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Archos' Upgraded AV500 Jukebox Detailed

Posted by simoniker on from the geek-toy-heaven dept.

An anonymous reader writes "According to a piece on Mobilemag.com, the Archos AV500, newly shown at Cebit 2004 in Germany, will be the all-in-one answer to the clutter of handheld devices - this is a PVP [personal video player] and PDA combo handheld around the size of a Jornada with 20 or 40 gigs storage. Watch movies, read emails, connect your digital camera for backup, the list goes on.." The piece also notes: "Archos also added EPG (Electronic Programming Guide) technology, to allow you to control the AV500 with a remote control as a video player/recorder."

10 of 179 comments (clear)

  1. Hmm... by odano · · Score: 5, Interesting

    So a DVD Player is better at playing DVDs and video...
    An MP3 player is better at playing MP3s...
    A PDA is better at being a PDA...

    And I am sure all of the above have a much longer battery life and are cheaper than this unit.

    I really just don't see why anybody would buy this.

  2. There is a season - learn learn learn ... by foobsr · · Score: 3, Interesting

    ... my coach and colleague does not stop telling me that most of her other clients (I prefer paper and pencil to keep my basic structure) are not very much aware about how to handle the current gadgets and many times loose all their data due to incom(not patibility but petence).

    Well. What will the future bring to improve this?

    CC.

    --
    TaijiQuan (Huang, 5 loosenings)
  3. Portable Movie, Picture, Music Survey by oscast · · Score: 3, Interesting

    osViews is holding a survey which asks that people rate their liklihood of buying one of these types of devices.

    The results are very telling...

  4. Re:What's going on here? by Mr.+Certainly · · Score: 2, Interesting

    There is a difference between using technology and being up to your neck with technology for the sake of having technology.

    Allow me to explain...

    Horse and buggy. Sure, maybe the environment would be better...but I like my car. We have cars. No big deal. But I don't want nor need my car to be the entertainment and living center of my life.

    "Simplicity. Simplicity. Simplicity."

    The swiss army knife tech toys are overdone. We let our toys with their options and media dictate to us users what we value and what we desire.

    Variety is always nice. I have several pairs of scissors, a few different knives, even computers running different OSs! Imagine that. But I don't need a hand-held computer that can slice, dice, and make my bed for me.

    Read back about the article on India's use of Email stations to send email that's printed and carried to residents high in the back mountains. Technology has changed their life, it's made it better for they can communicate quicker and more reliably.

    However, their culture is unchanged. No power lines have been errected, no massive forests destroyed to build roads to maintain these infrastructures.

    Can we improve our lives without destroying our culture? Can we be entertained without always turning to a video screen?

  5. Why, oh Why do they put d-pads on the RIGHT? by raygundan · · Score: 4, Interesting

    This has been driving me nuts. Do cell-phone designers not realise that we are all trained by nintendo to expect d-pads on the LEFT side of things? There are a staggering number of "would be great for handheld gaming if only they'd move the d-pad" devices. PocketPC centers it. Treo 600 centers it. Sidekick/Hiptop puts it on the right. Even that shiny new Motorola MPx everybody's drooling over has the damn thing on the right. You'd think somebody besides Tapwave would figure out that putting a dpad on the left, buttons on the right, and a couple of shoulder buttons makes just about any PDA into an awesome portable gaming platform.

    Oh well... I can dream.

  6. Re:What's going on here? by cK-Gunslinger · · Score: 2, Interesting


    So if I have this correct, as long as *you* see the benefit for something, it's a good thing, otherwise, it is wasteful and a reflection on our society's dependence on TV? Gotcha.

    I have no need for multiple pairs of scissors. So should I complain that companies make and sell different models? Can we be entertained without always turning to different forms of shearing devices?

    Seriously, that's great that you have no need for some of this new technology, but why do you feel the need to complain that others do and some companies are catering to these individuals? Let it go. I fail to see the overwhelming social implications and cultural ramifications of this announcement. But maybe that's just me...

  7. PLEASE combine these 2 items!! by usascholar · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I would love this setup...

