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Review of the Archos AV320 Cinemabox 147

Posted by michael from the moving-pictures dept.
An anonymous reader writes "MP3newswire.net just posted another of their lengthy reviews, this time on the Archos AV 320, a unit first mentioned on /. back in June. The company's second portable digital video/audio player, the new unit is a significant step up from the Archos Jukebox Multimedia with a much bigger and brighter screen and the ability to record DVDs and TV programs."
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Review of the Archos AV320 Cinemabox More

Review of the Archos AV320 Cinemabox

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  • In other news. (Score:3, Funny)

    by SiGiN ( 679749 ) <sigin@NOsPaM.dephine.org> on Friday August 29, 2003 @10:28AM (#6824572) Homepage
    A fleet of rabid attack lawyers has been dispatched to the area regarding an alleged copyright infrigement. No comment on whether prosecutors will seek the death penalty.

  • A correction to the article (Score:4, Interesting)

    by tkrotchko ( 124118 ) * on Friday August 29, 2003 @10:28AM (#6824576) Homepage
    Although it says it is available on Amazon, and Amazon lists the player, it is not available for sale.

    Plus, its $600 a lot to pay for a gadget that is mostly "gee-whiz".
    • And also considering the past record of Archos customer service, I am not so sure If i want to buy one.
      Besides, at 600$ it better be built solidly, i.e. magnessium alloy body or something , and sturdy buttons., not the cheap plastic ones that most archos players have.
      • I have the Jukebox Multimedia, and won't be buying another Archos product if I can help it.

        I bought my unit as an MP3 player and photo storage device. It works reasonably well as an MP3 player and has decent battery life. As a photo storage device, it still doesn't read IBM/Hitachi Microdrives, even though their tech support swears it should. Their warranty period is very short (90 days) and so I'm out of luck on this one. I've also had problems with the unit keeping a charge and refusing to power up w
        • You speak about the first generation Archos Jukebox 20 which came out almost exactly a year ago. You should replace your CompactFlash adaptor with one which has a serial number greater than 0306 - these read IBM Microdrive. The av320 is the third generation multimedia jukebox (the 2nd gen was the 100 series). The warranty is 90 days in the USA but in Europe its 12months. The quality of the av320 is a big improvement on the 020.
    • I would hardly call this "gee-whiz". You might think so, but if you had a 1 hour bus/train ride to work every day, wouldn't you like to bring Simpsons/Family Guy/Queer Eye for a Straight Guy with you? I'm not in this situation, but if I were, this would be worthwhile. Just because you don't see a use for it personally does not make it useless.

      The article mentioned this point, did you read it?

      • Re:A correction to the article (Score:1, Insightful)

        by Anonymous Coward
        "but if you had a 1 hour bus/train ride to work every day, wouldn't you like to bring Simpsons/Family Guy/Queer Eye for a Straight Guy with you?"

        Yes, I do have a long commute, and I find gadgets like this are a hassle because you've got to do a couple things with them...

        When you get home, you have to take time to record shows into your jukebox. For those of us with families, and other things happening, there simply isn't *time* to fuss with a TV gadget every day. Since battery life is only 3-4 hours, I p

        • worried about getting mugged and having your 'fabulous gadget' stolen at work? Ugh. You need to spend less time being bossed around by your wife and start working out in the gym. When somebody sketchy starts eyeing your gem from across the train, you need to look him straight in the eyes for no less than 45 seconds, then move over and sit right next to the guy. Do you have a ball peen hammer? No? Well, get one and carry it in the hand not holding your archos.

          You'll be fine.

          This advice is also effecti

        • When you get home, you have to take time to record shows into your jukebox. For those of us with families, and other things happening, there simply isn't *time* to fuss with a TV gadget every day.

          Y'know, the thing about recording is that you don't have to stay there while it happens. It's like when my wife says she didn't do some small thing because she's been doing laundry all day...... Huh? What do you do for the 45 minutes the laundry is in the dryer?

