Apex AD-5131 3-Disc DVD Player
By: Apex Average Rating: 3.0 Total Reviews: 33
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 On: 2006-07-07
This DVD player is great for about two years. I owned two of them. They both wore out with light to moderate usage in only two years time. The first time I thought it was just a lemon. The second time, it is quite obvious it is a manufacturers design flaw. You could set your watch by the perfect timing by which this player craps out.
 On: 2004-06-21
Best investment I ever made. Now for fixing the remote... Its easy. The problem is that APEX mispositioned the phototransitor that senses the remote signal. The transistor is partially obscurred by the square opening in the chassis. Heres how to fix:
(1) Pop off the plastic window (its just adhesived on). You can just leave it off (not recommended) or proceed to step two...
(2) If you want to replace it, look for the sensor in the lower right side of the unit. Now, CAREFULLY using a pair of needle nose pliers or tweezers, bend the transistor leads to shift the face of the transistor more towards the opening. This is not a delicate operation, but should be done by degrees - if youve never worked with electronics before, get someone who has a feel for such components.
(3) Stick the facplate back onto the doublesided adhesive that should have remained attached to your unit. If it needs more adhesive, you can use common rubber cemeent.
Your operating range should be about 3 to 5x what it was before!
Thats it. APEX makes a fine unit (mine has been working for almost 3 years with daily use, and has performed flawlessly. Too bad QC didnt catch this sensor mis-alignment problem!
On: 2004-03-25
Be aware of this procuct. A little over a year and it will not read a disk. Trash.
On: 2004-02-06
I bought this player at July 2003, it stops working right before Christmas. When I finally got connected to the APEX customer support (1-866-427-3946 and its always busy), the lady told me its a defect on the Laser Pickup and I need to send it in and pay $40 labor to fix it.
 On: 2004-02-01
Answer: When it comes from Apex. Based on generally good experiences Ive have had with Apex gear, I bought the unit a year ago, and it has functioned properly, playing disks with multiple formats, but it DOES NOT SWITCH from one disk to another by itself, let alone from one track to another on another disk. This a fundamental requirement of a multidisk system, IMHO. Ive been waiting for a firmware upgrade, but none has been forecoming. In short, dont buy this unit.
On: 2003-12-08
APEX players DO sport some of the best FEATURES available; but some of the most inconsistant and questionable quality.The 5131 worked fine with 5" discs for 8 months. The problem with the unit is that unless you hard power it off, the spindle motor runs ALL THE TIME. The part they used doesnt hold up to that. This is a common problem in the forums, and there is no easy way to repair or replace it. The tray has slots for the 3" CDs; however, the tray jumps when it spins. Sometimes 5" CDs will jam or fall back inside, but always with the 3" CDs. I had a collector CD that was destroyed by the carousel (Scratched through the silver of the CD). As is common with most APEX players, this is of questionable quality. Some people have good luck. We didnt with this one or with a 1110W. Both failed in less than a year with only light to medium use, plenty of ventilation and no physical abuse.
by: author_a_restless_knight On: 2003-11-19
I have two of this model and gave another as a gift and I really appreciate the steady quality. Never have a problem, they deliver superior picture and sound and are sturdy. For the price they are an exception bargain. If you count I have had them for over two years, the price per year is ridiculously cheap!!Wish everything delivered as well as these players do. Right out of the box, dont even have to really read instructions and in couple minutes you are playing DVDs. Have zoom effect that let you take a letter box and push it to three closer levels, has buttons for reverse, memory and forward among others. Very nice price.
by: Anonymous On: 2003-10-16
I purchased a unit, it was non-functional (after loading, message said "no-disk"). I have returned it, received another one - defective as well.
