Apex AD-3201 DVD Player
A Very Big Disappointment
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 DVD's and MP3's. I hooked it up to my 27&quot; Hitachi that also has a lot of &quot;bells and whistles.&quot; 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 &quot;Power&quot; 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 DVD's 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 wasn't 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 wasn't impressed. They didn't 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 MP3's, as the TV volume would be extremely loud. For the same volume level as the TV set to &quot;18,&quot; the MP3's had to be set to &quot;40.&quot; (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).<BR> The Apex AD-3201 played MP3's burned as low as 32kbps to ones burned as high as 320kbps. The one glaring problem with this unit was that it &quot;stuttered&quot; 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 camel's back. I just couldn't put up with that. Some will say that maybe I burned the MP3's 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.<BR> I got onto Apex's 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.<BR> 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 can't emphasize that enough. I was surprised there was that much of a difference. The Daewoo never &quot;stutters&quot; before any of the MP3 songs like the Apex does. I didn't have to crank the volume control up on the Daewoo like I did the Apex. Without another DVD player to compare the Apex playerwith, I would not have realized the shortcomings of the Apex AD-3201. I'm 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, I'm 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. You'd be surprised what a little added reverb can do to anyone's voice. I put an Elvis tune in, and &quot;Thank you, ah thank you very much!&quot;