Apex AD-1500 DVD Player
Piece of Junk is an Understatement
Two years ago I purchased the Apex AD-600a and was quite pleased to have dvd and mp3 playback capability in one player.  Although the audio quality was not fantastic, the video quality was pretty good for the price.  I have since upgraded to a Technics DVD-Audio player so I don't have that unit anymore.  I traded it to a friend of mine and he reports that it is still playing quite well with absolutely no problems whatsoever.<br />Okay, enough about the ad-600a.....<br />I recently purchased the Apex AD-1500 as a gift for someone that has no A/V Receiver and does not care too much about sound quality and/or dvd player bells and whistles.  Basically it was to be used in a simple setup with just a television and nothing else.  I was hesitant to buy this product based on a) the low price, b) poor build quality, and c)reviews indicating problems such as a tray defect (not opening) and read errors(of scratched media).<br />Against my better judgment, I bought the dern thing.<br />Because the gift recipient isn't all that skilled with electronics, I offered to hook it up and make sure it worked (I was extremely worried it wouldn't after reading these reviews).<br />After installing the needed audio cords and powering the device up I tested the eject button with the remote.  No response.  At first I thought it was the batteries.  Nope.  I tried over and over and no response.  I tried the eject on the player.  No response.  One of the above reviews noted a similar defect, but that reviewer managed to manually tweek the tray open and then it seemed to be okay after that. I gave it a try, and it worked!<br />Now frustrated, I wasn't expecting much. I grabbed a DVD and put it in.  I closed the tray, the 'load' indicator came up, then the display indicated 'no disc.'  I tried reloading the disc repeatedly, checking for any potential oversights on my part, and got nowhere.  I then tried a music cd for kicks, and got the same 'no disc' problem.  Neither disc was scratched, and neither disc was recognized by the player.  I have NEVER had a disc loading error on my Technics.  Can you say, DISAPPOINTED!<br />Angry and somewhat embarrassed, I apologized to the recipient and packaged the thing up.  I will be returning it tomorrow, and will never again buy an Apex product.  My fault I guess - you get what you pay for...but then again, for about a hundred bucks you'd think we could watch at least one movie before it broke down!either disc was recognized by the player.  I have NEVER had a disc loading error on my Technics.  Can you say, DISAPPOINTED!<br />Angry and somewhat embarrassed, I apologized to the recipient and packaged the thing up.  I will be returning it tomorrow, and will never again buy an Apex product.  My fault I guess - you get what you pay for...but then again, for about a hundred bucks you'd think we could watch at least one movie before it broke down!