Apex AD-3201 DVD Player
By: Apex Average Rating: 3.0 Total Reviews: 32
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 On: 2006-02-08
This is a good DVD, based on the price. I bought it in 2003 and
I have no problem with this device, it works perfect with DVD-R, RW,. It does have some issues with DVDs recorded on high speed units, so it is a good advice to use DVDs recorded at slow or medium speed. It can play MP3 very well, but doesnt have MP3-Playlist feature -only drawback-.
It is incredible, but for me the importants features of this DVD are the remote & the menu options. Ive seen some players where the remote is very simple and you have to navigate several options to get to an specific feature. Thats a problem: first because it is complicated for the user, and second sometimes the display has a large drop down menu that you just cant see the picture at the same time. This remote has all the options on direct buttons; so there is no drop down menu, and when you want to use a feature (Language-zoom-SubT) it only appears a small icon in a corner, without affecting the view of the screen.
Ive been thinking about buy a more recent player, but when I compare mine, with those that some friends of mine have, and the complicated they are to use; I always end prefering mine and give it another chance.
 On: 2003-08-26
No, I dont mean to say that the player has been been great for a year. In fact, its taken a year and three returns to get this player to play correctly.
1. When it arrived new it didnt recognize there was a DVD in it
2. After it came back from repair it recognized but wouldnt play a DVD
3. After it came back again it played the DVD but froze and/or the screen went blank.
4. After it came back again it seems to be playing beautifully.Glad I had an old backup Toshiba in the meantime.
by: Anonymous On: 2002-11-26
It is very upsetting to find out after a few days that your credit card will be refunded with the next billing cycle. I hope it isnt happening to lot of people and thats the companys( whynotpayless or similar) way of getting to money.
On: 2002-11-18
I bought this for one reason only - my friend told me it could be made region free without even having to mess with changing the firmware. This is true - there is a trick you use on the remote control that turns off region locking. Very cool. I bought it and was immediately playing my DVDs from the UK (PAL/Region 2) on my standard US TV (NTSC). But - this player locks up when playing Apollo 13 (at 44:02, precisely!). Search on the web for this player, and youll see forums that list lots of movies that all fail. I downloaded patches and applied them but the problem remained. Other than the lockup, it has great image quality! The lockup is severe - must power down the unit! This unit has very nice features for the price - dedicated r,g,b outputs, optical audio, coax audio, etc - but, the lockups on mainstream movies tell me its just not worth it. I was able to watch my UK DVDs but the quality was not good - I noticed poor display quality when there was movement in the image. Searching around, I discovered this is due to the PAL->NTSC conversion that the unit is doing. Not too bad, but noticeable. I also bought the APEX 1500, and it does a better job of this for some reason, although the overall image quality of that unit is not as good.
by: Anonymous On: 2002-10-26
I purchased two (2) units based on the fact that they can easily be reprogrammed to disable both region encoding and Macrovision. This enables me to play PAL encoded discs that I purchase overseas. I can also make tape copies on a VCR for use in the car without worrying about Macrovision copy-protection. However, one of the two units failed within a few days. Getting anything resembling tech "support" from Apex was next to impossible. ... I finally returned the defective unit to Amazon and ordered a new one. Of course, if it occurs again after the warranty period has expired, I guess Ill just trash it. Functionally, it is an excellent unit that I am very satisfied with. However, from a reliability and tech support standpoint, it probably rates a minus one. ..
by: Anonymous On: 2002-10-10
This player is great! I picked one up because it was on sale, but it really is nice. And as a bonus, it also plays MP3s and VCDs. If your looking for a DVD player, this Apex is the way to go.
by: Anonymous On: 2002-10-04
I purchased this DVD player as a gift for my fiance last Christmas and it has been nothing but trouble. About 3 months after I purchased it, it started skipping and pausing on brand new DVDs. One day I was watching a movie and a loud popping noise came from the player. I went in for a closer look, opened the door and was greeted by an unpleasant fishy smell. The player has popped a few times since, still smells like fish, skips, pauses, and has red lines across the display that make it impossible to read. I guess you get what you pay for. I learned my lesson.
On: 2002-10-03
My sister in law and I both bought these machines. Both have blown their fuses even though they were connected to surge protectors. Computers and other gear on same protector are still fine. These 3201 models continue to blow fuses as soon as they are plugged in. Dont waste money on this product!!!! They are both just out of warrarty. Thats when they blow. Any other machine must be better.
