Apex Digital AD-3201 DVD Player

We got this player for my dad's BD, after gone through I think 3 VCR's. We decided to finally move into the digital age, so we looked around, and finally found this at Sears' on clearance. Went out and rented a couple DVD's, sat down, and set it up. Setup was remarkably easy, albeit only with RCA (composite) jacks, but still, it performed without a hitch. Took me awhile to learn the remote, however, due to the large number of buttons.

Video Quality

Even with only composite jacks and a 14 year old TV, the quality must be at least double that of VHS. No static, no fuzziness, no artifacts whatsoever. I was blown away. Recently, when we upgraded our TV to one with component video inputs, the quality again doubled. It is just mind-blowing the difference DVD makes.

Audio Quality

I haven't had a chance to try out the TOSlink (aka optical) audio output, but I can't imagine all that much of a difference from the normal RCA jacks. From what I've read, the main difference is that optical, having no metal, isn't prone to interference from nearby wires, so you won't have possible distortion. If you have TOSlink on your TV/receiver, great! I'm quite happy with RCA for now though.

Build Quality

The player is actually quite sturdy, and heavy. I would estimate the unit at 8-10 lbs. The DVD tray is also sturdy, albeit slow, and doesn't seem in danger of breaking off. as quite a bit of play, and is a bit crooked. It works, but just detracts a bit from the overall feel.

Problems Noted

Several people have commented this player is prone to lock-ups, presumably due to overheating. I've watched The Fellowship of the Ring: Extended Edition straight-through, which is 4 hours, and never had a problem. Either you really have to be doing a marathon, or it's just certain players. The only problem disc I've run into so far is Panic Room, with Jodie Foster. At the layer change, (mid-point) the unit locked up and didn't respond. However, by fast-forwarding just past the point, it worked fine. I haven't the slightest clue as to why this happened. Also of note, the infamous "Play" effect. Whenever you do anything on this player, and by anything I mean fast-forward, adjust volume, layer change, zoom, *anything*, the word "Play" appears in the upper-left hand corner of the screen. While not necessarily a problem, it can be distracting. So far no one seems to have solved this issue.

Special Features

Ah, the goodies. Some things I've found useful/fun on this DVD player are the Zoom and Repeat commands. The zoom allows you to zoom in on the picture at three different levels, and move the zoom point around as well. It can be useful sometimes if you want to identify a certain object (say, a car, or a gun) in the movie. The Repeat command enables you to repeat a length of your choosing, a chapter, or even the entire movie. For instance, if you wanted to loop The Lobby Scene from The Matrix:-) Finally, the most useful tool of them all is the secret menu. I found this via a bulletin board on the Internet, and I must say, it is quite nice. What it does, it lets you to completely disable Macrovision copy protection, thereby allowing you to hook the unit up through a VCR. I'm sure you can all dream up reasons for doing this. Secondly, it allows you to make the unit reigon-free! DVD's are marked with a region when you purchase them. In the U.S., it is Reigon 1. If you, for instance, purchase a disc in the U.S., travel to the U.K., you cannot play the disc over there, unless you bring a U.S. player. However, with this unit, you can select your desired region, or by selecting Region 9, make it completely ignore region codes, and play all discs. How to do this? He he... Turn the unit and your TV on, pop the tray out. On the remote, type 8-4-2-1. A menu should pop up. Use the Enter key to change values of the two fields, and when you're done, just use Display or something to exit the menu.