Apex Digital 600A DVD Player

If you haven't heard the hype yet then you must not live on planet Earth. DVD enthusiasts have been chatting up a storm about the Apex 600A, albeit the industry watchdogs are too! You see, this unit is not your typical everyday budget DVD player, the Apex 600A has the unique ability to de-activate MacroVision so you can backup your DVDs to VHS tapes. You can also play MP3's & MPEGs burned on both CD-R and CD-RW medias! Ofcourse all the usual DVD functions are included, a nice touch was the selectable 2x, 4x, or 8x speed search function.

Specs at a glance:

Video Output:
3 channel YUV ColorStream, SVHS, or Analog video

Audio Output:
Analog 2-channel stereo or PCM digital (no optical outputs though!)

Audio Formats:
DTS, Dolby Digital, MP3

Video Formats:
DVD, MPEG, VideoCD, **DVD-Video Games ? reports say it can play games like Dragon?s Lair II, but personally I haven?t verified this

The unit itself is slim with a plain looking matte black finish. The LCD panel offers very little information and the buttons arrangements is totally un-ergonomic; however the onscreen controls used in conjunction with the remote are absolutely a pleasure to use. Since this is my first DVD player I can?t compare the video quality to another player, but I can say I?m quite happy with the unit especially since it only costed me $170. You should note that the MacroVision descrambler and the no-region feature (allows you to play foreign DVDs) are only available through accessing a hidden menu?so your mileage will vary. If your interested in these features then I suggest you pick one up?I?m sure Apex has already disabled these features in their newer models.

I hope you enjoyed this epinion and vote it the ?highly recommended? honor.

--1GQ