Rating: 
Summary: WOW!!!
Review: (...) I watched the TV in the store and it was somewhat grainy, but the salesman said that the in-store model should have been adjusted more, and that the TV really did have a good picture. They had an 47' Panasonic and a few other models with smaller pictures for around the same price (+/- $200), and he said to stick with this one. Every sales person I have spoken with has said that the Apex TV's are pretty good, but that apex DVD and VCR's aren't so hot. However, they all said that their TV's have been improving lately, especially since they started doing business in the US. Basically, Apex's sales design is to deliver more quantity, while still emphasizing quality, but doing away with a lot of the options that only audiophiles really need. For instance, this TV does not have the plug that allows you plug your home theatre into a computer (PC) based setup from what I am told. However, it hooked up perfectly fine to my surround sound setup.
Now onto the good stuff. The TV arrived, we let it warm up a bit, and then turned it on. I was going to set the cable up, but decided to go straight to DVD as I just bought a new Toshiba progressive scan player (4900 model). I put in Top Gun, and the picture was horrible! I thought to myself, what did I just buy??? Well it turns out the TV requires some adjusting. First you need to set the convergence, which requires you to be sitting in front of the TV, at the level you would normally view the TV at. Do not do this standing up (more on this later...)! It will throw the convergence off and the picture won't be so great when you're sitting down. So I performed this easy adjustment (you just use the remote buttons, nothing really technical). Then I decided to try out Finding Nemo, the animated Disney movie. Nemo has a lot of color complex scenes, with quick movement and I figured this would be a good test of the TV. Well, Nemo looked horrible still! The orange fish appeared to lack a clear border, almost as if the pixels were not where they should be. Well turns out, I initially did the convergence standing up, and when I sat down and readjusted, it was off by a good bit. So I redid that, and the picture improved considerably. However, the colors were off, and the clarity wasn't there yet. Turns out you need to set the TV to use the DVD player's progressive scan function. So I did that, and the picture got better again. Still, wasn't totally thrilled with the color and clarity, but then I turned on another option on the TV that sets it to theatre mode, and the picture looked incredible! Not a pixel out of place! Fish were swimming around the reef and the colors were awesome. I put in Gladiator and watched some of the fight scenes, and they are crisp, clear, and impressive.
Yesterday we watched the Super Bowl with about 25 people coming over, and I swear the TV got even better over the course of those few hours. Everyone there thought we had the HDTV broadcast of the game on, but we had the standard digital cable. How's that for reviews. My buddy has a Mitsubishi and said this TV looked better than his (to be fair, his is about two years old, the new Mitsubishi's are better than the Apex models, but also about twice as much). However, I am going to get the HDTV cable box, it's only a one time $10 fee from my cable company, and that will improve picture clarity even more. I'm looking forward to it!
All in all, I am extremely pleased with this TV. A few things to keep in mind: If you are checking this out in the stores are not impressed, ask the TV salesperson to tune it up, many times from being moved around they don't display the best picture. Also, the stores lighting will wash out the colors. Bring a good DVD to test out the TV's, preferably something with vibrant colors and lots of action to see how the progressive scan works.
Check to see that there is a local Apex certified TV service area around you in case something does go wrong with the TV. You can do this from the apex digital website. In my case, $100 for the 4-year warranty was the way to go. They will come out, pick up the TV, and repair it. When you get it home, make sure to adjust the settings, there is a few presets that you can just set with one click of the remote. Then, you can fine tune it off of the basic presets if you desire. I found the "movie" preset needed some color added, but looked great with that one adjustment.
The TV does feature a number of screen formats. The standard wide screen is great for movies, but many TV programs are not in widescreen just yet. So, this TV offers a few different options. Once stretches the TV picture to fit the screen, but makes some objects appear out of round. However, there is another stretch function that alleviates this problem, and everything appears in normal size again. There is also the standard 4:3:4 aspect ratio, which will place black bars on the side of the picture and display the screen as you would normally see it on a standard TV.
But you will definitely need a progressive scan dvd player, which all dvd players now on the market are. However, if you have an older model, you'll need to upgrade to even watch a dvd on this tv (or any other large screen dvd player). The one drawback to this tv is that when you see a persons face taking up the entire screen you can see the pixels and it appears "digitalized" sometimes. Its nothing horrible, and it certainly does not ruin the experience, its just one of those things that the more expensive TV's seem to take care of. I have also been asked about the reflective screen and window glare. I have the tv in front of the windows, so thats not a problem for me, but this screen isnt quite as reflective as some of the other models. I would say its semi-reflective. I am going to turn the tv around to face the windows and see if its still viewable (more on that next week)
All in all, I am very satisfied with this TV. It has all the necessary options for your typical homeowner, and the picture is very good. For the price, I don't think you could go wrong. My thoughts are that plasma's are going to come down in price, so if I have this for 3 years and turn around and sell it, I will have paid a small price for the satisfaction this TV is going to provide. Looking forward to going home and watching some more movies and I don't normally watch movies a second time!
