Rating: 
Summary: Cheap - but at what COST?
Review: As you've no doubt noticed, this is by far one of the lowest-cost TV/DVD combo units out there, and with a nice low-glare flat screen, to boot.
I have had this thing for three days now and have enough hours logged to offer a pre-malfunction (let's hope not) review of the general quality of the unit and it's performance:
Previous reviewers were right about a few things:
- Discs load relatively slowly, on par with a computer drive
- There is that background hum when no sound is being played.
Some things need to be qualified though:
- The unit has a cheap feel: yes, cheap materials but SOLIDLY put together. The case is tight and well made (albeit with cheap plastic), the buttons feel reasonably hearty, etc.
Now, I saw the "3 line notch filter" and "pure flat screen" features and bought this in hopes of getting awesome resolution, etc. out of this unit.
I am neither disappointed nor delighted. Low-level detail in dark areas is not good at all. Black overpowers any subtle details in the shadows.
That said, color is decent and the unit can reach a reasonable level of picture sharpness (I've seen much better, though).
Color balancing, sharpness adjustments, contrast, etc. seem to have a rather limited range of change. Color will go all the way down to black and white, but between there and full saturation, there isn't much play. It won't go to any sort of super-saturated Technicolor lushness. Maybe this is a good thing.
One thing I really like about this unit is it's back panel: most 13" TV/DVD units I was seeing at retail stores only had a single digital coaxial audio out. This has two composite inputs (one has option for S-video) plus an analog output for video and audio (including stereo mixdown for two speakers), plus that digital audio out. Very, very nice.
The unit has a real basic "surround from two speakers" mode, where it just puts the signal out of phase to make sounds sound like they are coming from the sides, but there is zero discrimination to it's method, so voices sound disjointed, as well. Nearly worthless, if you ask me. If it could take each channal and put it in (center channel) or out of phase logically, that would be an ideal solution. Oh well...what can you expect for such a low price?
Trying to watch a widescreen DVD with this thing is a bit of a joke unless you are sitting close. On par with watching a portable DVD player from across the room, sans the portable's LCD resolution...of course this will be the case with any 14" TV screen.
Speakers are nice enough...not tinny or shouty, they are pleasing enough to listen to. Music is pretty good. Not great by any measure, but good. Perfectly acceptable. (I will be using the stereo audio out to stick in my Tivoli Model Two radio, myself)
I am hyper-critical of this stuff and I really appreciate HDTV quality, etc., so maybe take this stuff with a grain of salt.
Other negatives: I notice in certain modes (automatic volume control + surround) when "thumps" happen in music (bass drums, etc.) it jolts the picture with white-line flashes at the time of the thump...like the speakers are jolting the picture tube or something.
All that being said, this is one heck of a deal.
At the end of the day, for $150 I really like this thing and I would definitely do it all over again.
Rating: 
Summary: APEX......... Junk from the GetGo
Review: Bought 3 of these TV's because of the low price.... I thought Oh what the heck... Gotta try them as they may work-out... I was wrong... YOu get what you pay for... Of the 3 TV's in about 4 months time.... 2 of them died... Customer support?! forget it... Wouldn't let me take it to a local Authorized dealer!!! Told me I would have to send them back to the Company at about 35.00 a crack!! Then wait and get it repaired or they would be replaced with REFURBISHED units!!! Not worth the shipping cost and time.... and if I wanted a refurbished TV I would have bought one in the first place.. Customer service reps are robots who don't care about after the sale service. Got to say, when they worked the picture and sound was OK for a cheap TV.... Has been about 10 months now so I opened one TV up to see inside.... "Almost nothing!" Just one 8X10 card..everything is soldered Poor quality inside and out... not built to last in my opnion.... Avoid this junk from APEX... They are running along with the others in producing Junk TV's
Rating: 
Summary: great
Review: I bought this TV a month ago and when it arrived the screen was tinted blue. You could hardly watch the TV because the blue tint was so heavy. Every time I called Apex customer service I was told I was number 15 or 16 in queue to talk to the next available representative. A 2 minute question left me on the phone for 45 minutes waiting for someone to talk to me. When I finally got a hold of someone, she seemed clueless. She told me, "Um I guess you can send it back and we'll see what we can do". So I carry my 33 pound TV down to the UPS store, and pay 35 dollars to ship it back. I am actually writing this while Apex has me on hold...still.
Rating:
Summary: APEX: actually not the epitome of great electronics
Review: I bought this TV a month ago and when it arrived the screen was tinted blue. You could hardly watch the TV because the blue tint was so heavy. Every time I called Apex customer service I was told I was number 15 or 16 in queue to talk to the next available representative. A 2 minute question left me on the phone for 45 minutes waiting for someone to talk to me. When I finally got a hold of someone, she seemed clueless. She told me, "Um I guess you can send it back and we'll see what we can do". So I carry my 33 pound TV down to the UPS store, and pay 35 dollars to ship it back. I am actually writing this while Apex has me on hold...still.
