A gooD Decent Player

[FuriousD]

i have a weak Fisher DvD player that is just terrible. i am appauled at it's crappiness. Anyway i've got tons of stuff i want to burn on VCD and i need a player. i was thinking of just getting a VCD player and not another DVD player. I don't want to spend a ton of money maybe, but i dont' want a worthless player either. Can Anyone recommend a good player?? thanks a lot.

[incognito]

OH NO!!!!

Not another Apex 600 vs Pioneer 343 FlameFest!!!

[TPW]

well it depends on your price range, apex is a decent player, if you get the 1500's and the 3201's they have great playback capabilities. Pioneer also makes good dvd players and have a higher picture quality than the apex models but lack an mp3 function... Both players do have the ability of playing CDR's in X/VCD and X/SVCD and DVD

[RiG]

I have to agree the Apex 1500 is one love of a player!!!

RiG

[thxkid]

Basic prices on APEX

1500 - $99
500W - $92
660 - $119 - Flash Rom Macrovison can be turned off.
703 - $150 - 3 disc drawer

all the above will play DVD, CD, MP3, CD-R, CD-RW, VCD, SVCD.
I like the 660 GREAT for Demoing DVD to VCD or SVCD.

[PINETREE]

A GOOD PLAYER TO GO FOR M8 IS CYBERHOLME ADM512
About £130 Plays Everything Under The Sun dvd vcd xvcd mp3 audio Everything Very Wise I think...........

[homerpez]

I can testify that the Apex 500W (Wal*MArt variety) is a "gooD Decent Player". The ROM drive unit (the DVD-Rom drive inside that reads discs) is the main weakness, but it can be changed if need be.

Plus it's so cheap you can almost buy one to use and one as a backup unit, should the first unit become unfit to perform its duties!

(But don't actually buy 2, it's a bit wasteful)

[sracer]

If you've been burned by Fisher..(and let's be honest, how many of us haven't been burned by them since the revival of the name in the 80's? ) ...then I would recommend staying clear of other "bargain" units, like the Apex.

Apex players aren't BAD...but they aren't good either. Each model, submodel, firmware level, etc. has had their own little quirks... some more irritating than others. And it sometimes takes a little time before one is discovered... the 1500 is a new model, but who knows what'll pop up in the next few weeks?

If PRICE is your top priority, then perhaps the Apex will work for you. But if you can swing a few extra $$$, you can pick up a Pioneer DV-434 (with progressive scan) for as little as $169. (The DVD-343 is even less expensive)

These Pioneer units are quality players that can play just about everything (except mp3).

There's a reason why most comparisons in these fora are between Apex and Pioneer.... Because between QUALITY (Pioneer) and PRICE (Apex) it is a toss-up. Deciding what your top priority is, will decide which of these 2 to get.

[Erwin]

"These Pioneer units are quality players that can play just about everything (except mp3)."
It must be the older Pioneer DVD players because I tested 3 different Pioneers today on several XVCDs that I made and none of them could play these disc properly. The Apex and JVC DVD player outperformed the Pioneers in all these tests that I pursued today at Circuit City. Yes, I know that the DVD players are not hooked up at CC to bring out the DVD players' optimal performance, but I am talking about whether the audio and video are in synch. I am also talking about whether the video was choppy or not(you can tell this without hooking a DVD player through S-video). The Pioneers were dragging and were out of synch with all the XVCDs I tested. It's possible that my setup is wrong in making these XVCDs, but still, the JVCs and Apex DVD players can still handle the XVCDs properly. This is the second time I have tested Pioneer DVD players , and I was hoping that the Pioneer would perform better than last time because I was planning on buying one today. I hope someone can prove me wrong and tell me that these were all defective Pioneer because I have always liked Pioneer in general.

[Hawk600]

I bought a APEX 3201 ($119 K-Mart)and i'm very satisfied!
It's a good player especialy considering the price,and it
plays everything with resonable quality (same or better than my Panasonic A 120).
Just a little bit slow to load/unload or start to play, but if i can play all my cd's, it doesn't matter.

[KradLrobR]

Pioneer DV-434 @ http://www.buy.com for $149.95 and a free shipping coupon for purchases over $100.

so...

$149.95 shipped!

K

[Iview]

Pioneer DVD players are pretty good machine, however they cannot handle bitrate anything over 2500k, which makes reading high bitrate xSVCD impossible. The Panasonic and JVC outperfom the Pioneer in this aspect, with the Panasonic doing a little bit better. However the Hitachi 415U kept playing where both the JVC and Panasonic left off. And they all have comparable picture quality.
The hacker DVD players, Apex, Sampo,... and the likes are cheap to buy, and you can do a lot of things to it, but they have problems, the picture quality not that great and spotty reliability records.

[Erwin]

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On 2001-09-16 21:30:55, Iview wrote:
Pioneer DVD players are pretty good machine, however they cannot handle bitrate anything over 2500k, which makes reading high bitrate xSVCD impossible. The Panasonic and JVC outperfom the Pioneer in this aspect, with the Panasonic doing a little bit better. However the Hitachi 415U kept playing where both the JVC and Panasonic left off. And they all have comparable picture quality.
The hacker DVD players, Apex, Sampo,... and the likes are cheap to buy, and you can do a lot of things to it, but they have problems, the picture quality not that great and spotty reliability records.
</BLOCKQUOTE></FONT></TD></TR><TR><TD><HR size=1 color=black></TD></TR></TABLE>

The JVC is definitely a good VCD player that can play higher bitrates, however it has that "pause" problem (it will pause for up to 30 seconds while playing a XVCD with a high bitrate. The Curtis Mathes is another one that can handle the higher bitrates as well, but I haven't seen it pause so far.

[ilc]

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On 2001-08-30 11:21:25, FuriousD wrote:
i have a weak Fisher DvD player that is just terrible. i am appauled at it's crappiness. Anyway i've got tons of stuff i want to burn on VCD and i need a player. i was thinking of just getting a VCD player and not another DVD player. I don't want to spend a ton of money maybe, but i dont' want a worthless player either. Can Anyone recommend a good player?? thanks a lot.
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If you're in the USA, get the Daewoo DVG-3000N from Sam's Club (just under $100). It has the best VCD playback I've seen among players in the ~$100 price range.