Disappointment on Apex DVD players

[kpej106]

I have problems with Apex DVD players. I usually watch VCD's on my Apex. Now it is my third one, each one lasted less than 12 months so far. The first one was AD-500, then, AD-1500, now AD-1200. The problem was when after playing 10-12 VCD disks, I got frozen screen, beep noise and block squares. I tried to clean the head with cleaning disk and alcohol/solution but with no help. Does anyone know the problem? I still can play DVD movies, the only problem is VCD. If I change a new machine, then, it will play the same disks again. Is this related to Apex quality?

[kpej106]

I am thinking of buying a new DVD player that can play all the VCD's, SVCD's, etc. I have chacked the compatibility chart. No one indicated if any machine can display Jpeg pictures. I was told the new Apex DVD player can show Jpeg pics. However I am worried about the Apex quality, although the price is low. Any suggestions on which name brand DVD players would show Jpeg pictures? Thanks.

[Gary Tait]

How about Sampo?

[musher70]

APEX's are very cheap units,maybe you'll buy one
thats last a long time for 55bucks at wally world,
but probably it wont....look into sampo units,saw
the cf631 at amazon and buy.com for 120 bucks.
you can flash em and get the macro taken off also,
plus it has a memory card reader,good luck

did i mention i had the 620 for TWO YEARS...
never had a vcr that didnt break for 2 years

[Thorn]

I've had my VCR for 5 years now... but it's a Sony not a cheapo brand. My Apex ad703 worked great for a year and a half, but for the last 6mo it's been unable to play RW media and now it can't even play pressed audio cds correctly. There are two things to consider: buy a cheap one now and replace it in a year with something better, or buy a nice one now and keep it for a while even though newer models have new features. I guess you spend the same amount either way. Add to that fact that the apex I have NEVER played dvd's perfectly -- it had a cheap decoder chip so dvd video wasn't as good as it would be on a better player. For 13" tvs this doesn't matter, but for bigger ones it does.

[SingSing]

Go pioneer. My DV333 is on the third year.

DV333,DV353K,DV656A...

[]TNT[]

#1 if you have probs try extended warranty that usually works and for 30 bucks for an extra 2 years of dvd playing and other formats why not and on top of this look at the apex real close and compare it with dvd players that came out at the same time, The 1500 for example it rules compatibility neighbourhood and even till today plays more then players that cost 5 10 times as much so i think they are well well worth the investment.

[rsuave5]

3 years with sony vcr, 1 and a half with dvd player that plays vcd svcd dvd-r dvd rw cdr cdrw , year with sony minicam and year with sony vaio and almost 2 with sony digital still. all get worked to death!

[buzzrock]

I got an APEX 1200, and the only complaint I got is the eject button, when I press it it takes forever to open drawer, other than that its been great.

2 additional comments for previous replies.

One: Service Plan, hell yeah I got one-- 10 bucks extra a C.C.
Two: I am using this player on a 13inch tv in my computer room, so I cant vouche for quality on large tv.

But I do plan on getting an 27 apex Flat screen in here as its companion (280 at Wally World)--

Not looking to have a top notch system in my office (computer room), I have 3grand into my living room home theatre, and thats enuf!!!

[snowmoon]

Get a quality player up front and you don't have to deal with these issues.

When I first got into this I got myself a DV-333 3 years later still going strong. It's now use as my backup to a JVC progressive model and a Panasonic progressive model.

I also found that video quality on standards compliant video out of the DV-333 beat most Apex high bitrate encodes easly.

[xed]

My Apex AD600 is more than 4 years old and still going strong. Works great, no problems playing back any kind of media -- except DVD-R.
If you want to play back DVD-Rs, AVOID the Apex models -- any or all. Apex DVD players will not play back DVD-Rs. I have verified this with a friend's latest-greatest model Apex as well as my own.
The claim that the composite video output of any standard DVD player looks visibly better than any other sounds suspect. I have not found this to be the case. Also own a Daewoo 5700. Works great and does play DVD-Rs flawlessly. I got hte Daewoo dirt cheap ($47) just to play DVD-Rs and it does so superbly.
The fact that my Apex AD600 is still wroking perfectly seems to indicate the price of the DVD player is not an issue.
More likely you like in an area with high air pollution that coaats your discs with crud and clouds the pickup lens of your DVD player...or you live in an area with lots of power problems that eventually fry the circuitry of your DVD players.
Spending lots of bucks for a DVD player does not, in my experience, lead to greater reliability or longer-lasting equipment. The main factors are the quality of the AC power and whether it goes out all the time (when I lived in a big city the power constantly shut down, wrecking various pieces of equipment) and the amount of particulate crud in the air.
In a big city, you will get condensation at night forming water roplets on your car if you park it outside. After 2 days your car will be covered with soot and particulates so badly it needs a wash. That's the crud in the air in big cities.
In the country, the same car parked outside doesn't need to be washed for a month.
All that crud in the air is winding up on your DVDs and audio CDs, and that's more likely the culprit than the brand of DVD player (my Apex AD600 still plays every disc I throw at it after nearly 5 years -- except DVD-Rs).