Rating: 
Summary: APEX - Poor Customer Support
Review: I purchased this TV for a very good price as a floor model, my complaints are not so much against the product quality - but the companies Customer Support. Since I purchased the floor model I was not given the Instruction Manual or remote control. I have tried every avenue possible to obtain at least the Manual - faxing, calling, emailing from their web page. I have been told twice that these items have been sent out, I don't think that should take 2 weeks. Now when I call Customer Service the phone is either busy, your on hold for 45 mins. when your #1 in que or the office is closed. I found their web page http://www.apexdigitalinc.com/account.asp and am still waiting for them to respond. Because of the companies failure to support their customers, I'm very hesitant to purchase any more of their products.
Rating:
Summary: APEX - Poor Customer Support
Review: I purchased this TV for a very good price as a floor model, my complaints are not so much against the product quality - but the companies Customer Support. Since I purchased the floor model I was not given the Instruction Manual or remote control. I have tried every avenue possible to obtain at least the Manual - faxing, calling, emailing from their web page. I have been told twice that these items have been sent out, I don't think that should take 2 weeks. Now when I call Customer Service the phone is either busy, your on hold for 45 mins. when your #1 in que or the office is closed. I found their web page http://www.apexdigitalinc.com/account.asp and am still waiting for them to respond. Because of the companies failure to support their customers, I'm very hesitant to purchase any more of their products.
Rating:
Summary: Apex has the worst products and services I have ever had
Review: I purchesed a Apex 65HDTV a year ago. It never had a day working as Apex promised. The very first day, the remote control had some problem. I called the company so many times, every time I got to spend with somebody in India to go through my info. After doing this for 3 months, they just ask me to ship to remote control to them on my cost, it is not worth the remote control for the shipping cost, what a joke!
Then the whole screen turned to red. I spent almost 3 Months to get a Apex certified contractor in my house (after so many of them I called told me they wouldn't want to work with Apex. Then,
the contractor told me that one part needs to be ordered from Apex to replace the broked one. I have been waiting for the Apex part for more than 4 Months now, and still waiting. I called the contractor so many times, they told me that they called Apex each week to check the part, and it never get shipped.
I am going to trash the TV next week and just let everyone know that Apex has the worst products and services I have ever had.
Don't buy Apex, it is a bad bad company!
Rating:
Summary: No Communication - Avoid
Review: Several days after placing my order for this product, my payment was inexplicably refunded. I never received any communication from Tiger Direct despite repeated attempts, and Amazon was not helpful either, receiving many automated, but not helpful messages in response to my queries.
I strongly recommend that you do not use Tiger Direct. Buy from one of the other partners.
Rating:
Summary: 3 stars for quality, 7 stars for value = 5 stars
Review: The Apex GT1417DV is a terrific bargain. It meets all the criteria for a genuinely great deal (lots of features, good overall design, plenty of functionality), but it's got a few nits that keeps it from leading the class. First, the DVD player is only so-so. Loading time is noticably slower than a stand-alone unit, and reminds me of the DVD player in my PC in terms of startup time and performance. The TV set itself has a slightly soft picture, and the colors on my set lean a lot toward the reds--no matter how much I try to dial back the color shift using the built-in controls. The picture is bright, but the brightness actually causes an overall washed out effect. Reducing the brightness just a little from the factory preset level causes an immediate loss of detail and unacceptable flatness. On the plus side, the convenience of the TV/DVD combo form factor is exceptional. There are no cables to run (which can save you $20-$40 right there), no manuals to read, and no painful setup for the DVD player side of things.Other than a couple of fairly small concerns, the overall performance of this combo set is good, especially when you factor in the price. [On side note, I wish Apex would have spent a little more on the remote control; it feels decidedly cheap, the buttons are VERY small, and not all functions are well designed--the DVD controls in particular.]
Rating: 
Summary: Pretty cheap product
Review: This is a really low-budget product.
In addition to the product being dented and partially non-functional on arrival, the manufacture quality appeared just plain cheap. Built-in speakers are smaller than they appear, and have a 60-cycle hum. Disc tray rattles and feels fragile. Remote control not ergonomic in design and not intuitive to use. On the other hand... it is the cheapest TV-DVD I've seen. It has the typical array of DVD outputs on the back so you can connect to your 5.1 audio system. By the way, this would be a good match with the $55 Durabrand 7-Piece Home Theater Audio System, HT-395 (...)
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