Apex DRX9000 Progressive-Scan DVD Player/Recorder
By: Apex Average Rating: 2.0 Total Reviews: 34
More Information
 On: 2005-01-04
I have two of these units and they perform great after flashing the firmware and having the power supply upgraded. Some have problems with overheating and need a second fan installed. More information on repairs and upgrades can be found at www.nerd-out.com/forum/ and www.drx9000repair.netfirms.com.
 On: 2004-11-11
A major theme with the DRX 9000 is a very high failure rate for the power supply. My unit was no exception. Shortly after having the power supply fixed the DVD read/write unit went out. Its pretty much a piece of junk right now. I bought mine from Walmart for $264, I see they no longer carry it. I would stay far away from this one.
Dave
On: 2004-11-10
A major theme with the DRX 9000 is a very high failure rate for the power supply. My unit was no exception. Shortly after having the power supply fixed the DVD read/write unit went out. Its pretty much a piece of junk right now. I bought mine from Walmart for $264, I see they no longer carry it. I would stay far away from this one.
Dave
 On: 2004-10-14
Let me first start off by saying that I like my other Apex DVD players. They are cheap, and do a good job playing DVDs. However, I have 2 of these and both of them have died due to the powersupply. I got the first one and it did fine until IC2 on the power supply blew about 1 and 1/2 years after I bought it. So I got another one thinking it was just a one time issue. That one lasted about 3 months and then went dark. I would not suggest this product to anyone. It is worth about 3-6 months of DVD viewing/recording and then poof... dead. Im currently in the process of contacting Apex to see if they will provide me some wiring diagrams so I know what voltages go where. Then Ill connect some small PC power supplies to my 2 units and they should then be fine.
On: 2004-07-13
As all the others, my power supply just died as well. They wanted $99 for me to fix this inferior product.Stay clear
 On: 2004-05-24
I love this unit. My wife bought it for me as a Christmas gift in 2003. I have it hooked up to a DIRECTV set top box recieving HDTV. The recording quality it perfect. Well worth the money in my opinion.I went onto the APEX web site and got the firmware upgrade, which as easy to install in the unit. Simply copy the firmware on a CD via their web site and load into the DVD player and it will upgrade itself.
On: 2004-04-21
There is a major known issue with this machine. It seems that the capacitors for the power supply are nothing but trash. Many people are having problems with these units not powering up after about 90 days or so. Apex will repair the unit, but you have to call them, wait on hold for over an hour (long distance I might add) then pay to ship it to them, and pay for labor if its more than 90 days from purchase. My advise, run away from this machine as fast as you can.
by: Anonymous On: 2004-03-16
Let me first say that I have never before regretted purchasing any electronic device in my entire life. With that said, I regret purchasing the DRX9000. This piece of...electronics, is not worthy of even the minimum 1 star rating. The programmable event timer may or may not record your TV shows. The resulting DVD+RW that contains your shows may or may not be viewable. Even if there is video of the recorded shows, it may or may not match the actual audio of the program. I will never again purchase an APEX product. (I may even have to go back to...yes, VHS Recording.)
On: 2004-03-10
Mine worked ok for a few weeks but sadly, like many others, mine too turned itself off to never wake again. To make matters worse my 4th season Soprannos disk was trapped hopelessly inside the now usless POS. Of course it is out of warranty. Apex will never get another dime of my money.
On: 2004-02-21
Purchased the unit about 3 months ago, plugged it in and was able to start playing a DVD. Within a couple of minutes, the whole thing went dead and would not power back up. And my DVD was still inside! Sent the unit back to Apex at my expense and could not check up on the status via their website, nor with phone calls. Finally, about 6 weeks later, they shipped it back to me in my same packaging and stuffings (a DELL monitor box, no doubt!), yet not one word or message within the box to let me know what was going on. So far, the unit is now playing DVDs, but I have YET to get it to format a disc in preparation to use, thereby rendering this unit useless. Apex should give up on anything other than cheap TVs, VCRs and DVD players.
by: Anonymous On: 2004-02-08
It completley quit working after month. no power, no menu, no anything. I was able to return it to the retail store. I used the money towards a Philips DVD burner.
by: Anonymous On: 2004-02-01
Several months ago I had purchased a DVD Recorder at a local Walmart store in North Carolina, and sent it home while I was on active duty. When I got home I found that this device functioned for a minute then died. I went to my local Walmart at Mayaguez, PR but the manager did not want to accept the return since the item was not in stock in Puerto Rico. I had to return it directly to APEX but noticed that almost two months later I hadent received a reply or the recorder. During this period I had tried calling them several times but was always put on hold for at least half an hour. After at least ten calls I was finally able to talk with someone. The new recorder arrived several days before the warranty expired and the new recorder lasted three week before it died. It exploded and burned strange as this may sound. If the warranty on this product where more then 90 days the company would most likely go bankrupt. I dont recomend this product to anyone and customer support needs a lot of improving.
