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Detailed Review of the Archos AV420 PVR
ilovealpacas writes "The Globe and Mail has posted a step by step look at the Archos AV420. For about $1000 Canadian (I think that's $800 US), you get an 80GB portable video player and recorder that also plays MP3's and has a CF slot for pictures. Hmmm.....laptop?"
Aren't laptops cheaper than that, though?
I mean, even an iBook works out less.
"She's furniture with a pulse"
when will they stop making all this specialized crap and just make better software and hardware based on laptops or PDA's to do the same thing why reverse engineer things
This definitely brings up the question of what overkill is. I think I may enjoy something like this, but at the same time, how much would I really use it for anything other than audio and maybe a little video.
For me it would probably end up as little more than an 80 GB mp3 player with a lot of extra hard drive storage space.
Does anybody out there think this would be better than a laptop? The only place I can see using this for movies or pictures would be on vacation or business trips where a laptop would be more practical.
what?
Personally, I will never buy another piece of equipment made by Archos. I had to take apart one of their Jukebox Recorders to try and get it to function at all. I discovered that the 4 circuit boards inside (which pretty much make up the entirety of the interior, and what the outer casing attaches to) are all held together with solder joints. As in they have attached the circuit boards to each other using solder. In addition, the battery contacts are on circuit boards at either end of the main boards. So when you put the batteries in, the pressure of the springs puts stress on the solder joints that hold the thing together.
Needless to say, I was not able to revive this piece of crap.
-Todd
"The details of my life are quite inconsequential..."
I don't get the point of these portable DVD players... most of the time, they're the price (or cost more!) than a laptop that you could use to do MORE than listen to video... Anyway, I don't even see a purpose for them. To listen to videos... in your car? Maybe? Someone care to explain?
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If you have to carry a notebook anyway with sufficient battery life, by all means - take that instead, but given a choice, i'd rather carry a 10oz device that works vs a 8 lbs device that runs microsoft.
-Em
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Lastly, the folks at Archos saw it fit to just let the AV420 be recognized as a hard drive. As in all other functions, files can be moved, renamed or deleted right on the device. Just plug it in via USB 2.0 and just drag and drop any files to your heart's content. If you prefer to synchronize your tunes, you can always use the included Musicmatch software.
This is where they got it right, whether a PVR is in the stars for you or not everyone should adopt this practice (that means you apple!). There is nothing more upsetting than getting a device that only wants to talk to its software for importing files. My old iPaq PocketPC would annoy the hell out of me because I couldn't just plug it in to any USB port on any computer and get files to/from it. At least the iPod lets you get at the "other" files stored on the HDD without iTunes or other synch software.
Or am I just crazy? Should we all just install Music Match and Real One so we can get files off our USB flashpenthumb drives with stickers on them?
Im dreaming ofa big bndwdth, That can resist the
I bought a gMini400 from Archos to primarily watch movies/shows on long commutes. I'm on a train/bus/plane. I'm not the one driving. Why not enjoy myself?
As for the pure "geek" factor: you can get a 20 GB iPod for $300. For $60 more (if you shop around) you can get the same hard drive space with the ability to play DivX movies, read from compact flash and get roughly the same battery life (the gMini is rated for 10 hours playing MP3s). Why *wouldn't* a geek get one over an iPod? The only reason I can see for iPod left is UI (I transferred all my iTunes music to MP3).
This is not a laptop any more than an iPod is a PDA.
It's all about the UI. You turn it on and it plays movies. You don't log in or wait for stuff to boot, etc.
Also, most laptops don't have 80 gig drives, and are quite frankly not designed to watch movies or listen to music. The speakers and displays suck for such tasks. I have a little portable DVD player, and it's 7 inch screen is easier to see from a distance or angle than my laptop's.
I don't need no instructions to know how to rock!!!!
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I have the older Archos JBMM20, and it's a wonderful machine despite its quirks and lousy firmware and small screen. However, the biggest pain in the ass is converting my downloaded video clips into the resolution and codec that it needs to play. It's a slow and tedious process.
Now, my brother has a DirecTivo set to dump to his NetApp drive array. My UltimateTV can't do that, and even if it could... I'd have to convert those videos to put them on my Archos anyway.
Same goes for DVDs. To rip a DVD I legally own, to use on my own portable hardware, I have to pay for some [possibly illegal] software and deal with the frustrations of getting those to work right.
What is needed is a play-any-content, tightly integrated to video-on-demand services and all of the other video-related hardware in my house. Of course, Disney (Michael Eisner is the devil) is fundamentally opposed to that view of the world. While you're at it, why not allow me to stream the videos on my device (no hard drive) from my central server over Wifi or ?
--D