Home > Consumer Reviews > Apex PD-10 Portable DVD Player with 5.6-Inch LCD Screen

We purchased the Apex PD-10 for home and travel use after shopping around. This was the lowest priced player I was able to find and I bought it with the notion of returning it if it didn't perform. I am a radio/tv producer and am quite selective when purchasing a/v products. After a week I am quite impressed. Picture quality is above average, it sounds great hooked up to external speakers, and it has all the features you need and many you'll never use. The internal speakers? Absolutely horrible, as are those on most portable DVD players. The remote is handy, but doesn't work unless you are no more than 5 feet away and pointing it directly at the unit...a drawback for home use. Also, to scroll through DVD options on menus you must use the remote, since there are is no menu button and no track access available on the unit itself--just play, stop and scroll. The battery pack is quite heavy and cumbersome, but still a good option for portability. The on/off switch seems a little flimsy and could break under heavy use. I compensate by using the remote to turn the unit on and off to avoid wear and tear. Overall, this is a great little player and we are enjoying it so far.

We purchased the Apex PD-10 for home and travel use after shopping around. This was the lowest priced player I was able to find and I bought it with the notion of returning it if it didn't perform. I am a radio/tv producer and am quite selective when purchasing a/v products. After a week I am quite impressed. Picture quality is above average, it sounds great hooked up to external speakers, and it has all the features you need and many you'll never use. The internal speakers? Absolutely horrible, as are those on most portable DVD players. The remote is handy, but doesn't work unless you are no more than 5 feet away and pointing it directly at the unit...a drawback for home use. Also, to scroll through DVD options on menus you must use the remote, since there are is no menu button and no track access available on the unit itself--just play, stop and scroll. The battery pack is quite heavy and cumbersome, but still a good option for portability. The on/off switch seems a little flimsy and could break under heavy use. I compensate by using the remote to turn the unit on and off to avoid wear and tear. Overall, this is a great little player and we are enjoying it so far.

This is a nice little DVD player, esp. it cost less than $....
The 5.8 inches screen is ok in size, and the display quality is above average. The contrast, however, is something Apex should work on.
Sound quality is ok when listen via the headphone or hook up to the car stereo (optical link), but the internal speaker does not performs as good as it should be. Grab a good headphone...or it will riun your movie viewing pleasure.
The power doesn't last as long as what it claims - I guess it is because it uses NiHM instead of Lithium battery. So I always rely on the car adapter for road usage.
Ease of use is pretty good, esp. the color and bright buttons under the screen. The off/on/hold swith, however, is hard to switch. I would rather use the remote to turn the player off.
I tried to play DVD, CD-R and also hook it up with a PS2. All runs smoothly.
One last note: Make sure you get this from a store with good return policy. Turns out I have a defected unit because it didn't reponse with I load a disk, and when I hooked it up to external player, the screen is all black and white. So I return to the store and exchange the next day(I did some simple test on the store to make sure I am getting a working one, you may want to do that too).

What can you expect? Just 18 months ago one of these things cost almost a month's after-tax take-home pay, and now it's just some spare change. Of course you won't get Panasonic or Toshiba quality, but that's not what Apex has come to be known for. Like other Apex products, this DVD player works, and delivers quite some value. My biggest gripe is the big battery, which seems to add another 3 pounds to the DVD player.

if youre not aware of the apex brand, perhaps this little device will help you understand: apex and their multiple rebrands sell more dvd players than any other manufacturer in the world. theres one reason why; apex makes stuff cheap-but-functional. this player, like all other apex equipment ive ever tried, fits both those qualifications perfectly.

yes, it gets kinda hot; but does it really get hotter than other portable dvd players; i dunno.

yes, the battery is big; but how often will you really use it; it comes off and stays off easily.

yes, ya gotta use the remote to use mosta the onscreen menu functions; but are 4 on-board menu buttons really worth a difference of $100 or more?

yes, its a 4:3 screen, but small is small; the difference between a 5" and 7" screen image isnt really all that great at this level... plus, youve probably been watching letterboxed movies for years now; this is no different, only smaller.

my bottom line: regardless of the few small compromises one must make to justify this player, you cant argue much about the cost. no other full-featured, fully-fledged portable player can even come close!