Apex Digital AD-800 DVD Player

What attracted me to buying this DVD player was the fact that I bought some cheap sorround speakers and I needed a DVD with a built in AC3 (Dolby Digital 5.1) and a DTS Decoder. Do not confuse models that state that they are DTS/Dolby Digital ready with one with a decoder. The decoder would actually take the "theater-like" sound from the DVD and play them on your speakers without the need for an external receiver with AC3 decoder. Furthermore if you are one of the many who bought Dolby Pro Audio systems in the late 90's this can be your "easy" way into enjoying the features that true digital surround sounds would bring. Afterall who wants to watch a DVD movie in 2-channel stereo?
That's like driving on the Autobahn in a Geo Metro, gets the job done but it is not taking full advantage of what the technology has to offer. In short if you watch DVD movies in 2-channel stereo, you may as well have not purchase the DVD and opted for the less expensive VHS version.

Since Dolby Pro Audio is an analog system in which they take the Left and Right Stereo signals and process them into whatis called "Matrixed" stereo producing the Center sound and the mono rear "Surround" sound. AC3 is a Digital method in which the decoder would actually separate the individual 6 channels or recordings to create the surround effect, hence the 5.1 designation.

With that out of the way, this is why this DVD player was so attractive to me. If you look around, the only other DVD I was able to find that had the decoder built in was a Sony model that sells for $230. I didn't need it that badly. (This is actually my second Apex I also owned the AD 660 for quite sometime, but I wanted more than Pro Logic Sound, so I sold it.)Sure there are other DVD players that feature the decoder as well but these are usually sold in a package deal with 6 speakers. I didn't need the speakers, I had those, I needed a DVD player with a decoder and I needed a cheap one.

After doing much of my research just as you are right now, I learned that for the money, the AD800 is a not a bad choice. It features Progressive Scan to boot. Something I have yet to test since I do not own one of those fancier digital TV's. My wife will be convinced soon, I know it.

SO I get all excited after buying this baby from my local Circuit City which was an adventure in itself, but I'll save you the details. I climb the walls setting up my new speaker system which I purchased from HSN, by the way, what a bargain! Under $100!! I grabbed a DVD from my collection
and started to play it.

My first problem: No picture. I checked the connections and they were all correct. Then I noticed the IP button, I had the darn thing on Progressive Scan. Set that the right way and the system was running.

Second Problem: I noticed after watching a movie for some time and I would pause it, when the player resumed it would play some sort of digital distortion as if it couldn't keep up playing the digital sound data. I grabbed the remote which is by the way made for people who reads the manual because of the tiny little buttons that have abbreviated labels, I started messing with the setting s of the audio and I got the problem down to an occassional, but liveable distortion.

I have owned the AD800 since December 2001 and it is doing well albeit for the strange sounds intermittently, but I could live with that. Also I've tried the Karaoke feature which works well with DVD Karaoke, but I wasn't able to separate the Vocals from the instruments while using Karaoke VCD's. You can tell that this was a feature they added to try to entice you with yet an additional feature, but sad to say its performance is very unsatisfactory. The Pioneer Karaoke DVD Players fair much better, then again those costs over $300.

Another gripe is that the buttons, knobs, controls feel real cheap on this unit. They feel loose and do not offer a positive feel. In other words it feels cheap. Maybe that is because it is! But though I cry about it, I can live with it. So like a poor man's Porsche, this player let's you know you have purchase the 4-cylinder turbo Korean Import version, but it is still much better than a Geo Metro!