On: 2004-01-31
I bought my husband this item for Christmas from Sears. We had the same exact problem as Jefsav had with his. My husband used the recorder four times, and after he ejected the disk the last time, the unit shut itself off, never to be powered up again. We took the unit back to Sears and although it had been under the Christmas tree and not in use, they said we had "had it too long" to give us a refund so they replaced it with the exact same model. After exactly four uses, it did the same thing. This time we took it back and got a refund since we had only had this one for a week and there wasnt much hope of a third one working any better.
by: Anonymous On: 2004-01-04
....If Apex took out the word recorder out of the title, then the unit would be fine and dandy...However, I should have known that the price and features were too good to be true....I shouldnt have stepped down to a lower brand name....
The manual sounds like it was written by someone who was learning English at the time....and the controls arent matched with the manuals instructions....
I dont know what it means to upgrade or whatever to a DVD recorder....it isnt a computer so where is the software going to go?...The feature list sounds impressive...and that is about the only thing that is impressive...
The manual goes on and on about how to play and switch from one title to another and move between chapters, assuming that someone who has actually purchased the unit for the purpose of creating DVDs has no idea how to play a DVD in a player.
It records for about 3 seconds and then goes into pause mode because of some copy protection, and this when Im trying to record a tape from a camcorder.....
I think Apex should include a gift certificate for a tank of gas for all the trips back and forth to the store to return these products.....one of which is going back tomorrow....Apex makes items that are technologically advanced if youre comparing them to the rotting carcass of a billy goat....!
by: Anonymous On: 2004-01-03
This DVD recorder was a great price and after I got the free upgrade from Apex, I can record onto DVD all my old VHS tapes. I have had NO PROBLEMS and it is SIMPLE TO USE!!!
On: 2003-12-04
A note to Christopher, turn on autochapter and it will chapter for you. Thats what I did with my Apex and it works like a charm.
I have experienced a few of these from my friends and everyone expects too much from these standalone DVD recorders, it isnt a PC with a DVD recordable drive in it. There are limitations to its capabilities. If it had everything like a PC, it would cost ... well as much as a PC solution.
Hey, Mr. Li, even with a PC DVD recordable setup, not every player ever built will be able to play your recorded DVDs from a PC.
Do you think that this situation will change someday soon? NOT ! Every standard that is in place today (including the DVD format standard), is open to every companys interpretation, and YES even Sony, Panasonic, HP, etc etc have their own interpretations too.
On: 2003-12-01
I bought this from Sears. It quit working completely after a month. The power would not come on at all. It also will not fastfoward its own recording off of television but 2 x when it supposed to either ff or rewind up 36 x. The manual is hard to understand as well.
On: 2003-11-24
I spent about two hours to tranfer 2 hours long Hi8 Tape to a DVD disk. The DVD disk does not play on any DVD players( A SONY VHS/DVD Combo and SONY 5 DVD changer and a old Pioneer DVD aply), except on it self. what a waste of my time and DVD disk!
On: 2003-11-11
I bought this unit...with hopes of having a faster way of converting home movies to DVD faster than it would take using a computer capture card and program and waiting for it to render the entire DVD movie. The manual was confusing to figure out how to setup the player/recorder and once I got my vcr to send a signal to the DVD recorder it ended up looking like a cable box signal when its scrambled. The picture quality wasnt quite as bad as that but it certainly jumped around and flickered in and out. Definitely not something people wanna watch. The picture input was not stable at all coming from a vcr and I do not mean copyrighted materials, but personal home movies. However its ability to take antenna signals and save them to DVD was great. I had no quams about that part. The user-interface was quite confusing. One thing I did NOT like about recording to DVD on this machine was that there is no way of telling the recorder to start a new dvd chapter as youre recording. You have to hit stop recording and then start again, which does not make for a seamless footage dvd...