  • Available? (Score:1, Redundant)

    by Dirk Pitt ( 90561 )
    The article says it's available on Amazon [amazon.com], but they have it listed as unavailable. Anyone know where you can buy it? 'Can't believe ThinkGeek doesn't carry it yet, would seem a more obvious reason for /. to post a review...

  • Battery Life of 3.5 hours on video.. (Score:4, Informative)

    by FileNotFound ( 85933 ) on Friday August 29, 2003 @10:31AM (#6824610) Homepage Journal
    Looks nice, I was concerned about the battery life, but 3.5 hours for video is better than my laptop manages playing DivX.
    For those who want my exact specs:

    What's in the Box: AV320 Video Recorder, USB 2.0 cable, AC adapter, Li-Ion batteries (already installed), stereo headphones, AV cinch cable (SCART adapter in Europe). CD with MusicMatch, drivers and 6-language manual. Digital Video Recorder, audio & video cables, remote control and 6 langage installation sheet.
    Capacity: 20 GB Hard Disk
    Interface: USB 2.0, extra fast, compatible USB 1.1, PC & Mac . Optional FireWire cable.
    Video playback: MPEG-4 SP with MP3 stereo sound, near-DVD quality. Resolutions 352x288@30f/s, or 640x272@25f/s, up to 640x368@20f/s. AVI file format, reads XviD and DivX"* 4.0 & 5.0.
    Music playback: Stereo MP3 decoding @ 30-320 kb/s CBR & VBR, WMA @ 160 kb/s
    Music recording: Stereo MP3 encoding @ 30-160 kb/s VBR
    Photo viewer: JPEG (except progressives) or BMP of any size
    Display: 3,8'' color LCD (QVGA) 320xRGBx240 pixels or TV
    AV Connections: Stereo analog Line In & digital SPDIF Line In/Out. Composite Video/ Earphone/ Line Out jack. Built-in microphone.
    Playback Autonomy : Up to 10 hours on MP3 or 3 1/2 hours for video on built-in LCD
    Scalability: Downloadable firmware updates from www.archos.com.
    Power Source: Internal: Rechargeable Li-Ion Batteries. External: AC charger / adapter.
    Dimensions & Weight: 112 x 82 x 31 mm (4.4" x 3.2" x 1.2"). 350g (12.5 oz)
    Connection: Plugs into AV320 expansion port.
    Capture rate: PAL : 320x240 @ 25 f/s, NTSC / 304 X 224 @30 f/s
    Video Input: Analog Composite Video or S-video
    Audio input: Analog stereo audio Mini-jack - RCA
    Video compression: mpeg-4 SP with MP3 stereo sound in AVI format (can be read by XviD or DivX players)
    Audio compression: Stereo MP3 96-192 kb/s CBR (Constant Bit Rate)
    Dimensions & weight: 60 x 54 x 30mm (2.3''x2.1''x1.2''), 45g (1.5 oz)
    Systems Requirements: PC: Pentium ii 266 MHz. Windows 98SE, ME, 2000, XP, 64 MB RAM; MAC: 9.2 or 10.2.4 iMac, G3 or higher

    • I have the original Multimedia jukebox and find that it's limited resolution support and restrictive video file format left me with a lot of reencoding to do. While being able to directly digitize the video from a video in source is ok it's not quite the perfect solution. I'd much rather have a device that can play any of the resolutions/file formats that I can play on my PC. At least any of the DIVX formats. I would rather use it as a portable method of playing my computer media than trying to reencode oth

  • To much $$$ (Score:2, Insightful)

    by mogrinz ( 548098 )
    I have to bring up the same old issue: cost. As long as I can get a cheap laptop with a bigger screen, and battery life that would at least last for my commute, why bother? Sure, the form-factor is awesome, and for $300, it'd be a no-brainer. But at $600, I'd drop coin on something I could also play games on and read email.
    • I betcha I could find a pretty good (maybe slightly used last generation) laptop to play DVD's on for about $600. HOWEVER -- I have always had problems with battery life on all of my laptops. And buying a couple of extra batteries (although) an option, can get almost as expensive as the laptop itself. I have a really cool (older) laptop that I purchased on (knock on wood) E-bay for $300 that works great for a nice linux desktop, and it plays DVD's. (I decided to order a new battery for it (because the o
    • A PocketPC and a 1GB CF card might be close. Most have at least a 320x240 screen just like this thing. Processor power is a little marginal for higher res MPEG4 files, but if you recode to 320x240 (yes, that's a big IF) it'll play smooth and you should be able to fit at least 2 hrs of video into 1GB.

