Does anyone know anything about these two players? Where can I find some good reviews? Which one is better? Do they both really play MP3 from CDRs?

-- Michael S. Gilmore (mgilmore@san.rr.com), March 11, 2000

Answers

Only the APEX plays MP3. For DVD the APEX is useless. The downconversion for anamorphic DVDs comes off way to soft. It is an okay VCD player but PAL conversion is sometimes squished. You are limited to eight letter in the MP3 file name and it does not sound good compared to a Diamond Rio player hooked into a stereo. The APEX also gets very hot so you may need a fan or just take the cover off.

The AVPhile plays only DVD and VCD. The anamorphic downconversion on this unit is pathetic. Fuzzy and soft picture mar anamorphic DVDs. The PAL conversion is okay but some widescreen VCDs look awful. This unit stays pretty cool but the DVD playback is really bad.

My opinion only buy the APEX if you too damn cheap to buy a a top of the line DVD player and a Diamond Rio. Forget the AVPhile.

-- The Lone Rnager (rutger_s@hotmail.com), March 11, 2000.

i own the apex, luckily mine has not had any problems yet (knock on wood) and it seems to play things quite ok. HOWEVER, only get this as a back up player. I already own 2 pioneers so i have them as my players. the main reasons i bought the apex was for the built in Pal to ntsc conversion and the fact that on its secret menu it lets you shut off the region lockout and the macrovision without any kind of physical modification to the machine. Go with a pioneer although they do not (as of yet) play the mp3.cds

-- Doug (mazinz@aol.com), March 11, 2000.

Thanks for the advice. But, let's not let misinformation spread. The Raite does play MP3s as well as SVCDs.

http://www.arts.ualberta.ca/~robilad/Raite.html

http://www.raite.com.tw/edefault.htm

http://www.geek.com/hwswrev/conel/apex600a/apex600a.htm

Damn. With the amount of people in this world you think you'd be able to get better info faster.

Mike

-- Michael S. Gilmore (mgilmore@san.rr.com), March 11, 2000.

Sorry, got the wrong model number. Just checked the unit. Same 8 character name problem as the APEX. MP3 sound is also very crappy unless you stick to 96kbs or above. I use 32kbs so I can upload them to my Rio. Still better to buy a top shelf DVD player or a middle tier unit, like Sony or Pioneer. And then get the MP3 player later.

-- The Lone Ranger (rutger_s@hotmail.com), March 11, 2000.

I have a Toshiba 2108 in my home theater, and I just bought a Pioneer 525 for VCD playback. I was interesed in the Raite 715K for MP3 and SVCD eventually. I read there is a way to get more than eight characters to display for the MP3s. Most likely using tags. Also, I only do variable rate encoding. 128k and up. Anything else sounds like sh1t to me. Thanks for the help.

-- Michael S. Gilmore (mgilmore@san.rr.com), March 11, 2000.

Trust me you are better off sticking to the APEX player for MP3 playback.

-- The Lone Ranger (rutger_s@hotmail.com), March 11, 2000.

I have an Apex AD-600A but it can't read MP3 though I know most of the Apex do play MP3. There is nothing about MP3 mentioned in the manual. My Apex is assembled in US. Those assembled in china seem to play MP3. Another problem is my Apex player can only read CD-RW but not CD-R. For more information go to http://www.nerd- out.com/apex/Discussion/discussion.html. From the discussion, many Apex players (about 50%) have overheat problem. Spend one whole day to go through all the messages then you will have a better idea.

-- mr cdr (mrcdr@canada.com), March 11, 2000.

I don't know why there are so many complaints about the Apex DVD player. The MP3's sound good (for that guy that says he encodes mp3 at 96kbps, that is a SHITTY bitrate so no matter what unit you play it on, it still is shitty, 128kbps is the way to go).

The Apex DOES play CD-R, and CDRW. I have tried VCD's and MP3 cd's that are on CDR/CDRW and they all play fine.

DVD picture quality is great even with composite video. The region select is a great feature, although I don't know why there is a CSS/Macrovision crack for it since some DVD's (like Starship Troopers) wont play back if you turn CSS/Macrovision off, so it defeats the purpose of this option.

I don't however like the fact that u cant see ID3 tags or use playlists. Or the fact that you can't rewind/fastforward mp3 tracks. Mp3 option is nice but shouldn't be a primary mp3 player.

Just my $0.02

-- MrVCD (mrvcd@juno.com), March 12, 2000.

Mr. VCD,

128 kbs bit rate for MP3s is too high if you are using a 64mb MP3 player. You only get an hour of music that way. 32kbs gets you over two hours of playback. So shut you ugly face jackass.

-- The Lone Ranger (rutger_s@hotmail.com), March 12, 2000.

Thanks for all the great opinions. But, let's try to keep it civil in here. This is a discussion not an argument. Personally I think varible bitrate MP3s are the way to go. I agree that 128k should be the minimum for a home enviornment. I can understand using lower bitrates to get more tunes into your Rio if you want to go jogging for 1+ hours, but let's face it, the Rio isn't a product worth buying, it's a toy. It really doesn't provide enough of a win over a portable CD player to justify the cost. Not until I can get a portable MP3 player with enough memory to play 10 hours of MP3s that costs under $150 will it be worth it. But, that's just my $0.02. Time for some group meditition....OM...Om...om.....

-- Michael S. Gilmore (mgilmore@san.rr.com), March 12, 2000.

MR.VCD

DO NOT touch the CSS option, in fact the only two things that should be touched on the Apex's secret menu are "macrovision on/off' and change the region code to bypass. Whe you mess with the css option that can actually make your machine NOT to read dvds. As far as MP3's go. Im in agreeance with everyone else 128 and up. I personally rip things at 160. And if possible when dling mp3s i look for 160 and up

-- Doug (mazinz@aol.com), March 12, 2000.