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Review of the Archos AV320 Cinemabox
An anonymous reader writes "MP3newswire.net just posted another of their lengthy reviews, this time on the Archos AV 320, a unit first mentioned on /. back in June. The company's second portable digital video/audio player, the new unit is a significant step up from the Archos Jukebox Multimedia with a much bigger and brighter screen and the ability to record DVDs and TV programs."
I have to bring up the same old issue: cost. As long as I can get a cheap laptop with a bigger screen, and battery life that would at least last for my commute, why bother? Sure, the form-factor is awesome, and for $300, it'd be a no-brainer. But at $600, I'd drop coin on something I could also play games on and read email.
I have never understood why people buy these things. Granted... its a cool gimmicky toy... but for 600USD!!! wow. Really, how much do you want to watch video on a 3" screen? Its kinda like those 15" plasma displays... that sell for a grand. Hey... plasma looks ultra cool, but... any movie looks bad on a 15" display... sheeesh... pay the same and get a nice 36" tv... it aint as sharp, but you can actually read text on the screen!
So beyond catering to "the geek that has everything"... I just cant picture why people want this stuff... having portable video, thats too damned small to see... is about as useful as having no video at all. Same guess for those stupid TV displays in cars... not to mention WTF are people putting tv's in cars anyways!!! Sheeeesh.... cell phones are bad enough.
Ok sorry... end of rant. In the end, this product just seems like a massively overpriced, relatively useless gimmick to me.
"rumors are that a video iPod is in the works" In my experiences, it has not been in Apple's philosophy recently to make a "superproduct" that does "everything". Apple is a very specialized company in itself, so I do not see why they would make a multifunction iPod. All the "features" that would be included would most likely complicate their famously intuitive iPod interface that everyone is noi doubt expecting.
10 Bits= $.25
100 Bits= $.50
110 Bits= $.75
1000 Bits= 1 byte
The iPod is not in the same class not because it is inferior, but because it doesn't try to be everything like the Acrhos. The Acrhos tries to do both MP3 playing and video playing, and suffers as a result. Who wants to spend that much money for a bulky device with poor battery life that's windows only? The iPod keeps it simple, doing music and other PDA like things. Plus, lets not forget that the interface on the iPod takes a backseat to no one. Is pocket video really the killer app? I doubt it. The whole point of an MP3 player is that you can listen while you do other things. Video obviously is not the same way, and has less of a need to be so portable. These devices will never see anywhere near as much success as the iPod.
For those of you who didn't read the review I found this portion to be very interesting.
Is this a product review or an opinion piece???
It is fair use to record a show off of television for later viewing; it doesn't matter if you use a VCR or a digital video recorder. It is fair use to lend that tape or file to your friend next door so they can watch it. Is it fair use to trade with 4 million "friends" simultaneously on the Internet? In Canada it is, but the US is another story. That's what the RIAA is suing individual music file traders over (the MPAA -- the RIAA's motion picture lobby equivalent -- is waiting before taking the same route, they too might consider the same tactics against file trading.)
Since the Archos allows users to make good quality recordings of TV programs and DVDs, you will start to see more such programming reach the Net as the mediabox niche grows. The Archos player records via analog methods (a cable to a DVD or VCR), so it is unaffected by any Digital Rights management protections added to DVDs. If you can view it on your television, the Archos can record it. This doesn't make the media companies happy.
In our opinion, file trading is not the threat the entertainment conglomerates make it out to be. Yes music sales are down and that allows the record companies to blame it all on file trading, but DVD sales are up. Way up. Every major movie release has made it on the Net, usually well before the DVD comes out. Did DVD sales go down? No. Did they stay the same? No. Did they go up? Yes, by 61 percent.
But our protests and logic mean little if Disney takes you to court. You lose the moment you have to shell out for that first session with the lawyer, so our advice is to be cautious with the files you create and remember, Micky Mouse is not a nice guy in real life.
