Apex AD-1200 DVD Player

Rating:
Summary: If I could give this a negative rating I would!
Review: This is the worst piece of equipment I have ever seen. It skipped throughout the DVDs I attempted to play, the remote was virtually useless (unless you happen to be sitting directly in front of the machine and no more than 2 feet away), and it was so light it wouldn't stay where I put it! Being that there are few controls on the player itself, the remote is a necessity. I ended up returning the thing and getting a better DVD player for only a little more money.

Rating:
Summary: Great, cheap dvd player
Review: This dvd player is great, i have read the other reviews of it, and seems that most people don't like it. It's great because it can also play vcd's and svcd's and mp3's. It also has digital coaxial audio output- if you have a surround sound system. This is a great deal.

Rating:
Summary: Defective by Design
Review: Let's start with the defects that may not (or may likely) exist in other units. First the eject button on the front of the unit only worked half the time. The eject button is poorly designed and hard to push. When it did work, the disc holder was very slow to open up. Secondly the DVD disks in the unit often vibrated and had to be reseated several times to stop this annoying vibrating sound. Now for the design problems. The remote has a power button which does not truely power off the unit. In a dark room the red light always illuminates from the unit, which is fine unless you sleep in the room. Pushing the power button on the unit does shut it off, however it again is a poorly designed push button. Don't waste your money on this unit, when you can buy a quality unit that actually works flawlessly for $15 more. What a waste of time this unit was, it was obvious that the costs cut in manufacturing result in a unit that is flawed even in its best working state. This is my first negative review. I've bought many electronics and have never seen such poor quality from a manufacturer. This unit also sells at the APEX 1201, same unit different number.

Rating:
Summary: The word is value
Review: Well, let me see. I have a new Sony DVD that costs 4 times the Apex 1200. I put one of my CD's that I use to back up my photos into the Apex and within seconds I get a slideshow of all the images. I put the same CD in the Sony and I get "disk error". Sure the 1200 is a bit "clunky" when loading, but it plays fine and its plays my JPEG files and it costs 1/4 the Sony. VALUE.

Rating:
Summary: If Only the Remote Worked Better!
Review: I love this machine, but jeez! The remote control is driving me crazy. It takes on average 8-9 attempts to get it to pause, rewind, fast forward, etc., then once you're in that gear, another round of punching and aiming to get it to stop. I'm going to try a universal remote after the holiday and see if that works any better. If so I'll come back and amend this review.

Rating:
Summary: Acceptable Basic Player
Review: I bought this unit to use till I can save enough for a Plasma TV. With my 32" old-style (curved front) CRT TV and a high-end audio setup, the unit performs as advertised. I use the Dolby Digital and the S-Video outputs, and both sound and picture are good enough that my wife is already saying I should be happy with it forever. I'm hoping it fails in a year. Circuit City says they'll honor the 1-year warranty with an otc exchange. Overall, this unit seems to fit my expectations well.

Rating:
Summary: Can't bypass macrovision--meaning picture is awful
Review: This model 1200 does not allow you to bypass the "macrovision copy protection" which totally distorts the picture for the majority of consumers who are connecting this using the *included* cables. *If* you have a nice TV with S-video inputs and *buy* an S-video cable, it may work fine, but I will never know. The picture fades in and out, and I find out this is a "feature" that cannot be bypassed. Other models can bypass this "feature" so I would look for one of those-check vcdhelpdottcom for info on which models work and which don't. I'm very disappointed and hope to return this model.

Rating:
Summary: Great Budget Entry Level Player
Review: Basically all I wanted was a DVD player that could play rental and library DVDs with no problems without having to spend a lot of money for features that I would never use. I feel the Apex 1200 is a good decent player that delivers on performance at a very reasonable price. There are only a couple of minor nits. Every once in a while the picture pauses for about a second and then continues. It seems to happen mostly near the end of a movie, but not on every movie, so it's possible it is a disk quality problem, rather than a player problem. But it's minor and barely noticeable, and I can live with it. My other minor complaint is that there is no front panel LED display to let me know where I'm at in the movie. However, there is an on screen display you can turn on to either give you just the time elapsed/time remaining or a more detailed display with chapters and titles and a bunch of other stuff, whenever you feel a need to know where you are at. If you are watching a movie in letterbox format you can leave the timer display permanently turned on without it encroaching on the movie area anyway. The manual is very well written, with clear helpful diagrams, making it a snap to hook up the player and look up any features you want to know about. Another nice feature is being able to hit the stop button and having the player remember where you are so when you hit play again it will start again from that point. To conclude, this review is based on about a month's use (a total of maybe 8-10 movies) so I can't say anything about durability yet.

Rating:
Summary: Don't buy this piece of junk
Review: I was satisfied with the Apex 1500, so decided to try the 1200 to save some money on a second player. Big mistake. After exchanging the first one, I brought a second one home which still didn't work. Complete waste of time. Will not play VCD/SVCD

Rating:
Summary: ...After 2 moths
Review: I bought this DVD player not only because it was cheap, but also the salesman told me that I will be able to play any DVD from around the world (Regions from 1 to 9) if I set this code 8421. He tried it in the DVD player AD-1200 and wow he was right!!! He also showed me the Macrovision function and I was quite impressed, but something is wrong with mine because I can play only DVD Region 1. Someone told me new ones have limits but I'm not sure. Other than that, it works ok.