Apex Players

[DVD-BLUES]

What is it about these affordable players to play anything you throw in it and play without a hitch.My Panasonic plays most anything,just not as well as the Apex.My friends JVC player is very picky.It will only play DVD-R's made in Japan-not even Riteks.Seems like people could save a lot of $$ and just buy an el cheapo Apex.Just a thought.

[budz]

DVD-BLUES wrote:

It will only play DVD-R's made in Japan-not even Riteks.

How odd! Could be how the dvds are authored. Maybe it's a software issue. Shrugs shoulders.

I have 2 APEX 1500's and they're able to playback correctly dvd+r's that are burned@8x but it has major problems in my other standalones. Go figure huh.

[stephan1]

dvd-blues
I understand your point about cheap dvd players often play everything while more expensive ones won't play much of anything. I've often wondered why that seems to always be the case. I would think they would be less likely to play stuff since I thought you had to license the decoder for each type of file such as xvid, divx, dvd, whatever. Oh well, if anyone knows anything about this strange phenomenon please let us know.

[Shudder]

Apex is good.. if you only transcode and play regular DVDs. If you do any authoring, expect a slight video pause on every single chapter point. Seems other cheap players have the issue, while players from good brands and other devices don't experience any of hte problems.

[redwudz]

In the past Apex seemed to use computer DVD rom drives and that made them more compatable with different brands of discs. Most big name DVD players probably have more pressure from video studios to produce players that would only play 'factory discs' because of pirate issues. I have an older Toshiba that won't play anything except factory discs. At present, with home video, camcorders and the like proliferating, players in general will become more universal in what they will play. Take a look at the DVD player list to the left, quite a few now will play most anything.

[handyguy]

Apexes won't display closed captions. Even Apex says that. Thats one reason not to buy one. Also, its questionable if your model plays vcds or not as they are too cheap to pay for captioning or vcd licensing.

[Bschuler]

I have 2 Apex AD1500 models.. and I love both. They do play almost everything you throw at it and other than the mentioned subtitle bug.. you gotta love the customization you can do with them (custom backrounds, macrovision off, etc). 2 Christmases ago I drove 100 miles one way just for 1 of them.. but it was worth the trip.

Just goes to show Cher was right.. "You gotta shop around."

[DVD-BLUES]

The model # for the Apex I use is AD-1600.My brother recieved this free through some promotion and gave it to my Mom.It plays pressed DVD's and burned DVD-R's of backed-up movies.It does not pause at all between chapters.It will also display english subtitles as well.My method of movie back-ups is as followsVD Decrypter to ripp~DVD Shrink or Recode 2 to shrink~Nero or Roxio to burn @4X.I only have used DVD-R.My choice of media is Ritek,TDK,and Maxell.All the Maxell's and some TDK's were made in Japan,the others-Taiwan.Thanks for everyones input.

[DVD-BLUES]

I forgot that I backup the movie only-no extras.I do this to keep the quality of the movie as best I can.

[spiderman2k1]

My APEX AD-5131 I thought did not play Close Caption but I went into set and trun them on still have to use the TV remote to pick them. Also I have to go to set up if I'm using S-Video weird.