Customer Reviews

Apex AD-1500 DVD Player

5 star:		(69)
4 star:		(36)
3 star:		(15)
2 star:		(17)
1 star:		(42)

 

 

There is a dividing line among the Apex players that can divide the buyer. Do you want a mindless playback machine or do you want a very powerful DVD player.
The biggest complaints about the Apex line of players is that they will not play DVDs, yet others say it plays them quite well.
Why such discrepancy?
Apex players use the same DVD players that are used in computers, which makes them very powerful. However, that kind of technology has difficulty reading damaged DVDs. Every DVD I keep hearing that will not play in the DVD player are heavily rented DVDs and mostly kid's DVDs. Look at the DVD, if it has finger prints, dirt, or scratches, it will not read properly in a Apex player. It's the EXACT same concept as looking at a CD-R and using it in a computer.
If you have kids who like to damage DVDs (um ... I don't know of any kids that wouldn't damage a DVD), the Apex player IS NOT for you. GO get a much more expensive DVD player that has the more expensive components to recover from damaged DVDs.
The best example I know is one of my friends who also bought a Apex player. He loves it. His wife loathes it. She tried playing a Winnie the Pooh DVD in it and it would not play. Her friend's DVD player played it just fine. After looking at the data surface of the DVD, my friend knew exactly why it wouldn't read in the Apex player, the surface was heavily damaged from the abuse of mishandling from children. It was also the same reason why it wouldn't play in a computer.
So do not get an Apex player if you have children or take your time to rent DVDs. Cause if you wait several months to rent that movie you want to see, chances are a lot of other people have rented and left behind dirt, scratches, and fingerprints. Sometimes, I have even seen "undetermined" materials on the data surface of a rented DVD. Which is always scary. Often a simple cleaning of the DVD fixes the issue. Sometimes, the damage is too severe to simply clean it and get it to play in the Apex player.
Why they did not devise DVDs to be more like a cartridge media is beyond me. It makes DVD players so much more expensive to try to get around damaged data surfaces.
Aside from that, Apex players are very powerful DVD players that have the ability to do wonderful things. It's ability to play MPEG files of both MPEG-1 and MPEG-2 codecs of various bitrates and standards is outstanding. Very handy DVD player especially for those that are computer savvy. It can play a bit more than it advertises. It can play non-standard files too if you know what you are doing. Very internet friendly device. Kinda weak on the mp3 support since CDs have to burned a specific way before it can read it, but hey, it plays them well.
What's also interesting is that playing damaged DVDs is never a part of the professional review process in looking for a DVD. When they always test a DVD player for review they always play a new DVD. Probably because those kind of tests are kinda unfair. I mean how can you decide how much of a DVD is "properly" damaged for a test review. SO get used to excellent reviews on the Apex player.

I just purchased this player as a first time DVD user, and I am more than pleased. The picture is perfect and the sound is amazing. For those who said that the video didn't play well, I am wondering if they tried hooking it in through a VCR, as that will mess up the picture (either no picture, or a picture that fades in and out). THIS IS EASILY REMEDIED.

If you have an older TV, one with only a cable input and no video input jacks, you have to buy an RF Modulator (which the directions could have more clearly explained in my opinion), for about $30 at any (local store), in order to properly split the connection. This allows me full function of my two VCRs and my cable box along with the DVD player.

The machine is easy to hook up, is lightweight and attractive, and works very well. The directions are a little unclear, but it is a great "starter" machine, especially for the money.

I bought a few of these units a month ago and NONE of them worked from the start. Some would continuously close and open the DVD tray when plugged in asking for a disc; the rest would not even open the tray - all you could hear was constant clicking until they were unplugged. I got tired of going back and forth exchanging the unit. Besides, the guys at CC told me that most of the AD-1500 players come back to them sooner or later.

It is such a waste to produce something that no one at the factory has time to power up and check. It would not take more than 15 seconds to do, save shipping costs across the world, and maybe it would even get them a few loyal customers in the long-run.

I would be very reluctant to buy an Apex DVD now no matter what advanced or other great `hackable' features it might offer on paper. This unit sounds too good to be true, so when you buy it, make sure the store is close by, so you can easily return or exchange it...

This low cost dvd player does just about everything you could want a player to do. It will play dvd, cd, cd-r, cd-rw, vcd, svcd and mp3. How many other machines will do that for less than $100? The picture quality is great and the sound is good. It even comes with parent lock. People I know with this player love it, and people who don't have it wish they had waited and saved some money.

You would have to triple your cost to get all of the features packed into this bad-boy. It plays DVD's, VCD's, MP3's, CD's, CD-R & CD-RW's, just about anything you stick in. It even has the zoom feature.

