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5.5 oz. MPEG-4/Audio Portable From Archos
An anonymous reader writes "Several manufacturers produce hard drive-based MPEG-4 portables now, but to date they are all big and heavy devices weighing in at around 3/4 of a pound. Archos just announced the Gmini 400, a 20GB video/audio player that comes in at the iPod's dimensions and light 5.6 ounces. Presently shipping, I guess they are ready now for the iPod Video in case that player ever becomes more that a /. myth."
Never send rotating machinery to do an IC's job.
with 35 gigs of porn, and 4 of music
every day http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random
Gizmodo has pictures and bit better of a review:
e verything-but-a-price-019630.php
http://www.gizmodo.com/archives/archos-gmini-400-
Given the failure rate of IDE in PC computers, where one imagines they've got more than enough space and manufacturing experience going for them, I wonder how long these mini-HDDs will last even without being subjected to drops.
Especially at $400, which seems almost a bargain for this technology.
Try not. Do or do not, there is no try.
-- Dr. Spock, stardate 2822-3.
Just for the metric people here, the Gmini 400 comes in at the iPod's dimensions and light 0.158757329 kilograms
The iPod looks bulky compared to the flash-based players.
Yeah, but can you put your entire CD collection on one CF Microdrive?
Lots of people say "why would I ever need to watch movies". Fair enough, but the new player takes away the biggest reason *not* to have a video player. Not everyone will go for it, but there will now be a lot more people who'll say "why not have video as well, if the form factor is the same".
People might not think they would use video, but they'd be surprised if they actually had the opportunity, as I do on my Treo. When you can't be bothered reading on a crowded train, or you've got to wait somewhere a few minutes, nothing beats pulling a Simpsons episode out of your pocket. And you're not going to bring a player especially for that, but if it's already there anyway (because you carry your music everywhere), you'll use it.
The reason the iPod does so well is because of one principle: K.I.S.S. (Keep It Simple, Stupid) Want to play a song? Mash the huge button on the front of the iPod. That's it.
Other than people riding a train to work (or other stationary activity), who would actually use their device for video playback? I can't use it when I run, I can't use it when I do household chores (vacuuming, cleaning, etc), I can't use it when I draw or paint... What exactly is the point?
It would really surprise me if Apple released a video iPod.
I like big butts and I cannot lie.
He shopped around for awhile and had some pretty specific needs as he was sick of constanly burning DVDs for travel and laptops in the size he wanted were too expensive or flimsy. He wanted a decent screen but something that could still fit in the leather WW2 camera bag, decent battery life, and a mic that can record in mp3. Most of his movies are shots he has done for film classes with the odd south park or simpsons off his pvr. He settled on an archos model the av380 and the only complaint I've heard about it is that it only has a USB 2.0 interface as he really wanted firewire.
An Education is the Font of All Liberty
With the onset of countless online music stores, Is it only a matter of time now before we can download feature legnth divx movies to these players? I hope so!
:).
Maybe, maybe not. I get the feeling that once bandwidth speeds up to the point where downloading movies becomes trivial like downloading music is, it'll still be a far smaller number of people who'll sit & watch a full length movie on a device like this, compared to those who'll listen to music. Of course, I could be wrong, and there's no reason to think a smaller market than MP3 players can't be profitable
I wonder if the technicalities of the device may influence the movies to be played on it. If a 2" diagonal screen looks OK at 160x90 pixels, it may make for a smaller & cheaper movie download
"5.5 oz" = 0.155922377 kilograms
"3/4 of a pound" = 0.340194278 kilograms
"5.6 ounces" = 0.158757329 kilograms.
woo for google calculator.
http://reviews.cnet.com/Archos_Gmini_400/4505-6499 _7-31000735.html?tag=cnetfd.sd
I've lusted after the Archos media varieties lately, especially the newer one that has a CompactFlash slot without requiring a dongle. The units allow image playback to LCD or TV, which is handy when you're visiting relatives who want to see your shots before you go home to do serious prints or processing.
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However, why on earth would they release a portable video player with a display only slightly larger than the iPod's (2.2 inch vs. 2 inch)? Even the gameboy has a bigger screen (2.9 inch). There is alot of wasted realestate on the new Archos which could have been used for a bigger display.
Sony should add video and audio playback capabilities to the upcoming 4.5 inch w i d e s c r e e n PSP. That would truely be an iPod killer.
my cellphone (se p900) has a bigger screen than this thing and thats right now
do these other industrial designers even take note of Apples attention to athestics ? are they blind or just stupid ? and yet the wonder why their devices fail (in terms of consumer acceptance) people dont read specs/features first, it has to be good looking enough for them to pick it off the shelf in the first place before even reading what it does, its like Palm , constantly making clunky devices and wonder why the
oh and does it do Xvid ?