On: 2002-07-27
We bought this particular dvd player so we could watch foreign films purchased abroad in October 2001. It started malfunctioning within a month of purchase, with the picture and sound "sticking" or "pausing" for a split second every minute or so, which is very annoying! I emailed the customer service people with the problem, which they diagnosed as a misaligned crystal and directed me to customer service via telephone. It took me 6 months to get through to a person on customer service! We both work and go to school during the day, so finding a time between 9-5 M-F to call Apex was a horrible inconvenience, and the call was NOT a 1-800 number... each time, Id sit on the phone for 20 minutes, repeatedly pressing "1" to avoid being bumped out of the phone queue, and would finally get so fed up that Id leave a message, as directed by their phone system. My calls were never returned, and now that I finally got through to one customer service guy (July 2002) and now that were past our warranty (90 days), were going to have to pay $40 for them to even look at it, and additional $20 to have our remote control replaced, without which, its not possible to watch foreign DVDs.Dont waste your time or your money with this company. Weve decided to keep the $60 plus postage well have to pay for the repairs and put it toward a new one from any company but APEX!
by: Anonymous On: 2002-06-17
We ordered this for a family christmas present and it was so great we want to purchase another one for another room. It was easy to install and it has played every dvd we have had without any problems.
On: 2002-05-23
i had it over a year now. it plays mp3s, v-cds, cdrw, etc...
it even has 20x speed, 3d sound, a 5 band stereo eq, and zooming.i have yet to experience any problems playing various dvds and music cds.
by: Anonymous On: 2002-05-14
For those of you having problems when you switch out SVCDs try hitting the EQUALIZER button after it starts that should fix the problem, atleast it does for me. everybody try this, open empty tray, and type in 8421, and close to save. ;)
On: 2002-04-28
I realize that many people have had trouble with Apex units in general, and with the AD-3201 in particular, but Im not one of them. It has played every DVD, VCD, SVCD, CD-R and CD-RW Ive thrown at it, including 80 minute ones. It has never stuttered during playback, and sound and video quality is excellent.I bought mine in mid 2001, and I convinced my local techie store to let me set up multiple units side-by-side for comparison. I auditioned at all the MP3 compatible units they were selling back then since my primary interest was in a player for my 100+ MP3 CDs. Obviously, audio quality was paramount. I agree that song names are mangled horribly when displayed, but all the other units at that time did the same thing, often worse, although there may be more capable units out there now in this regard. At least it does subdirectories - one of the players I looked at treated an MP3 CD as one big directory no matter how the disk was actually organized, simply assigning a number to each track. I solved the mangling problem, satisfactorily for me anyway, by writing a CD cataloging program to list the songs and albums, and which also listed the same song number for each track that the APEX unit would show on screen. Now I have no trouble finding or skipping to a track. I suspect this and other similar players can only read the MP3 directory as an ISO 9660 disk, ignoring the Joliet long names that would make the display more readable. Note that this player doesnt display MP3 tags either. The reason I chose this player over units even 2 or 3 times the price was the audio quality, simply head and shoulders above the others. As I said, MP3 capability was more important to me than video perfomance at that time. That said, I have been more than satisfied with the unit in the latter area as well. I have noticed two issues that other reviewers complained about, but neither has been a showstopper for me. First, in over 9 months of regular use, on 3 or 4 occasions the player has randomly turned on subtitles, although I dont know what button combinations triggered this. Also, I play a lot with home-burned SVCDs (which play beautifully on this unit BTW) and as reported elsewhere here, if the SCVD is ejected, reburned, and reinserted, the player will occasionally lose audio completely and play a few seconds of video, then pause a few seconds, play, then pause... etc. Powering off and on fixes this, and I have never had this problem when playing multi-disk SVCD movies back-to-back, for instance. All told, I am more than satisfied with this unit for its ability to beautifully play MP3s encoded at any bitrate(including VBR), and also that it flawlessly handles my newly found passion, SVCDs. When I finally get a DVD writer, Im fairly confident this player will be up to the task too. BTW - for those that are wondering, although instructions for changing the region code and turning off macrovision on older APEX players have been available on the web for some time, such information for the AD-3201 didnt exist initially. Note however that these instructions have finally made it onto many DVD hacking sites, making this unit even more attractive for the DVD aficionado.
by: Anonymous On: 2002-04-19
All of the reviews that you had published when I bought my dvd player last November were really good, so I decided to get one since it appeared to be a good product for an affordable price. I didnt get it hooked up right away, but when I finally did every dvd (all brand new, by the way) that I have tried to watch has completely frozen the machine up. Havent tried anything else on the machine - think Im afraid too! Hope I can trade it in on something else because its certainly not worth the money, even at this price.
