Just to put my 2 cents. I have Apex 550W. Great player and great price (below $100 everywhere, I got it new for $80 on ebay, walmart sells it for $88 :happy: ). It also has CDR/RW MP3, VCD playback, PAL/NTSC conversion, digital out etc.

Good thing is all Apex dvds have standard ATAPI DVD drive inside. If the laser pickup is dead or weak (which is bound to happen sometime in future) you can just replace it with any standard PC DVD drive.

I am really happy with this player. This is what apex says on their website: "APEX DIGITAL: Is second only to Sony in DVD player market share in the United States", don't know if its true. :0

Ahhh Finally someone to back me up !!!! Thanks whyme... EAT out all you SONY LOVERS

I have a Sony DVD player and it is REGION free. It even plays the Columbia Pictures RCE coded DVDs.

Sanjay.... where is that DVD player from ? As far as I know, Sony doesnt encourage MP3s ( as they own Columbia Tristar etc.) and hence they dont support Mp3 decoding in their DVD players. As for RCE Free stuff...I am surprised that such a DVD player exists. Can you tell me where di dyou get that from ?é.... I dont think such DVD players exist in North America or Europe !

Sorry! yaar Nath, did not mean to step on ur toes!! i like SONY!! I have a reason for that! u like APEX, u must have ur reason!! I have never owned one! and probably will never own one!! who knows!! I kinda dont trust this kinda stuff!! My problem!!

U can get baap whatever u want and may help him get free aur free maen do do!! ha ha ha!! kidding!
I am a faithful one too! and in this dvd player game to SONY!!

Like you said, it would be great if Microwaves could play DVDs, but since they don't, I suggest staying away from Samsung.
Actually I should have mentioned in my earlier post that I was referring to primarily Samsung Audio/Video products.



Edited By Sanjay on Mar. 02 2002 at 21:37

I cannot comment on the availability in North America, but they are most certainly available in Asia and also I think in Europe. As for where I got my player, right here in India and from no less than Sony India themselves. Regarding MP3 playback, I did not say my Sony can play MP3, but it can most certainly play all regions and RCE encoded discs too.

By the way here in India, all the companies (Sony, Panasonic, Philips, Samsung, LG etc.) sell players that have been modifed/chipped to play all regions. So much for region coding and hollywood Also India is pseudo 'Region 1' since all DVD rental libraries keep Region 1 software only. As far as I know, no company has made any players for India - Region 5 or for that matter no software has been coded for Region 5 either.



Edited By Sanjay on Mar. 02 2002 at 21:35

As they say SANJAY.... JAB TAK SURAJ CHAAND RAHEGA...Region Coding tera KLPD HOta rahega...

I think Sony Worldwide should be made aware of this and they should stop making such DVD players for India, but then the problem arises who would buy their DVD players then

What is the price of a Sony DVD player there ?

The price in the Grey market is around Rs 12000/- If you buy on bill and warranty from Sony India then the prices range from Rs 19000/- to Rs 34000/-

Was just going thru a UK Magazine - 'What Video & TV' and I saw numerous adverstisements for All Region Sony DVD players.

Update.

Once again tank you all for your responses.

I went to Best Buy (local Electronics store in MN) on Sunday and got myself a Toshiba SD2800 DVD Player.

My reasons (if anyone cares):
I had a gift certificate for Bestbuy therefore wanted to get a player from there as oppose to online or some other store. Bestbuy does not store Apex players so that was out. In the last few months I have tried a number of players and Toshiba and Sony were the only ones I hadn't tried. I was tempted to go with the Sony but the one for $179.00 didn't play CDRs and CDRWs. The next one up was $229.00 and claimed to play CDRs and CDRWs. The one above that was a $300.00 player that was progressive scan and played CDRs and CDRWs.

The Toshiba cost me $149.00 and plays CDRs and CDRWs as well as MP3. It seems to work with my DAC well. Also I have a month to try it out. If I am not satisfied then I can always return it and get the Sony. Ofcourse the Sony NS500P that was being sold for $299.99 at Bestbuy is being sold for $219.99 at buy.com.

Those are my reasons. I would like suggestions on what DVDs I should try to test this player with both Hindi and English. Although my collection is not as vast as some of the other people on this forum, I would like to thoroughly test this player before my 30 days are up.

Thank you all. This is why I love zulm.net

Baap, not that this matters, but I would suggest, go and return your DVD player

If you looked in bestbuy then you may also wish to look in circuitcity !

http://www.circuitcity.com/ewebIMa....d=37009

http://www.circuitcity.com/ewebIMa....d=37010

This one is also there at Bestbuy and its more expensive there.

http://www.circuitcity.com/ewebIMa....d=43611 Progressive SCAN and this is a steal ! IMO

This is the one I am talking about !

But again BAAP thats upto you I forced my landlord to return his Toshiba DVD player for an APEX 700 AD player last year.... !

Go and check out Circuitcity !



Edited By sknath on Mar. 05 2002 at 09:48

As for your gift certificate...circuitcity is giving you a deal for shipping 8 DVDs for $1.99

http://www.circuitcity.com/ewebIMa....me=Main

and then you may wish to use that there (again just a humble suggestion ) !

Thanks for the link sknath but my store credit / gift certificate is for bestbuy for $170. Hence if I bought something from Circuit City, I would "loose" the $170. I realise that I won't really loose it but I don't have that extra cash lying around either.

I know you are a big Apex fan but if there was no Apex (hypothetically) I think the Toshiba comes as a close second.

Yaar baap aap tou kamal nilkley, kahan sony se apex per chale and finally toshiba per tehde!! wah!! enjoy, good luck watching, i hope not HMBPK as first dvd!;)