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

but...

[Anonymous Coward]

Yes, but does it run linux?

Laptop?

[BeerCat]

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

PC?

[erotic_pie]

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

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.

Read the durn book instead

[lottameez]

[curmudgeonly sneer] You bums need to read books instead of wasting yer money on these fancy schmantzy doo-dads. What? Too afraid to talk to the guy sitting next to you on the airplane?

Why, when I was a youngster...cough cough KACCCCCHHH...phtt.

How's the construction?

[signe]

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

Re:How's the construction?

[DarkBlackFox]

Why is it that comments negatively portraying a company are always modded up around here? There's two sides to every coin.

I've had an Archos Jukebox Recorder 10 for well over 5 years now, and haven't had any problems with it. I still get +/- 5 hours of continuous play out of the original NiMH rechargable batteries that came with the unit. I've taken it apart a few times (mostly to use it as an external USB enclosure to try salvaging files from a dead laptop drives), and never had any problems with shoddy solder joints or breaking anything putting the batteries back in. It's been a very solid unit, and survived many falls and trips around town in my backpack, all with the original IBM travelstar hard drive.

I'm tired of seeing all the "my thing broke so this company sucks" comments here, and felt like chipping in my positive experience with this particular product.

Re:How's the construction?

[signe]

Because the interior construction of the thing isn't a matter of a subjective experience. Using solder joints to secure one circuit board to another is bad construction.

I'm glad your jukebox works. Given what I know of the interior of these things, I would consider you lucky.

-Todd

Re:How's the construction?

[rdewalt]

Same here. I've got the same model (AJR-10) that I aquired from a friend when the drive died.

Tore it apart, bought an off-the-shelf 40gb drive, did the magic hand wave incantation (i.e. formatted it FAT-32) dumped my MP3's to it, replaced the 1500mAh's with COTS 2300mAh's, and re-assembled. Cable went the way of all those Special Cables, so I grafted two USB-A Male ends together and made my own. Installed the RockBox rom, and BOOM replaced the standard archos rom with one that has the functionality I needed.

For $125 in parts cost, and an hour's work. I got a 40gb mp3 player that does about 12 hours on a single charge. I pop the plastic battery plates, and I can swap in any regular AA size batteries. Doesn't hook to the USB port on my big FreeBSD machine. No big deal. five minutes with the screwdriver, and the drive is free again, I stick it right on the IDE chain. Who the hell would xfer gigs of data over USB, when you've got IDE.

I've got four people who want me to make them one, all I need is the parts. Okay, so the construction is not Most Ideal. But I can fix a solder weild if it goes bad. Hell, Archos haven't gone forth and shut down the "How to mod your Archos" people, nor the 'open source rom' people. Isn't that something that slashdotters like?

Re:How's the construction?

[torpor]

Why is it that comments negatively portraying a company are always modded up around here? There's two sides to every coin.

Look, comments being modded 'up' or 'down' are not a valid indication of their 'worth' to the subject matter. Stop thinking so linearly! Break the dialectic noose!

Slashdot comments work to 'categorize', not 'valuate' a posts' validity to the thread. "Negative" feedback on a company/product is typically not moderated because of its negativity, but because it is feedback.. just as many "glowing reports" will filter through the Mod system to "Interesting" or "Informative" as "negative slants" ..

In short, its feedback, stupid!!

Re:How's the construction?

[TheRaven64]

I still get +/- 5 hours of continuous play out of the original NiMH rechargable batteries that came with the unit.

Wow. It must really suck when you get -5 hours out of them, huh?

Re:How's the construction?

[EvilNight]

I'm of a mixed mindset about it.

I bought the original Archos model 6000 with the 6GB disk. It ran without problems for about a year, and then the charging port and power ports both died. No big deal, the batteries charge more efficiently in an external unit anyway, and swapping them out takes about five seconds, so I can live with that. I only ran it on AC in my car, but given the battery life I can live without that as well. About a year and a half after purchase, the USB port starts getting flaky, throwing data errors any time I use it.

Again, no big deal really. It takes five minutes to reduce it to a bare hard disk and plug it in directly with IDE, and I don't change music mixes that often, though I do miss the ability to drop files on it and use it as a cheap, portable USB drive. Two years in, the hard disk takes a dive (never dropped once, only runs in my car). Easy to replace it with a 60GB laptop hard disk I had laying around. While I'm at it, I upgrade to the Rockbox firmware because it kicks the shit out of the original. Just last month (what, 3 years since purhcase now? I lost track) I noticed my charge wasn't holding as long as it used to. Popped in four 2300ma batteries to replace the stock 1500ma(?) batteries and it's now running for 20 hours solid on a single charge.

The lesson to take home here is that the Archos does well because it uses a relatively open hardware architecture. I am still using it precisely because I could replace the hard disk, firmware, and batteries. I will never touch any portable device that uses proprietary, unreplaceable batteries (hence why I hate the iPod and most Palm devices). In retrospect, given Archos's shitty 90-day warranty, I think it would have been better to buy it from Best Buy and get a 3-year warranty slapped onto it on the cheap. That at least is good to cover hard disk failures.

