I bought a Apex AD-2600 DVD Player for $60 (shipped) because a site said it could play DVD-RWs and my $1500 Toshiba SD-9100 could not. Not only can it play DVD-RW, but it plays DVD-RW with video and data on it, something my Toshiba choked on with just DVD-R + data.
There is a tad bit more video noise, but not much really – Certainly not $1440 worth. The audio does not come in right on a chapter skip – there is a little lag while it gets the digital optical going. But it does support widescreen, progressive component. You have to set these up in the menus, they default to Pan and Scan Interlaced.
The remote is crap, but I’ll just be programming my Pronto with it. For now, it is $60 + a new Toslink cable, as the ports are on the left-center and my component cables won’t reach. So I elected to move the player and get a longer audio cable.
Maybe coaxial digital will have a faster response time?
For the $60, this is an awesome deal.
Steve