by: Anonymous On: 2003-11-11
About 2 months ago I an Apex DVD Recorder DRX 9000 off ebay and was very excited because now I can transfer my tapes to DVDs. When I got it I tried it out. Recording from TV signals the quality was great. I tried it from a video signal it was lousy due to Macrovision copyright. So I called Apex for an upgrade CD to removed the Macrovision which did. When I recorded from the video signal the quality was wasnt the best but decent. The video signal recording was working until after 2 days when I tried it again it kept pausing and said paused by copy protection which means the CD didnt do any good. (...). I went ahead a much excellent recorder a Panasonic DMR-E20 which records from video signals perfectly. Whoever gave this machine a 5 star rating, what are you thinking? At was wondering why people was knocking it here but when I tried it out I see why.
by: Anonymous On: 2003-11-06
I was greatly looking forward to getting this DVD recorder. I thoroughly researched the category and thought Apex had an outstanding price.Only one problem. This DVD recorder is awful. It has a terrible menu system and remote control. The recorder had a lot of problems and I could never get Apex on the phone. I returned it. There was one positive, though. When the machine did actually record a DVD properly, the picture quality was excellent.
by: Anonymous On: 2003-11-03
I usually am more subtle in my reviews, but I want to say upfront: do *not* buy this DVD recorder. The user interface is extremely unintuitive and confusing. Even when you do figure it out, youll still find yourself wanting to scream - and I mean scream - when the machine starts flashing the word "invalid" in the middle of everything you try to do. Even after you learn to suffer through, youll find that the machine frequently forgets all of your settings anyway. How can you schedule your recordings if the machine forgets the settings? You cant. We heard that due to a glitch if you want to keep your settings you cannot actually turn off the machine. So we tried that, too. It still forgot our settings anyway. After returning the first unit, we tried another. We encountered the same issues which make the unit completely unusable.
On: 2003-10-08
Believe those unfavorable comments about freeze, hang-up, and others!System would freeze completely. Youd have to unplug the system to reset to get your disk out. What is most ridiculous thing is Apexs customer service: it would take you at least 30 minutes on hold before picking up the phone. And, instead of providing you any help on the phone, I guessed the only service they provide is to ask you to return the item for exchange. The operator does not know anything, zip, about the product and the problem! Dont waste your time (for transit) and money (return shipping and insurance.) And dont listen to those favorable comments. It¡¦s probably an INSIDE job. Never have had problem with Amazons order before, and this is the first time. Now I am having reserve when ordering from Amazon again. Kind of surprised that Amazon would place its reputation with such low quality product and supplier!
On: 2003-10-05
It is a grat player, But it stopped working 93 days later. Guess what day the warranty ended? I like all that it did. It didnt play VCDs after the update. But w/o the update, the picture was off.The manager at Wallmart let me trade out with the Demo after she saw I was out 400 bucks. I hope it last. The demo now has quit on me. NEVER AGAIN
by: Anonymous On: 2003-09-26
The first machine Shipped to me had the same problem listed in other reviews, that it did not hold setup inputs when the machine was put on standby mode. I sent it back and requested a replacement. The second unit worked perfectly. I reset the record input mode, put it on standby, Turned it back on and it was still set the way I set it. It seems Apex has some units out there with this problem. The record and playbacks were perfectly clear and crisp. The Audio was excellant also. I would recommend this unit for the price, However I would keep returning it until you get one that works properly. Also by reading these reviews I was able to download the upgrade patch and install it. I THINK APEX NEEDS A BETTER QUALITY CONTROL DEPARTMENT BEFORE SENDING UNITS OUT TO RETAIL
On: 2003-09-22
I pre-ordered the DRX9000 and waited almost 3 months for delivery. Setup of the machine was easy. Thats where the fun stopped.
I used a secondary AV source for the input. And again connection instructions were well-detailed and easy to follow.
I purchased the DRX9000 originally because of the some 11 formats it would be able to read and play. I could only get the machine to play audio CDs. It was totally incapable of playing any DVD of any format. One of three things happened: 1. the machine froze and locked; 2. the TV monitor was cleared of picture; or 3.the machine displayed the word Hello in the display and froze. In all three cases the only solution was to unplug the machine. The freezing occurred continually. The machine would freeze within 5 minutes of starting any DVD. If you attempted to select a title or use FastForward it would immediately freeze when Play was selected.
The remote did little. Its basic functions did not perform and it kept displaying invalid on the tv monitor.
I never attempted to copy or use the write/rewrite features. I boxed it up within 24 hours and shipped it back. Save yourself time and money and try a different manufacturer.