On: 2003-09-29
I have an Apex 1200 and I loved it to this date. But I need a changer. The only Apex DVD changer available is a 3-disc one, which is the only one changer listed on apexdigitalinc.com. Yes it plays everything, -R/RW, +R/RW, PAL & NTSC, JPG, MP3 and more. Unlike some later Apex players that I heard of, it doesnt play JPG on DVD (only on CD), and I guess the same for MP3, on CD but not on DVD. The two mic karaoke input is a plus. The bad - its noisy. Its like playing a VHS or even a 8mm film. In the worst case, you can hear it during quieter moments on movie. If you go near it, you just feel ashame of it. While my old Apex, still playing strong, is silence for the same disc. Surprisingly the play back of non-ideal disc is worse than my old Apex. The disc plays smoothly in the old Apex without a hint of problem, while it jerks all the time in the new Apex. The remote is more stylish. But instead of narrow they go wide. Yes pretty thin but they opted for 2 AAA battery. Its slightly better than my old Apex remote - difficult to use. In a way its more difficult because you now have more function. The range and operating angle of the old remote is not good at all, but at least you know the target, a little labelled square, to aim at. The new one is even worse and they dont tell you where is the bulls eye. I have difficulty using the remote except sitting down on the couch in front of the player. If you eject the tray, its very likely that you cannot use the remote to close the tray again because the large tray is blocking everything. I dont really understand. Many many years ago the IR remote control signal used to reflect over walls and glass windows, at least the Sonys are. Why after so many years the Apex still cant make it right? Any other remote control in my living room never miss anything.So I got a Sony 5-disc changer. Thats the only choice because I need -R and +RW. Its more likely that a person dont have a DVD player, than that his/her player doesnt play -R. If you have a DVD burner, and you dont want to finalize the DVD or never heard of it, go for +RW. If I really need to watch PAL disc, I can convert it on my PC and burn. JPG and MP3 on CD doesnt mean much to me unless it can also play them on DVD. If I want karaoke, I have to add a little box with a mixer, probably you can build it yourself, cheap. If you play karaoke you have to use the 2 channel sound build in the Apex anyway. What surprised me is that the Sony is like a ballerina while the Apex changer is like terminator rough. You can open or close the Apex tray while the disc is still playing. The advantage is that you can change disc without disrupting play. But its slightly dangerous for tiny fingers because you can touch the spinning disc at high speed, can be sharp. The main disadvantage is that you will get lost. For the Sony, when you open the tray, the playing disc will turn to the front ready for taking out. Thats the only good reference as you normally dont and wont remember whats the other disc. The Apex tries to do everything fast, tray close, turn disc, spin disc, but one after the other, a bit rough too. The overall response time is rather slow. Everything is synchronized in the Sony. When the tray begin to close, the disc turns gracefully into position before the tray is fully closed. The overall response time is much faster. With the multi-disc resume feature, you can play each disc in turn where they stopped last time, and see whats the disc are. With the Apex it takes forever even for 3 disc only. You use only 1 button to look at the next disc. For the Apex you need to remember to press disc 1 button, disc 2 button or disc 3 button. If you want one of the Apex changer about to turn up, be sure to test drive one and compare to the others. The Sony runs a quick setup first time. And also the manual is much better. If you still dont know whats SPIF, PCM, RAW, than the Apex is not for you. You never get anything out from them. But somehow Apex want to demonstrate their userfriendlyness, by calling the DVD menu button DVD digest! But I have to mention that the Sony is most sensitive to non-ideal disc. For the disc that I mentioned, the Sony spin it up, must have failed some test, and refuse to play outright, while the disc runs normally on my old Apex, jerky in the Apex changer. I forget to add that the Apex is thick. If you have a thick home theatre box, you may have problem putting the two together in a typical 32-36" TV stand. I only have a tiny fraction of an inch left, and the Apex is directly sitting on top of the theatre box.
 On: 2003-06-28
I have had this unit for about 2 years and paid a very small price for it (<$... New). It had all the features that I wanted in a DVD player, multi-format and karaoke (consider myself a good singer). It has proven its worth over and over with howevers:
1. Remote control, though stylish, is quite user unfriendly and you need a magnifying glass to read functions on the remote.
2. You need to reset to karaoke function each time you wish to use that function, again via remote, which is cumbersome.
3. Unit smells, I know this sounds funny, but it has always had an odor emitted from it which smells like electronics frying, however, unit operates flawlessly. I have always expected this unit to start smoldering and ignite, but thankfully, it has not.
