Ok, I had a Apex DVD player. The cheapest one. It was 55$ and it did everything I wanted my DVD player to do. It played VCD’s, SVCD’s, MP3s, JPG slideshows and of course DVD’s. It had a crappy interface for the MP3s and it had no front display. But it did the job. Then it broke. 7 months or so after purchase. So I went back to my old DVD player that was pre-VCD’s being relativly mainstream. Unfortanatly for me, I have ahem aquired a LOT of VCD’s. So my wife picks up a JVC Progressive Scan DVD player from Sams yesterday. It plays the MP3 disks fine. It plays DVD’s fine, good quality good ergonomics. It does NOT play VCD’s or JPG disks. Or at least thats what I though. It DID play a VCD my wife burned that had menu’s(other than that it was burned the same as all my other VCD’s). So we have decided to take back the DVD player and get one that will play my existing collection of VCDs. I KNOW that Apex DVD players will play my VCD’s, but the one I got broke so quickly, I’d feel kind of stupid going back to them. I know a couple of other people with better Apex DVD players and TVs and they love them, good cheap, cheap, electronics. So what are my options here:
A.Keep the JVC and reburn my collection of VCD’s (maybe 40 to 50 disks, maybe even more)
B.Get a Apex DVD player again and hope I’m not throwing more money away
C.Find out a decent DVD player that will play my VCD’s and get that
I think C is my best bet. So what say you dopers? Whats a goo DVD player that will meet my needs.
Info:VCD’s burned using a LiteOn 45X burner using whatever media is on sale when I need blank disks. Nero 5.5.9.13 is my burning program of choice. XP pro is the OS, umm AMD Barton XP2500+ is the cpu, biostar KT400 mobo, 512PC3200 Kingston… you probably don’t need all that.
I’ve got no idea about your problems, but I thought I’d toss my own problems on here seeing as the electro-geeks should be showing up.
We have a Sony DVD player, lest than 1 year old. We frequently experience a problem where it skips or locks up while watching rented movies. The scene will freeze up, and not fast forward or play from that point. We have to skip to the next scene, and then rewind to a point just after where it froze.
It does not happen every time, and does not happen after a specific period of use. My assumption is that the discs are dirty or damaged, but I am unsure how to tell, and how to possibly clean them.
How do we troubleshoot to see if the problem is with the machine or the particular rented disc?
Apologies for piggy-backing on your thread, dead0man!
Apex is pretty much the bottom of the barrel for DVD players. They’re crammed full of features but made in China using the cheapest parts and labor.
There are feature-competitive DVD players that use better quality parts. Magnavox for one. Just go to a retailer that has units on display, take a few example discs with you (one VCD, one JPG, one mp3) and try them in the unit. Buy the unit that plays all three discs well.
The box for the JVC said it plays them and it did, but only the one with a menu screen. None of mine were burned that way. I will check out the link, thanks minor7flat5.
Go buy 2 things. A new movie, and a DVD lens cleaner. If you have glitches playing a brand new movie on a freshly cleaned player, throw it in the garbage and buy a new one. (See post above)
You could fix it, but they are so inexpensive these days that you pick up a sparkling new one and get more features to boot.
It will play compliant VCDs with a menu screen, but not compliant VCDs without a menu? That’s just bizarre. What happens when you try to put a non-menu VCD in the player? Have you tried pressing other buttons (e.g. the number “1”) to get it to play?
It says “Non-Playable Disk” and I’ve tried everything. I certainly wasnt expecting a problem like that. Apperently I’m not the only one, it has to do with the way Nero burned the VCD’s I guess. There is no PCB button on my remote or in any of the assorted menus. The manual is less helpful than most electronics manuals. I’ve actually allready ordered a Magnavox online after doing some research on minor7flat5’s link.
Funny, I’ve had my Apex player for nearly 3 years and though I’ve heard how cheaply they’re made, it’s never failed me. Though it may be made in China, VCD format is very popular there and I’d expect most players made there would play VCDs just fine.
Here’s a tip: burn some cd’s with VCD, SVCD, audio, and MP3s on them (and if you’re feeling frisky, XCD). Take them to your store of choice and ask the salesperson if you can try them out on the player you have in mind. This should really help out in making your purchase decision.
And be on the lookout for players in the next year or so that support MPEG-4 playback (read: DivX). I read an article in this month’s CPU magazine that the MPEG standards committee is pushing MPEG-4 as the next big format due to it’s extremely flexible encoding standards that will support smooth playback from streaming over dialup to hardware devices. It also supports stills, text over graphics, hotspots, audio only, and picture-in-picture.