Apex Digital

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Apex Digital, Inc.
Type	Private
Founded	1997
Headquarters	City of Industry, Ca
Key people	David Ji, Ancle Hsu
Industry	Electronics
Revenue	$1.5 billion (2004)
Employees	101

Apex Digital, Inc. is an American electronics manufacturer based in City of Industry, California. They manufacture mainly budget-priced consumer electronics such as televisions and DVD players.

The infamous "loopholes" menu found on an early Apex DVD player. Note the "You should not be here" text. This 'feature' was removed from later models to comply with the DMCA

Apex DVD players acquired some amount of fame when it was discovered that they contained a secret menu screen that allowed the user to circumvent regional lockout and Macrovision copy prevention. This feature was put in by the Chinese company that manufactured the device which Apex packaged, and Apex said they had no prior knowledge of it. Apex quickly discontinued the model with the secret menu, but the player became a hot item on eBay, which led Macrovision to step in and have eBay ban sale of the player, citing the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. The same extra functionality can be enabled on some subsequent Apex players by replacing the device's firmware with a hacked version. However, Apex has expressed its intent to cooperate fully with Macrovision in preventing users from using Apex players in this way.

[edit] Controversy

In 2004, Apex Digital was accused of not paying outstanding debts. In spite of "struggling to meet US TV orders", as spokeswoman Marietta Schoenherz claims, Apex Digital reportedly owed millions in debts to suppliers. One supplier, Sichuan Changhong Electric Appliance Co., claimed they were owed in excess of RMB 4.3 Billion(~ 550 million US$) and provisions. In response to this claim, the Chinese government detained Apex Chairman David Longfen Ji on December 30, 2004 on fraud charges.[1] He was arrested on these charges on May 18, 2005, to be hospitalized and released August 18, 2005. Since the arrest, David's family has been concerned for his health and concerned for his future.[2]