Customer Reviews

APEX DT502 DIGITAL TV TUNER

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(35)

 

 

Pros: It works. The picture quality is OK.

Cons: I bought this at Best Buy, along with an Insignia (Zenith) using my two coupons. The difference between this Apex and the Insignia/Zenith are night and day.

On this Apex, the buttons on the remote are not intuitive at all, and I am constantly hitting the wrong ones when I want to change channels or volume. When you do switch channels, this Apex takes several seconds to display anything. It takes so long, you begin to wonder if it just died.

The unit runs very hot. There is a grill on the top and you'd better make sure you don't put anything over it. The power button is very small, and it switches from red to green to indicate on/off... which is OK unless you're color blind like I am. But no problem, if the top feels like a space heater is running, you know it's "on."

When you change volume, you will hear a buzzing or crackling sound thru your TV until the on-screen volume bar goes away. Then, the sound is OK.

The on-screen guide is very small on the screen and difficult to read. There seem to be fewer functions available for the on-screen guide than the Insignia/Zenith unit has. Something about the remote itself feels very cheap and poorly constructed although I have not had a problem with it.

I bought one each of the Insignia/Zenith and the Apex to see if one might be better than the other. The answer is that the Insignia/Zenith is much better. Buy that one instead of this. The price is even the same.

To be brief, the remote control is terrible, if not pathetic. Remote must be directly in-line and on same elevation, within about six feet of the box: not for comfortable laying on the couch, across the room channel-surfing (even with fresh Duracell's installed). Could only add a certain number of favorite stations, which it seems to neglect to inform you of in the manual.

Nice S-video out connection, reasonably easy setup, decent picture, though I do have a huge antenna and amplifier/noise-filter/trap set-up pre-existing. The Channel Master CM-7000 has much better remote operation, picture setup/zoom-ratio control, and easier menus, and a power saving mode/auto off function.

Even if I hadn't had coupons for purchase, the Apex is a waste of time and money. Might be suitable for smashing with a sledge-hammer or pyrotechnics and ballistics testing. Made me hate watching TV because it turned it into an absolutely frustrating event.

I do leave on 24/7 for my tivo to record from. The Apex 250 worked about 6 months, gave occasional fits of audio, changing channel would fix audio issue as well a powering off and on, it would also loose all the channels it scanned, probably from overheating and locking up.
The remote was not an issue as two inches away it worked most of the time.
Replacing with a 502 model it could not find any of the channels I had from the 250, definately different seach aquire and report system, it showed signal str, and picture quality where before the 250 only showed signal str. The 502 the smart antenna plug started shorting out the unit if plugged in, you would loose all video from the unit till you unplugged the smart antenna.
Apex is willing to warrenty the unit should it be under it still, for the 250, The 502 is going back to retail store died in less than one day.
Good luck for those lucky enough to own one.
W.

I'm an tech guy, I love technology, I open up everything I own to see how it works...but this device is the most absolute piece of garbage out there. Like others have mentioned, the remote is a complete joke in this day-and-age...it's like they have taken the technology from the late 70s and somehow used that. You need to have the remote at a slight downward angle for it to view... I didn't dig into this, but I think it has to do with the fact that the receiver inside the unit isn't mounted properly with the opening in the case. Whatever it is, it seems to be a common thread for this and some other converters.

The operation itself, the software that runs this device is the same garbage you find in most of these converter boxes. They should line up the developers of this nonsense and lock them up for being accessories to the crime that is selling this trash to consumers and most of which is conveniently through a government run program of rebates, which also makes it difficult for people to return it, no way to get a new rebate, usually sold in drug stores with no tech help or other choices - so when you have a problem, if you're lucky, you get to swap the unit with another one of the same...or you go in there to find out that the hoopla around the digital conversion is done, and now they're onto selling glow-in-the-dark santa claus ornaments or something.

For the money you spend on this, either put it towards a TV that has a digital converter built in, or buy it with some extended warranty thing that they'll be obligated to find you a replacement...odds are when it breaks, you can haggle with them for a bigger discount on a TV since they probably won't be able to get one of these from their supplier anymore, either...they'll be gone, the company will be gone, and unless you want to deal with the manufacturers 90 day parts/labor warranty (oh yeah, don't get tricked into the '1 year warranty'...thats for parts only...guess how much the labor will end up costing? Probably the price of a new unit!. Go buy something else and then you won't have to be up on saturday morning ranting about this junk like me.

Model 250 and 502 are the same, according to my Best Buy salesperson. We have Charter cable TV - this converter is for spare bedroom analog TV. Using the Quick Start instructions, all installed effortlessly. This is an older TV - just using the RF install routine. Fired up the box, and it found 45 stations fairly quickly. It tells you the signal quality of each. This old TV now has a program guide and cleaner picture quality than ever before. I am about 45 miles east of Mt. Wilson's broadcast antennas, and just using rabbit ears. This device has made the spare bedroom more useable! (grin) Cables and remote included. Just wish the text labels on the remote were larger for my older eyes.

I bought two of these boxes - the remote was defective on the first one, so I took it back with my receipt and got a new one. I foolishly lost the receipt, but wasn't too worried. I thought the likelihood of another defective remote was pretty....well, remote. Nope - the remote on the second one was defective too. And, I only got three channels, with sketchy reception (the picture goes in and out, but the quality is good). Now because the remote doesn't work, I only get one channel because you can't change the channel on the box - there are no buttons on it. What a waste. Do not buy this product.

Apex Digital Converter Box

Do not buy this! It sucks! I brought this with one of my two coupons in Nov. and brought the Insignia one too. This one was finally set up in March/beginning April. The remote was ok to use, but the picture quality was bad too, and my parents had to always re-scan the channels because it would just lose signal. But the biggest caveat was that it died in two months.....just two months! It overheated and then it just went out....and that was also with not having anything on top to cover the vent.

The picture quality is good, but the reception can fluctuate creating annoying pauses and causing the audio to go out of sync (this is the equivalent of the static sound on analog signals). I also have an Insignia and the reception is much stronger.

My Apex remote recently broke (my fault). This would be fine were it not for the fact that there are NO BUTTONS ON THE BOX to change the channel or volume! This would seem like a logical thing to do (note: the insignia has buttons on the box) but I guess they thought their customers would be too lazy to get up?

I'm currently looking for just the remote, but it looks as if I'll have to buy another box. To top if off I've already used my coupons.

I bought this model and model 250 at Best Buy in July with my coupons. Both have gone bad. First one first week in Jan. Second one was the 2nd week of Jan. The second one was only used about 2 or 3 mos at most. Stay away from these they burn out.

good: unit worked fine when it worked, i thought the remote was ok
bad: sometimes rarely new channels would show up but i dont know if this was b/c the final digital tv switch was yet to happen (maybe stations were testing new channels or something). Also, the unit started acting flakey after about 6months and then finally stopped working @8 months. warranty repair after 90 days only covers parts, not labor. :(