What happened to Apex DVD players?

[jjo]

My Apex DVD player(s) are some of the best players I've ever used. They played pretty much anything I threw at it, and they had volume contols on the remotes.

But now I'm in the market for another one, but I can't find any Apexes anywhere. The usual places that once had them a year ago now don't seem to carry them. Even online stores seem to have no quantities.

The Apex AD2600 I bought for $69 a year or so ago is now $299 on Amazon? What happened? That model is great. I'd love to get a second one.

Are there other brands that have equivalent models to the AD2600 I can get? I really need a volume control on the remote for the DVD player (not one that has a volume for the TV on the DVD remote).

[lordsmurf]

The CEO of Apex in rotting away in a Chinese prison. They went bankrupt and defaulted on debt. The company also had shit customer service, and both stores and individuals began to dislike them.

They're not missed.

The DVD players and recorders generally worked okay, but when they broke, you were screwed.

Cyberhome is a good Apex replacement, for players. Their recorders are trash.

[budz]

The CEO of Apex in rotting away in a Chinese prison. They went bankrupt and defaulted on debt. The company also had shit customer service, and both stores and individuals began to dislike them.

They're not missed.

The DVD players and recorders generally worked okay, but when they broke, you were screwed.

Cyberhome is a good Apex replacement, for players. Their recorders are trash.

:P I had a APEX 1500 replaced when the company was thriving. The customer service was excellent. I got a brand new APEX 1500 in 2 weeks and crosses my fingers that it doesn't die just yet!

To jjo: Check out the APEX FORUM.
http://www.nerd-out.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=1

[vcdforme]

Very interesting.
I salute APEX for being among the first machines with tons of features, low price, and the ability to play anything.
My old 600 is still working great.
Lordsmuf is semi correct, but the company is still going, however their
CEO has been kidnapped by our good friends the Chinese.

read on......

http://www.iht.com/articles/2005/05/17/business/detain.php

[bmiller]

As far as dvd players,and a lot of other electronics these days,when they break,they cost too much too repair anyway.We are in a throw away society.Now if it was still under warranty,and you couldn't get a replacement,that's a different ballgame.

[p_l]

Ooo, those cruel Chinese. Not only does Ji get his manufacturing done for dirt cheap by the Chinese, but then he doesn't even pay them. He rips them off for $400 million and they detain him in... a hotel room. Maybe other fraudulent CEO's wish they had it that good.

[junkmalle]

At least Bernie Ebbers got a trial...

[ROF]

If you spend more than $60 or $70 on a set top player you've pretty much wasted your dollars. Apex players are great and have far outlasted the Pioneer and Sony I wasted my money on.

[handyguy]

You can still find some on Ebay.

[lordsmurf]

If you spend more than $60 or $70 on a set top player you've pretty much wasted your dollars. Apex players are great and have far outlasted the Pioneer and Sony I wasted my money on.

I have a player that cost $150 several years ago and runs circles around Apex, Cyberhome and pretty much any other cheap player. It's about features, not price. Cheap machines don't have those features.

Cheap machines are only good because they are cheap and can usually play PAL/region-free. They rarely last long. If yours still works, count yourself lucky.

[handyguy]

nerd-out.com is the big apex site if its still around.

[dvdguy4]

Their website is still online http://www.apexdigitalinc.com/default.asp

[greymalkin]

my first dvd player was an apex and it couldn't make it through a movie without skipping..i eventually found out the chips on the DAC inside the machine were getting too hot. Before i figured that out though i tried a firmware patch on the dvd drive itself which went south and ended up making the dvd-rom drive useless...so i had to replace the dvd-rom drive with a standard pc one which played dvd's but didn't work with the mp3's. Then i tried replacing the rom chip on the DAC...which i found out after ordering was the same chip i already had in it...lastly i installed an HD cooler inside the case and drilled holes in the side to exhaust the hot air the HD cooler was sucking away from the chips on the DAC...i of course had to get a tube of silicon to make sure the exhausting chamber was air tight and efficiently cooling...after that..no skips..

the Apex was fun as a project...but i'll have to agree they are cheap-o peices of equipment.

