Walmart B&M Apex 703 3-disc DVD changer $169!!!

[Chadder007]

Saw this at the local walmart and had to buy it! Its an APEX DVD changer with MP3 capability with slow mo fast forward and rewind, and zoom. Personally I think its a great price for such a capable system.

Here are the specs on Buy.com

Apex AD703

 

[Hork]

I picked up one of these before Christmas for $169 from Circuit City by pricematching with Monkey Wards. Then I got sent in the Circuit City rebate.

I took the first one I got back because it tended to skip every several seconds. Others on the Anandtech boards had also complained of skipping. I had them special order one for me, and that's what I have now.

The one I have now also skips occasionally, but it varies from DVD to DVD, so I'm pretty sure it's just a matter of making sure the DVD is clean before playing it. I don't have a lot of experience with DVDs, so I'm not sure if occasional skipping is run of the mill. If it isn't, you'll probably have to watch out for this model.

Some other things about this model that people have complained about... There's no power button on the remote control, which is inconvenient. Also, you can dim the display on the player, but there is a button that shows which disk is playing that blinks continually and doesn't dim. It's kind of annoying, especially if your DVD player is close to your TV. Also, when playing mp3s, only eight character filenames are shown on the screen.

What I do like about this model... The Karaoke features are great... two microphone inputs, volume, and echo. Buy a couple of karaoke DVDs and have a fun time. Doesn't play CD+G, though. Not many karaoke DVDs out there that are for kids, either. ;-( I thought the bang for the buck on this was pretty good... 3 disks, karaoke, mp3... pretty good value even at $169 if you compare it to similar features on other DVD players.

Supposedly you may be able to upgrade the firmware on this and unlock the region code. I haven't really needed to try that yet, but there are sites out there that can tell you how to do the firmware upgrade via CD.

Hope this helps.

Hork

 

[Hork]

I picked up one of these before Christmas for $169 from Circuit City by pricematching with Monkey Wards. Then I got sent in the Circuit City rebate.

I took the first one I got back because it tended to skip every several seconds. Others on the Anandtech boards had also complained of skipping. I had them special order one for me, and that's what I have now.

The one I have now also skips occasionally, but it varies from DVD to DVD, so I'm pretty sure it's just a matter of making sure the DVD is clean before playing it. I don't have a lot of experience with DVDs, so I'm not sure if occasional skipping is run of the mill. If it isn't, you'll probably have to watch out for this model.

Some other things about this model that people have complained about... There's no power button on the remote control, which is inconvenient. Also, you can dim the display on the player, but there is a button that shows which disk is playing that blinks continually and doesn't dim. It's kind of annoying, especially if your DVD player is close to your TV. Also, when playing mp3s, only eight character filenames are shown on the screen.

What I do like about this model... The Karaoke features are great... two microphone inputs, volume, and echo. Buy a couple of karaoke DVDs and have a fun time. Doesn't play CD+G, though. Not many karaoke DVDs out there that are for kids, either. ;-( I thought the bang for the buck on this was pretty good... 3 disks, karaoke, mp3... pretty good value even at $169 if you compare it to similar features on other DVD players.

Supposedly you may be able to upgrade the firmware on this and unlock the region code. I haven't really needed to try that yet, but there are sites out there that can tell you how to do the firmware upgrade via CD.

Hope this helps.

Hork

 

[dman]

Circuit Sh*ty had this on sale a week ago. I think it was the same price. So, a good deal but not something you have to jump on right away... looks like this price will be around here and there for a while.

The other thing that this unit does NOT have is shuffle play for MP3's. I don't have this unit so my information is 3rd party...

You can read reviews from here:

Apex Forums

 

[newswatcher]

I would recommend going here: audioreview.comreviewand see what other users have experienced with this machine. Not too good. But you might be lucky. Give it time...

It's always good to get reviews first to get a feel for what others have experienced. I use allthewebwith product (mfgr. #) and the word "review" to usually get a sh*t load of responses (such as the above).

Fortunately, you got it at Walmart, 90-days to return. That's good.

Good luck.:Q

 

[frogster220]

This is the best DVD player around. It plays DVDs, mp3s, VCDs, SVCDs, XVCDs and XSVCDs. I have yet to find a CDR that it wont play.

