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Archos Announces Portable Mediabox
An Anonymous Coward writes: "Archos has just announced the Jukebox Multimedia Portable Entertainment Center. Due this January, The unit is the same size and weight as the company's Jukebox 6000 MP3 portable, plays and records MPEG4 video, MP3 and WMA audio, has a color video screen built-in, and offers a FireWire interface as an option. What's most interesting about the player is an expansion connector that allows additional modules to be attached to the unit. One module lets the player take digital photographs and another allows the unit to record video from a TV. Neat concept that's more flexible than the Bokks AV component reported on Slashdot last week, but I think I would want more than the 10GB drive it uses for storage."
Question for me is, are the different mpeg4 formats similiar enough that I can play my DiVX 3 and DiVX4 anime fansubs on it?
The next Slashdot story will be ready soon, but subscribers can beat the rush and slashdot the links early!
The major problem with products like these is the battery life is going to suck royally. My iPaq uses a high end Lithium Polymer battery, and I still only get about 8 hours of battery life... and that's not even doing something too intensive like playing mp3s or watching movies.
Can you imagine the processor needed to decode mpeg4 on the fly? Can you imagine the processor needed to RECORD mpeg4 on the fly? Can you imagine how long this processor will run on 4 Rechargable NiMH AA batteries?
Ick.
While the article claims the device will fit in a pocket, the odly shaped modules sure wouldn't. And at 12+ ounces already, it becomes an ungainly, low resolution digital camera...
...or a digital video camera with a _very_ long recording time. Somebody mentioned in a previous article how nice it would be to attach a 40 gig ieee1394 drive directly to a camera for hours of digital footage. 10gigs is certainly a step in the right direction, it just looks strange.
****IT SLICES IT DICES IT MAKES MPEG4 - your fully buzzword compliant device!****
I'm sure that the the features of this new model will attract many, but I'll personally stay away: I've had three bad experiences with Archos products.
I purchased an Archos 6000 MP3 player from ThinkGeek about two months ago, and it arrived DOA. It simply would not turn on. I got my money back (TG was excellent as far as service is concerned, by the way), and used it to purchase an Archos HD-MP3 from a retailer in New York (who offered the better model at approximately the same price). I figured that the first time was probably a fluke, and besides - the better model offered the ability to record MP3's, something I could definitely use to for live music recording.
Two more returns later, and I'm still waiting for my fourth Archos MP3 player. My experiences may be the exception to the rule, but I'd be wary of something like this until reliability figures come out.
Sounds great and all, but how much and when can I buy one?
Wow, talk about a nasty goatse.cx bomb. Everybody, don't click that link!
I bet there's a general purpose processor inside of these thingies doing all of the neat stuff. They have to pretend that it's a special purpose device, so as not to scare customers. What a shame.
Perhaps its just that geeks prefer to hack things apart more than hacking them together?
We've seen a lot of portable mp3 player announcements on slashdot, some of these totally undeserving of front page status. However, don't dismiss this article as another one: this is a different situation. The new Jukebox isn't an mp3 player, it's a replacement for a variety of gadgets and a major breakthrough in consumer technology. With MPEG4, MP3, WMA, a built in color screen, digital photos, TV input, and fast firewire the Jukebox 6000 is the all in one media solution-a camera, camcorder, TiVo, mp3 player, and portable storage device in one. No other device has ever attempted such an ambitious set of functionality, and this thing appears to pull it off. I can't wait to get my hands on one, this is clearly a revolution, and the wave of the future. Very definately "stuff that matters."
If you took even the briefest moment to visit the site before trying to get 'fp props' or something, you would have been able to read that the unit has a 10 hour playback on one charge.
It's not clear what this was 10 hours of playing, eg, is it the same for video versus music?
for some reason it lists the specs for the Archos Jukebox at the bottom, not the Archos Jukebox Multimedia
I mean:
"Capacity: 6GB Low Voltage Hard Drive "?
"Display: Graphic Backlit LCD (Up to 8 lines of characters)"?
It doesn't give much info on the MPEG4 support; I suppose Microsoft already has MPEG4 support (I don't know, I've never tried it, and I don't count DiVX and the ilk as proper MPEG4) but what Mac MPEG4 support?
Unless they know something about Quicktime and MPEG4 that I don't, I guess.
Has anyone seen anything about MPEG4 support in Quicktime?
It is nice that the article mentions FireWire support, but I wasn't able to gather what that meant, since it was 'optional'
GPL Deconstructed
Players getting more and more complex
More portable desktops (LCD iMac)
It ought to be rather interesting when these 2 trends run into each other.... the digital home appliance, maybe?