4. To upgrade firmware, you need to know which pirate to buy from, support from Apex in this respect is nil...
Great unit, all in all, and functions as expected and its longivity has been quite welcomed. Do not expect a whole lot of satisfaction from the remote!
On: 2003-05-23
when the disc is spinning in the dvd player, it makes a high pitch noise sound to the speakers.
I would not recommand this dvd player.
On: 2003-02-16
We bought one of these in late 2001 or early 2002. For the price, it couldnt be beat. It supported just about everything, and its 3-disc. Here are the drawbacks
Complex remote - you have to look at it most of the time to use it.
Power button unit is a hard power off only, so if you power it off from the unit, you cant use the remote to power it on.
Will not automatically recurse subdirectories in MP3 play mode.
MP3s are displayed 13 characters max.
The tray jerks rather quickly. Early on, the 3" cds would skip out of the tray and get jammed/scored on top. After a few months, full-sized CDs and DVDs skip out of the tray. Not always, but enough to be annoying.
If the player is on, the spindle is running. Always. There is no power-save mode, so if you are prone to leaving things on, expect the spindle to wear faster, and the whole unit to stay warm.
Now, at 1-1.5 years, we find that the unit locks up periodically, requiring a power reset to use. It wont play through an entire dvd before crashing.
This unit is no longer listed on apexdigitalinc s website.
The firmware available for update is ONLY hacked / unofficial firmware.
That being said, theres alot of good support out there for these units...Just be sure to get extended warranty.
by: Anonymous On: 2003-02-10
This baby plays it all, from JPEGs to home made DVDs. Its loaded with features most popular players dont even consider.I did have a problem with the 1st one I got as in being dead right out of the box, but then 2nd one works fine. Amazon makes it real easy for you to return if needed.
by: Anonymous On: 2002-12-20
While the product itself is okay, a functioning remote control is very critical to using all functionality. Unfortunately, my remote didnt function well, and attempting to get customer support was very difficult. Its also difficult to find a universal remote that will operate the player.
On: 2002-11-29
The Apex 5131 is GREAT for value and function! What I did not find in a lot of advertisements is what it can actually do... probably because it has too much too offer. Find me another box that can do everything thing this can, including being able to read: MP3, CDR/CDRW, DVD/DVDR, MPG (automatically read w/o changing to VCD format, VCD/SVCD, JPG (auto scrolling), Kodak image format, in addition to 3 disc carousel, AND mic inputs for KARAOKE for [this price]or less!! Its not perfect, like the dinky remote but what do you expect for $100. To its credit, this [price]box works better than ANY or higher that Ive been reseaching so far! Heres another point, MP3s are FREE on the internet and if this box can read DVDRs, imagine having over 700 MP3 songs on ONE DVDR disk! Thats where your savings really begins!... and thats just a start...
On: 2002-11-14
Thats a cheapest and feature-load DVD changer I could ever Imagine.
It plays virtually anything - any media CD/CDR/CDRW/DVD/DVDR any file mp2/mp3/wav/jpeg/mpg, you dont even need to bother putting your mpg video into VCD/SVCD format! Itll play it! Actually you can put everything on one CDR (mpg video, jpg pictures, mp3 music) and play it! You can create directory structure and it will act as a computer to dig up your files from existing CDs. Plus it has microphone input and Caraoke capabilities!
It comes with everything for basic connection, including audio&video cables, even batteries for remote.
Jpeg rendering is really fast even for big files, plus you can make slideshow and it has zoom capabilities too!
Just to say, this is not an ideal DVD player, but for this money it just amazing!
Remote is kinda mess, small buttons and digits is hard to read and sometimes features are not intuitive, but after a wile you can feel comfortable enough.
On: 2002-08-03
I was stunned on how well this DVD Changer works. I bought mine at Circuit City and was prepared to return it if anything went wrong. The reason I purchased this APEX product to begin with was because of some research I did on-line about the best DVD changers. I own a Sony DVD player which has all kinds of problems playing CD-Rs and just forget about DVD-Rs.This APEX AD5131 supports every type of CD-R Ive tried: SVCD, VCD, MP3, DVD+R, Kodak Photo CD, etc. The Karaoke feature is kinda cool too. My only complaint is that you have to point the remote control on the exact same level as the front of the DVD player. Besides that Im very pleased. The price is awesome - almost $100 cheaper than a Sony 3-disc changer that has less features and less Media type support. Overall, Im very happy about this purchase.
