Apex Player has to go....Any suggestions? (1 Viewer)

[Mark Gurney]

For a little over a year now I have been slowly upgrading my living room to entry level, home theater status. Currently the Apex Digital AD-600A is my CD/DVD work horse, as well as my weakest link. I've actually enjoyed the players features (no macrovision, region free, MP3's, sub-$100 price tag), but now know its time to move on. So I need your help.
Currently I'm a little unsure of what I want/need. My current television is a JVC 32D501 which is not going to be replaced any time soon. So I can't utilize any progressive scan features. The player needs to be a changer of some sorts, a jukebox preferred. Features such as MP3 capability, VCD, region free are pluses, but I can use the Apex if need be. The most I am looking to spend is $500, but of course, less is better (at no sacrifice in quality). I also have a few random questions:
Is there any quality difference between a single disk DVD player and a multi-disc/jukebox DVD player?
I know that the Apex is a very low end DVD player. What kind of quality differences am I going to see upgrading?
Any suggestions/comments given are appreciated. Should my setup be of influence on comments/suggestions, the specs are below:
JVC 32D501
Denon AVR-1602
Apex Digital AD-600A
GE VCR
Infinity Interlude IL25c (Center)
Infinity Interlude IL30 (Fronts)
Coral Audio BX-601 (Rears)
Monster XP cabling

 

[Tom-G]

Hey Mark! I have the same Apex DVD player and it is a piece of shit. I bought it primarily to watch non-region 1 DVDs but it doesn't play most of them properly. Fortunately, it's not my only DVD player. I have a Panasonic which is much, much better. There really is no comparison.
What you should do it sell the Apex and purchase a Malata. It is region-free but not macro-free. Others here have said that the Malata has a great PAL to NTSC conversion. If you don't want to go that route, you should be able to pick up a good DVD player for $250-$300.
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AIM: Aureus91 / DVDs / ICQ: 58566493

 

[Jeff D]

I got to agree and disagree with the apex comment. Yes the player is of low quality. But... it does have some impressive features. Including reading just about any type of media. I can burn a CD-R, CD-RW, DVD-R and all play fine, I can even play fake DVD's created from streams I extract from my replayTV.
I've upgraded the eprom in the player to a flash part and can now create my own custom firmware for the player and upgrade the player from a CD, oh this player is pretty cool. This is a impressive piece of crap dvd player. It's the bottom of my DVD player food chain, but the cool factor is 10x better than the rest of my dvd players.

 

[Keith_R]

Personally I would go and get a reliable Sony or Panasonic and replace the Apex with that. I own a Toshiba 2150 which is a nice machine but the downconversion is horrible.
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-Keith-
My DVD's