Apex 1500

[Bones FTP]

BestBuy has these babys for $99.00.

I just brought one home and it played everything I had with VERY nice quality.

I love the MP3 menu feature, I can read all my tracks and even shuffle the MP3's. Very nice Interface also.
=)

It played every VCD I had, even ones that did not play on my friend's Sony.

Since my TV is only 32", I could not really notice any difference in DVD playback between this and my PS2, so I am happy with the DVD quality. I LOVE THE ZOOM FEATURE ALSO!

This thing is great, my first purchase and I am very happy. If there are any newbies like me looking to get an all around good player that plays everything this is the one to get.

Now to start shopping for my stereo components...
=)
-Bone's FTP

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Bones FTP on 2001-08-10 15:02:49 ]</font>

[Marlowe]

Best Buy has a Labor Day sale on this model ($89.95). Any suggestions on whether I should pay the extra $10 and get the 500W?

[sracer]

<TABLE BORDER=0 ALIGN=CENTER WIDTH=85%><TR><TD><font size=-1>Quote:</font><HR size=1 color=black></TD></TR><TR><TD><FONT SIZE=-1><BLOCKQUOTE>
On 2001-08-10 15:01:38, Bones FTP wrote:
BestBuy has these babys for $99.00.

I just brought one home and it played everything I had with VERY nice quality.

I love the MP3 menu feature, I can read all my tracks and even shuffle the MP3's. Very nice Interface also.
=)

It played every VCD I had, even ones that did not play on my friend's Sony.

Since my TV is only 32", I could not really notice any difference in DVD playback between this and my PS2, so I am happy with the DVD quality. I LOVE THE ZOOM FEATURE ALSO!
</BLOCKQUOTE></FONT></TD></TR><TR><TD><HR size=1 color=black></TD></TR></TABLE>

Historically, APEX players have not been very good at QUALITY playback of DVD and VCDs. Sure they'll play them, but they don't look very good. I'm an eternal optimist and hope that ONE of these APEX machines will eventually be good.

I have a few questions:
- When you say that the 1500 played VCDs that the Sony couldn't, were these VCDs burned on CDR media? If so, then the comparison doesn't mean much since most Sony players can't handle CDR media.

- Have you tried a disc with seamless branching, like "The Patriot" or "T2: Ultimate Edition"?

- MP3 discs. Can it play MP3 discs that contains files in both the root and sub directories? (older APEX models had troubles)

eg.
<TABLE BORDER=0 ALIGN=CENTER WIDTH=85%><TR><TD><font size=-1>Code:</font><HR ></TD></TR><TR><TD><FONT SIZE=-1><PRE>
\
song1.mp3
song2.mp3
\album1
song3.mp3
song4.mp3
\album2
song5.mp3
</PRE></FONT></TD></TR><TR><TD><HR size=1 color=black></TD></TR></TABLE>
ONLY a 32" TV?! lol My (micro) setup consists of a 20" Toshiba flatscreen TV (w/component input), Pioneer DV-434 DVD player. The resulting quality is absolutely breathtaking. I'm no high-end videophile, but I can tell the difference between the Pioneer and (previous) APEX models...and the differences (in both DVD and VCD playback)are significant. (of course I compared both using the S-Video connector)

I'm curious to see if the 1500 is an improvement.
Thanks in advance.



<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: sracer on 2001-08-31 06:50:50 ]</font>

[hitechjunkie]

<TABLE BORDER=0 ALIGN=CENTER WIDTH=85%><TR><TD><font size=-1>Quote:</font><HR size=1 color=black></TD></TR><TR><TD><FONT SIZE=-1><BLOCKQUOTE>My (micro) setup consists of a 20" Toshiba flatscreen TV (w/component input), Pioneer DV-434 DVD player. The resulting quality is absolutely breathtaking. I'm no high-end videophile, but I can tell the difference between the Pioneer and (previous) APEX models...and the differences (in both DVD and VCD playback)are significant. (of course I compared both using the S-Video connector) </BLOCKQUOTE></FONT></TD></TR><TR><TD><HR size=1 color=black></TD></TR></TABLE>

on a related subject, i've heard that it's best to use the composite video connection for VCD playback. s-video and component connections tend to accentuate more of the flaws in a (lower video bitrate) VCD.

[sracer]

hitechjunkie, that is what I found too. I compared DVD playback between the 2 using S-Video because the Apex models I tried, didn't have component output. When playing VCDs, they look better than the Apex both when playing via S-Video and composite.

[bigboy]

Hi, I just picked up an Apex AD-1500 and am disapointed. A friend had sent me 4 VCD's he made on his computer with recent movies on them, and the player won't play them. When I put the disc in it will display the time left on the LCD, then I hit play and it does nothing except display the PLAY arrow... the APEX DVD screen stays on and so forth. ?????????????????????????

[vivisimonvi]

Someone mentioned if the Apex 1500 could play Terminator 2: Ultimate Edition.

I have the 600AD model I bought in May of 2000, halfway through the movie (towards the desert scene), the movie just jumps all the way back to the beginning for some reason. My only luck was to rip my DVD in two VCD discs.

I notified Apex by email if they could fix this they just told me to send it in for an upgrade. But I still have yet to do that, lol. (I'm happy with the VCD playback of this since my TV isn't that big).

[nfl2k2]

I don't know why some people are so picky.. apex 500w is great, it plays everything fine, plus it's under 100$. I don't see a difference on other dvd players in quality when playing (s)vcd's.

[ilc]

<TABLE BORDER=0 ALIGN=CENTER WIDTH=85%><TR><TD><font size=-1>Quote:</font><HR size=1 color=black></TD></TR><TR><TD><FONT SIZE=-1><BLOCKQUOTE>
On 2001-08-31 04:39:00, Marlowe wrote:
Best Buy has a Labor Day sale on this model ($89.95). Any suggestions on whether I should pay the extra $10 and get the 500W?

</BLOCKQUOTE></FONT></TD></TR><TR><TD><HR size=1 color=black></TD></TR></TABLE>

If you want a good MP3 interface, forget the 500W. The 1500's MP3 interface is much better. And it also has "real" shuffle, unlike the 500W.

[Marlowe]

Thanks, ilc. I bought both the 500w and the 1500. I'm keeping the 1500 because:

1) It's newer.
2) It's smaller.
3) MP3's play better.
4) It works just fine.

I don't need component out, I only use the speakers on my TV, and I think the DVD quality is good (compared with my PS2.) So, overall I think I got a bargain.