Rating: 
Summary: Great TV (Sacramento, CA)
Review: Based on the reviews I read here I went out and bought this Brand New from Comp USA for $999.96 + $77tax + $99.00 for a 4-yr In-Home warranty. Not a bad price if you ask me. I almost bought a 50in Toshiba Refurbished for $1200 + $250ship from eCost.com. Needless to say I could not be happier with this television. It is huge (55in) and the picture is crystal clear after making a few minor easy adjustments via the remote. Don't be disappointed at first because an adjustment will be likely before it looks great. The packing was outstanding so it was easier to move into my house without damaging it. It is heavy and took three strong guys to complete the move. Once out of the box it is easy to move around because it has wheels on the bottom and it also came with coasters to put on the wheels for thicker carpeting. At first I couldn't find the remote and manual but when I looked harder I found it taped to the bottom of the TV. The remote is a little cheap looking but it gets the job done and it doesn't bother me much since I will be using my other learning remote to operate it. The picture-in-picture works great with the double tuner the TV comes with. The sound is amazing despite a little hard to hear hiss I hear from the TV that might just be coming from other components I have. My progressive scan Panasonic DVD recorder compliments this TV perfect. Since I only had the TV a few day I cant give much more info. If you can get your hands on this HDTV I would highly recommend it. This TV is replacing a 36in Sony TV I had from 4 years ago.
Rating: 
Summary: Ran great .... for 3 hours
Review: Day 1 (Jan 8th)- Not sure if this will be a positive experience or not. The set ran fine for about 3 hours, great picture, easy to set up, then 'pop', nothing. Luckily there is a service center in town, so I will get a chance to see how good or bad service is. Will post an update and change rating accordingly.Day 2 - Contacted APEX tech support first thing in the morning, they said they would fax in a service request, as of 5:30pm the local TV shop has recieved nothing. Day 3 - Contacted Apex tech support again. They actually called back in the afternoon saying they would be faxing the order within the hour. 4 hours later and still nothing. At this point buyer beware... Month 3 and a half (April 16) - Still sitting at service center, APEX is a joke.
Rating:
Summary: Great buy
Review: For the $$$, there is nothing better out there. Looked everywhere before buying and this set just simply blows away the competition. Great value and I am sure you will agree once this bad boy is sitting in your living room
Rating:
Summary: Great Product For The Price !!!
Review: Great TV, what can I say. You can't beat it for the price!!!!
Rating:
Summary: Great Picture!!
Review: Great TV, what can I say. You can't beat it for the price!!!!
Rating:
Summary: Great Performance at a reasonable price.......
Review: I hooked this unit up to my Toshiba HD Satellite receiver and was surprised to find that the picture was actually BETTER than when it was connected to my much more expensive 'Brand name' set. Can't beat this for the price and with the new Tariff schedule that the government is imposing on Chinese TV's, prices are going Up,Up,Up!
Rating:
Summary: Awesome
Review: I love this TV. The HD picture is phenomenal and the price was fantastic. After a year of ownership, I'm as happy as I was when it was brand new. As most folks who own the tv know, for some odd reason, when you turn on the tv, it always starts on a particular input (cable), so if you use a HD input, you have to cycle through virtually all of the inputs to get it to the right input. That part sucked, but was easily resolved with a spiffy Theatre Master programmable remote. Now, with one button press, the tv turns on, pauses the requisite amount of time, cycles through the inputs, turns on my receiver, switches the input to TV/Sat and turns on the cable box. Spiffy, huh? Anyway, the TV gets lots of comments about its enormous screen and great picture from friends and family. Sometimes I forget who great the big picture is as I have grown used to it... If you can find one of these, snap it up.
Rating: 
Summary: Nice pic; remote broke
Review: I ordered this 2 weeks ago off Amazon. As usual, I'm very satisfied with Amazon's performance/price. The tv was delivered on schedule and professionally. Huge box! They took the box away after delivery. The TV picture looks great on the default settings. Just connected my cable with an S video and turned it on. Unfortunately, the Apex remote (have to use theirs) does not work. I assume it's the remote and not the receiver on the tv. Emailed Apex, said a 48 hour response. Never heard from them. Called them twice, on hold 15 to 20 minutes each time, told to send them a receipt and they "might" replace the broken remote. Still waiting on the remote. Disappointing and no one here in town to buy one from. Otherwise, the tv pic and sound is great. Can't wait for a remote!
Rating:
Summary: ONE AWESOME SET
Review: I purchased my Apex GB55HD09W 55" Projection Widescreen HDTV-Ready TV by APEX (...) I hooked it up to the regular cable conection from my Dish Network System and was blown away with the colors of the picture. Just plain awesome!!! I did find that in order to receive stereo I had to use the S-video output from the Dish Network Receiver to the S-video imput on the TV. But the already great picture got even better!! Next I hooked my my "Cheap" Apex 2600 DVD player and once I used the component hook-ups so as to enable the progresive scan of the DVD player the picture was again unbelievable!! For a Low cost HDTV receiver Lots of neat features and ease of opperation , this set is amazing.
I know this review sound like I work for Apex, but I'm really impressed with this set and if you are looking for a very nice unit at a low cost I can't see how you could go wrong. Now, that I've said all of the above only time will tell if the unit keeps preforming well. ??? ... Update!!!
I did have one problem with this set. After it was on for about 30 min's the picture would go out and only the sound would stay on . I would use the remote and restart the the set and it would come back on but would lose the picture in about 30 minutes again. I found the problem to be with the ON button on the front of the set needs to be pressed in all the way in and my problem went away. This ON button will work if you just brush it but will lose its picture if not properly pushed to complete ON position.
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