On: 2003-09-14
I wrote a good review of this machine for another site. I have had one for just three weeks, and it replaced a Magnavox which was so unreliable I took it back. I was impressed with the Apex although I agree with previous posters that it is more complicated to use than it should be. I put up with the fan, the lousy remote control and the clock dying with every little power blip, because the picture is really good and the ability to record DVD+RW is fantastic.Or it would be if the thing worked. Yesterday I pressed the power button (the machine was on standby) and the display vanished. The machine died, totally. Nothing. Nada. No power, no lights, no sound at all. I called Apex who told me theyd had a lot of trouble with this model (at least they are honest) and that they were soon releasing a better version. I took it back to the store and got a full refund. My advice - dont buy one. Another reviewer on this page had the same dead unit problem, and Apex confess its not unusual. At least mine didnt have a disc inside when it fell over. I agree with the previous reviewer, the technology is still in its infancy and it would be better to wait a few months to buy something which is more reliable and probably cheaper. Seems other DVD Recorders are not much better, my Magnavox died and so did another reviewers Philips. I have more sense than to go with the dying DVD-Ram or -R formats, Panasonic take note. People who buy those are going to end up like the Beta users - great system, no support. Felicia
by: Anonymous On: 2003-09-07
This machine is good for the money, but dont expect it to be fantastic. DVD set-top technology is still immature and this machine is initially quite confusing to use. I had the Philips/Magnavox DVD+RW unit prior to this and it was much more intuitive, just more ugly (and it died totally after 2 weeks, which is why I exchanged it for the Apex). The Apex has worked fine for a month now, and overall Im pleased with it.So what is it? I opened it up (I dont care about the warranty sticker) to find its a basic computer NEC ND1100A DVD+RW drive exactly as youd get in your PC, complete with IDE connector and standard power plug. The rest of the circuitry is LSI and effectively an embedded PC/Display unit. This is why it takes fifteen seconds to "boot" when you power it on. It also has one really nasty feature that you dont know about till you get it home - a huge noisy fan on the back which makes it sound like having your PC on all the time. I plan to fit a quieter fan. The manual is amusing. The writer clearly doesnt speak English and it is full of inaccuracies. Regionalisation is an issue for me, I have R1 and R2 DVDS (lots of them). This unit is strictly Region 1 and so far there is no region patch. I suspect that there never will be, because that PC DVD+RW drive is internally regionalised (RPC2) and the average set-top user will never know how to put it in a PC and patch its firmware. I did - its RPC1 now - but the APEX still refuses R2 discs so I guess its own operating system needs patching too. Interestingly, you can both record and play (multi-region) discs with a PAL signal, the circuitry handles the color perfectly but you lose the bottom 100 lines of the picture. The mpeg-2 compression is performed on the input, so you can see on your TV what your picture will be like before recording. The Apex brightens the picture and can "flare-out" on very bright shots. Recording from digital cable, which is already mpeg2 compressed, can be somewhat disappointing occasionally. A bad cable picture is made marginally worse. A good cable picture doesnt show degradation at all. Quality overall is very good; I would like the ability to choose other compression levels since EP is not quite good enough and SP doesnt record more than 2hrs 10 minutes. A halfway setting would be great. The forgetful memory is no problem if you invest in a cheap computer UPS ($40) to power it. Im very happy with my unit despite its limitations. It has enabled me to save all my precious VHS tapes to DVD without messing with PC capture cards, which are still too flaky to be valuable despite the marketing blurb. For recording programs off cable its great. Its compatibility with set-top and PC is first class and you can manipulate its VOB files on your PC with no trouble. I know if its drive packs up, I can just buy another one and put it in the case. Another couple of issues - it will only FF/FRW its own DVD+RW discs at 2x. This is odd, commercial DVDs can be FF/FRW at 16x, and the +RW work at any speed in other players. And I dont like having to switch through all the inputs to go from play mode to monitor/record. The Philips "monitor" button was great. Also dont expect to insert a blank disk and hit record, you have to press record about three times with a wait inbetween each press before its ready to go. I usually record a little video and then re-erase the disc before recording anything important so I know it will record without delay. Apex still produce their units with a poorly designed remote control. Sling it out and buy a learning universal remote. One last gripe -that big blue power LED is just too bright! Mine is covered with a piece of black sticky tape. Bottom line - if you can put up with the noisy fan, R1/NTSC only, complicated menu and forgetful memory, its great value for money. However if you dont need a set-top DVD recorder just yet, wait six months or so and the technology will have matured. Prices should fall too. But dont invest in DVD-R or DVD-RAM, those formats are already losing ground. If anyone from APEX reads this, take heart - its a good product, just spoiled with irritations. Fix those, and youve got an excellent machine.