    The linux webpage has been .. edited. (they redirect you to the homepage now..grr..)

    So here is a pic of the AV500:

    http://www.shanebrinkmandavis.com/homepage/Archos/ Main/ArchosRumors.html

    AND

    http://www.jonescam.tv/lipstick_camera.html

    Why do video camera manufacturer's insist that I need to carry around my video camera?? I don't want to!

    Come on guys, can you hack one of these av300 or av500, and let me have my hands free video camera ?? I'll pay for it, really PLEASE?!?!?!

    Thanks
    Mabidex

    (I am lazy, but so what)

  8. I like my Archos by DaveOf9thKey · · Score: 3, Interesting

    A lot of people here are complaining about their Archos MP3 players, so I feel the need to offer a contrasting opinion. I've owned an Archos Jukebox Multimedia 20 for the last nine months, and while it's needed a firmware update or two over that time, it's been a pretty reliable little MP3 and movie player.

    The 1" screen is generally too small for watching most movies, but it passes in a pinch on an airplane, and I can plug it into a TV and watch it there if I want. Somewhere in my video folder you'll find a couple dozen Looney Tunes classics, a couple of movies and a handful of Firefly episodes, all in DivX format and ready to play at a moment's notice.

    The camera attachment is crap -- 1 megapixel, no flash -- but I find use for it anyway, because I like the novelty factor and don't do much with pictures beyond posting them to the web.

    So while Archos may not be the best company out there, their multimedia players are still pretty nifty, and if nothing else, a device like the AV500 -- which is definitely on my radar now -- might push the bigger players in the PDA and PocketPC market to add hard drives to their own units. There's obviously a market here for convergence in PDAs, or we wouldn't see devices like this. Hopefully, we'll start seeing more of them.

    (And yes, hopefully we'll see better batteries to power them, too...)

    --

    Visit me on the web at Permanent4.com.
    1. Re:I like my Archos by dspyder · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Whoa, I could have written exactly that myself (and have in other threads).

      So many people say "but who wants to watch a DVD on a tiny screen". Well, not me... but I do want to watch a movie on a plane or bus from a device that I can keep in my pocket or at least on the outside of my carry-on luggage. "Just get a laptop"? Ya, what about weight... and a fragile screen... and battery life... and having to take it out for security checkpoints. Ha! "Buy a portable DVD player"... sure... might as well deal with a laptop... and they're almost as expensive as this device anyway!

      The Archos Multimedia also works great at hotel rooms (assuming the TV has RCA inputs) rather than using their pay-per-view... bring your own porn! :)

      I love my Archos Multimedia. I just wish there were a few things fixed in the firmware, or they would open it up for the Rockbox folks to have at it. AVOS project looks promising, but I think their goal of running Linux and games and other useless stuff is not as clean and simple as Rockbox would be.

      Most of all, I wish there was a quick and easy way of dumping shows off satellite to these kinds of devices. Or downloads from the network's websites or something (even with all the commercials).

      --D

  9. Re:archos = 'crappy build quality' by baker_tony · · Score: 1, Interesting
    Have you actually owned an Archos jukebox?

    I've got an Archos Jukebox Studio 20 sitting beside me, I've had it since it first came out (was about to buy a mini disk player but saw it on a shelf and just had to get one).

    It's got marks all over it because of the rough way I've handled it over the years, it's still going.

    As for it making a loud whine when the hard drive spins up, can't say I have that problem.

    I have had the odd screen problem, turning it off and back on again seems to fix it.

    You have bass and treble settings, which is fine as far as I care.

    The sound quality is also fantasic. I've compared it to my girlfriends iPod (same headphones used, Koss ones) and I have to say that I actually think the Archos sounds better, especially the quality of the bass!! I couldn't believe it myself.

    I'm just waiting for it to break so I can get a new generation mp3 player!

    If only they had cheap 20Gb Compact Flash cards, then I'd get a pda and use that for movies, but if this Archos AV500 is the size of a PDA... Hmmm. Shame it'll be too expensive.