On: 2002-07-25
This is my 3rd DVD player, i bough this DVD player because i want a player that plays SVCD. i bough this for 100 at SAMs club and i love it. it play everything i throw in, include my SVCD disc. wow! hope they make avi or divx player soon....
On: 2002-07-09
In my opinion, I think this APEX player is the best bang for the buck. It does everything.. DVD, CD, VCD, CD-R, MP3, JPGS, and surprisingly MPGs... thats right just burn a CD full of your favorite MPG clips youve collected online and watch them on your TV set. A pleasant surprise I must say!
APEX is hardly top-line though. Their products are made cheaply sometimes. Upon removing from the box, the front panel of my DVD tray fell off. Apparently not fastened onto the tray, but just "clipped" onto it. Easily fixed though. And the instructions should have more information in it. But aside from these little problems, I must say its hard to beat a player that has all the features crammed into this unit at this price. It also has: ZOOM, SLOW FWD/RV, FAST FWD/RV, SHUFFLE Play, and pretty much all other features always offered with most DVD players these days. But like I said you gotta love being able to view MPGs/JPGs, and listen to MP3s (you can even listen-in as you FFWD your favorite songs to a certain part of the song. something I have never heard on any MP3 player before this one, and believe me I tried a few).
This is the Best bang for your Buck, if you dont care about BIG-NAME products.
by: Anonymous On: 2002-06-21
I decided to return it the day after I bought it. I couldnt stand it any longer. These are the reasons: 1. When it played DVD, it always paused about 0.5 sec when switching to the next chapter. It was very annoying because the movie could not be played smoothly. 2. The romote control was awful. I needed to point the remote control directly to the device within a very short range to control it. 3. The mechanism was very slow - in terms of loading the discs and change the discs. 4. I couldnt stop the machine when I watched VCD. I could pause it, but could not stop it. What a junk! 5. The user interface was very unfriendly. Its very hard to find the function I was looking for. 6. Users manual was not useful at all. It didnt explain any new terms about the DVD player that Ive never heard before. It was written carelessly and couldnt help users with their troubles. I am an electrical enginner and have used many personal electronics before. This one is definitely the most horrible electronic product I have ever seen in my life. I cannot believe any company can make a junk like this and still sell it. Its a big joke!
 On: 2002-06-13
I have this player. It seems to lack a few features, but perhaps i just havent figured it out yet. for instance, it doesnt seem to go to teh next cd/dvd when its done playing. it also doesnt seem to save the preferences that get set, such as the volume, the user-defined EQ, etc. but it plays mp3s, vcds, and svcd, not to mention dvds and regular cds. so its pretty decent.
- duane nason
by: Anonymous On: 2002-04-15
I bought the 5131 last summer. It worked well at first, but then my DVDs would start skipping, even brand-new ones. Now the carousel tray will not always open. Sometimes I have to cycle power on it a few times before it starts functioning properly. The whole unit also often freezes completely so I have to restart the DVD and find out where I left off. Its been a while since I have been able to watch a whole DVD whithout the thing crashing.
by: Anonymous On: 2002-03-16
I purchased the Apex AD703 in June 2001 and only used it sparingly until January 2002. Up to that time, I only watched Blockbuster DVDs and put the blame there for the problems I had. I then started to buy DVDs and the problems continued, After my retailer acknowledged the problems with this model, I was given the 5131 in exchange. It worked great for about a week and then died. After reading reviews of these products on other forums, I decided to buy the Daewoo 5700 and have had no problems.The Apex 5131 is a nice machine for a great price - if you can get one that works...
On: 2002-02-25
This little guy is a diamond in the rough. I was looking at units from JVC and Panasonic for nearly twice the price. I sent back the $300 JVC since its 7 disk carrosel wouldnt shuffle disks or MP3 files.