On: 2002-04-18
I bought the Apex 3201 and I found this bug: I turned on the player and inserted a VCD. It played fine. I stopped and ejected the DVD tray without remove the CD or turned the power off; I loaded the DVD tray again and it would not play correctly. There was no sound and the picture skipped. I tried other VCDs and the same thing happened. I dont think it is the disc, because it played fine if I turn off the player and turn it back on again. This bug can be repeated everytime.
by: Anonymous On: 2002-03-08
The beauty of this unit is that with a simple remote... you can make this unit region free and turn off that pesky macrovision setting. And since it has a Pal converter you dont have to get a special Tv to use this feature. I bought mine from [local store] and got it to work on the first try... works great. Hope this will help somebody...so get one now
On: 2002-02-01
So far, very happy with this product. Bought two of them for Christmas several months ago. No major problems. One small annoyance, every once in a while theres a little glitch where the sound and video dont quite match. A few seconds later, they catch up. This may just be a problem with this particular video. Have not yet tried it with rental videos. For a lower-end video player, I think its pretty nice.
On: 2002-01-21
This is a great DVD player if you are looking for a player on a tight budget, and you either dont need surround sound, or have a built-in Dolby Digital Decoder in your Stereo Receiever. I have owned mine for 7 months with no problems.
by: Anonymous On: 2002-01-14
I bought this DVD player and the audio skipped. I got another one and it is fine. I think you just take a chance at getting a bad one more so than with other brands.I had a Zenith that did the same thing. I have a Toshiba DVD player I use to love, until I got this Apex. As long as you dont get a bad one, this DVD player is awesome. Good points about this DVD player:
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*It has (2) analog audio outputs
*it plays CDRs,
*remote control has volume for analog audio, and mute for analog and digital. Built in EQ for analog audio Bad points:
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*The power button stays pushed in once you press it. Meaning if you turn the unit of on the remote, you cannot turn it back on at the unit itself. You have to push the button of, and then back on.
* The fastest forward setting is 20x (this is still fast)
On: 2002-01-06
I couldnt let this slide. In your review, you comment, "I would recomend it to anyone who is living on a budget, but needs a DVD player." I would contend that nobody NEEDS a DVD player, especially someone on a budget. Its great to be frugal, but that means getting value in return for the money spent. Based upon other reviews, it appears that the money saved compared to other models in the price range is not worth it. Thats probably why a local grocery warehouse store is selling this same model.
by: Anonymous On: 2002-01-04
Upon a friends recommendation, I bought an APEX DVD player, the 3201 model. I wish I could say it was a great deal as it was far less than comparably equipped name brands. I rented a DVD and it was fine for 20 minutes then it started to stutter which became really annoying. I took the DVD back and got the same movie which stuttered and skipped but not in the same place. Both DVDs had some hairline scratches but nothing that should cause the stuttering and nothing that is uncommon with rented dvds. I even played 2 brand new out of the box DVDs and it froze up. Like the rant below and many I have read on an online APEX forum, this seems to be a common occurrence. I also have experienced the MP3 stutter so really nothing works well. You pay little for nothing, you might as well pay a little more for something that works. I have returned the APEX and picked out a replacement, the Panasonic RV31K. Best of luck to the 10% of APEX owners that are satisfied but I believe the old adage still stands: you get what you pay for.
by: Anonymous On: 2001-12-21
In November 2001, I bought the Apex AD-3201 on sale for (...). I liked the advertised numerous features and connectors on this model. I bought it mainly to play DVDs and MP3s. I hooked it up to my 27" Hitachi that also has a lot of "bells and whistles." I connected the audio cables and S-Video cable. The first DVD movie I popped in worked great, ... for the first 57 minutes. The AD-3201 then locked up, and the picture was frozen on the screen. None of the controls on the remote would work, and none of the controls on the unit itself worked, except the "Power" button. I had to turn the power completely off, and then on to restart the DVD movie. I fast-forwarded the movie to the elapsed time setting where it had frozen, and watched the rest of the movie. I checked the DVD disc for dirt or scratches, but there was nothing wrong with the disc. I also noticed that every so often, the AD-3201 would pause about a quarter to a half second, and then continue playing the DVD. It would do this several times during the 12 different DVDs I watched on it. I figured I could live with the short pauses, but was concerned with the total freeze-up. I then tried numerous MP3 discs. I wasnt impressed with the self-coding eight letter designation that it gave each MP3 song, but again, I could live with that. I noticed that I had to crank the volume WAY up to listen to the MP3 songs. They sounded just okay; I wasnt impressed. They didnt sound as good as they did on my computer, which has a much smaller sound system. It was annoying if you forgot to turn the volume down after listening to MP3s, as the TV volume would be extremely loud. For the same volume level as the TV set to "18," the MP3s had to be set to "40." (This is the Hitachi TV volume level, with the volume setting on the AD-3201 set to the midway point, via the AD-3201 remote).
