Apex 1500 reliable/durable?

[bachelor]

I know you get what you pay for, but can anyone comment on the reliability/durability of the Apex 1500? It seems like a kool player for a cheap price, but I need to have something that is durable, and that will not die on me 6 months down the line (I've heard Pioneers dying a few months down the line as well, so it's not just the cheap players).

Has anyone had it for a while without any problems whatsoever?

[RaleighNC]

Had mine for two months or so. Still OK. Just slow during the initial svcd reads.

Bought mine openboxed for $84.

[bachelor]

OK. Was it always slow, or did it get slow over time?

[Gideon30]

I bought one about a month ago for $99, and had it for the lengthy period of about 3 days. It played everything I fed it, but played everything lousy. Most of my standard VCD's played like they were victim of random slow motion. I returned the unit, spent $40 more on a Pioneer 343 from Amazon, and am very happy with the decision. The Pioneer is the best DVD player that I have personally used.

[RaleighNC]

Slow like 2-4 sec to read a svcd and give length of video and # of chapters.

My videos look good to me.

[bachelor]

Gideon, I think you probably got a dud. I've read many posts where people got a 1500 that was DOA, but returned it for another one which was fine. I was strongly considering the Pioneer 343, but I would like to be able to play MP3's. Also, I would like to use the $60 I would save by getting the 1500 (presently selling for $89 at Circuit City as opposed to $149, which is what the 343 is selling for at Amazon right now) to put towards a new 16x Plextor burner. I just want to make sure that the $60 savings is worth it, and that I won't pay for it in the long run on account of it busting.

2-4 sec's wouldn't bother me for $89. Good to hear your video looks good, RaleighNC.

[Gideon30]

True. I figured I had a dud. I also saw some posts saying that ones that were bought were bad, and they just replaced them with another. That just seems to speak a great deal about quality control for Apex..haha
I didn't want the hassle so I went with Pioneer as I haven't seen much negatives about them at all.

[snowmoon]

I have both a pioneer 333 and a 1500 right now. I might return the 1500 for poor video quality. It gust can't seem to get the save level of excellent quality out of VCD and SVCDs that the pioneer did. I don't need the mp3 support.

Even the XVCD just don't stack up consitering how much bitrate they can take.

[sracer]

The Apex line of players isn't known for the quality of its playback. If price and the ability to play mp3's are higher priorities for you than quality of playback, then the Apex will suit your needs. If quality playback is your highest priority, then you'll be extremely pleased with the Pioneer line of players (DV-343, DV-434, etc.)

It's not an isolated bad unit, Apex playback quality is simply and significantly less than Pioneer.

[RaleighNC]

Mine being openbox/refub makes my think they tested before reselling. I bought it on a budget and I needed to know the svcds that I am making are not coasters.

[bachelor]

Thanx for the input. I ended up getting the Apex 1500 as I am on a budget right now. Also, I didn't really have a choice at Circuit City as they said that the Pioneer 343 was discontinued. Didn't that just come out recently? Well, if it is being replaced, I hope Pioneer was smart enough to include MP3 playback on the replacement and to put it on the market before Xmas. I know that Amazon.com still sells it, but money is dictating my life right now, unfortunately.

I already tested my Apex for VCD playback...I used the sample from this site.

I'd like to try to test it for SVCD, but I couldn't seem to find the sample for it that I could burn with Nero. I downloaded the one for Adaptec, but when I tried burning it with Adaptec EZ CD Creator 5.0 Platinum, with the three different makes of CD-R media that I used, I got an error message all three times with three seconds left in the burn session. Something to the effect of "incomplete data". If someone knows where the SVCD sample on this site is that I can burn with Nero, please post. Thanx.

By the way, I hooked up the Apex to my surround sound system, and it sounds killer!

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: bachelor on 2001-10-22 03:50:15 ]</font>