Apex Digital AD 660 DVD Players

Apex Digital AD 660 DVD Players 

DESCRIPTION

DVD/VCD/SVCD/CD/CD-R/CD-RW/MP3 Player

USER REVIEWS

Showing 51-60 of 60  
[Mar 27, 2001]
Ethan
Casual Listener

Strength:

Cheap - and the features would be great if they all worked.

Weakness:

MP3 CD-R's don't work, skips occasionally

As with several other reviews here, MP3 CD's just won't play. The files are recognized as MP3's but the system just acts like it is trying to read them and the clock rushes through each file. Also I've had some skipping with some DVD's. Only one so far was really bad, and it was a rental that was quite dirty. Also I've had the same problem with the subtitles--they have to be turned off each time you stick a new disk in. The volume level also always resets to the highest level.

OVERALL
RATING
2
VALUE
RATING
3
[Mar 06, 2001]
Ken
Audio Enthusiast

Strength:

plays MP3/CD-R/CD-W

Weakness:

quaility, no compnent video and toslink

I decided to go cheap and try. MP3 capability was my motto.
Plug it to my system - no sound form DVD, CD or MP3. Looks like it's defected unit. Picture quality is about 350-400.
I would not recommend even to spend time to check it.
I suggest to spend a little more cash and buy a good system.

Similar Products Used:

AIWA, sumsung, denon

OVERALL
RATING
1
VALUE
RATING
1
[Mar 06, 2001]
Zdzislaw Bochanysz
Audio Enthusiast

Strength:

ability to play multi format dvd, vcd and mp3

Weakness:

if you leave dvd on pause for the long time you may have a problem to play from this moment forward, sometimes.

the best product for that price.

OVERALL
RATING
5
VALUE
RATING
5
[Mar 02, 2001]
Brad Franklin
Casual Listener

Strength:

Low cost. Quality sound and picture.

Weakness:

Subtitles default. Owners manual.

Purchased at the advice of Circuit City employee. Brought home and set up with no problem. So far so good except the subtitles problem. The audio/ video is very good considering the age of my television and stereo receiver. DVDs load quickly.

The owners manual was cheep like it was zeroxed on a very old copier and not only that but just the first 3-4 pages make up the entire manual. I assume that was just a mistake on their part. Otherwise remote a little confusing at first but anyone can figure it out with a little practice.

A good purchase for the price. Makes a good first DVD player. Go with the 3 year warranty.

Similar Products Used:

Samsung

OVERALL
RATING
4
VALUE
RATING
5
[Feb 25, 2001]
Terrance
Audio Enthusiast

Strength:

Plays it all!! dvd,cd,cdv,svd,mp3

Weakness:

none yet

well after buying an apex600a (see review)I have upgraded to apex 660...
the apex600a was great out of the gate but after 2 days it started having problems ,mainly with dvd movies.....
So seeing the apex 660 is the latest model and was on sale at cc I wanted to give it a try.
Needless to say I am very pleased, the dvd problems are no more!! plays any movie I put in,(saving private ryan,matrix, sixth sense, etc,etc)
The mp3 and all the **new** menus are easier to read and navigate.. The remote has been touched up as well.No heat problems as of yet had it on for 3 1/2 hrs. straight...

I think Apex finialy got the kinks worked out.. Watch out sony,aiwa,rca, and panasonic,there's a new hot dvd in town and so far it rocks!!!
I would highly reccomend this unit to all for main or a second dvd unit the sound on cdr and mp3 is awesome...
If you can get it at $150.00 or less do not hesitate....

tpw

Similar Products Used:

apex 600a, rca dvd

OVERALL
RATING
4
VALUE
RATING
5
[Mar 01, 2001]
Jeff
Audio Enthusiast

Strength:

I purchased this for its reasonable price and the fact that it can play MP3 files directly.

Weakness:

It is a DVD Player I would expect that it would properly playback DVD movies. It skips and jumps about every couple of minutes. The First AD-660 I brought home had a small dent in the box so I figured the problems I was having were a result of Shock. But I was the one who was shocked when the replecement unit I got from Circuit City did exactly the same thing. It makes a loud popping noise and skips some frames very often. Looks like I may need to switch to a manufacturer with some quality control!!!!

It is a DVD Player I would expect that it would properly playback DVD movies. It skips and jumps about every couple of minutes. The First AD-660 I brought home had a small dent in the box so I figured the problems I was having were a result of Shock. But I was the one who was shocked when the replecement unit I got from Circuit City did exactly the same thing. It makes a loud popping noise and skips some frames very often. Looks like I may need to switch to a manufacturer with some quality control!!!!

