Apex Digital 600A DVD Player
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- Number of Discs: 1
- DVD Type: DVD Player
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VIDEO: Apex knows what geeks and techies want!
Pros
Plays MP3 audio from ISO9660 CDs, full-function remote, intuitive onscreen controls, half the price and twice the features of other players, front panel is extremely clean and sharp looking, Loopholes Menu gives access to Macrovision and Region settings.
Cons
Only displays first 8 characters of MP3 filenames, eject button is the same shape as all other buttons on front panel.
Recommended it?
Yes
The Apex AD-600A is the best kept secret out there right now and is a geek's dream machine! I purchased one of these units two days ago, and I've already fallen it love with it. I originally purchased it for the MP3 playback function and figured I'd have to buy a "real" DVD player down the line, but the AD-600A greatly surpasses the quality and ease of use of every other under $400 DVD player I've ever used.
You're probably saying to yourself, "a $159.00 DVD player, surely you must be joking!" That's what I thought when I first saw it, but here's the kicker: it plays DVD, VCD (Video CD), CD (Audio CD) and ISO9660 MP3 discs! Just burn a CD with all your favorite licensed or free MP3 songs on it, pop it in the drive and you get full onscreen controls with hours of CD-quality music. The interface truncates all song names to 8 characters, but most people will just hit "Shuffle" and enjoy dozens of hours of playback before having to switch discs. The Apex successfully played all of my old MP3 archive CDs that had been burned over the past two years.
My next test was playing VCD discs. Quality was extremely high with very little MPEG degradation. The only problem I encountered was on a home-burned VCD that had a movie that included lightning flashes. Every time there was a lightning flash, MPEG pixelation and disassembly occurred and it took about 0.5 seconds to reassemble the picture. The quality of the VCD was at fault, and the Apex compensated for it beautifully! Both commercial quality VCDs and home-burned discs played great!
As for DVDs, I tried out both Clerks and The Matrix, a movie that has been known to fail on some brands of DVD players because of a faulty burn. The Apex handled both discs flawlessly and picture was much sharper than my Pioneer Laserdisc player. Chapter search, indexing and thumbnailing was very intuitive, but I'm still getting used to the controls. The remote control, once you figure it out, make perfect sense, however the manual is written in broken English and doesn't actually outline any functions. The Play button is labeled Play, the Key+ button is labeled Key+, but it doesn't actually say what Key+ means, etc.
The only problem that I encountered was Macrovision copy protection kicking in when trying to hook the Apex up to my Sony 120" front projection screen TV. For some reason, the Apex was absolutely convinced that the projector was a VCR and wouldn't allow me to play DVDs. Luckily, there is a hidden "Loopholes" menu under preferences (see http://www.nerd-out.com/apex/ for more information) that allows you to disable CSS Encryption, Macrovision and Region settings.
So, in summary, this player is a must buy! There is no optical output so it's not the best choice for high-end enthusiasts, but I would have paid the $159.99 just for a standalone MP3 player. Having the DVD/CD/VCD functions is a bonus! Also, get an Apex soon because they're selling quickly. Conspiracy theories abound, but so far Circuit City has been one of the only places to get the Apex and most stores keep them off the shelves. You'll have to ask for it and, even if they have one in stock, most sales people will tell you they don't carry or have never heard of Apex. My only guess is that retail outlets are afraid of lawsuits and copyright issues because of the MP3 playback function and the simple "Loopholes" menu to defeat CSS Encryption, Macrovision and Region settings.
For more information:
http://www.nerd-out.com/apex/
http://forum.arstechnica.com/forum/ubb/Forum3/HTML/004377.html
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/01/14/1155216&mode=flat
You're probably saying to yourself, "a $159.00 DVD player, surely you must be joking!" That's what I thought when I first saw it, but here's the kicker: it plays DVD, VCD (Video CD), CD (Audio CD) and ISO9660 MP3 discs! Just burn a CD with all your favorite licensed or free MP3 songs on it, pop it in the drive and you get full onscreen controls with hours of CD-quality music. The interface truncates all song names to 8 characters, but most people will just hit "Shuffle" and enjoy dozens of hours of playback before having to switch discs. The Apex successfully played all of my old MP3 archive CDs that had been burned over the past two years.
My next test was playing VCD discs. Quality was extremely high with very little MPEG degradation. The only problem I encountered was on a home-burned VCD that had a movie that included lightning flashes. Every time there was a lightning flash, MPEG pixelation and disassembly occurred and it took about 0.5 seconds to reassemble the picture. The quality of the VCD was at fault, and the Apex compensated for it beautifully! Both commercial quality VCDs and home-burned discs played great!
As for DVDs, I tried out both Clerks and The Matrix, a movie that has been known to fail on some brands of DVD players because of a faulty burn. The Apex handled both discs flawlessly and picture was much sharper than my Pioneer Laserdisc player. Chapter search, indexing and thumbnailing was very intuitive, but I'm still getting used to the controls. The remote control, once you figure it out, make perfect sense, however the manual is written in broken English and doesn't actually outline any functions. The Play button is labeled Play, the Key+ button is labeled Key+, but it doesn't actually say what Key+ means, etc.
The only problem that I encountered was Macrovision copy protection kicking in when trying to hook the Apex up to my Sony 120" front projection screen TV. For some reason, the Apex was absolutely convinced that the projector was a VCR and wouldn't allow me to play DVDs. Luckily, there is a hidden "Loopholes" menu under preferences (see http://www.nerd-out.com/apex/ for more information) that allows you to disable CSS Encryption, Macrovision and Region settings.
So, in summary, this player is a must buy! There is no optical output so it's not the best choice for high-end enthusiasts, but I would have paid the $159.99 just for a standalone MP3 player. Having the DVD/CD/VCD functions is a bonus! Also, get an Apex soon because they're selling quickly. Conspiracy theories abound, but so far Circuit City has been one of the only places to get the Apex and most stores keep them off the shelves. You'll have to ask for it and, even if they have one in stock, most sales people will tell you they don't carry or have never heard of Apex. My only guess is that retail outlets are afraid of lawsuits and copyright issues because of the MP3 playback function and the simple "Loopholes" menu to defeat CSS Encryption, Macrovision and Region settings.
For more information:
http://www.nerd-out.com/apex/
http://forum.arstechnica.com/forum/ubb/Forum3/HTML/004377.html
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/01/14/1155216&mode=flat
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