This is another of the Mediamatics-based players in the shootout, and it had
essentially the same deinterlacing performance as the others. However, it had
significantly worse video performance than the others. It has a significant
rolloff of video high-frequencies, which manifests as a very soft picture, and
it has worse video ringing than any of the Mediamatics-based players, which
suggests that Apex skimped on the analog components after the DACs.
Like the Malata, the Apex has many options, and a similarly convoluted menu
system. The Apex menus are slightly easier to understand, but only slightly.
Like the other Mediamatics-based players, the Apex has no chroma bug. Like
the others, the Apex has difficulties with bad or non-standard flags and has no
motion-adaptive video deinterlacing.
The Apex is inexpensive, and it's not a terrible player, but these days there
are probably better choices for a similar amount of money. The Malata, for
example, has better video quality, and is region-free to boot.