No shuffle play of mp3s? most other players don't even play mp3s. you can use menuing to pick out which directories to play.

I think a lot of the complaints you see are caused by newbies incorrectly making VCDs.

It comes with a 1 year warranty.

do test it out with some DVDs when you buy one (as you should with any player). if it's bad, get another one.

 

[dman]

FYI, regarding shuffle play-- some of the other APEX models do have that feature. They also suspect that it may be firmware upgradeable to allow for shuffle play.

If you listen to MP3's it's defintely a nice feature to have. Since you can't program tracks or anything else, just play the songs in order in the directory.

I have the 660 series and it will only shuffle play within a folder, so, it's still not perfect.

Anyway, I liked above to the nerd-out apex forums and they have good tech info and feedback from other apex owners. For the price range, there is hardly anything that even compares.

 

[steevo]

I will also vouch for this player. You will not find a more feature rich player at this price level. Mine is outstanding..I have used dvd's(of course) , mp-3's, and vcds..Incredible !!

Flash-ROM is always a plus..

 

[superhuang]

The features may be there but the quality IMO is not. From what I've seen, the picture that comes out of the unit is sub par (esp. flesh tones) to the extent that it hardly rivals VHS. The 3-disc capability is nice, but it takes an absurd amount of time (I'm talking 10 seconds) to switch/eject DVDs, I've never seen anything like it. Poor design like that can only be indicative of poor reliability down the road.

 

[OutHouse]

why buy a cheap DVD player when its output is no better than a good quality VCR. Sorry but I want composite video and Real digital sound sent through my receiver.

ill wait until i can afford a top of the line

 

[zsir]

I thought these Apex players were garbage.....I'm really surprised to hear they can play CD-R's.....That's a pleasant surprise....

Can this player handle the Matrix without skipping????

 

[Hork]

I dunno... send it to me and I'll check! :-D

Hork

 

[frogster220]

composite video? it has it.
digital out? it has it.

10 seconds to eject the tray? that must include you finding the remote.

i haven't tried the matrix DVD, but I've had no problem with others.

Here is one message board about the 703
http://209.216.233.229:8080/forum/list.php?f=15

here is another one
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/shinco

This unit is very popular outside of the US because of its VCD capabilities.

also check out
http://www.vcdhelp.com/dvdplayers.p...;viewall=0&toprate=Top+User+Rated+Players

 

[lzpoof]

Every DVD player has composite output. COMPONENT OUTPUT is the special feature for DVD players. And it isn't much good usually if the DVD player only has 1 digital output. you want 2. Many DVD players implement the cheaper coaxial output, but not the more standard and slightly better quality optical output. So in short, you should look for COMPONENT video output and OPTICAL digital output unless you have a device that specifically only likes coaxial digital output.

 

[OutHouse]

opps my bad i ment componet output, sorry for the misunderstanding.

kb0ogt clear and monitoring

 

[lzpoof]

By the by, people can crack on visual quality and as usual not have a clue what they're talkin about. DVD's advantage primarily over VHS is the number of scanlines and detail in the picture, like twice as many scanlines. The picture quality can have defects such as bleeding or glare, but it will always be higher resolution. It doesn't make much sense to compare it to VHS. It's very likely that the 'sucky' pictures people are talking about are artifacts of their own television sets and not the DVD players themselves. All those extra scanlines don't do much if your TV has poor image quality, low number of scanlines, or lack of S-video to really take full advantage of them. If you're buying a DVD player just to watch standard movies and aren't using the higher quality video outputs or sound outputs, then the only advantage you will see is slightly more scanlines. EXPECT the picture to have the same bleeding effects and blurriness as your VCR since you are using the same television comb filter and cable connects. Essentially you're downgrading the features and picture of DVD almost to the level of VHS and tossing away all the extra color and resolution information that was originally stored on a DVD disk in order to give you a better picture and sound. If this is the case, then you may just want to stay with VHS.

 

[OutHouse]

Izpoof, do you sell audio/video equipment?

 

[bigbootydaddy]

i think he just does research....a good concept

 

[lzpoof]

No. I study it.. extensively. And purchase it .

Edit: deleted the rest cause it seemed more like bragging than trying to prove a point. My bad

 

[OutHouse]

of course your input is valued.

Let me ask you this. I would send you a personal message but you dont have it enabled.