The 5131 will not shuffle its 3 three disks but it will shuffle all music tracks, MP3s, or Jpeg images on the disk it is playing. Its pretty slick, you can create your own family album of Jpeg files and this unit will play it back in a slide show mode. I can pop in a disk with 150 MP3s and start it playing without even turning on the TV.
It does play DVD movies as expected and as mentioned in other reviews, the remote and user interface could be improved.
...
On: 2002-02-23
This player handles all formats and is adequate for Karoake. The system changes disks smoothly and has excellent playback. Remote covers all features well. Definitely a great buy!
On: 2002-01-09
Ive had two...first one was a dud. Gobbled up the first DVD I was watching about 15 minutes into the movie. Wouldnt rotate to let it go (I believe it may have been fried by a power fluctuation in my house, though).Second one, (on a new ISOBar surge protector), flawless. The presentation for MP3 CDs is great - presents in folder/file fashion like Windows Explorer. Can change two while third is playing, remote needs a little work, but other than that, you cant beat it for the price!
On: 2002-01-06
I got this unit after buying a Daewoo DVG-5000 and finding it dead on arrival and having no success with Daewoos pathetic customer service.At first I didnt expect much out of this APEX machine but after getting it home I connected it to my older TV and VCR, powered the unit on, figured out which combo of buttons to punch on my myriad of remote controls and there it was ... a nice DVD movie playing on my TV and great sound coming from my stereo speakers. The unit is able to play my DVDs, audio CDs, and CD-R/RW without a problem and the 3-disc changer is a pleasure to have for us couch potatoes. The remote has too many buttons for my taste but they all work as theyre supposed to so I cant complain. Have yet to try the MP3 and jpeg reader but I expect these functions to work as advertised and after my recent electronic experiences, itll just be icing on the cake. Having this kind of functionality available in such a low-cost unit is terrific!
On: 2002-01-02
I bought the APEX based on its value and Karaoke capability. Im on my 3rd unit as the first 2 were dead out of the box. The first wouldnt do much although the tray would open and close. The tray jammed on the 2nd unit I bought. I gave APEX 3 chances and the 3rd was the charm. I almost thought it was defective too, as I was only able to get black and white out of the S-video output. However, I finally determined that it was a defective cable, replacing it enabled the APEX to deliver an outstanding image, equal to the Toshiba DVD it replaced. Funny, the old cable worked with the Toshiba but I may have damaged it during the installation of the 3 APEX units. I love the unit, the features are easy to use and all is well so far. The mic input for the Karaoke works well and I look forward to trying a DVD Karaoke disc which I will be ordering from Amazon. From the other reviews, I already know that the CD-G discs will not work as hoped.
On: 2001-12-26
I purchased this unit basically because it was in the price range that I could afford, Imagine my suprise when I got a DVD player with superior functionality to many other high end, and very expensive units! I say you get what you pay for, so why pay for someones NAME, id rather spend the money on quality!
On: 2001-12-25
This thing plays anything you throw at it. It plays my SVCDs (Main reason for purchase) without hesitation. My old player (Sampo 620) plays SVCD but is VERY picky about it (sometimes it will play -- others not; on the same disc!). The 5131 also plays JPG files & Kodak photoCD, mp3s and has a 3-disc changer for us lazy types. The only feature I wish it had was progressive scan but Im sure by the time I need that for a HDTV (Dont have one yet), the progressive models will be lesser in price.
On: 2001-12-11
I purchased the AD770 (basically, last years version of this model) and have had nothing but problems. After about 2 months it stopped playing audio CDs (CD-Rs, as well as regular store-bought CDs). Since then it has gotten worse. There are occasions when the door will not open, holding my DVDs hostage for a couple days at a time. When it does get around to opening, it quickly closes itself back up, leaving me only a few seconds to snatch my precious media. I went out and bought the Toshiba SD2715 that has all the same features and is in the same price range. I havent had any problems with it.
On: 2001-12-06
This is a great product with a great price. The only thing I dont like is the remote control design. Some buttons are functioning
properly. In general, Im quite happy with it.
by: Anonymous On: 2001-12-02
The Karaoke support does not include showing the
words to the songs. All I could get it to do was
play the audio.
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