[snowmoon]

My Apex AD600 is more than 4 years old and still going strong. Works great, no problems playing back any kind of media -- except DVD-R.

Wow, unless you have early access to product, or can see into the future I really doubth the unit is 4 years old. The ealiest refrence I could find for the unit is Feb 2000 ( that would make your at most like 2 yrs 6 months ). This jives with my memory of the events. I also remeber picking up my DV-333 after finding out how poorly these unites played back SVCD's ( non-compliant ones at that ).

[snowmoon]

If you don't believe cost has some effect on build quality I have a few cars to sell you ( cheap ). Don't worry they are built just like a BMW.

[VEFF]

Seems like a crap shoot with Apex.

My first one AD-703 died in 5 weeks!!
I have had its replacement (also an AD-703) for a year and a half - no problems

[Thorn]

The claim that the composite video output of any standard DVD player looks visibly better than any other sounds suspect.

While the composite connector and cable are relatively standard in quality capability, there is significant room for quality differences in the decoder. The decoder on my apex ad703 would not be hard to beat... it might just be a bad one but that goes to further show that the cheapo brands can't keep up with quality control (they can't affort quality control because they have to undersell major brands). I'd say apex and other cheapo brands are hit and miss. Better not to mail order them because you might need to exchange your first one.

[SingSing]

I think the previous post is on Target, it is really hit and miss.
If you went with a low cost brand, then get
a from a nearby local store, so you can
go back two or three times, if you are on the "miss" list.

Circuit City worker once posts here said "Apex" are on
the "most returned" list, and they are piling up in the back room.
They don't even bother to send them back to Apex.

I think the real cost of these Apex maybe is $30 to $40 in Huge quantity.

[Feuerwehr]

I would be the first to agree that Apex certainly is not up to the quality and reliability standards of most DVD players. However, some APEX models have features that many high price brand names don't, and they are CHEAP.
Contrary to one of the above posts I have found that most APEX models play DVD-R's without a hitch. I have tried out DVD-R's on the AD-800, AD-1200, AD-1500, and the AD-3201. All play DVD-R's well. In fact I have found that the AD-1500 plays DVD-R's that most other DVD-R compatible players cannot handle.
Also the Pioneer media compatibility site lists the APEX AD-660 as one of only 8 players out of 70 that played all 39 brands and types of DVD-R media tested without any problems.
http://www.pioneerelectronics.com/Pioneer/CDA/Common/ArticleReviewsDetails/0,2651,92097,00.html
I am not an advocate for APEX. The failure rate of any of their machines may be above average. However, the ability to swap firmare, play PAL and NTSC from all regions, macrovision free and CGMS free output, and cheap prices are attractive features not universally available.

[macleod]

put me down as a happy apex owner. I have the apex 1100W 1mb version (de-macro'd and region freed) and it plays EVERYTHING I have thrown at it, jpeg mictures and mpeg video files included. This was the cheapo $55 wallyworld apex model and I have been pleased with it.

It seems that the question has to do with the quality of the apex. It sounds like the apex has had more than its fair share of breakdowns/returns to the store, and that is attributed to them being cheap. I don't think that just because its inexpensive, that it is prone to break down. It seems people attribute price to quality. I also think that people know that just because you pay a lot of money for something, doesn't mean its high quality. Sorry for ranting on, but cash vs quality issue is a pet peeve and couldnt resist the temptation.

Has anyone checked consumer reports about the apex models? I would be interested to see what they have to say about the quality of the apex as it relates to other dvd players. It would prove "once and for all" is the apex "cheap".

OK, getting off my soapbox now and going to "backup" some DVD's

[Lelie]

If you don't believe cost has some effect on build quality I have a few cars to sell you ( cheap ). Don't worry they are built just like a BMW.

I don't know about the last guy, but I bought my 600A at Christmas 1999; let's see, that will be 3 years next month. The build date is Sept., so it already cleared the 3 years. I updated ROM's (old units-- any brand-- can't handle some of the 'newer' protection schemes) but other than that it has been a workhorse. Nor was it a new model at that time; check out http://www.nerd-out.com/darrenk/. Having said that, the failure mode of most cheap DVD's is bad & leaking electrolytic capacitors. If you want to, look up leaky caps on the web. They even name the cap brands with the biggest problems. The worst ones are 8mm dia's, which abound on these players. The biggest cause of the leaks is heat-- DON'T PUT THINGS ON TOP OF THE PLAYER OR PUT IT ON CARPET!!!

Larry Elie

[Nelson37]

My Apex 500 is almost three years old and works great. At $89.95 then, the choice was that or no DVD player. It plays all CD formats but miniDVD, haven't tried any burned DVD's.

