Header banner
Revain logoHome Page
Jesus Jenkins photo
1 Level
1310 Review
38 Karma

Review on Apex AD-5131 Multi-Disc DVD Player for Enhanced Entertainment Experience by Jesus Jenkins

Revainrating 1 out of 5

I reluctantly returned it

I have an Apex 1200 and still love it. But I need a replacement. The only Apex DVD changer available is the 3 disc changer and the only changer listed on apexdigitalinc.com. Yes, it plays everything -R/RW, +R/RW, PAL and NTSC, JPG, MP3 and more. Unlike some of the later Apex players I've heard of, it doesn't play JPGs on DVD (CD only) and I think the same goes for MP3s on CDs but not DVDs. The karaoke input with two microphones is positive. Bad - noisy. It's like playing a video cassette or even an 8mm cassette. At worst, you hear it in the quieter parts of the film. If you approach him, only be ashamed of him. While my old apex, still playing hard, for the same disc - silence. Surprisingly, playing a less than perfect disc is worse than my old Apex. In the old apex, the disc runs smoothly, while in the new apex it twitches constantly. The remote control is more elegant. But instead of narrow go wide. Yes, quite flimsy, but they chose to use 2 AAA batteries. It's a little better than my old Apex remote - it's hard to use. In a way it's more difficult because now you have more features. The old remote's range and operating angle aren't great at all, but at least you know the target, the little square with a mark, to aim at. The new one is even worse and they don't say where the goal is. I find it difficult to use the remote control other than sitting on the couch in front of the player. If you remove the drawer, there is a high probability that you will no longer be able to close the drawer with the remote control because the large drawer is blocking everything. I really don't get it. Many, many years ago, the IR remote control signal bounced off walls and glass windows, at least at Sony. After so many years, why can't Apex still get it right? Every other remote control in my living room misses nothing. So I bought a Sony 5 disc changer. This is the only choice because I need -R and +RW. It's more likely that a person doesn't have a DVD player than their player doesn't play -R. If you have a DVD burner and don't want to finalize the disc or have never heard of it, use +RW. If I really need to watch a PAL disc, I can convert and burn it on my PC. JPGs and MP3s on CD mean little to me unless they can be played on DVD. If I want karaoke, I need to add a mixer box, maybe you can do it yourself, cheap. If you're into karaoke, you still need to use Apex's 2-channel audio build. What surprised me is that the Sony is like a ballerina and the apex switcher is like a gross terminator. You can open and close the apex tray while playing a disc. The advantage is that you can change discs without interrupting playback. But it's a bit dangerous for little fingers, because if you touch the spinning disk at high speed, you can be sharp. The main disadvantage is that you will get lost. With Sony, when you open the tray, the disc being played rotates forward, ready to be ejected. This is the only good reference as you usually won't remember what the other drive is. Apex tries to do everything quickly, close drawer, spin disc, spin disc, but one by one is also a bit bumpy. The overall response time is quite slow. With Sony, everything is synchronized. As the tray begins to close, the disc gracefully rotates to its original position before the tray closes completely. The overall response time is much faster. With the multi-disc resume feature, you can play each disc in sequence from where it left off the last time and see which disc it is. With Apex it takes forever even for 3 discs. You only use 1 button to watch the next disc. For Apex, you have to remember to press the Disc 1, Disc 2, or Disc 3 button. If you want one of the Apex changers coming soon, be sure to check it out and compare it to the rest. Sony launches Quick Setup for the first time. And the instructions are much better. If you still don't know what SPIF, PCM, RAW are, then Apex is not for you. You will never get anything from them. But somehow, Apex wants to demonstrate its convenience by bringing up the DVD DVD Digest menu button! But I should note that Sony is most sensitive to imperfect discs. On the disc I mentioned, Sony revs it up, must have failed some tests and refuses to play, while the disc runs fine on my old Apex, stutters in the Apex changer. I forgot to add that Apex is bold. If you have a thick home theater box, you may have trouble assembling it on a typical 32-36 inch TV stand. I only have a tiny fraction of an inch left and the apex sits right on top of the theater box. .

Pros
  • Enables the Apex full screen feature to watch widescreen movies full screen on 4:3 TVs
Cons
  • Some little things