I'll admit that when I purchased this player with a (low) price tag I was a little worried. But after getting it home and setting it up, (really easy by the way) I was impressed with the crisp picture and overall quality of it performance. My sound system leaves much to be desired, so I can't really tell you too much about the audio quality. But if your looking for a cheap fully functional DVD player, this is the one.

This model does have its limitations in regards to outputs, so be certain you check those out before you purchase it. It had everything I needed though!

I have had this DVD player for about 5 months. I am very happy with its performance. I have never had one DVD lock up or give me any trouble. Occasionally it seems to skip a couple of frames during a movie, but it is just a minor annoyance.

The MP3 and CD features are incredible. It never skips a beat.

I highly recommend this DVD/MP3 player to anyone on a budget who doesn't have to have the ultimate system. The differences between this player and those costing [more] are minor.

I just purchased my third DVD player, and the decision to buy the APEX AD-1500 was one of the easiest choices I've ever had to make. I'm a very picky shopper, and I compared no less than 50 different models before I discovered the AD-1500. I was looking for a model that would reliably play VCD's and MP3 CD's burned on my home computer. I have 3 small children that love music, but I'm very uncomfortable allowing them to watch music videos on TV... since you never know when something too violent, or mature is going to play next. Instead, I've been downloading and/or saving my own video files for the songs that they like... then burning them to CD. With my 2 previous DVD players, a Sony and a Toshiba, neither of them could play VCD's very well. Most of the time, they skipped around and played songs too fast, too slow, or not at all. The Toshiba could play MP3's, as long as you met a long list of recording criteria... and then it could only play the songs in sequential order. When I first heard about the APEX 1500, I ordered one right away and as soon as it arrived, I returned my 2 week old Toshiba for a refund. The APEX has Zoom, plays MP3's in shuffle mode, plays every CDR and CDRW I've tried, has a decent remote control, and has performed flawlessly since I got it 2 weeks ago. For someone that wants to play MP3's and VCD's, you can't find a better deal under $200 anywhere... so don't waste any more time shopping and order the APEX 1500 before they are all gone!

(...) Once it was hooked up, we tried playing Little Mermaid for my daughter. It would not read the DVD at all. Next I tried Lady and the Tramp. It played for 10 minutes and froze up. I was less than happy.

(...)The quality of the parts is less than any other electronics component I have ever owned and they obviously have quality control issues.

Functionality is near perfect. It played DVDs wonderfully ... with one slight exception -- I played Little Mermaid with the Spanish language track and English subtitles on. At ends of three of the over 20 chapters, the transition was not smooth but jumped slightly as if a couple of frames were dropped. Other than that, DVD playback was great.

VCD playback was good. I honestly could not tell any major quality difference between the VCD movie and the DVD movie; the DVD looked only a little brighter and sharper. Having never played a VCD before, I was shocked to learn that almost all the DVD functionality was gone. I could play, stop, rewind, fast-forward and goto a specific time in the VCD - no chapters, menus, etc. I understand this may have as much to do with the individual VCD as with the VCD format and the DVD player. Still, I just can't wait to start capturing home videos into my PC and burning my own VCDs now that I can play them.

Audio CD and MP3 CD playback was awesome. I have burned just over 100 of my favorite songs to a single CD-R and it played them with no problems. There are some neat features here as well. (...)!

In summary, I would say that this player has awesome features at an amazingly low price, but at this price, something had to be compromised. That compromise was quality of parts and assembly. I am left with the impression that I need to "be careful with it and not hurt it". I could never let the kids use it by themselves. I really like it and certainly do not regret buying it ... as long as it keeps working.

I haven't seen where anyone mentioned that the Apex AD-1500 also plays the following home-burned DVD formats - DVD-R, DVD-RW, and DVD+RW. With the costs of DVD burners coming down to a reasonable price the AD-1500 at its price is absolutely fabulous. I bought myself one and one for each of my kids (4) so they could watch the DVD+RW disks that I burned with captured family videos from VHS and Hi-8 video tapes. The DVD+RW disks had full professional style menuing and worked just like store-bought DVDs. When finished they could watch all the video clips just like a normal movie from end to end or go to the scene select and pick the sections that contained just their portions.

If you are considering burning your own DVDs then, in my opinion, you can't find a better player to view them on. One other recommendation if you are getting into burning your own DVDs but haven't bought the burner yet - get one that burns DVD-R disks because the media is significantly less ... as compared to the other formats (DVD-RW & DVD+RW) ... Wish I had known that before I bought my DVD+RW burner ;-(.

It's downright difficult to find a DVD player that will do all this one does for [the price]. My other DVD player died and I had spent $250 on it -- I bought this Apex as a replacement and it's just as good (if not better) than the more expensive DVD player I replaced.

In reference to the bright to dark to bright problem some folks reported - this will happen on *any* DVD player if you plug it into your VCR to go through the TV because of copy protection. If you are able to plug it directly into your TV, you will not have this problem.