Rating: 
Summary: Satisfied in Barbados
Review: This is my first DVD player and I tend to do a lot of research on electronic components before I make a purchase so when a friend recommended I take a look at the APEX brand I decided to give it a shot. Mind you I'm partial to SONY but I've seen the quality on some sony models with HDTV and was not quite convinced. The test was to hook it up to a modulator for connectivity and I must say I'm impressed. One problem though is to keep the video powered off or you will get feedback while playing a DVD. The picture quality and sound are great so far and the AFF feature is ok for those widescreen DVDs.I'm keeping it simple for now until I really start to experiment and test it's true capabilities. More to follow later.
Rating:
Summary: Nothing to lose
Review: Why 5 stars for this cheap DVD? Reasons:
1. Price so low and it come with remote control, other low-end DVDs price is 17% cheaper (means little difference for such price) but no remote control. Think like this, if this product can last for one year, it only cost you less than 17 cents per day. Even half year life won't cost you more than 33 cents per day.
2. It can read most CD-R and DVD... although the box stated it's a Regional "One" DVD player.
3. If you still looking for more reasons than you should stop reading this... :-) just kidding... hey, setup is very simple and you don't need to read the manual, good enough?
Even AD-2600 is coming, it's more expensive (but no much), and no Karaoke function. (Ok, be fair AD-2600 looks more slim and stylish, with more digital in / out but also less analog)Dark side:
1. Short 90 days labor warranty. (Parts warranty is 1 year) -- but I already did the calculation for you above. If it broke at the first 3 months, you're cover. If it broke after 4-6 months, blame yourself unlucky and dump it. If this player broke after 1 year, why upset? Just buy another new one then.
2. Quality problem -- very common in China made machines, it's pure luck to decide you got a good or bad one. I tried my sis's first before I brought mine, her machine CD tray in and out is not smooth (with small click sound) even it's not serious. But a problem is a problem -- it will only go worst as time go by.
3. The advertisment of the box said it can change the 16:9 movie to 4:3 but it didn't happened to my VCD... may be DVD ok? I don't know... This is not a fancy DVD player as Sony or Pansonic, even the remote looks cheap; but for this price, I can bear with it...
Also, Amazon delivery is lighting fast...within a week I could enjoy all CD and DVD in my bed.
Rating:
Summary: The Most Compatible DVD player brand on the Market
Review: I bought my first Apex (model 500) over 2 years ago for $100. I was amazed to discover later that it not only plays standard DVDs, but also VCD, SVCD and more recently DVD-R that I have authored!! I still have it. So when I saw the AD2500 for [item price] and free shipping, I immediately bought 2. This model offers progressive scan as well as component video output and it still plays all of my home-authored VCD, SVCD and DVD-R!! This is an incredible value, specially when you know that most name-brand DVD players DO NOT play VCD, SVCD, DVD-R, etc. So the AD2500 is the BEST product if you are looking for excellent video output as well as compatibility with every home-produced video format you can think of (except DivX, which I have not tried that yet!) and every brand of DVD-R disk!! There is only one item that is not as good as before: the remote control!
Rating: 
Summary: worthless
Review: Apex has a 90-day warranty.....ours fried after 4 months. Repair is more expensive than a new machine. Do not burden yourself with this nonsense....buy something that works for longer than a few months.
Not to mention: slow to respond to remote control, flimsy construction, poor substitute for a real cd music player with a good display, etc.....
Rating: 
Summary: A Pretty good dvd player for now
Review: Well, I just got my Dvd player yesterday in the mail and after I played the first Dvd. It worked excellent, no color problems no skipping or it blinking off. But when I played the second dvd for some odd reason the color kept going from light to dark, and the dvd would blink off to this blue. It's very hard to explain. You can still see the movie but when the dvd blinks, this blue would appear and that was on and off throughout the entire movie. So I decided that it must be the cd, because why would the dvd player do that if I just got it. So I cleaned the dvd but it continued. So I played a third dvd and and it worked just fine like the first one. So I'm guessing that maybe it's just certain dvds that works in this dvd player. But overall despite the problem with the second dvd. I think that it was a pretty good dvd player, especially for the price.Probably in about 2 months I am going to write another review just to inform everyone on how this dvd player is working. But anyway peace and God Bless :)
Rating:
Summary: worst manufacturer
Review: I should have known that this was a horrible machine. It worked fine for a couple months then one night it just fried. By the time this had happened the store wouldnt take it back as it was too long. I wrote the company a couple times with NO responce. HORRIBLE COMPANY. I have gone to stores and see this brand on display and most of the buttons will have fallen off. That should warn people about this horrible product.
Rating:
Summary: Plays almost anything
Review: When I was looking for a dvd player one of my main concerns was finding one that could play my burnt VCD's. This one plays anything, I'm impressed. My only complaint is that its HUGE, if I knew it would be so big I wouldn't have brought it.
Rating: 
Summary: You get what you pay for...
Review: I bought 2 of these bad boys but I had to return one. The one I returned had a big dent on the top of the case (maybe I get the Dickenson's one... see their review). I thought I could live with the dent but about 8 days later, I no longer got video signals no matter what I did - neither switching discs and cables, pressing the I/P button, nor swearing at it helped any bit. The 2nd one is still working fine (knock on wood - 10 days and counting) and plays everything I throw at it! I would have given this player a full 5 stars based on value and supported formats/features but my experience with the first kinda spoiled it for me. A couple of side notes:
1) If you're using component video cables, go to setup and change your video setting if the video has a red/pink tint to it.
2) The burnt plastic smell and the buzzing from the disc tray is unfortunately a normal thing...
Rating:
Summary: A lot for [the price]
Review: I used to be an audio/videophile that believed in buying high end brands. Not anymore! The difference in quality between low cost & high end DVD players is very hard to perceive unless you have the training of an expert and the high end equipment to tell the difference. Almost all DVD players today use the same DVD decoder chips that are made by just a few major companies, so the electronics are basically the same. I wanted a cheap player that would handle playing movies, home video's, and music (CD, MP3 and WMA) on any media format (DVD, DVD-R, DVD+R, DVD+RW, CD, CD-R, CD-RW). It does all that I wanted, and it exceeded my expections with the nice menu screen for playing back MP3s & WMA. Now I have it all: I can watch rented DVD movies, playback my kid's home videos burned onto DVD, and listen to the equivalent of 30 CDs that I ripped into MP3 or WMA on 1 CD (better than a carosel CD player!). As long as it lasts a few years, I'll be happy.
Rating:
Summary: An Epiphany...
Review: My player is just out of the box, and I understand from reading the other reviews I only have a 50/50 chance of it surviving very long, but I don't care... this thing is amazing. I've spent I don't know how many hundreds of hours screwing around with jpeg slide-show programs, ripping and encoding vcds that my expensive DVD player didn't like, having to convert and burn music cds from my mp3 files... and on and on.
So now for all of [item price] I get a piece of hardware that hooks up to my tv and plays almost every type of media that exists! Thanks to these cheapo players from Asian mystery companies, I can only assume that the big companies will have no choice but to follow suit with reliable, inexpensive players of thier own.
This is the future, and it should have been here a long time ago. The future is cheap, universal hardware, not a zillion different third-party applications that force you through countless contortions on your computer so you can watch your media in your living room. Huzzah!
|