[davideck]

greymalkin -

That all sounds SO familiar...I've been there and done that!

By the time I was done, I had installed a MAD DOG DVD-ROM drive and updated firmware.
It's great for quickly verifying DVD burns because it chapter searches WAY faster than any of my other standalone players, and yet it is just picky enough to let me know how compatible each DVD burn is.

But for watching movies...

[ROBERT BLACK]

If you spend more than $60 or $70 on a set top player you've pretty much wasted your dollars. .

If it doesn't have Adaptive Error Correction, the player isn't worth it. I like to be able to play my DVD-Rs without skips and freezes. None of the sub $90.00 dollar players seem to have this necessary feature any more. I'll stick to my $190 dollar Vsonic 9200mx.

[Madz]

I have to say that I really like the earlier Apex models such as the 500 (A/B/W/WM), 600A, 660 & 1100 (W/WM). All of these machines use an IDE interface to the DVD reader. Benefits? Well, if the loader started to fail or died (and it was common), it was possible to replace it w/ a regular computer reader.

I still own a 660 whose loader had died about 3 years ago. Popped in a Toshiba 12x and it was great -- even played all SL +/-R media w/o trouble. Problems started again when I got into burning +DL's. Brands used are: Verbatim, Memorex & Ridata.

The player w/ the Toshiba would play the first layer fine but then start skipping & freezing on the second (happened alot w/ the Ridata but to a lesser extent w/ the others). Yet all of these same disks would play straight through on my computer's reader (a Liteon 167D). An eyebrow went up!

The solution was to buy another LO167D and replace the old loader in the 660. Results? Perfect playback of all +DL (including the Ridata)! Moral here being that as long as I can do that, I'll continue to love my 660!

[vitualis]

Remember that Apex didn't actually make their own machines as such... they simply used one of the many mass production companies in China as an OEM.

Regards.

[lordsmurf]

Remember that Apex didn't actually make their own machines as such... they simply used one of the many mass production companies in China as an OEM.
Regards.

Are you sure? I know they used kits, but I thought they still did they own thing to a degree.

[vitualis]

The mass production companies in China are extremely flexible. They have so much production capacity that they can make a run of machines for ONE company as long as the order is large enough... In any case, I thought this was were Apex got into trouble... they defaulted on payments to their Chinese partners.

Regards.

[chas0039]

I have seen three Panasonic players die in less than 2 years while my Minteks are still going strong. I would agree that paying $39.99 will get you junk with a short life span. But there seems to be no guarantee of quality anywhere else. No matter what the brand name they all seem to have had their lemons.

[Sabro]

I'll agree...I love both of my Apex's and have never had a problem with them wether they are 'featureless' or not.

However, I've seen a quick decline in places selling them and more of the CyberHome ones.

Sabro

[Quantum]

My Apex AD-1500 recently died. I really liked that unit. The footprint was an odd size though. I replaced it with a Philips DVP642 which is pretty versatile although it has a reputation of reliability similar to the Apex. I'm looking into the latest Pioneer models with Divx too.

[lordsmurf]

The mass production companies in China are extremely flexible. They have so much production capacity that they can make a run of machines for ONE company as long as the order is large enough... In any case, I thought this was were Apex got into trouble... they defaulted on payments to their Chinese partners.

Regards.

Ah, yeah, could be. Apex was known to make units in bursts, then never again. That's why they changed model numbers like the wind. That would fit into what you just said. Would make sense now if they had to order in bursts.

[redwudz]

I had a Apex 1500 that played about anything. No problems for about two years, then it grabbed a DVD and shoved it out the back of the DVD drive, destroying both. At least it went out with style.

I was going to put a different DVD drive in, but the mounting and drive design seemed to be different than regular DVD drives.