«

>Why? Nerd-out.com has an easy tutoring on adjusting the spring so that
>it works again. Pretty easy to do. You canalso turn the machine off
>with a disk in it & back on & it should recognize it again.

This isn't always the case, especially with Apex.

I've worked a quite a few Apex machines before. All I can say is that they
suck, in terms of their build quality and the low quality of a lot of the
components they use.

The only other brand that I find worse than Apex is Oritron. - Reinhart

In article <>,
(LASERandDVDfan) wrote:

> I've worked a quite a few Apex machines before. All I can say is that they
> suck, in terms of their build quality and the low quality of a lot of the
> components they use.
>
> The only other brand that I find worse than Apex is Oritron. - Reinhart

What about AMW's? I've seen those selling at Circuit City for $30. I
would imagine they must be pretty shoddy.
--
BL

(LASERandDVDfan) wrote in message news:<>...

> The next player you should buy ought to be a Panasonic, Sony, Toshiba, Pioneer,
> or JVC. Don't bother with anything else.

Just some comments...


I own a Panasonic, and sure it was a great player back when it used to
recognize dual-layered discs. I never bought another Panasonic because
of fear of this same thing happening, but apparently this only
happened on certain models, and I had that model. Well now I have my
A120 in storage.

I bought a Toshiba too but brought it back because I thought I was
experiencing audio sync problems. And I was talked into paying 10
dollars more for a JVC model. What a mistake! Its a slim version with
a goldish outer casing. The guy at the electronics store said, stay
away from Sony, go ahead with JVC because afterall they "invented
VHS". And just what does that have to do with DVD? Anyways, I guess I
got talked into it. Usually I don't listen to those people. The remote
sucks, and the on-screen displays look like something one would find
on a cheap player. First off, it doesn't indicate what kind of audio
is playing. No indication of Dolby Digital or how many channels are
being used. Doesn't indicate if the audio is in English, Spanish or
whatever. And it doesn't even indicate what language the subtitles are
in! What a lousy player! Oh but it does show the bitstream rate -
whoop-de-doo! I sure hope JVC has changed its on-screen displays since
then, cause they surely do suck!

Of couse, this is just my opinion. Yours probably differs.

>Just some comments...

And, for the record, my comments apply to new players only (which I should have
mentioned before), where manufacturing of DVD players from Japanese
manufacturers has matured to the point where players are more reliable now than
they were before and are superior by a significant magnitude to the low-end
junk that most people seem content with.

Also, my comments stem from an overall evaluation from many people's
experiences, not just my own, which not only include playback but repair
experience as well.

>I own a Panasonic, and sure it was a great player back when it used to
>recognize dual-layered discs. I never bought another Panasonic because
>of fear of this same thing happening, but apparently this only
>happened on certain models, and I had that model. Well now I have my
>A120 in storage.

DVD-A120? Figures, but you were fortunate. You could have bought a DVD-A110
or, worse yet the DVD-A100! The biggest problem with those players: failing
laser pickups.

Panasonic only started making reliable players when the forth generation models
came out, starting with the DVD-RV30. Panasonic makes some of the best DVD
players now. Reliability is markedly improved over the previous generations
and they make their own MPEG engines, which are excellent.

>I bought a Toshiba too but brought it back because I thought I was
>experiencing audio sync problems.

And the model number and year of purchase?

Again, Toshiba is one of the manufacturers that has improved, although some of
their older players were pretty good, like the SD-1200.

Although, players with the SD-2700 mainboard had problems due to capacitors
C927, C928, and C929 failing, but those are easy to fix and the mainboard
version in question has been replaced a long time ago.

The only big problem with Toshiba players is that quite a few of them,
especially the low end models, use the Zoran Vaddis series of MPEG engines.
They aren't bad, but they have a problem with the chroma upsampling error, but
this is a problem only if you know what to look for and can notice it. The
biggest problem is that Toshiba players tend to introduce the "jaggies" when
they downconvert 16:9 anamorphic video for use on standard 4:3 displays.

>And I was talked into paying 10
>dollars more for a JVC model. What a mistake! Its a slim version with
>a goldish outer casing.>The remote
>sucks, and the on-screen displays look like something one would find
>on a cheap player.

JVC's weakpoint is questionable ergonomics. Other than that, they are
excellent players in terms of picture and sound quality, and they are fairly
reliable players to boot. Your complaints about JVC stem from the fact that
they are not user-friendly. But, where are the complaints about reliability
and picture quality? JVC players generally use Mediamatics MPEG engines, which
are good.

And, yes, I do agree that the salesman was full of it when he tried to equate
VHS with DVD. Although, JVC is still a good recommendation because they make
good DVD players, ergonomic issues aside.

>Of couse, this is just my opinion. Yours probably differs.

Considerably, as well as which opinions are more accurate.

The problem with Apex players, and others, are far greater than those you've
mentioned.

They use cheap materials, typically with very loose tolerances. This is
particularly true with their power supplies.

They also typically use cheaper disc drives from a Chinese or Taiwanese
supplier, which usually don't last any appreciable amount of time.

Various parts of the player, such as the audio and video process sections, are
not as carefully designed, which results in picture and sound quality that
pales to players from more reputable manufacturers. The fact that substandard
parts are used along with a design that just merely works only exacerbates the
situation. As an example, did you ever see the audio frequency response range
that a typical Apex DVD player has? Not pretty!

The only three things that makes the no-name players desirable is the fact that
you can get a few of them to play just about anything, are really cheap, and
that they will still have better picture quality than VHS. Other than those
points, I see no redeeming value in any of these players, especially if you
want the best possible quality DVD playback without breaking the bank on a
Meridian. - Reinhart

>What about AMW's? I've seen those selling at Circuit City for $30. I
>would imagine they must be pretty shoddy.
>--

I've never heard of them before! Then again, at $30 a piece, you're probably
right! - Reinhart

In article <>,
(LASERandDVDfan) wrote:

> DVD-A120? Figures, but you were fortunate. You could have bought a DVD-A110
> or, worse yet the DVD-A100! The biggest problem with those players: failing
> laser pickups.

Yep. That's what happened to my DVD-A110. Although it took over 3 years
of heavy use for that to happen. It was a very solid, reliable player up
until that point.
--
BL

>Yep. That's what happened to my DVD-A110. Although it took over 3 years
>of heavy use for that to happen. It was a very solid, reliable player up
>until that point.
>--

There is a thing that makes up for this problem, though. Panasonic went head
over heels to satisfy a lot of people who had those problems.

I also have a DVD-A110 which stopped working. Even though it was out of
warranty, Panasonic went ahead and repaired it anyways, completely free of
charge, when I asked their customer service about the problem.

Right now, it sits as a spare until my current player, a Sony DVP-S360, bites
the dust.

If people lost faith in Panasonic because of this player, it would be restored
because Panasonic seems willing to take care of their customers.

Not all cases end like this, but it seems a lot of them involving the affected
players do, either with a free repair of the player or a free replacement. -
Reinhart