Customer Reviews

Apex AD-1600 DVD Player

5 star:		(27)
4 star:		(26)
3 star:		(9)
2 star:		(16)
1 star:		(57)

 

 

I love Apex, I've been buying Apex players for years now - and I've convinced many, many friends to follow. There are more features in this player than just about any high-end player for three times the cost. I always feel bad when a friend buys a player w/o talking to me first, especially Sony - as they don't handle VCD's that well.

Just a quick word on VCD, SVCD format. You may have never heard of them - but it's the MP3 of the future. On your home computer - with nothing more than 50cent CDR's, a video capture card, and a cd burner you can be creating your own movies! It's wonderful! Then you burn them in VCD format and Apex players will play them (not all Sony's, even those that say "VCD" work with home media).

I'm slowly converting all my home videos into VCD format - that's why I'm such a big proponent of these players. I want all my friends and family to be able to enjoy the home videos that I produce.

Another application for VCD format is Digital Cameras. I can put all my new photos into a VCD formated disk (once again - 30-50 cents each) and it will play in the Apex player like a slideshow. You can even zoom and pan through the photo. It's so much nicer to view digital pictures in your living room rather than dragging everyone to the computer. This Apex player is truly the media hub of my living room.

Plus - MP3 format - for parties, I just burn a few disks that have up to 10 regular ablums on them and I leave them in the living room. I don't have to worry about people messing around with my cd collection - and you can create a single disk with 10 hours of music on it and never have to worry about changing disks again!

This player plays everything. Although an adequate display for mp3 playing is lacking (no ID3 tags, just filename), its main function is playing DVDs. It does that very well. JPG function and the VCD function which I have also tested work very well. The remote control is kind of small and cheap looking. However, the silver player looks nice and slick, and for [the price] is a STEAL. No other DVD player on the market plays all of these options in a better fashion.

Also of note,
-No optical digital out (only coaxial).
-No firmware upgrade availabe.
-Does not come with S-video cable.
-Video and Audio quality are crisp and clear!

This is an excellent DVD Player which was able to handle everything I threw at it. It loads the media fast.

Asside form the good features, the remote has a cheap look to it. Holding and working the remote feels very awkward. The buttons that you'll be using the most often, (Play, Stop, Forward, etc) are all positioned in the very bottom. The Forward, Reverse, Stop, Pause buttons are far away form the Play button so expect a lot of jumping around with the remote.

The MP3 and WMA playback is great but lacking some simple features which makes it annoying. There is no Fast Forward or Rewind with both MP3 or WMA files. There is no ID3 tag support for MP3s. They are just displayed using the filename of which, 8 or 10 characters are displayed. The play screen is dull beyond belief. Just a blue screen with trackname and directories. Something better could have been done.

All in all, the player lacks some features and looks cheap but for the price that it is, this is a very good deal.

For a DVD player at this price is really feature packed. The ability to play MP3, JPEG and Kodak Picture CD's is a real bonus that many machines 3 times the price do not have. Probably a bit short on output choices (lacks component video for example) but for this price what do you want?? Can't go wrong with this unit!

This player is easily one of the best items I have purchased for some time. It plays just about any CD you put in it, it covers VCD's, SVCD's, MP3's, JPG's, DVD's. If you burned it to CD, then it can probably do something with it.

I also like the autoplay feature for all mediums.

The remote control is not layed out well, which is really my only complaint about this item, that and the fact that it doesn't have optical sound outputs, though the S-Video connection makes for great video.

For the price, you're not going to find a better player. If you're looking for top of the line, go for the Pioneer, but this one absolutely does the job and does it well.

I bought this unit at a grand opening of a local electronic store chain (for $59.95+tax) & in general it's worked great (we have a good player, but got this for our computer room). HOWEVER, recently, it has started failing to recognize that I have a disc in the tray & when I did some searching online, found out that this is actually a relatively common issue for the AD-1600. Also read that people are having problems with APEX providing warranty service. Several said that APEX denied ever receiving their faulty DVD player even when the person had the signature form that the APEX person had to sign to acknowledge the return of the unit. Wish now that I'd not bought it. May call the electronis shop, but may just buy another, different brand of low end player.

This unit really would have gotten 4.5 stars were that an option, based on what feels like a flimsy build quality and for its limited documentation. However, it hasn't malfunctioned and it's so simple to use that it seemed unfair to dock it for not stating what is obvious. As a single, space-saving unit in the kids' entertainment room, it saves space while providing for all their disc-based needs through adequate audio and video connection options. It plays conventional DVDs without distortion, and music (both pre-recorded & PC-generated MP3 discs) fed into their stereo sounds great. I haven't tried making video discs yet, but a Kodak Picture Disk looked great when played back on the Apex. Of course, the price is more than attractive, so 5 stars seems to be in order. I would add that this unit would make a great gift for any college student!

For those who love to create VCDs or VCDs, or have digital cameras on CD, this little unit plays and displays that and more. It plays also my authored DVD from my DVD+RW writer. The only slight downside is the looks of the unit, but if you are not into looks, and more for functionality and versatility at a low price, this is the a good buy..

This is a great DVD player, It plays almost anything, DVD, VCD, jpeg image, Mpeg1 movie files(the compression used in VCD) and Mpeg2 movie files(compression used in DVD). The image quality is very good. I used to create VCDs from the pictures I took with my digital camera and the movies I took with my mini DV camcorder. Now I just need to burn a CD with all the media files orderd by dates in different directories. This DVD player will go through all the directories and play all the files. Or you can choose the file you want to play. it really save me a lot time. I used to spend a lot time try to put together a VCD(yes, since I don't have DVD burner, I have to convert mpeg2 of my mini DV into lower quality mpeg1 for VCD), it not a easy task.
So far, this DVD player can play any CD I put in(VCD with a lot scratch, CDR I made, DVD). My friend who bought those name brand DVD players, they found that those [that cost more] don't play certain poor quality VCDs or don't like CDR disk. But this DVD player play them all.
Over all I think this is a great DVD player for a great price.

We purchased the Apex 1600 at Christmas as an additional dvd player in our home, after being very satisfied with the Apex 1500 (its prior generation and it's still working). Right after expiration of the 90 day warranty, however, the 1600 no longer plays movies. In fact, it can't recognize whether or not a dvd is in the player anymore. We did have warning signs from the start--a loud, mechanical whirring noise that was at times louder than the movie itself. If yours is making this noise and is still under warranty, contact the company and get it repaired. Otherwise, you will need to send it back to Apex and they will charge you $39 for repairs. We, instead, have decided to spend more and purchase a better DVD player.