Maybe you should educate the morons of tomorrow so they'll stop believing the leaders of tomorrow. - Dogbert
And also considering the past record of Archos customer service, I am not so sure If i want to buy one.
Besides, at 600$ it better be built solidly, i.e. magnessium alloy body or something , and sturdy buttons., not the cheap plastic ones that most archos players have.
for the last time people, I am "frodo from middle eaRTH", not "middle eaST".
Just because you don't want a multi-purpose device doesn't mean that I don't! You are more than welcome to walk around with an mp3 player, portable dvd player, palm pilot, laptop, digital camera, and cell phone all strapped to you if you wish. Or whatever subset you actually use. But for those of us that want to be able to carry every around in one package, let us! That's why people sell different products: different people want different things!
I recently got to ditch my palm pilot and cell phone in exchange for a Handspring Treo 300. So in that one device I've got phone, PDA, wireless internet and portable email. I think it's the greatest thing ever. If the Archos also did PDA and cell functionality you'd bet I'd have one in a heartbeat.
The ability to only carry around one device that could do everything I need in a portable unit is very appealing to me.
I travel quite a bit. My girlfriends parents love to see pictures that she's taken with her digital camera. So we'll go to their computer, copy the images over and sit around their 15" monitor watching it.
With this beast I could load all our pictures on there and sit in front of their 36" tv and have everything there instantly! I could take my video library with me to hotel so I'd have movies to watch instead of flipping through unfamiliar channels. I could watch a movie or listen to some music on a plane without relying on whatever THEY decide to show.
I, for one, DO want an all-in-one device. No one's making you use it. So just use the device(s) that are right for you!
It's interesting to see how this is all playing out. No doubt in the future digital bandwidth will be high enough that there's no quality tradeoff, but in the present I find it fascinating that, on the one hand you have audiophiles insisting that CD's are an impossibly compromised format while, on the other hand, the public seems to be perfectly happy with the distinctly lower quality of .mp3 (and .aac).
Now we have DVD's which are far inferior to, say, traditional 70mm projection to begin with... people watching DVD's on small portable players... and, soon, people watching highly compressed digital video on even tinier players.
Will cheap, plentiful, convenient low-quality digital media undercut the market for HDTV, huge plasma displays, etc?
I think the very last thing I would ever have expected would be for digital media to result in a general lowering of quality--not the subtle lowering audiophiles claim to be so disturbed by, but gross, obvious lowering.
Perhaps in a few years I will be sitting down to enjoy Lawrence of Arabia in 640x480 pixels at 15 fps...
"How to Do Nothing," kids activities, back in print!
I would hardly call this "gee-whiz". You might think so, but if you had a 1 hour bus/train ride to work every day, wouldn't you like to bring Simpsons/Family Guy/Queer Eye for a Straight Guy with you? I'm not in this situation, but if I were, this would be worthwhile. Just because you don't see a use for it personally does not make it useless.
The article mentioned this point, did you read it?
"but if you had a 1 hour bus/train ride to work every day, wouldn't you like to bring Simpsons/Family Guy/Queer Eye for a Straight Guy with you?"
Yes, I do have a long commute, and I find gadgets like this are a hassle because you've got to do a couple things with them...
When you get home, you have to take time to record shows into your jukebox. For those of us with families, and other things happening, there simply isn't *time* to fuss with a TV gadget every day. Since battery life is only 3-4 hours, I probably have to charge it every other day. Another thing to hassle with.
During commuting I have to be worried about getting mugged for my fabulous gadget, I have to think of where to keep it so it doesn't get smashed. I purposely don't take a briefcase because I try not to load myself down. I have to worry about dropping it.
When I get to work, I have to have a safe place to keep it.
Cripes, its why I don't even take a CD player. I have to mess with CD's... its just hassle for minimal entertainment.
I love the simpson's, but I'm not going to build my life around watching them on a portable video device.