Over in the dpreview.com Storage forum, there have been a number of frustrated users of the Archos 220, which for some users has a high degree of file corruption, ruining quite a few pictures. Given photographers uses these devices to backup their media so they can erase it and continue on, it is fairly serious if these devices routinely corrupt files.
Now Arhos may have fixed the problem in the new version, and they may not have. I suspect I would wait on the sidelines until other people try it out, given the previous history.
I'm on my 3rd personal storage unit for photos, and I really like the CompactDrive PD6A that I got (previously I used the Image Bank and x-drive II). All it does is save photos on a disk (no MP3, no video), but it does so quite fast.
is Rockbox, the open-source firmware for most of their devices, with features out the wazoo, assuming you're one the the lucky wazoo-bearers of the species.
I've been looking at all the portables coming out for a while and I'm passing on this one -- thought anyone who just wants a music player will probably like it. Here's the things this can do that the ipod cannot:
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1) View photos
2) Copy photos/movies/music directly off of compact flash (or other formats with adapter) using built in compact flash adapter.
3) Play movies (Screen is only 2.2 inches, but its pretty) at *FULL* dvd resolution (impressive processing power for such a little guy).
4) Has a very nice gui for playing music on its color screen -- which of course you'll shut off to save battery life.
5) Plays Mophun games -- you know, the cheesey little cellphone games. It comes pre-loaded with 5 of 'em. .
In otherwords, it can do everything ipod can do, much more, and in the same size. It's a neat little gizmo. Not perfect though, I won't be getting one in fact -- Here's why:
1) 400 dollars for 20 gigs -- a bit more than a similar featured ipod. This is not a problem for me, but might scare some people away -- though archos is a bit less into the whole "price controlling" thing that apple does so you might actaully find it on sale for less.
2) 2.2 inch screen only takes up about half the total dimensions of this -- you could theoretically make a larger screen on this unit without increasing the size. My guess is they didn't for costs/battery life reasons. Nevertheless, if I can't read the subtitles on my anime, it's no good.
3) The real killer for me: No support for Advanced Simple Profile for divx -- this means that most of the files encoded "in the wild" will have to be re-encoded to play them. Archos is coming out with it's AV500 (pda with a harddrive) model soon which is supposed to have support for ASP.
Since I personally am looking for a video player primarily and music player secondarily, I will wait for the AV500. I don't want to re-encode all my anime. However if you guys were looking to buy an ipod, you should definately consider this little guy. For just a bit more money you get ALOT more features (video, photos, compact flash, pretty color screen, mophun games).
Well, not quite (more like a Game Gear), but still, doesn't it just beg to be a portable gaming system?
"[Regarding the 'cloud,'] ownership was what made America different than Russia." -- Woz
The iRiver H300 Series is also worth a look.0 0
20 Gigs: http://www.iriver.com/product/info.asp?p_name=H32
40 Gigs: http://www.iriver.com/product/info.asp?p_name=H34
It has a colour screen (so it certainly isn't the first mp3 player with a colour screen) and it also serves as a USB host, allowing people to transfer photos from digital cameras onto the iRiver on the fly. It can view still pictures, and has similar music playing capabilities as the original iriver H100 series (I believe). Still no AAC though. Buuut it does maintain a 16 hour battery life from what I read.
Maybe someone will come out with a firmware hack to allow playing movies on it? That would be awesome.
- shazow
So looking at the specs in the review I see mpeg4 sp video, but in an avi container and no aac audio. Which is misleading, to say the least.
:-)
I was bitten by this recently when I bought and 'mpeg 4' dvd player, which was nothing of the sort. Would it play mpeg 4 files? Nope.
I'm surprised that mpeg and iso seem to be offering little guidance on this. Is isn't helping them when players badged 'mpeg4' don't seem to be able to play the format.
(sorry - pet peeve
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I don't trust the quality and service of Archos. I had horrible experiences with their jukebox MP3 player. It was a terrible product and their customer service to get you a new one under warranty was also impossible.
The fundamental problem is that they rush to get out the latest cool product without hammering out the details and practicality and interface. I'd rather wait until a more solid manufacturer like Apple gets everything right from the right transfer speed, charging, UI, software, etc. Sure it will be more expensive, but I'll probably buy it in the long run anyway.
can't sleep. clowns will eat me.
Well, the AV500 definately will. It's the PDA with a hard drive player. Not only will it have all the requirements to be fully divx certified (finally! I won't have to re-encode my files!), but it also runs Qtopia (linux) for all my PDA'ing needs.
Does the gmini run some sort of stripped down version of this or something else -- I have no idea? But I can tell you that its likely someone will hack it to make it run linux -- they did it with the other archos models that had much less processing power than this one does.
How much will it cost? Personally, investing $299 to buy an ipod seems a little pricey. If it costs anymore for all of these additions, it will be out of most people's spending range. Who really wants to walk around with a video in their hands anyways?
will they need alternative firmware? see http:/www.donat.org/archos