Apex Digital 600A DVD Player

I?m not a real technical person. In fact, I had to have my friend draw me a diagram of how to hook up my TV, dvd player, vcr and playstation. Having said that ? this review is written from the vantage point of someone who doesn?t claim to be an electronics wizard.

I hate this dvd player. I?ve owned it for about 10 months, and have noticed it?s inferior quality since about the 2nd month. The first notable thing about this dvd player is that it?s loud. When loading and playing ? if you?re watching a movie on low volume, chances are you?ll hear the dvd player over top of the movie. Two of my other friends (who own a pioneer and a Magnavox) have no problems at all; their machines run quietly, so I know I?m not just paranoid.

The 2nd problem I have run into as of late is that the machine has decided not to play certain dvd?s that I own. Oddly enough, whenever I rent dvd?s from blockbuster ? I never have a problem ? only with my own collection. I own about 120 dvd?s and I think my dvd player plays around 50 of them. I keep them in a cd book and I know how to handle them, so that takes care of that angle. Some days you might get lucky, and every one you put in will play but just the other day I bought Bridget Jones? Diary and it won?t load at all. It makes a terrible noise (a clicking sound) and then displays no disc on the display. Having cleaned it and taken good care of it, I?m not real sure of the problem, but I?d venture a guess to say it?s on it?s last leg.
When it does play the quality is good, dvd standard. It doesn?t skip or lag and I have no problems.

The 3rd problem I have is the remote control. In addition to just being big, mine doesn?t work. I keep my remotes in one place, and only break this one out to use the dvd player (about once or twice a week) and all of a sudden one day ? it didn?t work. But to infuriate me more, some of the buttons work. I however am unable to push play, rewind, fast-forward, power, or slow motion keys on the remote. Having said that I wasn?t technical ? yes, I changed the batteries.

My 4th and final problem is that the machine gets hot. I don?t know if that?s standard, but it?s been the case for me. I thought maybe it was so hot internally that it burned something up and that?s why I wasn?t playing my dvd?s, but then some play and some don?t.

Random things I don?t like about my dvd player. One thing that I don?t like is the size. Compared to other dvd players I?ve seen it?s neither as slim nor compact as others. The owner?s manual lists the dimensions as 430x81x300 mm (w/h/d) ? notice how they put it in mm to make it seem smaller. Also, one day for no apparent reason an outer piece of the tray fell off. It doesn't affect the play, but I'm sure it allows copious amounts of dust to infiltrate my machine. (good thing its already broken)


If this dvd player worked, I bet it would be really cool. Apparently it has some great feature that allows ability to play mp3?s. I?m not real sure why that?s novel, but I?ve never had any trouble playing any cd?s in it.

It also is a karaoke machine, but I?ve not used that feature either. Other noteworthy (if it functioned) features include parental lock, subtitle selection, 8x zoom, and camera angle selection.


Because I?m not a techie, I can?t really speak too much on this ? but from what I can tell it has a S-Video out, video out, and a coaxial digital output on the back of the machine for hooking up all the necessary stuff. On the front, you have phono hookups if to connect the microphones if you were interested in getting your karaoke on.



What you get with this big box of worthlessness:
- 1 dvd-video player
- 1 remote control handset w/ separately packed batteries
- 1 power cable
- 1 s-video cable
- 3 RCA cables (yellow, red, white)
- 1 owner?s manual (it?s useless because it doesn?t work)

Seriously, if this machine were reliable it would be a great dvd player. Writing this review and looking back over the owner?s manual I see some of the great stuff I might have missed. I got it for free (retail priced at $180 when I got it), so I was never really concerned with its capabilities and now that I am ? it doesn?t work. Let this be a warning if you were thinking about getting this machine.