The Apex AD-3201 played MP3s burned as low as 32kbps to ones burned as high as 320kbps. The one glaring problem with this unit was that it "stuttered" before playing each MP3 song. It would play a half second of the first part of each MP3 song, and then start over and play the entire song. It did this every time. That was the straw the broke the camels back. I just couldnt put up with that. Some will say that maybe I burned the MP3s the wrong way; nope, I even researched and checked that, hoping that maybe this was the problem, as I really wanted to give this Apex unit a chance.
I got onto Apexs message board, and started reading the many posts about the different Apex models. From November into December, the posts were about 95% negative on the different Apex models, most having the exact same problems. (Some problems were caused by the ignorance of the new user. The owners manual leaves a lot to be desired). The 1000 was the worst. The 1500 was not doing well, and the 3201 was a little better, but other posters had the exact same problems that I had with my 3201. These problems were not fixable. (The fix was to return it). It was either design flaws or poor quality control. At that point, I was not feeling too good about my AD-3201 that I had for two weeks.
I bought a Daewoo DVG-5000N for the same price as the Apex AD-3201, as it had all the same features and connectors as the Apex AD-3201. It even had a Karaoke feature. I tested it alongside the Apex AD-3201. Before this, I had nothing to compare to the Apex unit. The Daewoo 5000N worked absolutely wonderful. On DVD movies, it never locked up or paused once. I liked the way it labeled my MP3 songs as compared to the cryptic way the Apex did. The MP3 sound quality was much, much better. I cant emphasize that enough. I was surprised there was that much of a difference. The Daewoo never "stutters" before any of the MP3 songs like the Apex does. I didnt have to crank the volume control up on the Daewoo like I did the Apex. Without another DVD player to compare the Apex player with, I would not have realized the shortcomings of the Apex AD-3201. Im sure there are other DVD players as good or better than the Daewoo 5000N, but the Apex AD-3201 in my opinion is not acceptable, even at a much lower price. And for those who are happy with their Apex units, Im glad you got one of the few good ones, but how long will they hold up until you also have problems. It will then be too late to return them for a refund. I took my Apex AD-3201 back for a refund, and kept the Daewoo, which I might say is still operating flawlessly, (knock on wood). As for the karaoke feature on my Daewoo, I tried it out. It worked great. Youd be surprised what a little added reverb can do to anyones voice. I put an Elvis tune in, and "Thank you, ah thank you very much!"
On: 2001-12-11
First of all I wanted to say that I am researching also on DVD-players with PAL function. And I am also not sure if this one would play on my NTSC TV, since I read that most of the time one needs to have a PAL compatible TV in order to view PAL DVDs. I am from Europe but have been living in the US for a while and would like to enjoy DVDs from home too. Thats the main reason why I would like to buy this DVD Player. If anyone has experience as to how the playback for Region 2 works, I would appreciate a comment.
by: Anonymous On: 2001-12-10
I am surprised how high a rating most people are giving this machine! I tried this machine for a few weeks and found that with most DVDs the movie would pause for several seconds about half way through. "The Great Escape" froze altogether and all I could do was hit eject, as almost every other button on the machine was no longer functioning once this happened. This movie did not act up at all on a friends player, which was NOT an Apex, so it was obviously the machine that was faulty. I tried an exchange but the second machine made a horrible grinding sound when I put any disc in and every disc I tried skipped every few seconds or didnt play at all!I also did not find the mp3 support on the ad-3201 very good. I was able to use data cdrs (another reviewer said it only was compatible with music cdrs), but they had to be 650mb (74 min) ones, and the songs seemed to often end up in a different order than the way I had burned them. With all discs the names were illegible - only eight characters would show...it would show a few letters of the first word, insert some underscore and a few letters of another word! There is no random play for mp3s either and if they are in a folder the song names and numbers wont show at all. This machine handled music cds very well...some of my HDCDs sounded amazing. The machine only allows for 12 songs (or dvd positions) to be pre-programmed however, which is far too few for most uses. I found the sound quality in general to be one of the best things about this machine...it even has a built in equalizer (for music cds only) which is handy at times. Perhaps if all you wanted was to play audio cds this machine would be an okay investment. If you plan to purchase dvds, however, stay away. The zoom feature was good, the remote so-so (the arrangement of the numbers is not the standard 123, 456, 789 so I was constantly hitting the wrong numbers if I didnt look closely) and the picture was quite good, but perhaps a bit dark. Im afraid that the freezing of dvds is just too big a problem to make up for all the good things about this unit. Other people on the companys web site say this is a problem with this model. Considering all the features and low price of this machine I would have given it at least four stars had it not been for this major flaw. Dont get stuck with this lemon unless Apex somehow fixes this problem in a future firmware upgrade.
