HORRIBLE News for A.V. Geeks re: Apex

From: "Rev. Ivan Stang" <stang@subgenius.com>
Date: Thu, Nov 20, 2003

Here's what I found out the hard way:

We can no longer say, "A DVD player? Go buy the cheapest Apex -- IT
PLAYS ANYTHING."

The brand new Apex AD-1200 doesn't play SHIT. Walmart is flooded with
them.

The recent Apex AD-1110 plays just about everything but is not easily
hackable. There are still tons of these at Walmart.

The older and wonderful Apex AD-1100W plays EVERYTHING, and is easily
hackable (that is, made all-region and VCR-friendly) but they are VERY
hard to find. There MIGHT be some coming in at Walmart.

The cheap Apex that played everything WAS INDEED too good to be true,
and you must buy an old one soon if you need a deck that plays not only
DVDs and audio CDs but MP3 (even if home-burned half-assedly), Kodak
picture CDs, JPEGS on plain home made CD-Rs slide-show style, AND VCD,
AND SVCD, AND ALSO RAW MPEG.

That's the most important, the raw MPEG.

The club sound guy wrecked my GREAT Apex 1100 W, so I had to get a
replacement. I walked to Walmart and got the 1200, assuming it would be
an improvement on the 1100.

It is a useless piece of shit by comparison.

I got on the Apex expert hacker site, nerd-out.com (seriously), and
read their forums for about an hour. Learned all the inner secrets that
the company website doesn't. Learned the key info seen above.

It seems that new models like the 1200 are made with VARIOUS DIFFERENT
PROCESSORS (!!) which have different capabilities. The ones that play
VCDs don't play raw MPEG and vice versa. Only by the COLOR of the
SERIAL STICKER and certain codes therein can you tell which shitty,
substandard version it is.

The 1110 on the other hand will play MOST raw MPEGs and MOST S-VCDs and
VCDs but NOT as many as good the older 1100.

I swapped the 1200 for the 1110 because that's all they had, but I
might go back and get an 1100, IF they do come in again. All 3 models
I'm talking about are $46.83 each.

My old 1100 which got broken took a bad fall and won't read CD-Rs of
any kind -- BUT IT WILL STILL PLAY *ANYTHING* that's burned to a DVD-R.
Not DivX of course or MOVs, but any kind of MPEG practically.

I go into all this detail because I know many SubGenii and video
hackers who adore the vast capabilities of their Apexes and the nifty
ways of downloading firmware hack code, burning it to CDs and then
using that to rework the gizmo so as to remove all its restrictions.
And I don't want to see them waste a whole half a day like I did.

THE CONSPIRACY GOT TO THE APEX. The all-playing hackable Apex is near
extinction. Collect the DNA of these precious creatures now before they
are all gone.

I almost never rent DVDs, so the copying and regions aspect is a moot
point for me. But I love to be able to watch goofy internet videos on
my big TV while laying in bed. For instance, the older Apexes will play
the new nu-monet v6 low res VIDEO COLLAGES on one's high definition
wall sized screen.

There is some new DVD player that does play DivX movies, but it ain't
no $46.83.

--
4th Stangian Orthodox MegaFisTemple Lodge of the Wrath of Dobbs Yeti,
Resurrected (Rev. Ivan Stang, prop.)
PRABOB

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From: prostata@bronze.coil.com (The Stinking Bishop Prostata Cantata MP)

Rev. Ivan Stang <stang@subgeniusNOSPUM.com> wrote:
>THE CONSPIRACY GOT TO THE APEX. The all-playing hackable Apex is near
>extinction. Collect the DNA of these precious creatures now before they
>are all gone.

This is indeed SAD SAD news. I'm just glad I snagged mine before
they went the way of the dodo. It really DOES play *anything* I stuff
into it except divx files, and those are simple to convert to VCD.

>I almost never rent DVDs, so the copying and regions aspect is a moot
>point for me. But I love to be able to watch goofy internet videos on
>my big TV while laying in bed. For instance, the older Apexes will play
>the new nu-monet v6 low res VIDEO COLLAGES on one's high definition
>wall sized screen.

My old TV is too old to accept anything but a coax input, so I am
forced to rely on my VHS deck to do the translation from S-vid to
something the TV can eat. THis is why I was so thrilled to be able to
turn off the macrovision shit. The fact that I get a lot of movies from
the Library has little to do with it, I almost never copy things, but it's
nice to have the ability when I need it.

Cheers!

--
----------------------------------------------------------------
"Mexican food isn't really good for an orgy: No one wants to lick salsa
off someone's privates. But I'd already spent two nights Photoshopping
sombreros onto the nude pictures on the invitation..." - Jerry Belsner

----------------------------------------------------------------------

From: William Barwell <wbarwell@mungged.mylinuxisp.com>

Usually, with stuff like this, it is the hardware that is smooshed and not
the electronics. Might be worth a chance to pop it open and look
inside. If you can take a new DVD player out of a new machine and
plug it in to the old machine's controller, you may be able to
get back to where you were. I remember reading many of these
cheapo machines were actually computer type DVD players but
with controllers on the circuit board that were different for each brand
that used the OEM type DVD player units. There were very few actual
different DVD players themselves. The magic was in the controllers.

Maybe googling around for an AD 1100 might be wise, why rely on
the vagaries of Wal-Mart? I know a few clueful suppliers used to
try to get the hackable varieties and save them back for those
who know to ask, but you might pay a bit more. But it might be worth
it to try to chase something down.

--
Bush! Chimp or chump?

Cheerful Charlie

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From: "Rev. Ivan Stang" <stang@subgenius.com>

Rabbi Jacklyn Hyde <rabbs@subgenius.com> wrote:
> Thankyee! I'm finally breaking down and shopping for my first DVD player.
> Now I know to ignore the bullshit I've been hearing about Apex. KNEW being
> a geek girl would pay off eventually.

If all you're gonna do with a DVD player is play DVDs and audio CDs
then it probably doesn't matter what kind of deck you get. The $50
off-brand will probably play as well and last as long as the $500
name-brand with the extra blinking lights. The older Apex is good for
people who want to copy DVDs to VHS, and/or play them regardless of
their "region," IF YOU'RE WILLING TO TRY THE "HACK," and also for
people like me who download a lot of oddball formats of oddball media
and don't want to be tied to a computer to view it. The new Apex 1200
is useless on all those counts. Only the Apex 1110, 1100 and older ones
are really worth the $46.83.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

From: "Rev. Ivan Stang" <stang@subgenius.com>

Artemia Salina <y2k@sheayright.com> wrote:
> Rev. Ivan Stang wrote:
> > The older and wonderful Apex AD-1100W plays EVERYTHING, and is easily
> > hackable (that is, made all-region and VCR-friendly) but they are VERY
> > hard to find. There MIGHT be some coming in at Walmart.
>
> It appears that a number of webstores are still selling this model
> at around $65.

SIXTY FIVE DOLLARS!!!! That's info highway robbery!

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Original file name: HORRIBLE News for A.#1AD08C.txt - converted on Saturday, 25 September 2004, 02:05