Apex Digital 600A DVD Player

I first saw this product advertised on http://www.circuitcity.com/ for 180 dollars. After checking the specs, which I will go over in a minute, I was extremely excited and I rushed over to the nearest store and picked one up. I brought it home, along with the other products I brought for my home theater system, and plugged it in. After an hour of pure digital video and audio heaven, I was left in awe. This item was worth more than it's weight in gold. Now, let me tell you why:

The product is perhaps the most versatile unit on the market. It reads digital information in all different formats. It can read cds, DVDs, MP3 cds, and video discs. Even if it just played DVDs, it would be worth the money. At 180 dollars, it is cheaper than most dvd players and the picture and sound quality is way up there. Besides DVDs, it can play normal CDs, MP3 CDs, and Video Discs. Of all the formats this unit can read, the MP3 CD is the best. It allows you to play cds that have MP3s on them. This means that, provided you have a cd burner and a plethora of MP3s, you can put about 10 hours of music, or 200 songs on one disc! Of course, you could store more if you sacrificed sound quality. Because there are so many songs on one disc, the APEX player comes with a visual interface (displayed on your tv) that lets you easily browse through your tracks. There is one con that I have to mention here though: the file names in the interface are in dos format so you will not be able to use long file names. This is the least expensive product that I have seen that plays MP3 CDs like this. You will never have to worry about carrying around hundreds of cds again.

The DVD function on this unit is truly great. There are a whole variety of menu options to choose from and a variety of outputs. The Outputs are Dolby Digital or Analog for audio and S-Video and YUV (the standard) for video. Unfortunately, it does not include 5.1 channel outputs but the dolby digital works well enough. One of the best things about the DVD function is that it can play DVDs from anywhere in the world. Instead of having to stick with one region code which is usually preset by the manufacturer, you can change it through the easily accessible onscreen menu. This allows you to play any DVD you own, no matter where you brought it. This is especially good for those who travel to Japan and bring back DVDs that haven't been released here (America) yet.

Overall, this is most probably the best thing you can buy with your money right now. With the excellent MP3 and DVD playing functions I almost feel like building this product a small temple!