Customer Reviews

Apex AD-5131 3-Disc DVD Player

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(9)

 

 

I got this unit after buying a Daewoo DVG-5000 and finding it dead on arrival and having no success with Daewoo's pathetic customer service.

At first I didn't expect much out of this APEX machine but after getting it home I connected it to my older TV and VCR, powered the unit on, figured out which combo of buttons to punch on my myriad of remote controls and there it was ... a nice DVD movie playing on my TV and great sound coming from my stereo speakers.

The unit is able to play my DVDs, audio CDs, and CD-R/RW without a problem and the 3-disc changer is a pleasure to have for us couch potatoes. The remote has too many buttons for my taste but they all work as they're supposed to so I can't complain.

Have yet to try the MP3 and jpeg reader but I expect these functions to work as advertised and after my recent electronic experiences, it'll just be icing on the cake.

Having this kind of functionality available in such a low-cost unit is terrific!

I was stunned on how well this DVD Changer works. I bought mine at Circuit City and was prepared to return it if anything went wrong. The reason I purchased this APEX product to begin with was because of some research I did on-line about the best DVD changers. I own a Sony DVD player which has all kinds of problems playing CD-Rs and just forget about DVD-Rs.

This APEX AD5131 supports every type of CD-R I've tried: SVCD, VCD, MP3, DVD+R, Kodak Photo CD, etc. The Karaoke feature is kinda cool too.

My only complaint is that you have to point the remote control on the exact same level as the front of the DVD player. Besides that I'm very pleased.

The price is awesome - almost $100 cheaper than a Sony 3-disc changer that has less features and less Media type support.

Overall, I'm very happy about this purchase.

We bought one of these in late 2001 or early 2002. For the price, it couldn't be beat. It supported just about everything, and it's 3-disc. Here are the drawbacks
Complex remote - you have to look at it most of the time to use it.
Power button unit is a hard power off only, so if you power it off from the unit, you can't use the remote to power it on.
Will not automatically recurse subdirectories in MP3 play mode.
MP3s are displayed 13 characters max.
The tray jerks rather quickly. Early on, the 3" cd's would skip out of the tray and get jammed/scored on top. After a few months, full-sized CDs and DVDs skip out of the tray. Not always, but enough to be annoying.
If the player is on, the spindle is running. Always. There is no power-save mode, so if you are prone to leaving things on, expect the spindle to wear faster, and the whole unit to stay warm.
Now, at 1-1.5 years, we find that the unit locks up periodically, requiring a power reset to use. It won't play through an entire dvd before crashing.
This unit is no longer listed on apexdigitalinc 's website.
The firmware available for update is ONLY hacked / unofficial firmware.
That being said, there's alot of good support out there for these units...Just be sure to get extended warranty.

This little guy is a diamond in the rough. I was looking at units from JVC and Panasonic for nearly twice the price. I sent back the $300 JVC since its 7 disk carrosel wouldn't shuffle disks or MP3 files.
The 5131 will not shuffle its 3 three disks but it will shuffle all music tracks, MP3's, or Jpeg images on the disk it is playing. Its pretty slick, you can create your own family album of Jpeg files and this unit will play it back in a slide show mode. I can pop in a disk with 150 MP3's and start it playing without even turning on the TV.
It does play DVD movies as expected and as mentioned in other reviews, the remote and user interface could be improved.
...

I've had two...first one was a dud. Gobbled up the first DVD I was watching about 15 minutes into the movie. Wouldn't rotate to let it go (I believe it may have been fried by a power fluctuation in my house, though).

Second one, (on a new ISOBar surge protector), flawless. The presentation for MP3 CDs is great - presents in folder/file fashion like Windows Explorer. Can change two while third is playing, remote needs a little work, but other than that, you can't beat it for the price!

In my opinion, I think this APEX player is the best bang for the buck. It does everything.. DVD, CD, VCD, CD-R, MP3, JPGS, and surprisingly MPGs... thats right just burn a CD full of your favorite MPG clips you've collected online and watch them on your TV set. A pleasant surprise I must say!
APEX is hardly top-line though. Their products are made cheaply sometimes. Upon removing from the box, the front panel of my DVD tray fell off. Apparently not fastened onto the tray, but just "clipped" onto it. Easily fixed though. And the instructions should have more information in it. But aside from these little problems, I must say its hard to beat a player that has all the features crammed into this unit at this price. It also has: ZOOM, SLOW FWD/RV, FAST FWD/RV, SHUFFLE Play, and pretty much all other features always offered with most DVD players these days. But like I said you gotta love being able to view MPGs/JPGs, and listen to MP3s (you can even listen-in as you FFWD your favorite songs to a certain part of the song. something I have never heard on any MP3 player before this one, and believe me I tried a few).
This is the Best bang for your Buck, if you don't care about BIG-NAME products.

APEX players DO sport some of the best FEATURES available; but some of the most inconsistant and questionable quality.

The 5131 worked fine with 5" discs for 8 months. The problem with the unit is that unless you hard power it off, the spindle motor runs ALL THE TIME. The part they used doesn't hold up to that. This is a common problem in the forums, and there is no easy way to repair or replace it.

The tray has slots for the 3" CDs; however, the tray jumps when it spins. Sometimes 5" CDs will jam or fall back inside, but always with the 3" CDs. I had a collector CD that was destroyed by the carousel (Scratched through the silver of the CD).

As is common with most APEX players, this is of questionable quality. Some people have good luck. We didn't with this one or with a 1110W. Both failed in less than a year with only light to medium use, plenty of ventilation and no physical abuse.

I have two of this model and gave another as a gift and I really appreciate the steady quality. Never have a problem, they deliver superior picture and sound and are sturdy. For the price they are an exception bargain. If you count I have had them for over two years, the price per year is ridiculously cheap!!

Wish everything delivered as well as these players do. Right out of the box, don't even have to really read instructions and in couple minutes you are playing DVDs. Have zoom effect that let you take a letter box and push it to three closer levels, has buttons for reverse, memory and forward among others.

Very nice price.

I have had this unit for about 2 years and paid a very small price for it (<$... New). It had all the features that I wanted in a DVD player, multi-format and karaoke (consider myself a good singer). It has proven it's worth over and over with howevers:
1. Remote control, though stylish, is quite user unfriendly and you need a magnifying glass to read functions on the remote.
2. You need to reset to karaoke function each time you wish to use that function, again via remote, which is cumbersome.
3. Unit smells, I know this sounds funny, but it has always had an odor emitted from it which smells like electronics frying, however, unit operates flawlessly. I have always expected this unit to start smoldering and ignite, but thankfully, it has not.
4. To upgrade firmware, you need to know which pirate to buy from, support from Apex in this respect is nil...
Great unit, all in all, and functions as expected and it's longivity has been quite welcomed. Do not expect a whole lot of satisfaction from the remote!

I bought the 5131 last summer. It worked well at first, but then my DVD's would start skipping, even brand-new ones. Now the carousel tray will not always open. Sometimes I have to cycle power on it a few times before it starts functioning properly. The whole unit also often freezes completely so I have to restart the DVD and find out where I left off. It's been a while since I have been able to watch a whole DVD whithout the thing crashing.