Similar Products Used:

Aiwa, Philips

OVERALL
RATING
1
VALUE
RATING
1
[Jan 15, 2001]
Michael
Casual Listener

Strength:

Plays VCD, SVCD, Cd-r, Cd-rw, MP3, and cheap!!!

Weakness:

Quality of the video is a little weak, sound is typical for non-dolby systems.

I paid $149.00 and got a $50.00 rebate coming in the mail.

The main reason I purchased this item is it has no problems reading CD-r media. It also plays all my VCD, SVCD and MP3 cd's.

Remote is easy to use. All the basic funtionality of a DVD player is there.

Quality of this product suffers but then what can you expect for this price. I will give it a high rating for a low end product... cheap and does it all!!!

Similar Products Used:

Toshiba SD4205

OVERALL
RATING
5
VALUE
RATING
5
[Jan 10, 2001]
The Vu
Audiophile

Strength:

Cheap Price and versatile in playing types of disc standards

Weakness:

Slow loading and initializing.

It had problems playing the X-men DVD movie, the movie would not play and controls froze up. After a few retries, the movie eventually played. It also had infrequent random pauses during playback of another movie. The picture quality is lacking in that in some scenes, pixilation is noticable.
I have only had this product for a month. If this continues and the problems are of a mechanical failure, I am going to have to return it for a replacement. I guess you get what you pay for. The price is very right though. I bought this player w/ a 3 yr warranty.

OVERALL
RATING
3
VALUE
RATING
4
[Mar 09, 2001]
Randy
Casual Listener

Strength:

-plays EVERYTHING
-DVD picture is GREAT!
-DVD sound is GREAT!
-MP3 Compatibility is incredible

Weakness:

-Subtitles auto-on

This product is fantastic. I finally got my hands on this great machine (Apex AD 660) and I do NOT have any regrets about my purchase. This plays everything! the sound and video is really slick. You can even burn mp3's on a cd in mode1 and mode2 and both methods work fine! If you are reading this because of product uncertainty, i strongly suggest that you buy this dvd player. Take my word for it.

Similar Products Used:

Hitachi DVD ROM

OVERALL
RATING
5
VALUE
RATING
5
[Jan 18, 2001]
Shawn L
Audio Enthusiast

Strength:

Cheap price, I paid $99 after rebate (before tax), plays nearly everything: CD-R, CD-RW, DVD, VCD, SVCD, MP3, etc. There are Apex DVD player hacker sites out there and there is a Macrovision disable hack for this player.

Weakness:

Cheesy front panel display (like a cheap calculator) doesn't have enough segments to display readable text, so text looks like gibberish. Definitely the worst front panel display I've seen on any DVD player. Rather cheap looking aesthetics.

So far it has worked great playing DVD's, but several times the 660 paused and skipped ahead a few frames on the movie "Double Jeopardy" (near the end). This particular DVD was a rental and had several radial scratches, so I don't know if the player is just very sensitive to scratches or if it was overheating or what. I have had NO problems with any other DVD's.
I have had ZERO problems with audio CD's.
I have tried a CD-RW burned with 100+ MP3's, and most of them played fine, showing up correctly with "MP3" icons, 1 or 2 had "MP2" icons and still played. About 4 or 5 MP3's showed up with "DTS" icons and would not play. I have heard it has something to do with ID3v2 tags or something like that. The MP3 decoding handles 112k/sec to 192k/sec bitrates just fine. MP3's can be shuffled within a folder, I did not try putting them in multiple folders.

Video quality is very good from my normal viewing distance, but when I get close, I notice blocky digital pixellization artifacts in dark areas. I have heard this is a common problem with the ESS mpeg decoder used in the Apex and other brands of DVD players.

Sound quality seems pretty good to me, but is too quiet for DVD's, I have to turn the receiver volume up fairly high.

Make note there are at least 2 versions of AD-660's. The older version has the A/V output jacks towards the center on the rear. The newer version has the output jacks on the far left (when looking at it from the rear). I have heard the newer version has subtitle problems, I have the older version which has NO problems with subtitles automatically turning on.

Overall, I would say it is a good deal for the normal price of $149.99, and a really HOT buy when there is a sale or rebate.

Similar Products Used:

JVC XV-D701BK

OVERALL
RATING
4
VALUE
RATING
5
Showing 51-60 of 60  

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