From seeing many posts, they seem to have more failures, but since so many have been sold it is questionable wether they actually fail at higher rates than other brands. Also, consider care and safekeeping a $60.00 machine gets as opposed to a $300.00 one.

The high numbers sold, and to a community looking to get the best bang for the buck, also has benefits in the custom-written ROM upgrades available for many Apex and other cheap brands.

Sure, its an inexpensive player, and if you have the money for higher quality, spend it. BUT - consider the pace of upgrades to the various technologies involved, I'm not sure I want to pay for a machine to last beyond 5 years.

[dun4cheap]

You know I originally bought my 500 from Cicuitcity and I put the extended warranty on it. Since then Circuit city has replaced it under warranty with a 703, then I broke the 703 updating it with the wrong firmware so they replaced that with the 5131 under the extended warranty. I originally paid $129 and they have given me $20 back, plus they gave me the apex 5131 and put the 3 year extended warranty on it. So fact is only one of them failed on me, I new the apex was the lower end, but it plays almost everything and Circuit City does not repair the Apex models they just replace it with a new one. So how can you go wrong. By the way the 5131 so far I like the best, has all the bells and whistles that I need.

ed

[hwoodwar]

For Kpej106: You may want to look at a Magnavox MDV450SL. It plays just about everything; VCD, SVCD, XSVCD, CVD, MP3 and JPEG. I have personally tested it with all of KWAG's templates, the only change needed is for his "K3" templates you need to change the resolution to 544 X 480.

For the JPEGs all you have to do is copy the images to CD with whatever burning program you use. At the player with the remote you can browse the directory structure and select what images to display, or go into a slideshow mode where it automatically goes to the next image every few seconds.

It's getting harder to find this player (due to Philips retiring the Magnavox name.) It appears Walmart and Blockbuster Online still have some at:

http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.gsp?product_id=1972356

and

http://www.blockbuster.com/bb/article/details/0,,ART-805,00.html

and of course you may be able to pick them up at local Walmart or Blockbuster stores.

If I had a job right now (I got laid off about two weeks ago) I'd buy a second one as a spare, before they are all sold out.

Edit by snowmoon to fix test running off page

[musher70]

man u people should just give up on that crap...
apex is a loser and always will be....just remember
you always get what you pay for....pay only 59 bucks
at walmart,instead of a hundred and just keep sending
in those rebates....

[nandi_nokuri]

@hwoodwar

Hey it's great to hear from a KVCD faithful.

I am really concerned about the future of vcd/svcd technology. It seems that manafactures are phasing out this format or is it just Apex. Does anyone propose that one day we will be able to play xsvcds or xvcds on most players ? Because it seems that so many of the new dvd players have so many issues and the dvd comp. list on this site doesn't look promising

[Rickyblaze]

I have had my AD600 for at least 2 years now . In it's original state I had some problems with playing some commercial disc (Patriot) but after I updated it's eprom a couple of times and eventually replacing it's dvd drive with a Toshiba 1200 It has become an excellent player for all the media I have tried from cd-dvd'rs. The only problem I have had is with DVD-rw,the disc will not read at all . I think there is an update for it but I have'nt researched it real hard yet as the DVD-rw's only write at 1x and I only use them for backing up my pc. I know it sounds like a hassle to go through the eprom replacement ,heat sink addition and the drive replacement but I now have an excellent player and it was fun working on it and learning a few things along the way and that is what this hobby is all about. Take it for what
it's worth maybe it will help somebody.

Rick

[nandi_nokuri]

Thanks Mr. Blaze (that's a cool name)

So by updating the eprom and all, how much did it cost you ? Did you have to change the case ? By making all these changes your dvd player became full compatible with xsvcds and xvcds ?

Right now I am willing to try anything because I have made alot of xvcds and xsvcds that I would like to play correctly on something other that my computer

[tuco1979]

Thanks Mr. Blaze (that's a cool name)

So by updating the eprom and all, how much did it cost you ? Did you have to change the case ? By making all these changes your dvd player became full compatible with xsvcds and xvcds ?

Right now I am willing to try anything because I have made alot of xvcds and xsvcds that I would like to play correctly on something other that my computer

Unless you own that player, there are many cheap players that can play xvcds and xsvcds. I have a mintek 1600 and it player everything. I suggest that besides reading the dvd player listings here, that you try www.nerd-out.com since they discuss cheap dvd players as well as ways to make them regionfree and macrovisionfree.

[SingSing]

To de-macrovision, is to record on VCR.

Do you guys think SVHS copy of DVD is better than SVCD in video quality ?

[tuco1979]

To de-macrovision, is to record on VCR.

Do you guys think SVHS copy of DVD is better than SVCD in video quality ?

I don't think that is why alot of people want to do that. Some people want to connect through their vcr because they want both vcr and dvd player hooked up but their tv may not have enough inputs. For me, I don't care about macrovision, and a little bit about regions.

[shin_kai50]

huh... what can you say.