Slashdot Mirror
Archos Releases Portable Video/Image/MP3 Player
GregGardner writes "Archos is about to release the AV300 series, the next generation of portable video/image/MP3 player based off of the Archos Jukebox Multimedia discussed on Slashdot previously. Features include a 3.8" LCD screen for viewing movies and photos, FM tuner, MP3 playing and recording, 20GB or 40GB HD models, USB2.0 (optional Firewire) connection, TV-out, MPEG-4 encoding from a video/audio-in signal, digital photo (3.3 megapixel) and video camera, and much more. Looks like some of the features require add-on modules. I found a brief review on SF Gate which states that the 20GB model (AV320) will retail for $570."
I think like most people I'd buy one if it were around $250.00 but it's hard to justify the price when you can get a laptop with more features for the same price they're asking. You're paying for size essentialy. OH well... I better start saving :)
Except that this digital camera is 3.3MP, which is better than 'mediocre'.
This article came out almost exactly a year ago and has an interesting quote regarding all the devices, including this one, that license MPEG4:
"The MPEG-4 compression has run into controversy regarding high licensing fees. So significant were the fees that Apple actually delayed the release of Quicktime 6 in protest. How this will all play out with users over time is not known yet, but unless this fee issue is addressed it may dampen adoption by users."
Also, the link above links to this article regarding the entire controversy. (It's kind of funny because the first article is dated before the second one, so obviously that article was modified to include the link after being first published without the date changing.)
I wonder if they've managed to knock down the price or if the license is a significant portion of the cost of the device?
Why do I h8 apple?
The big issue with this Archos will be whether its manufacturing feels as flimsy as their earlier models. Archos usually seems to be well ahead of the curve in features and price, but usually far behind in appearance, construction, and usability...
I own one of their MP3 players. It worked briefly for me, and when it broke I was never able to get them to answer me, either via phone (no call back) or e-mail (and a lot of those).
I'll never buy a product from this company again.
Ogg Vorbis is a niche format. It may be technically superior, but so was betamax. It's all about whether or not it gets player support. If it doesn't, all the superiority in the world won't save it.
Wrong comparison - the difference is - MP3 is owned and patented by Fraunhofer and it is charging patents on every encoder and decoder. OGG Vorbis, on the other hand, is free for anyone to implement, sell, encode, play, etc.
There is absolutely no similarity between Betamax and OGG Vorbis.
So, with the AV300, I worry whether or not we'll see a version of Rockbox or something similar, or whether the firmware that comes in box will be at least serviceable this time around. If not, at that price tag, this device will try and fail to compete with both the smaller laptops and the portable DVD players.
Why is there a $40 difference between the 20 and 40GB hdd's? They're both 2.5" laptop hdd's and if you look around both those capacities sell for around $80-85 bucks, so asking an extra $40 for the larger drive (or heck even offering the lower capacity drive) is kind of nuts. These are comodity components, use whatever best fits the price point of what the consumer want to pay, not pick a bunch of cheap crap and inflate the bigger sounding unit. That's one of the reasons I loved my iPod so much, the hdd seperatly cost nearly as much as the iPod so I knew Apple wasn't trying to screw me on the componenets.
There are 4 boxes to use in the defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, ammo. Use in that order. Starting now.
The one linked to here is a totally different unit that looks nothing like the one in Wired. I own one of the ones advetised in Wired.
The one you read about in Wired was the Archos Jukebox Multimedia. This unit is already out (you can find them easily at Circuit City). It has a 1.5" Active Matrix LCD screen, records and plays back MP3 audio, MPEG4 video, and can output to a TV.
For $350 it comes with:
A DVR module (that includes S-Video and Composite inputs) that has an IR nub on the top of it.
A remote.
Headphones (though this tiny little thing manages to drive my big arse AKG K501s with no problem).
Two sets of separate audio cables.
A USB 1.1 connector.
A USB 2.0 connector.
A/V cables
And a carrying case.
It also has a 1.3 Megapixel camera attachment for it that goes for $100. The attachment does acceptable (but not great) still images and mediocre to poor 25fps video (still better than any cheapy $100 camera I've seen, though).
I get around 8-9 hours per charge off the Lithium Ion pack when playing MP3s.
Once more unto the breach dear friends...
Dude: the Windows iPod came out months and months and months ago. And the current-generation iPod (the iPod G3, if you will) will work right out of the box with either Windows or a Mac.
The iPod is not a Mac-specific device.
But between you and me, you'd be better off getting a G2 iPod. It's got a built-in FireWire port so you don't have to diddle with that silly dock thing. And it's got better battery life. And (best of all) you can get them cheap. Well, cheaper anyway.
Eumm... Just a small observation to your observation.
Archos is hardly a "startup" company... I've got a harddrive interface made by archos from around 1993 - 1994.
And one of their first mp3 players with a 6 gig harddrive, bought around 2.5 years ago. Still one of the best players I've seen. No special software to access it, just a driver to mount it as a harddrive. Great. =)
And since they're established in both France and the US, It would be surprising if they didn't sell their products in at least Europe and North America.
/.Mattsson - My native language is not English, so please don't whine over linguistic errors. (That's lame anyway...)
NPR is good on FM but that's only one station.
Personally, I can see a definite desire for an AM receiver.
I love my Recorder 20 device from Archos, but, the quality of their products is deplorable. After convincing a friend to purchase an Archos, he returned 3 20s to Fry's as they were all DOA.
After hearing about 2 different 20 Recorders failing (on top of the three DOAs), I doubt I would trust Archos hardware any time soon.
In addition to the hardware issues, the software is not the best either. Look at some of the threads on this topic to hear about those issues. I love the recorder, but it fails more times then is succeeds. I have had to go back to CDR for my concert work as the Archos hard locks 20 minutes into most performances.
So Archos is 2 for 2. Hardware that fails and buggy software. Excellent ideas and great price, but you get what you pay for...
AV320 is 4.4 x 3.2 x 1.2 inches, 12.5 ounces
palm tungston is 4.8 x 3.1 x 0.7 inches, 6.3 ounces
apple ipod is 4.1 x 2.4 x 0.6 inches, 5.6 ounces
playing movies is nice, but not at twice the depth and weight.
sorry, that's too heavy and too deep.
all i want is a touchscreen, good sound output, and 5+gb storage.
manage it with a real OS (like palm, linux, even winCE) and you'll have my money.
Use my userscript to add story images to Slashdot. There's no going back.
The hardware is ruggedly built, and I'm pleased with it.
But the Archos firmware is wholly disappointing. Even the Archos font is lacking -- it's got no true descenders ("g", "y", "p").
There's an excellent GLP'd replacement, Rockbox (rockbox.haxx.se). It's literally an order of magnitude faster in displaying directories, and has a plethora of additional features.
The only "problem" with the GPL'd replacement is that, due to Archos's paranoia over its IP, the replacemnt had to be built up by labourious reverse engineering.
I'll buy new products from Archos when they release their specifications and sample code. Not before.
Opinions on the Twiddler2 hand-held keyboard?
I sig, therefore I was.
Sure I did. Did you read what I wrote?
So -- you can use MP3, and pay whatever Fraunhofer decides to charge you.
Or, you can use WMA, and pay whatever Microsoft decides to charge you.
Or, you can use Ogg, and pay $0.
Your choice.
It's nice that Vorbis is there. Even if few adopt it, it will keep Fraunhofer from jacking up the price of MP3 because they know they would just drive customers to Vorbis.
steveha
lf(1): it's like ls(1) but sorts filenames by extension, tersely