On: 2003-09-06
I wrote a previous rating on this giving it a medium rating. Not this time. Woke up to a totally dead machine. No indication, no power on, no eject, nothing. What really bums me is that it has one of my dvds hostage and I cant get it to give it up. In contact with APEX but dont see anyway to get it out. Tried unplugging and then plugging back in about an hour later. No good. Fortunately still under warrenty. Only had it a month.
by: Anonymous On: 2003-08-27
I agree with gr. Losing all your settings shows lack of foresight of the developers of this machine. I was going to contact Apex about this, but you answered my questions. Still, a good machine for the money, and once the firmware was upgraded, the instability on the VHS input went away.
 On: 2003-08-13
For the features and price the DRX9000 DVD recorder is a very good buy. It has a great picture plus digital sound. It is even better when used with HD progressive scan TV. Audio CDs sound great played on this unit too.I have not had any problems recording or playing back the DVD+R or +RW disc. Also, the recorded disc play just fine in my computer DVD drive.
There is one thing I would like to say to potentail buyers, or someone who has just purchased a new DRX9000. There is a hookup flyer that comes in the box with the DRX9000, that states, Do not connect this DVD recorder to a VCR or TV/VCR combination, it will cause picture distortion. APEX has addressed this problem with a firmware update. You can download this file off their web site and burn your own disc, or contact them by telephone and they will send you a disc with the new firmware update on it. This update takes about 20 to 30 seconds to do, and it works.
Anybody thinking about purchasing a new DVD recorder that has great features and good price. I would highly recommend the Apex DRX9000.
On: 2003-08-09
I guess you pay for what you get is the thing here.Theres no time shift option, so you cant watch the begining while recording the end, but thats ok it doesnt ever advertise this and it wasnt a feature i was desperate to pay another 100 for. What really bothers me is the fact that the setup only stores the programs i want to watch (timer function) and input preferences (such as default input source/tv type, etc.) while the machine is on. Whenever i put the recorder in to standby (via remote) it lost all my settings. I thought this might be a faulty machine as ive never come across anything like this before. I called Apex and they said that this was normal - the machine they told me was supposed to be fully on all the time. I asked what the standby function on the remote was for and they said to save power when youre not using it. But they said yes it will lose the settings if you do this. I said this was really strange and they guy said "yes its really out of order isnt it". Im hoping that someone at Apex realises what the heck is going on and releases a firmware upgrade to sort this out. The one released on 8/8/03 doesnt seem to do much with regard to display options, etc. Id love to recommend this - it does appear to be a nice machine and is so much cheaper than its rivals, but until they get the setup feature sorted out its going to be a loser im afraid. APEX!!!! LISTEN UP AND FIX THIS ISSUE!!! IF MY POWER GOES OUT, OR I ACCIDENTLY PRESS THE STANDY BUTTON ON THE REMOTE DONT WANT TO HAVE TO RESET EVERY SETTING!!! I WOULD ADD TO ANYONE WHO ALSO HAS A UNIT TO CONFIRM WITH ME THAT THIS IS INDEED THE CASE WITH THIER MACHINES - IM SO STRUCK DUMB ABOUT THIS I STILL CANT BELIEVE IT! - contact me Many thanks
On: 2003-08-09
No much to say it the Design is very nice and the performances are as promised!
On: 2003-08-06
This is a good dvd recorder. I can record movies and set the timer to record when i want. This has definatly replaced my vcr. It also has progressive scan for my hdtv.
On: 2003-07-19
I purchased this item off of another website and sent it back the day after it arrived. (At least the Philips model will work for a couple of weeks.) This unit will only record programs off the air. You CANNOT record anything from your VCR, and this has nothing to do with copy protection. This unit will not allow you to convert your VHS tapes to DVD. There is even a flyer inside the box proudly touting this little defect. So in other words, I quickly found that the DRX9000 only does half of what a DVD recorder should do. If youre assuming that it must at least do that much well, youre wrong. It has an intolerable synchronization problem. For example, when you play back a disc, you see an actors lips moving and hear what he says about 2 seconds later. Garbage.
|
|
