Apex AD-1600 DVD Player
From APEX
The AD-1600 DVD video player is a player for digital video disks conforming to the universal DVD video standard. With it, you will be able to enjoy full-length movies with true cinema picture quality, and multichannel sound. Unique features of this compact player include an S-video output, selecting of sound track and subtitle languages and of different camera angles (depending on the disk). What's more, Parental Control lets you decide which disks your children can watch. Your player supports audio CD's, and the new MP3, WMA, JPEG format and Kodak PCD. You will find your player remarkably easy to use, by way of the wireless remote control and on screen display you view from your TV screen.
Amazon Sales Rank: #49199 in Consumer Electronics Brand: Apex Model: AD 1600 Dimensions: 11.75" h x 2.80" w x 12.60" l, 6.50 pounds
Apex made a strong name for itself in the DVD arena based on kitchen-sink features and rock-bottom prices, and the AD-1600 is clearly a child of this philosophy. Apart from its appealing price, the player handles almost every disc type out there, from DVD-Video to CD, MP3-CD and WMA-CD to HDCD, and even JPEG image and Kodak Picture CDs. The unit also comes with a remote control, an owner's manual, a stereo analog audio/composite-video interconnect, and two AA batteries. Video Features The AD-1600 offers something unique to Apex players: support for both NTSC (North American) and PAL (European) video formats, so long as the region encoding allows (discs must be encoded for Region 1 or all regions). A screen saver keeps paused images from burning into a television, and parental controls help keep young eyes off mature discs. Picture zoom lets you focus on scenes in greater detail, and the unit's fluorescent video display is snazzy and easy to read. Audio Features The AD-1600 is compatible with standard CDs, audio CD-Rs and CD-RWs, and discs encoded with MP3 and WMA (Windows Media) audio files. It even decodes HDCD (High-Definition Compatible Digital), a 20-bit system used on many commercial CDs to deliver better sound than is possible through standard CDs. Connections The back panel offers one set of left/right analog-audio outputs for compatibility with stereo Dolby Pro Logic receivers and stereo televisions. This unit also supports both Dolby Digital and DTS 5.1-channel formats through a single coaxial digital-audio output for direct connection to a surround-decoding AV receiver. The back panel offers one output for S-video and two standard composite-video outputs, so you can channel one output into a different room.
True work-horse I love Apex, I've been buying Apex players for years now - and I've convinced many, many friends to follow. There are more features in this player than just about any high-end player for three times the cost. I always feel bad when a friend buys a player w/o talking to me first, especially Sony - as they don't handle VCD's that well.Just a quick word on VCD, SVCD format. You may have never heard of them - but it's the MP3 of the future. On your home computer - with nothing more than 50cent CDR's, a video capture card, and a cd burner you can be creating your own movies! It's wonderful! Then you burn them in VCD format and Apex players will play them (not all Sony's, even those that say "VCD" work with home media).I'm slowly converting all my home videos into VCD format - that's why I'm such a big proponent of these players. I want all my friends and family to be able to enjoy the home videos that I produce.Another application for VCD format is Digital Cameras. I can put all my new photos into a VCD formated disk (once again - 30-50 cents each) and it will play in the Apex player like a slideshow. You can even zoom and pan through the photo. It's so much nicer to view digital pictures in your living room rather than dragging everyone to the computer. This Apex player is truly the media hub of my living room.Plus - MP3 format - for parties, I just burn a few disks that have up to 10 regular ablums on them and I leave them in the living room. I don't have to worry about people messing around with my cd collection - and you can create a single disk with 10 hours of music on it and never have to worry about changing disks again! great player for unbelievable price This player plays everything. Although an adequate display for mp3 playing is lacking (no ID3 tags, just filename), its main function is playing DVDs. It does that very well. JPG function and the VCD function which I have also tested work very well. The remote control is kind of small and cheap looking. However, the silver player looks nice and slick, and for [the price] is a STEAL. No other DVD player on the market plays all of these options in a better fashion. Also of note,-No optical digital out (only coaxial).-No firmware upgrade availabe. -Does not come with S-video cable.-Video and Audio quality are crisp and clear! Good bang for you buck This is an excellent DVD Player which was able to handle everything I threw at it. It loads the media fast. Asside form the good features, the remote has a cheap look to it. Holding and working the remote feels very awkward. The buttons that you'll be using the most often, (Play, Stop, Forward, etc) are all positioned in the very bottom. The Forward, Reverse, Stop, Pause buttons are far away form the Play button so expect a lot of jumping around with the remote. The MP3 and WMA playback is great but lacking some simple features which makes it annoying. There is no Fast Forward or Rewind with both MP3 or WMA files. There is no ID3 tag support for MP3s. They are just displayed using the filename of which, 8 or 10 characters are displayed. The play screen is dull beyond belief. Just a blue screen with trackname and directories. Something better could have been done. All in all, the player lacks some features and looks cheap but for the price that it is, this is a very good deal.
