Apex DVD players

[Poggle]

I'm thinking of getting an Apex DVD player to play PAL DVDs and I was wondering if the $40 ones from Wal-Mart are good for that? Are they reliable?

[Poppa_Meth]

Apex and reliable don't usually go in the same sentence. They are cheap throw-aways. I've had three than haven't lasted a year. Some people have better luck with them, but no more for me.

[cpotoso]

They are OK. I have one that has lasted me for about 3 years. Plays almost anything you give it. Also could be made region free (an essential feature!).

[Poggle]

But they all could play PAL/NTSC, right?

[canadateck]

Most do play Pal ,the question is will your TV handle it? You need one that will "Convert" on the fly ( I guess you could say) to NTSC. I would go for the Philips 642 this player does this and gives a nice picture when it does to,Also plays Divx and XVID.

Are all Philips players capable of playing PAL?

[budz]

I've got 2 APEX 1500's still going strong after 3 years. (crosses my fingers, knocks on wood) LoL!!!! The units have heat problems so I tend to use my air conditioner when watching a movie and I unplug the unit when it's not in use. This has been reported from the APEX FORUM the best way to keep the unit from dying.

http://www.nerd-out.com/forum/

[Poggle]

Are all Philips players capable of playing PAL?

[canadateck]

Most do play Pal ,the question is will your TV handle it? You need one that will "Convert" on the fly ( I guess you could say) to NTSC. I would go for the Philips 642 this player does this and gives a nice picture when it does to,Also plays Divx and XVID.

Are all Philips players capable of playing PAL?

Not All.. I dont think. The 642 does this I know.

[Poggle]

Are there a list of players that play PAL or does it say so on the box?

[canadateck]

Take alook at the list on this site.

[cpotoso]

One note for "on-the-fly" conversion between PAL and NTSC: in my Apex 1100 it works fine, but the image appears a bit distorted (due to the different number of lines). It is not too much of an issue for most of the PAL movies I see (in which the *content* is more important than the visual) but it would be very important for other movices...

[wulf109]

I would agree with candatech,the DVP642 does a very good PAL to NTSC conversion. Unlike many others it does not compress PAL's 576 lines to make picture appear compressed downward. Round objects appear oval. With the 642 round is round.
By far the best PAL to NTSC I've seen is the Apex AD-3201. It's Zoran chipset seems to handle PAL to NTSC exceptionally well. Unfortunately the AD-3201 is no longer made but can be found on ebay.

[jman98]

I used to buy Apex, but I no longer recommend them. They started making their players so that the firmware couldn't be upgraded and I stopped keeping up with them. I would suggest getting some good current info on Apex because if you can't change regions on them, they're useless for you. http://www.nerd-out.com/darrenk has some old info on Apex firmware upgrades. I strongly suggest reading that before buying an Apex. Apex's quality control is almost non-existent and while I have had good luck, many have not.

The Philips DVP-642 does convert between PAL and NTSC pretty well, but it throws away lines from the PAL image to get it down to NTSC resolution. This can have some nasty consequences if you are watching a full frame PAL video with subtitles at the bottom of the screen. I bought a PAL VCD with English subtitles and I had to watch it on a PC because the DVP-642 wouldn't display the subtitles since they were at the bottom of the screen in the area it chopped off to display the image on my NTSC TV. This problem should not normally happen with letterboxed video.

[handyguy]

I don't buy Apex cause the pres of apex was arrested, plus they don't show closed captions.....There are plenty of other region free players.

[lordsmurf]

Apex products don't last long, no. Their DVD recorders, though excellent video quality, had power supplies that exploded. And their DVD players have cheap lasers that tend to die off faster than normal.

If you want a player than does good PAL playback, LiteOn DVD recorders are only about $100 and last a good long while. Cyberhome DVD players are about $30-40 are are decent, though longevity is only about 1-2 years.