Archos

[ERICS MUM]

I was looking for an MP3 player to take away and on the flights, but i came across an Archos which has video as well.

I am useless at this stuff, so does anyone have experience with the Archos brand that could give me some words of advice (or warning!)

thanks

Linda

 

[Richard Bruvofetc]

I have the Archos 704 wifi and DW has the 504. They're an excellent brand and the quality is top drawer. With the "additional" docking station you can use them as a hard-drive video recorder. With the 704 you can plug your digital camera straight into it and download all of your photos, freeing up your camera's memory card. The 504 needs to be sitting in the docking station to do this. The 704 wifi can also access the internet.

The video quality is near DVD standard, and they will play back onto your TV in full screen mode. You can copy commercial DVDs onto them although you will not be able to play these back onto a TV due to copyright protection. A word of warning: to copy DVDs onto the unit you need to download a "plug-in" that costs about £13.

The playback time is approx 4.5hrs for video and between 15-20hrs music.

They come with a "snazzy" universal plug that allows you to plug into UK, Europe and the US. They're auto voltage switching so no problems with incompatabilities.

Depending on how you compress your films for copying on a 30gig unit you could have up to 30 films.

We're putting on about 10 films each on ours for the trip over to Orlando.

Any more questions, please ask.

 

[Debbied]

Don't have any personal use, but on the gadget show the Archos came out better than ipod with video on the flight tests. We were more than happy with the ipod with video until someone stole it. Now transfering music to mobile phone with extra memory to get over having to buy a new ipod.

 

[ERICS MUM]

Thanks Richard and Debbie, I think i will definitely go for the Archos instead of the IPOD.


Linda

 

[jharrowell]

Looks like you've already made up your mind, but here's another thumbs up for the Archos.

Not only is it a v. good mp4 player (screen size and vid quality much better than an iPod Video) but with an add on you can use it for recording of sound and video. In fact I'm looking to set up some sort of discrete mini cam so I can record some of my trip without having a camera glued to my eye all the time.

The only thing I find a little bit of a let down is that it's not the most intuitive when it comes to listening to mp3s (audio).

If you wanted audio only I'd consider going fof an iPod, but if you are looking for any sort of video then it's the Archos hands down!