This summer im upgrading ALL of my AV stuff. My budget will be about 5K. I already know im going to get the Bose lifestyle speakers with powered sub. but the amp, preamp, DVD I have not made a decison on. could you suggest some good stuff for me?

 

[jclark]

Citrix - If you're spening 5K on an A/V system, you don't want Bose. Bose sound good (or at least better than _really_ cheap speakers.) when connected to low-end gear, but that's because of psychoacoustic affects that seem to 'clean up' the sound. Perhaps you've heard the joke - "No highs, no lows - must be Bose!" But when hooked up to decent equipment capable of outputting a clean signal, Bose will sound like you're underwater when compared to quality monitors. Of course, if you absolutely can't fit speakers larger than 3X3X6 anywhere, or you want the best Sam's Club has to offer, go with the Bose! Before you do it, though, go listen to the equipment you're going to use through the Bose, then through just about anything in a similar price range.

Seriously, though, I have a set of Bose on my PC (because they're tiny, but mostly because a roommate left them when he moved out), and one of them got knocked off the shelf (breaking the plastic swivel between the two halves) and was subsequently thrown up on by one of my cats. Bose replaced it for the cost of shipping. Their products aren't true audiophile material, but I can't complain about their CS.

If you're seriously considering spending $5K and are seriously considering Bose, I don't think you've done enough research. Go read a few back issues of The Absolute Sound. Yeah, they're six bucks each (unless you can find them at a library) but hey, you can get a year's worth for $72 and barely put a dent in your $5k budget! Of course, reading TAS might convince you that you need a $15K budget.

 

[rickforrest]

lzpoof says

"Many DVD players implement the cheaper coaxial output, but not the more standard and slightly better quality optical output"


And I will say, as a computer engineer that there is ABSOLUTELY no difference in quality between a coax and an optical dolby digital bitstream. It either gets to the receiver or it doesn't, end of story. There have been double-blind tests to back this up. Heck, one guy even connected using a COAT HANGER, and it sounds exactly the same as any other method.

Let me repeat that there have been double-blind tests to back up the LACK of difference between coax and optical.

The ONLY thing you would worry about with coax is interference from a high power line laid right next to it, but that isn't going to happen.

 

[OutHouse]

ok say you were in my shoes. what amp and what speakers would you get.

your right i havent done much research, i dont have time to sit down and read hundred of pages of reviews.

 

[mikeford]

This could easily grow to a pointless technical wrangle, but let me just say I think a few of the posters have been paying way too much attention to what advertisers have to say about their own products.

1) Bose is a very highly priced, very mediocre product. Just about anything THX certified is a better bet. Shopping and listening at other than Fry's or Circuit City highly advised.

2) Coax is generally regarded as it is implemented in consumer audio, as superior to optical plastic. Optical plastic only exists for marketing reasons, not technical ones.

3) DVD is only fractionally superior, and some argue that, to existing formats like laser disc. The idea wasn't to make a better quality format, but a format that is harder to copy and cheaper to produce, that will sell for higher profit margins.

This is NOT a good time to buy into the high end of AV, too much is changing and improving. My personal plan is to buy an Apex AD660 and the next DTS receiver I see in a Fry's etc. ad. Putting a lot of money into a display is particularly bad, as it is very unlikely anything purchased now will be very desirable in just 3 to 5 years.

The "deal" I suggest is to build your own subwoofer. Its an easy project, with lots of support web sites, and you save about 75% of the cost of a comparable retail unit.

 

[lzpoof]

To be honest Citrix, most of the research that I have done is in models in my price range. Including speakers, Monster wire, sub, cd, receiver, tape, vcr, dvd, remote, and tv will cost ... $1650-$1750 not including tax, which was a much smaller budget than you have. I honestly don't know what to look for in your range. I would suggest checking out Tau TVs though. From looking at some in Bernies and Sears, they seem to be a little clearer (and not as common) than Wegas, although generally don't seem as lively in colors. They can be had cheaper than a Wega though and it doesn't seem like you're looking HDTV or $3000+ so may as well save some money for the rest of the equipment. Personal preference (and a stupid one probably) is to stay with one brand, mostly for looks and remote simplicity. When you have the kind of budget you're talking about, you'd be better off shopping from any brand for each component.