I have just seen a version of the future of Dvd players as peddled by panasonic and it is called HIMAT. It seems to be their way of unifying a lot of various uses of the dvd player that are not strictly dvd. Jpeg photos mp3 and wma all allowed on one disc, it even alludes to mp4 video.
They want to have inter operability between brands under the Himat name. If all this sounds familiar to you APEX owners because your systems already support all this, maybe its because they have jumped the gun and their players are Himat capable, just waiting for the std to be released . They are partners with Panasonic on this. Shame really as I just ordered my player yesterday and it aint apex!

www.highmat.com

NB all of the above is my own opinion.