Archos Jukebox Multimedia Reviewed

An anonymous reader points to Richard Menta's review of the Archos Jukebox Multimedia (mentioned in this earlier Slashdot posting). Here's a snippet from the review: "Right now my wife and I are watching an old episode of a TV show no longer broadcast in our area or available tape. How are we watching it? We are playing it off of a 9oz. MP3 player -- where I have digitally stored the episode -- hooked up to the small TV in our room and inconspicuously placed on top."

Comments

Re:Picture Quality?

[rco3]

The picture quality is MOST DEFINITELY not full DVD quality. See this: Archos's website. It's limited to "MPEG4 video compatible with DivX? (CIF format - 352x288 pixels, 25 frames/sec.)".

Thanks, but no thanks. The reviewer mentions some pixelization - I think I know why! :-)

Rob

CIF Resolution.

[Grendel Drago]

Umm. Unless you have a really nice TV, it's only displaying 352x240 NTSC or 352x288 PAL. The quality is the same as a VHS tape---if there's "pixelization", the reviewer probably means the blocking artifacts that DivX has at too-low bitrates.

--grendel drago

Re:CIF Resolution.

[rco3]

Does nice mean newer than 1940's?

The NTSC format is, as I'm sure you're aware, 525 vertical lines. An average TV shows around 480 of those. Depending on quality, an average 19" TV probably is capable of better than 500 lines of horizontal resolution - the current version of my JVC 27" is capable of over 600 lines of horizontal resolution. Depending on how the signal gets to your TV, you may (OK, will) get lower effective resolution... but the source is what we're discussing here, isn't it?

I've worked as a truck engineer in television production for the last 7 years, and regardless of what the local cable company may do to my signal you may rest assured that it's appreciably nicer than 352x240 when it goes up on the bird.

Seriously. 352x240 on my home TV? If you've got $400 to spend on an Archos Jukebox, you aren't watching an 8" B&W portable.