On: 2001-12-09
To start, this DVD player seems a mystery to me. It has all the features (besides Progressive Scan) that [many of the more expensive] DVD players have. It has MP3 playback, VCD, HDCD, DVD, you know the rest, yet it is sooo CHEAP! And it comes with all the cables. It comes with batteries. Its instruction book is so easy to understand. It doesnt overheat DVDs. It doesnt skip. It is amazing! So why the [modest] price tag (IT seems so cheap)! Well simply, because it is a no name brand that doesnt need to advertise or put their DVD player on magazine covers with silver special effects. It is possibly the best DVD player you can buy. It works excellent. It is great, and soo cheap. Everyone who doesnt want to spend a lot on a REALLY TOP OF THE LINE dvd player, with progressive scan and the works, GET THIS ONE. It is soooo great and I am very happy with it.
by: Anonymous On: 2001-12-01
(...)! Ohh and its quite normal that a DVD gets hot even VERY hot AHH burns ur cheeks kinda hot! ohh, it plays mp3s OK but not great, MP3s can sound a little distorted if not encoded in joint sterio, but i found if i put it on just left, or just right,(depending on the song,) it sonds fine, *DVD playback, would get a 3.8 out of 5, i have not used the S-Video cable but this systmem dose not not Multi scan the disc, thats why if ur DVDs are all scrached up, it looks fuzzy, or skippy/distroted, i take GREAT care of my DVDs, but have rented some, and have seen it skip. Dont give a DVD player to a bunch of little ones, WOOPS! there gose the DVD tray! ect., Over all rateing, 4.7 / 5.0 GREAT BUY, I am VERY happy with my DVD player by APEX. The Knowledgeble One
15 (years old)
On: 2001-11-30
I have been researching several DVD/MP3/NTSC/PAL players, and I am not sure what the use is for the PAL format? Does one need a PAL TV or will a converter handle this. AND how will I know if my TV can handle PAL conversion or the converter.If anyone can respond, much appreciated. Just dont understand the use for PAL being that it is overseas, mainly Europe used. thanks!
On: 2001-11-30
I own an Apex unit, and while it serves its purpose, it is lacking in a few departments. It has a zoom function, which works well enough, and an internal volume control which is also handy.
A few issues though: The RCA audio output level is relativly low, meaning you need to crank your receiver up pretty high. There is also a small glitch with the subtitles; after using the pause/rewind/fast-forward functions, the subtitles automatically turn on. (A minor glitch, but can be a real pain.)
The unit will play MP3s, but only if they were burned on a recordable MUSIC CDRom, NOT a data CDRom.
Its a great entry level unit, if youre not looking for a pro-level consumer unit.
by: Anonymous On: 2001-11-29
I bought the Apex 3201 last week. It delivers clear, defined movies for me any family to enjoy. It has special features such as zoom capability, screen playback and skipping features. It is inexpensive and made with quality. It rates up there with Panasonic to me--but it costs much less!
by: Anonymous On: 2001-11-27
I purchased this player for my fathers birthday. It was simple to connect, and played most discs well, but we found that longer movies, such as The Godfather, didnt play as well towards the end, as they began to skip. Upon removal of the disc, it was very warm, which I have been told, is not the norm for DVDs. All in all, it is a good player for the money, and I would recomend it to anyone who is living on a budget, but needs a DVD player.
by: Anonymous On: 2001-11-25
This machine has features on machines costing much more, and some that they dont even have. A zoom function is included which many machines even costing more do not have. Another nice feature is the remote has a type of volume control, many DVD remotes have absolutely no way to control volume meaning the need for two remotes by the armchair. The remote here controls the audio output from the DVD. Even though a universal remote would be better this works adequately. So far I have had no problems with the machine, playing DVDs and CDs flawlessly. I have no experience with playing MP3s. The inexpensive price is quite a plus too. Highly recommended
On: 2001-11-25
Apex has done it again, came out with a product thats affordable and still allows you to " keep up with the Jones " This is an excellent player for the price and I would recommend it to anyone. The AD-3201 has lots of versatilities ranging from the sound outputs, the ntsc & pal and not to mention it being firmwire upgradable. I also think the remote is easy to learn and use. All around good purchase!!!
On: 2001-11-25
I compared 6 DVD players (...) The Apex had more features then most (including the...sony) and is compatable with the most CD formats. I am buying this as a gift for two young kids....Ill let you know how it holds up.
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