[dba-Tech] The ruggedness of DVD players

I have an APEX unit which plays DVD's, CDs, MP3s, WMAs, etc. The cost was
very low so I skipped my usual lengthy research and just bought it. We
really don't watch very many movies as one could tell by the fact hat our 16
year old NEC VCR is operating like new yet :o)

The APEX sits in the armoire right next to, and is hooked into the video
feed for my 15 year old Sony Mini component system. 

The APEX DVD player has done the "freeze frame" thing with a couple of
rented movies - very frustrating! The only way I could figure out how to get
around it was to go to the next major mark of the movie and reverse to
almost to where it froze and then continue with the movie from there. Gees!
That takes a bit of patience!

A couple of months ago the APEX's CD playing capabilities had to "come to
the rescue" when the Sony's CD player started skipping when playing CDs.

When I got a chance to investigate the problem it was caused by the armoire
being out of level -old houses, arg! Once I leveled the armoire the CD
player worked fine again. So MAYBE the DVD will work better now too. I don't
know as we haven't rented any movies for quite a while.

Point being, if the DVD "freeze frame" happens to one of you fine people you
may want to get the level out and see if leveling the player helps resolve
the issue. Let us know if it does.