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?"

Comments

Laptop?

[BeerCat]

Aren't laptops cheaper than that, though?
I mean, even an iBook works out less.

Overkill?

[Benw5483]

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.

At least they made Sync'ing easy

[aardwolf204]

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?