FOR ATOT Cheapskates: Article on the Apex DVD players and consumers

[MeanMeosh]

my cousin bought an apex back in the day (3 or 4 years ago?) it literally plays everything we throw at it. my daewoo (cheap korean brand) can also do the same. my friend's expensive sony that he paid about 5 times what i paid for mine... it wont play dvdrs or cdrs. the image quality looks the same as well.

 

[jmgonzalez]

Originally posted by: Astaroth33

Originally posted by: jmgonzalez
I love my Apex 27" TV. 🙂 Have I also mentioned my 20" Apex in my office.

Good enough to use this until we move into another house and setup a home theatre system

While you may "love" your 27" Apex TV, I *really* love my 36" Sony WEGA XBR400 and Yamaha/Klipsch HT setup.

While you love your 36" Sony, i'm loving that I still have money in the bank for not buying an overpriced Sony.

I remember paying $600 for our 27" Sony years ago, and only paid $200 for the Apex.

I admit, the Sony has been working fine for us all these years, but it was either the Apex or the old 19" Magnavox for my Xbox/PS2/Gamecube setup in the living room.

As I mentioned, this is only a placeholder for my eventual full blown home theatre setup in our next house.

 

[imported_Mike]

im sorry, apex sucks a fat one though.

 

[Dulanic]

Atleast big brands are finally getting on the ball about +/-R and RW playback, sony's support all 4 formats this year. However Im not quite cheap enough to go apex, there are better brands for just a little more money. I personally love my phillips DVD player and it wasn't all that expensive.

 

[bolido2000]

Apex is going to stop selling over 20' TV due to the antidumping tariffs. Apex was planning to sell LCD TVs. The didn't look very good at Comdex. They also have a new line of digicams. These are made by some taiwanese company. My gf works at the corporate HQ and she says the place is total chaos. The company expanded too quickly.

 

[Chiropteran]

My first DVD player was a Sony that made a constant "hiss" sound while playing any DVD.

After owning it for a year I replaced it with a $40 Apex that plays DVDs silently.

 

[AnitaPeterson]

What a bunch of crap!

The moron who wrote this has no idea...

First of all, the big thing about APEX is that it exploded on the market by playing MP3s, when all the other players did not. It opened the way, and "big" companies followed, since they saw how appreciated this feature is.

Second, the APEX machines were among the first to be region-free, and while this might not be an issue for many 'ordinary' people, there's plenty of DVD collectors who have these machines for playing European or Asian DVDs.

Third, cheap players are important in establishing and consolidating the market penetration of the DVD format. Does the NY Times REALLY have such a short memory? Remember how expensive VCR machines and tapes were in the late '70s? And how they became ubiquitous in every home in the 80's?

Someone said the article was probably paid by Sony. I tend to agree.

 

[bolido2000]

The problem with Apex IMO is that they lack a direction to where to expand. DVD players are comodities and there are lots of other cheap brands out there now. They want to expand to Digicams, but I doubt they will gain a big market share as more established names like Fuji and Samsung are about the price range they are planning to hit. TV are dead cuz of the antidumping and they seem to be having quality problems with their LCD TVs. They are gonna introduce a keychain size digicam pretty soon I think. Also, california sound (car speakers) and nature valley (something like that, vitamins brand) are also of the same owners as Apex.

 

[milagro]

i bought mine cuz you can hack the sh1t out of em..

 

[T2T III]

Originally posted by: ApacheXMD
my first DVD player was the infamous Apex AD-600A
Still working like the day it was bought, except better thanks to firmware upgrades.

-patchy

I was going to comment on the firmware upgrades for the Apex, too. I wonder how many of those Apex DVD players were purchased because of their ability to use "hacked" firmware to get around region and Macrovision issues? Also, the fact that Apex is pimped quite heavily by Wal-Mart makes for a nice boost in sales, too.

 

[T2T III]

Those silly double-posts.

 

[The_Dude8]

Originally posted by: Dulanic
Atleast big brands are finally getting on the ball about +/-R and RW playback, sony's support all 4 formats this year. However Im not quite cheap enough to go apex, there are better brands for just a little more money. I personally love my phillips DVD player and it wasn't all that expensive.

i dont like my philips Q35 dvd player, when i try to play original vcd, the pictures is in black and white and not color. a lot of ppl on dvdhelp that own the q35 have the same problems.

the philip 727 and toshiba 4900 are both great players and both could be hack to make it region free.

 

[bolido2000]

Originally posted by: Tiles2Tech

Originally posted by: ApacheXMD
my first DVD player was the infamous Apex AD-600A
Still working like the day it was bought, except better thanks to firmware upgrades.

-patchy

I was going to comment on the firmware upgrades for the Apex, too. I wonder how many of those Apex DVD players were purchased because of their ability to use "hacked" firmware to get around region and Macrovision issues? Also, the fact that Apex is pimped quite heavily by Wal-Mart makes for a nice boost in sales, too.

Actually I think Apex doesn't make much money with Walmart. They are just too agressive on their pricing and demand. Besides IIRC they return the unsold/return stock to Apex and they have to ship it back to China. They just keep selling to Walmart for market share.