Apex Digital ADV-3800 DVD Player / VCR Combo

UPDATE! - Significant problem found

Several weeks ago, I now have a cable channel on 3 (which before was scrambled HBO). I have found that the built-in tuner shows SEVERE ingress on channel three, despite absolutely no interference off-air. Changing the output channel to 4 and the ingress changes to 4 - the ingress is actually coming from the RF modulator, which cannot be disabled.

If you're unfamiliar with ingress, it appears as significant diagonal lines on the picture overlapping it. If you intend to use the built-in tuner for recording or viewing of channel 3 and 4 then I must suggest you find another unit unfortunately :( This finding reduces my original rating of Four Stars to Three Stars

Background

I'm sure you're all getting tired of my DVD/VCR combo reviews by now (prior reviews: Zenith XBV-443 and Emerson EWD-2203). However, I hope they are of help to somebody out there comparison shopping DVD/VCRs. When I get more of a chance to really put it to the test, I'll also review my grandma's Go-Video (apparently made by Daewoo) unit. For the comparison shopper reading this, my recommendation is to buy the Zenith, but this is a nice unit for the price.

I bought this player for my mother for $59 after rebates at OfficeMax (Black Friday Door-Buster). They had several different units all for the same $59 price, I got one of these. I did not get the rebate because Officemax gives you an insanely short 14 days to send it in and some important things came up. Still, that's not APEX's fault and it was still only $69 and since I only sent the rebate a day or so late (maybe two) I'm hopeful it'll still come - they said it could take like three months. The unit appears solid and well built. APEX is a newer Chinese manufacture and they have a reasonably good reputation.

Out-Of-The-Box Experience

This unit comes in a nice solid box and includes the cables you need to connect it. A word of warning to those with limited space - this is an extremely deep unit which will prove to be a space challenge in many placement situations. But it's also nice and heavy and feels extremely solid.

The unit has all the connections you'll need on the back, especially notable is the S/PDIF TosLink optical audio output - useful if your receiver has no S/PDIF coax input free. Additionally, this unit features rear A/V in and out, front A/V in, rear component out, S-video out, and RF in and out. No matter what your connection needs - they're met, which is rare as most combo units do, as noted, lack the TosLink connector. Connecting this unit is no different from any other combo, just connect your cable to the RF in and an A/V cord to the A/V out for a basic setup. Do remember that like all other units I've seen the S-Video, component, S/PDIF coax, and S/PDIF TosLink connections are DVD exclusive and you need to also have a basic A/V or RF connection for the VHS side to work.

You'll also find a very nicely designed, but single device only remote. It's comfortable and intuitive. A nice touch, though not as nice as the fantastic remote LG includes with their Zenith XBV-443 (link above).

One bad element of the out-of-box experience, and a very minor one if your unit receives a constant power source is that the clock is not auto-setting, a fairly standard feature these days. Though at least it has a clock, unlike the Emerson I reviewed.

Plugged In and Rollin' - DVD Style

First I will review the DVD player in this unit. It's a fairly typical APEX, all of which are very similar. There's no known region code override (APEX started with very easy to override region codes and as one of the first to do this, they got in some definite trouble and now those days are over) and no apparent way to output PAL (as is typical of combo units, though rare in standalone players). I do not know how the unit will react to a region-free PAL disc. The disc drive is nice and silent and should satisfy those picky about noise - unfortunately, just wait until I talk about the VCR. It makes up for it ten times fold!

The entire unit is very zippy (as is the Zenith) and speed will not disappoint. Audio CD quality is very good and track changing is fast, though the unit does not have a really nice graphical user interface (GUI) like the Zenith offers. The entire GUI is good, but not on the level of the (Chinese-made) Zenith. At $59 it's a much better DVD player than the Emerson, but you'll be hard pressed to find this for $59 normally.

The DVD player does playback MP3 and JPEG files among others (WMA), but I haven't tested these functions. I don't test these functions as I don't have much use for them. I'll probably create a test disc to start testing this along with VCD (Video CD) compatibility, but that time is not now. Most people do not use these units for these functions, so I don't consider this a huge problem. If you do plan on using these functions, I would suggest reading some other reviews to see how this functions. I will note that APEX's I have seen before cut off part of the file name, and this unit does seem very similar to other APEX units. Still, you might get lucky and find this has changed.

The DVD player appears to be a MediaTek or similar functioning chipset, it's very nice, with good image quality and very good disc compatibility. One thing that I really dislike is the zoom function. Don't get me wrong, it's high quality (not like the Chinese Zenith, but a little cleaner than the Indonesian Zenith.). What I don't like is that if you have a 4:3 TV (which most of us still have), then when you zoom in, it doesn't fill the screen. It zooms in but still has black bars on the top and bottom. Without these bars it could show more of the zoomed picture. I don't use zoom often, but when I do, I want to see as large of a section of the image as possible at the given magnification.

Plugged In and Rollin' - VHS Style

3-2-1-Takeoff! That's what it sounds like when you insert a VHS tape anyways. This thing more than makes up for the quiet DVD side. If you are a person who a notable background hum will bother you (or if your setup would make this background hum more noticeable than normal) you should likely look elsewhere. But it's not too bad. Fast forward and rewind as well as insert and eject are where the tape transport makes itself heard. With that said...

This is a very nice, well built VHS video tape recorder. As always, I suggest an S-VHS VCR if you're interested in any really serious recording and not just watching old VHS tapes. This unit does not have S-VHS Quasi Playback (SVHS playback on normal VHS VCR), meaning if you do have an S-VHS VCR for recording, you won't be able to play your tapes on this unit. The Zenith does mentioned does do SVHS q-playback. Just a potential consideration with this unit.

When you're playing your pre-recorded VHS you will find the very fast forward and rewind functions convenient. Additionally, unlike most cheap VCRs it does offer two speeds of visual forward and reverse as well as (more common) frame by frame advance. It's not a jog/shuttle controller, but it's still very nice to have.

The quality of this VHS VCR does not disappoint, I'd put it at about the level of the Zenith I reviewed; and far better than the Emerson.

Conclusion

This is a well-built, inexpensive DVD/VCR combo. It will serve well in most family homes, especially as a unit for the bedroom or the kids' bedroom. With that said, it does have a couple definite annoyances. The zoom function behaves in a less than ideal manner, the VHS deck is loud, the whole unit is too deep for many placements, and the clock is not auto-setting. This leads me to strongly suggest you analyze other units before purchase. But, there's still plenty to recommend, especially if you can get it for sixty dollars as I did. It's very solid, fast, and offers high image quality. Definitely worth a look. I would also suggest looking at the Zenith I reviewed (review link at the top) as I do feel it is a better unit and it's usually (when you can't get this one for $60) about the same price.