GoVegan

I was wondering if anyone has any more info about this product:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/AS...187889-2213755

From the specs alone, it looks fantastic, but I don't have any experience with Apex products. For $189, though, I wouldn't mind ditching my VCR and getting this player.

The description isn't terribly clear about everything. It sounds like it has TIVO capabilities, but it says there isn't a monthly fee, so I assume you must tell it times to record, like a VCR, as opposed to being able to tell it to record every episode of Mr. Ed that it comes across.

I'd just hate to preorder it and find out that it's a big piece of junk.

Anyone know anything else about it?

renaldow

Apex used to have this on their website www.apexdigitalinc.com but I couldn't find it there now. I wonder why?

Apex is a name that screams bargain, not quality. They've made some very good players, and they've made many that flat out just don't work. If you read reviews of Apex products it's not unusual to hear stories of people returning the 3 DVD players in as many days before giving up or finally getting a working one.

You're right in assuming there is no account type of offering with the DVR. It's just a straight recorder that you have to program like a VCR. There's no program or guide data. For under $200 it looks like a good deal, but as I mentioned before, with Apex you never know. Could be great, could be junk.

GoVegan

Hmmm. That is strange that they would have removed a product page for this item. I looked on their site earlier today and found a mention of the ADR-1000 in a press release from February saying that it would be out in Q1 of 2003. The actual technical info was basically what's on Amazon's site, though.

I wish it was out now and there were some reviews of it. It sounds great, but if they have kind of a hit-or-miss reputation, there's a whole lot that could be screwed up on this device, especially since it's their first foray into DVR.

I don't think Amazon actually accepts payment until a preorder ships, so I could always preorder it and hope to find some reviews before it ships. Then if it sounds horrible, I could just cancel. There's no way that this plan could backfire.

Sloth911

i have been wanting to buy a DVR to replace my VCR. however, i do not want to pay a monthly fee and i dont want to buy a tivo and get the nag screens about subscribing. is there any other DVR alternatives out there?

renaldow

The type of device that GoVegan is reffering to is what you are looking for. They don't use a service and it only works like a VCR, you program times/channels for it to record. It has no clue as to what it's actually recording and tehre's no service to buy. A few other manufactureres have DVD recorder/ DVR combos as well.

Sloth911

renaldow - what other non-service required dvr's exist? any links?

renaldow

I think Pioneer has that option on 1 or 2 of their DVD recorders, and Zenith has an HDTV tuner with a built in DVR also. I've read about more models coming out in the next year, but I don't know of any that actually have.

Most of what I've read about general DVR's like these do not make them very compelling, at least to me, a proud TiVo owner. Aside from the recordability by title/season pass alone and program guide data, most do not seem to actually buffer life programming for pausing and rewinding unless it's set into a special mode among other operational details.

They're nothing but VCR's recording to a disc instead of a tape. I don't mind paying $12.95/month for TiVo to think about TV for me, and recording what I want without having to look at TV listings. Nothing like turning on the TV to find out a program you wanted to watch but didn't know was on started 20 mins ago and just rewinding to the beginning.