lip-sync problems to speak of.You must realize that just getting "free" music from MP3 will cover the unit itself in no time.There are better dvd players on the market but you must pay a higher price.Quality control seems to be a problem with the older models(with the hidden menu) but all my friends who bought the newer Apex still is problem free and has downloaded thousand of MP3 and every song title has been read and recognized.

Similar Products Used:

Sony

DVD/VCD/MPG/MP3 Playback. Reads CD-R/RW. Hidden Menu in earlier models.

Remote is cheaply constructed and slow

The AD600A just all out kicks butt. At $159, nothing comes close to the features packed into this model. I have read other reviews and can say I and a few friends who bought one have not had ANY problems. Talk of 'The Matrix' being a problem, but worked fine in my AD600A. MP3 playback is awesome, although the menu for it is rather barebone and unattractive. This machine does everything I ask of it without a problem. My only complaint is the remote feels cheap and reacts slowly to user input. I have the older model with the 'hidden' menu, but I'd still take one without that feature at its price.

Similar Products Used:

This is my first stand-alone DVD player.

Big bang for the buck,
MP3 player

Remote control buttons all look alike
Not as simple to just play a movie as it should be

I got this unit on sale at Circuit City in April 2000 for $159, that was before I knew about the hidden menu thing. I got it because of it's ability to play MP3 (saving me from having to buy a cd changer). As a DVD video player it works fine. Its picture quality is free of the little artifacts I sometimes saw on laserdiscs. I think that the parental protection feture should have been set to off by default, instead of requiring the user to enter a code before playing a disc rated beyond "general audience". The hidden menu allows great looking copies to be made to tape or to computer hard disc. My computer seems to load and play DVD's faster than this stand alone player which surprised me, but overall this is a great value and I would recomend it to anyone who was looking for a cheap first or second DVD player.

Similar Products Used:

Various Sony and Pioneer LD players

MP3 Playback

DVD Playback

Took it back to the store after 1 day. I had a unit with the N-4 firmware (latest as of this date), and it didn't play either of two movies I tried (Being John Malkovich and Galaxy Quest). The audio slowly slipped relative to the video such that within 15-20 minutes, it was off by about 1/4 second. On Galaxy Quest, the picture broke up 3 times into small colored blocks, and stayed that way until I stopped/restarted playback. Playing through the same section again, the problem didn't recur.

The Raite wasn't any better.

If you have to have MP3 playback, this might work for you, but as a DVD player it was just unsatisfactory.

Similar Products Used:

Raite 715

Low cost, MP3 capability, very good video and digital output. Karaoke.

Poor asthetics. Quality control may be an issue...

Okay, you've read all about this little unit before... How it has the secret loophole menu, MP3 capability, PAL/NTSC conversion, karaoke, etc... I'm going to comment on my experience so far.

I bought the unit in April 2000, one of the last loopholed units before they canned the feature. It has worked very well for me over the last 3 months or so. I did open it up and applied some thermal compound on the "heat sink" fingers to help with cooling issues. The lip sync problem has presented itself a few times including consistently on discs like Lost In Space and Whitney Houston's Greatest Hits, but overall, I haven't had many problems (I have a collection of 20+ DVD's) otherwise. There are known problem disks as well like The Abyss, ID4 SE, Stuart Little but I understand that most of these issues have been fixed by the new "N4" firmware upgrade on the new models.

Currently I run it with my Mitsubishi 36" TV, Kenwood VR309 DTS/DD receiver, older Sansui speakers, Aiwa rears, 10" Energy subwoofer and the sound is great (as expected from digital out). The analog out can be a bit noisy when karaoke mode is activated but otherwise sounds very clean.

Make sure you calibrate the video output with Video Essentials and the like prior to comparing the quality with other DVD players as the output tends to be a bit dark compared to other units. Once it is properly calibrated though, the detail is wonderful and contrast quite dynamic. I'd say the 16:9 conversion on this unit is definately better than the Hollywood+ decoder card (PC DVD) and marginally better than Pioneer 414.

The bottom line: It works well... I DO like the control unit (lots of functionality, good key press response) although backlighting would be nice! Video quality superb when properly calibrated. Sounds as good as any digital output I've heard and analogue output reasonable though probably will not win any "audiophile" awards (96/24 decoding sounds good on the one DVD I have with this). Karaoke works and I have used it on a few occassions (not *that* frequently :-).

If the N4 EPROM revision fixes the problem disks in the new units and the lip sync problems I've encountered (as suggested by various posters on Usenet), then I would not hesitate to recommend this unit for general DVD viewing and MP3 playback. Definately not high-end but works for me... (I'm in fact working on burning my own N4 EPROMS to check out the bug fixes). High value rating... Ding one from overall scores for bugs on my unit.

Similar Products Used:

PC-DVD DxR2, Toshiba, Pioneer 414

3 months warranty

Don't buy this player.
It has only 3 months warranty.
Mine broke after 3 months and 2 days of very light use and Apex wants me to pay $60 for repair.
If I'am going to pay 60 every 3 months , I will be better off buying another unit.

Plays MP3s

Too many to list

What ever you do, do not buy this DVD player unless you are strictly going to use it for MP3s. The cost advantage isn't there unless you already have a $100 composite out cable. The lack of optical out means that if you want to get a digital signal to run DTS or AC-3 you have to invest that much to connect to your receiver. The lip sync is horrible and anytime you play a cd above 2 on your receiver you will get distortion. The mp3 don't even sound good, it is about the same as running a cord from your sound card to your receiver. (which works by the way) whatever you do, just spend the extra $50 and get something else.
I would give this unit 0 stars if that was possible

Price, MP3 capability, easy to use set-up menus,

no optical out

Thus far, I have not noticed any of the problems with overheating, A/V synch, or crashes. I, too, have a 2000
model which may have remedied these problems. The "secret"
menu is not there, but that is no big deal for me, as I have
no need or desire to watch tapes of a superior digital format. I have not tested MP3 capability, yet. I recommend this as an entry-level DVD. I am more of an audio enthusiast
than video, and the AD600 sounds better than my higher priced
Yamaha CD player, when play audio CDs with digital coax out.