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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."
Looks nice, I was concerned about the battery life, but 3.5 hours for video is better than my laptop manages playing DivX.
For those who want my exact specs:
What's in the Box: AV320 Video Recorder, USB 2.0 cable, AC adapter, Li-Ion batteries (already installed), stereo headphones, AV cinch cable (SCART adapter in Europe). CD with MusicMatch, drivers and 6-language manual. Digital Video Recorder, audio & video cables, remote control and 6 langage installation sheet.
Capacity: 20 GB Hard Disk
Interface: USB 2.0, extra fast, compatible USB 1.1, PC & Mac . Optional FireWire cable.
Video playback: MPEG-4 SP with MP3 stereo sound, near-DVD quality. Resolutions 352x288@30f/s, or 640x272@25f/s, up to 640x368@20f/s. AVI file format, reads XviD and DivX"* 4.0 & 5.0.
Music playback: Stereo MP3 decoding @ 30-320 kb/s CBR & VBR, WMA @ 160 kb/s
Music recording: Stereo MP3 encoding @ 30-160 kb/s VBR
Photo viewer: JPEG (except progressives) or BMP of any size
Display: 3,8'' color LCD (QVGA) 320xRGBx240 pixels or TV
AV Connections: Stereo analog Line In & digital SPDIF Line In/Out. Composite Video/ Earphone/ Line Out jack. Built-in microphone.
Playback Autonomy : Up to 10 hours on MP3 or 3 1/2 hours for video on built-in LCD
Scalability: Downloadable firmware updates from www.archos.com.
Power Source: Internal: Rechargeable Li-Ion Batteries. External: AC charger / adapter.
Dimensions & Weight: 112 x 82 x 31 mm (4.4" x 3.2" x 1.2"). 350g (12.5 oz)
Connection: Plugs into AV320 expansion port.
Capture rate: PAL : 320x240 @ 25 f/s, NTSC / 304 X 224 @30 f/s
Video Input: Analog Composite Video or S-video
Audio input: Analog stereo audio Mini-jack - RCA
Video compression: mpeg-4 SP with MP3 stereo sound in AVI format (can be read by XviD or DivX players)
Audio compression: Stereo MP3 96-192 kb/s CBR (Constant Bit Rate)
Dimensions & weight: 60 x 54 x 30mm (2.3''x2.1''x1.2''), 45g (1.5 oz)
Systems Requirements: PC: Pentium ii 266 MHz. Windows 98SE, ME, 2000, XP, 64 MB RAM; MAC: 9.2 or 10.2.4 iMac, G3 or higher
In Soviet Russia, the television watches YOU!
Why must companies continue to make multi-purpose products like this? When they do, it seems like they always use sub-standard components, and the whole thing ends up being low level versions of all of the different pieces that the product is comprised of. When someone needs a digital camera, they should buy a digital camera. They're cheap now, go get a good one. When someone needs a video camera, go get a video camera. They're small now, and a lot cheaper. Need a portable video monitor? If slightly over 3" is good enough for you, then be my guest and fork over the dough for this device.
I can hardly see any practicality in this device, and I'm VERY interested to find how many people that buy it that wouldn't have been better off with just a laptop for $200 more (yes, I understand a laptop is less portable).
Yeah, the geek in me would love to get this sweet little thing, but the business person in me knows better.
Celebrate Steak and a Blowjob Day!
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.
it plays .ogg files, runs linux, irons my shirts, arm wrestles my little brother, makes a tasty denver omelette, beats me at Marvel Vs. Capcom 2 using Tron Bonne, Dan, and Ruby Heart, has a built in rubber stamp for voiding paper work, and walks 12 miles uphill both ways to school barefoot in the snow and likes it.
Archos is already selling AV380's with a 80Gb disk for a price of around 1000 Euro's.
This will give you just enough to load all of the Star Trek episodes from all series (STTOS,STTNG, STDS9,STVOY & STENT).
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
Things I find relevant not mentioned in the review:
.avi files I've attempted to convert and it is invariably too much work to figure out why.
1) The display does indeed power down when you're listening to mp3's, but you have to power it back up to skip songs or even adjust volume. It's especially irritating in that you need to hit the relevant control once to wake it up, the second time to do what you're trying to do.
2) The ability to record from DVD is somewhat suspect- I've been putting Baby Einstein videos on there to have a portable version, and there's a certain DVD in my collection that has turned into garbage halfway through the recording process like 10 times. Not longer than the other ones that work, not identifiably any different at all, but still, it isn't recording. DRM issues or what, I couldn't tell you.
3) Ships without any kind of screen protector. Try getting this in the mail and _not_ carrying it around in your pocket or playing with it until you've had a chance to discover that no standard PDA screen thingy fits and you have to cut your own. Mine has small scratches on the screen from merely a couple of days of use.
4) The video file format conversion process is kind of haphazzard. Their program to convert has rejected numerous
I love this thing, but it's not without a few problems that went unmentioned in the review. As to those that can't believe someone would spend money on this, I say: it's fun and useful right now and it does enough that you'd be buying its future replacement for weight/dimension changes only. I'll enjoy mine while you wait for the weightless free version with infinite battery life and forward compatibility with dimensional warp generators.