Vote monkeys into Congress. They are cheaper and more trustworthy.
The major problem with products like these is the battery life is going to suck royally. My iPaq uses a high end Lithium Polymer battery, and I still only get about 8 hours of battery life... and that's not even doing something too intensive like playing mp3s or watching movies.
Can you imagine the processor needed to decode mpeg4 on the fly? Can you imagine the processor needed to RECORD mpeg4 on the fly? Can you imagine how long this processor will run on 4 Rechargable NiMH AA batteries?
Imagine a Beowulf cluster of these!
You die too easily.
Due Q1 2002....and no mention of price.
:)
This is obviously a marketing ploy, and a sign they have been hit hard by the release of the iPod. The specs on this thing will be in flux for months, and it could never really see the light of day. Archos is playing catch up...isn't that cool
Is there some reason you didn't link to the Archos site instead?
Where they talk about future products?
This thing will be high price and high weight and low battery life....it's already a dead duck.
Too bad Apple has already left the building.
I surprised nobody has meantioned its use as a digital wallet.
Now there are many options available these days including THE Mind@Works Digital Wallet(tm), Terapin Mine, Nixvue Digital Album, etc...
This is actually the first product I've seen that allows you to view the pictures on the LCD. Plus the fact that there are other uses makes it handy when you're not using it as a digital wallet for your photos while travelling.
Depending on price and availability, this may be one option I will consider for my 3 week digital photo storage needs.
The Nikon Coolgear Photo Wallet...$299.00.
If you need something along these lines, this is the only way to go.
I just bought the Terapin Mine... now this??
Is the pcmcia port able to use lan or wireless cards or what??? Although firewire looks sweet, now I would REALLY have a pretext to buy a mini-DV camera too! Wheee!!
That's the best thing about the Mine that I liked... forget USB, do your transfers over ethernet. That, and Terapin is getting ready their SDK for the linux kernel inside... Hopefully Archos could do something like that, let's say, we add support for Ogg Vorbis on this thing??? Hopefully it will have a generic CPU and not a bunch on dedicated chips that we can't mess with.
Gerry -- #include "ea!.h"
but can it play my copy protected cds? ;)
As i was reading the article, i thought the item was a fake (all those badly rendered images), so i went to archos's site and here is the official page on the device. however, it still sounds like vapor to me.
Perhaps not, when you take a look at the digital video advances coming out of Apple....
n ot e.php
"The other key function in FCP 3 is the addition of a new QuickTime codec called OfflineRT. With it, users can transcode DV, SD or HD footage (in real-time) in the Photo JPEG format for timecode-accurate, low-resolution offline work. While you can normally store five minutes of video per gigabyte in DV format, Photo JPEG allows for 40 minutes of video in the same space. This makes is possible to edit clips offline -- with a PowerBook G4 on an airplane, for example -- with a fraction of the hard disk space needed for DV.
http://maccentral.macworld.com/news/0112/04.key
And we still have Mac Expo in January to look forward to...
...it's certainly vapor....and it's coming off of their marketing department that was recently steamrolled into a wet spot by Apple Computer :)
Combo's do many things, poorly. Add in the battery overhead, and the cost of all the options, and this thing will die before it hits the mold.
Archos is simply trying to keep it's name in the press so it can sell off all that USB equipped hardware before they close up shop.
I really like this idea. I want to be able to watch my SnapStream (www.snapstream.com) captured TV shows on the go. Right now I lug a laptop around, but with the new airline security restrictions lately I'm worried one day I won't be able to do that anymore. If this little device can play back my shows, then I would be ecstatic!
In second place, I'd take a product that's a laptop hard-drive connected via Compact Flash card to my PocketPC. It's two components to carry instead of one, but man it'd be cool to catch up on Farscape since I'm never home to watch it.
"Derp de derp."
Stop using Windows and you'll never need it.
The major problem with products like these is the battery life is going to suck royally. My iCaq uses a high end Lithium Polymer battery, and I still only get about 37 hours of battery life... and that's not even doing something too intensive like playing mp2s or watching goat pr0n.
Can you imagine the processor needed to decode mpeg4 on the fly? Can you imagine the processor needed to RECORD your mom's teeth on my fly? Can you imagine how long this processor will run on 4 Rechargable NiMH DD batteries?
Consumer Reports has a policy of only testing products that are shipping and that it buys in a store. It doesn't take pre-release stuff, and it doesn't take stuff sent directly from the manufacturer.
Is it just me or do some of those attachments look like concept drawings, not actual hardware.
