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Apex ADV-3800 Progressive-Scan DVD-VCR Combo

Apex ADV-3800 Progressive-Scan DVD-VCR Combo

List Price: $139.99
Your Price: $99.94
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Mediocre compatibility and Atrocious customer service
Review: I bought this DVD VCR combo a year back. It worked fine untill I lost its remote control. And believe me, Apex DVD/VCR combo without remote is like a hand without fingers! you can hardly use all the features in this unit.
Now the real pain began...I ordered a replacement remote from Apex in April 2004. Now its October and I still haven't got it. I am doing followup w/ Apex every week for last 3 months. I tried all tricks (pleading, getting mad at them), everything, but its a typical customer service answer: This remote is on backorder and we will ship it as soon as it is available. So after almost 6 months of wait, I am still cursing at their customer service!
This combo is not at all compatible w/ some top of the line home theatre systems. Like Panasonic, I tried every option, even paid a technician to get my new HT system to run w/ Apex DVD/VCR combo. But again, failure.
Good deal is not always the best deal! Quality is not cheap. I suggest, putting extra bucks will get u a better product(Like Sony, Kenwood).

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Don't be fooled
Review: I bought this machine on 9/8/03. It is 12/14/03 and the dvd is no longer functioning; used it once. Apex on-line customer service doesn't exist... I wanted to chose no stars, but you can't.

Overall the machine is not good. The VCR only records at SP or SLP. The picture quality is terrible on super long play. On screen record doesn't have auto turn-off (for example can't set it to record for 1 hour without pre-programing it).

I guess you get what you pay for.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Don't be fooled by the price
Review: I bought this product because of the price. I learned you get what you pay for.I had to return the first one becase it was "Defective". Apex made me pay to ship it back to the tune of 24.00. When I finally received the replacement it to had the same defects as the first one. Noisey when the VCR is running, display features showing on screen randomly and loud mechanical sounds on loading and unloading the VCR. Dealing with the manufaturer was no picnic either. Stay away from this product their are better DVD/VCR products coming down the road.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Don't be fooled by the price
Review: I bought this product because of the price. I learned you get what you pay for.I had to return the first one becase it was "Defective". Apex made me pay to ship it back to the tune of 24.00. When I finally received the replacement it to had the same defects as the first one. Noisey when the VCR is running, display features showing on screen randomly and loud mechanical sounds on loading and unloading the VCR. Dealing with the manufaturer was no picnic either. Stay away from this product their are better DVD/VCR products coming down the road.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Surprise Machine
Review: I have had this machine for seven months now and I can't help but tell you how well it is performing. I was a bit wary of the all in one concept but this apex does everything it says - it records your tv programs while letting you watch a dvd or as I have done - connect my old stereo system and speakers to listen to mp3 cds. The recording function on this machine works much better than stand alone vcr's that I have used - it records high quality digital cable. I would certainly buy apex again.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: best combo on the market
Review: i have owned a sony, hitachi, samsung and avia. why [they]pulled it is beyond me, the great stuff they discontinue, this is by far the best i have owned, it was so easy to set up and use the remote i never used the owners manual. the picture is great, the sound great, i have owned other apex items, a tv, a dvd player, they will soon figure out how great their products are and they are made in the usa, prices will go up, grab this now as they are on their way to topping sony.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: very nice for this value
Review: I just bought this piece last week. I am pretty happy so far. It looks pretty slick and plays all kinds of formats. We tried dvd, vcd, and home made vcds and they all seem to work. I am hoping its durability will meet my expectation as well.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: VCD's
Review: I purchased and returned 4 different brands that claimed to play VCD's because they wouldn't play mine! This unit plays anything I put in it. I have many home movies I've put on VCD (before home DVD burners) and they were useless until I found this unit that was much cheaper than the other 4 brands! Needless to say, I'm more than happy!!

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: DO NOT PURCHASE THIS EQUIPMENT
Review: I purchased this device two weeks ago (May 26, 2004) from SEARS and straight out of the box, the DVD player does not play ANY DVD! I burn DVDs in many different formats (DVD-+RW) from different manufactures and none of them play. Then I tried to play a regular DVD (Anthony Robbin's Get the Edge) and it also will not play. I tried several other brand new DVDs and none will play. I even tried playing MP3 and WMP discs, with no luck. I knew I should not have purchased this product without researching it first but I was in a time crunch. I do not recommend this product! And I waited over 10 minutes trying to speak with a customer service rep, which is also unacceptable!

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Bit twice by this unit -- not a 3rd time
Review: I wanted to like this product -- I did. I was looking for a replacement "hi fi" VCR as well as a new DVD player and the price seemed right.

I ended up returning the first unit after one day because the VCR refused to track tapes -- even tapes it recorded itself. Every tape would just scroll and scroll. And you'd think by 2004 that any mass-produced VCR would *not* need manual "tracking" buttons, wouldn't you? This does... They just don't work that well.

The replacement unit had an audible "clunk" when the VCR heads parked the tape at insertion/power off. The tracking was much better, but still the picture rolled occasionally.

And I then saw the random counter display come up on-screen while playing a DVD.

And I also fully agree with the comments about the remote. It's too small and as a VCR remote, it's layout is pretty bad. Also (IMO) the on-screen programming setup is pretty awful. For example, you have to manually enter the numerical day of the week -- even for the current day -- by typing in numbers instead of being able to scroll through the available days.

And, it shows a lack of professionalism for the manual to offer it's web site up as a contact but (as of this writing in Jan 2004) it's not an active site yet!

All in all, not worth the $90 I paid for it (on sale). It goes back to the store for a full refund as I feel I can't trust it to function correctly as a VCR *or* DVD player. Back to the drawing board...


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