I'll be using this one until it literally burns out, however long that takes. It's a damn good chunk of hardware, despite a few manufacturing problems (as others have noted). If I were to buy another MP3/Video player device, I would be looking at Archos as my first pick, at least as long as the hardware remains that easy to hack and replace. I don't think I would ever drop $800 on a portable video/audio device, though. Maybe when it is $400 in a few years I'll think about it.

No DVD!

[darth_MALL]

It couldn't have been that much of a stretch to add a DVD player could it? I'm sure all the other features are great, but when I think of mobile entertainment, DVD is 1st on the list. Ahh well I can't afford it anyway, so it's back to work.

Re:No DVD!

[samhart]

Actually, these things are smaller than a DVD ;-)

Besides, this is more in the uber-iPod arena than the portable DVD arena. I have a AV320 myself and I take it to the gym for MP3 listenning. I wouldnt want a full DVD player there ;-)

AV320

[samhart]

I have an AV320 that I got from some consulting I did a while back (because he couldn't pay me in cash, har har har) and I absolutely love mine.

It's powered by embedded Linux (which I love) and it works like a dream. There have been many an airplane ride that was made easier because of my AV320 ;-)

My biggest problem with mine (could not apply to this version) was that the screen wasn't well protected. A simple $8 camera carrying case and a pack of Palm screen protectors and this problem was solved.

Hmmm....

[exhilaration]

If one can get a 2.4 Ghz laptop for $889, then is this thing overpriced?

What?

[FiReaNGeL]

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?

Re:What?

[El_Smack]

You don't use them to listen to videos, you use them to see music.

Just some information about the model numbers...

[Swift Kick]

The article description might be a little deceptive.
The Archos AV420 is only 20GB and it retails for about $470 on Amazon.com.
The AV480 is 80GB and is about $715 also from Amazon.com
Check out more information on the devices on Archo's own page located here.

A word please

[revery]

Hmmm.....laptop?

Maybe you're not familiar with how this works. You submit the story, we make the jokes.

You owe someone a +5 Funny.

--

it's all part of the new Slashdot Comment subsidy program.

Re:A word please

[Minwee]

Maybe you're not familiar with how this works. You submit the story, we make the jokes.

Yeah, kids these days. What's next, a story about Soviet Russia which ends with the words "First post!"?

Why???

[Skraut]

I guess if you have nothing else to do with your money, this may be something interesting, but it just doesn't seem to fit.

I have an iRiver IHP-120 which I love, and have with me virtually everywhere, and beat the hell out of just by daily use. The cost of this Archos would make me leave it inside rather that drop it in my pocket and hop on the tractor (yes there are some of us rural type geeks :) I'd be too afraid to crack the screen, or otherwise break it.

So you're left with a movie player. An $800 portable movie player. WHY? As others have said you can grab a decent laptop for less than that, or even a $200, 3 year old laptop off of ebay will do everything device does. Sure it's not as cute or pretty, but seriously...

8+ lbs vs 10oz - you decide

[Em Ellel]

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

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?

Would you show Apple such disrespect?

[stratjakt]

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.

No, but the AV500 will. . .

[Cyberllama]

It will run Qtopia to be exact. . . They say it will be out before christmas and will have all PDA functions in addition to a hard drive and audio/video functions. It should be a nifty gadget if it doesn't cost an arm and a leg.

I have one and LOVE IT

[curran]

I travel alot and just bought the av480 for $650 at Compuplus.com - I now have my entire MP3 collection (30 Gig) All my photos (20 Gig) with 3 gig left over for recording TV and copying pron. Add the FM receiver and you can now "Tivo" FM radio (30 second buffer) as well as record what you're listening too.

They seem to update the OS on a regular basis, my only compliant at this point is that the Direct TV receiver model D-10 is not in the av480 list but I spoke to Archos yesterday.

To set up the Tivo-like features - I have to go to Yahoo TV and save my weekly schedule to my harddrive - transfer it to the archos whre it is auto recognized! Not too bad.

So far - GREAT unit.

Plusses and minuses

[jangobongo]

Plusses:

- Use it to time-shift your TV shows
- Can edit out commercials
- Can alter the screen ratio to normal, full, 4:3, or 16:9 (letterboxing)
- Boots up in seconds (as opposed to laptops)
- Shows recorded on the unit can be played on your PC (or is that a minus?)
- Can import TV listings from Yahoo! for programming
- Create playlists on the fly with s split screen and allows you to sort music files by artist, album, title, genre, year or playlist
- Built in microphone for live recording in addition to in-line recording

Minuses:

- For the best video playback at 2,500 Kbps (near television quality), using about 2GB per hour of recording; so 20GB model holds about 10 hours (80 GB model holds about 40 hours)
- Device will record files up to 2GB in size before closing that file and starting another
- By default, external speakers stay on, even when you plug in the headphones (potentially embarassing and annoying)
- Freezes on last image when fast-forwarding or rewinding so that you can't observe your progress
- Can't program for repeat events (such as weekly episodes), each episode has to be programmed seperately
- Gapless playback of songs is not supported
- Navigation buttons are not backlit, making use in very low-light situations difficult
- Records in WAV format only

Here's where they will succeed or fail:

[dspyder]

Loading the content!

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