That is not the purpose of OfflineRT as I understand it. What OfflineRT is made for is to let someone take the DV stream, compress it down to something small(but with much poorer quality), and edit it. Then, once all the editing is done, you then go back to the uncompressed stream and using FCP it edits the large file based on what you did with the small one.
It's made so that for instance you can take the 200GB of movie data you have and put it on your TiBook for editing, then resync it with the main piece of data. You don't want to store your original in that format because it'll look like shit.
In video processin CIF ussually refers to the "Common Image Format" = 352 H x 288 Vertical, this is a CCITT standard, which is neither NTSC or PAL compatible, as ussual. VHS resolution is roughly 320x240 so this would be about as much data as you could support anyway, too small for desktop playback but this LCD is about that size. There is also 4CIF = 704 x 576 and QuarterCIF (QCIF) = 176 x 144.
How big will DVD's get before it's no longer practical to decode all that data...why not focus on reducing the data, and not have to design hardware that can handle excessive loads?
There is no sensible answer to that question. As processor speeds and efficiency rise along with other technologies DVDs could get much bigger. Using better codecs can help, but only so much. If someone can make a 100GB DVD, and someone else can make a player that can play it, then what's the problem?
You say you want storage needs for digital video down so that you don't need a large drive. Fine. Use a low bitrate and get a shitty picture. Or wait a few years until 500GB drives are available and a relatively small drive will be able to store a lot of high quality video. The word "large" is nearly meaningless when referring to a drive. The fact is that once drive sizes increase, the resolution DV cams use probably will too. But that's a good thing. In 50 years no one will probably think a thing of throwing around petabyte size files. I see that as progress.
Word on the street is that Apple is working on a similar device: Video, Windows Compatibility on Tap for iPod
or are you just happy to see me?
if this think plays Divx that would be sweet.
THERE IS NO DATA. THERE IS O
Your analysis is interesting. However, I don't think there will be one digital home appliance, just as there isn't one kitchen appliance. There will be many, and unfortunately from the ones in existence (Gamecube, iPod, Palms) they will be proprietary and non-upgradable.
Lies about crimes
As an early purchaser of the Archos MP3 Recorder I have found that Archos has not completed the work on the MP3 Recorder (common these days) and if this carries over consumers would be advised to wait until the Video version has had plenty of "break in time" so Archos fixes many of the bugs.
:-) )
:-)
1. MP3 recorder powers off regularly when used in a car. My guess is that vibration is a factor, but even after adding much padding to the protected placement the unit is virtually unusable in a car. (I am talking 2002 model not a 49 chevy
2. The firmware needs more revision as it is plagued by odd display bugs and other anomalies. These do not affect performance, but do impact the user experience. Powering off and back on will clear the display.
3. Better documentation would be a nicety
4. Realize that the 10 hours claimed does not mean while the device is transfering files to/from pc. Better have that puppy plugged in or it will be drained in no time. (current draw is greater by HD under continual use blah blah blah... but they need to document that)
Overall I love the MP3 Recorder and will be looking forward to reviews of the Video Recorder.
Here's something that I've not heard mentioned at all - does anyone make or plan to make some sort of a module that could connect to either a laptop HD or a standard IDE drive, and let you play media files on it? With drive prices as cheap as they are, I'd be pretty happy with having something that clipped onto a normal, full size IDE drive and played the media files contained within. Then, you could unclip that module and plug it back into your home IDE channel in your system to transfer files, etc.
I wish there was a choice that said "Factually Wrong -1" when I mod.
I have personally had miserable experiences with the Archos MP3 recorder. I am still awaiting shipment of my #4, after a poor history.
I purchased directly from Archos.
#1: Charging Jack on the unit was loose and finally shorted completely. Took Archos a month to get on the ball and issue an RMA.
#2: Badly beaten refurb was sent out. HD errors out the wazoo, caused a bus storm if hooked to the computer.
#3: Slightly bruised refurb. Played for 5 minutes (exactly) and locked up. Every time.
Aside from the poor reliability, the jukeboxes have problems with large directories, playlists, etc. The random function can only be applied to one directory, and has a poor randomizing algorhythm.
Example: My daughter's christening, I filled a directory with 300 songs and put them on random. The jukebox would play one song and then choke on the directory while looking for the next random song to play.
Recording is VBR ONLY, and I often had trouble with recorded tracks playing back.
Archos will be toast if they ever get some real competition. But heck, that's what I said about Microsoft.
~Hammy
nothing4sale.org
Ummm, I was mocking the preceeding "ummmm" used by the other guy.
Pax Digitalia