  • Why? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Rkane ( 465411 ) on Friday August 29, 2003 @10:34AM (#6824637) Homepage Journal
    Why must companies continue to make multi-purpose products like this? When they do, it seems like they always use sub-standard components, and the whole thing ends up being low level versions of all of the different pieces that the product is comprised of. When someone needs a digital camera, they should buy a digital camera. They're cheap now, go get a good one. When someone needs a video camera, go get a video camera. They're small now, and a lot cheaper. Need a portable video monitor? If slightly over 3" is good enough for you, then be my guest and fork over the dough for this device.

    I can hardly see any practicality in this device, and I'm VERY interested to find how many people that buy it that wouldn't have been better off with just a laptop [gateway.com] for $200 more (yes, I understand a laptop is less portable).

    Yeah, the geek in me would love to get this sweet little thing, but the business person in me knows better.

    • Re:Why? (Score:4, Insightful)

      by Zack ( 44 ) on Friday August 29, 2003 @11:16AM (#6825026) Journal
      Just because you don't want a multi-purpose device doesn't mean that I don't! You are more than welcome to walk around with an mp3 player, portable dvd player, palm pilot, laptop, digital camera, and cell phone all strapped to you if you wish. Or whatever subset you actually use. But for those of us that want to be able to carry every around in one package, let us! That's why people sell different products: different people want different things!

      I recently got to ditch my palm pilot and cell phone in exchange for a Handspring Treo 300. So in that one device I've got phone, PDA, wireless internet and portable email. I think it's the greatest thing ever. If the Archos also did PDA and cell functionality you'd bet I'd have one in a heartbeat.

      The ability to only carry around one device that could do everything I need in a portable unit is very appealing to me.

      I travel quite a bit. My girlfriends parents love to see pictures that she's taken with her digital camera. So we'll go to their computer, copy the images over and sit around their 15" monitor watching it.

      With this beast I could load all our pictures on there and sit in front of their 36" tv and have everything there instantly! I could take my video library with me to hotel so I'd have movies to watch instead of flipping through unfamiliar channels. I could watch a movie or listen to some music on a plane without relying on whatever THEY decide to show.

      I, for one, DO want an all-in-one device. No one's making you use it. So just use the device(s) that are right for you!
    • Have you tried carrying 3-4 items in your pockets at the same time?
      If you're travelling on the subway, you'd have to just be checking your pockets to make sure they're still there.

      Its about innovation. Cars have been evolving for over a 100 years now.
      All-in-one devices like this one needs time to evolve too.
      3 years down the line when all-in-one devices become mature, you will go for one yourself.

      NTT DoCoMo is offering a 2megapixel camera in its 3G phones now.
      Given a choice of a mobile phone and a digital

  • Why oh Why do people buy this stuff? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Serapth ( 643581 ) on Friday August 29, 2003 @10:36AM (#6824661)
    I have never understood why people buy these things. Granted... its a cool gimmicky toy... but for 600USD!!! wow. Really, how much do you want to watch video on a 3" screen? Its kinda like those 15" plasma displays... that sell for a grand. Hey... plasma looks ultra cool, but... any movie looks bad on a 15" display... sheeesh... pay the same and get a nice 36" tv... it aint as sharp, but you can actually read text on the screen!

    So beyond catering to "the geek that has everything"... I just cant picture why people want this stuff... having portable video, thats too damned small to see... is about as useful as having no video at all. Same guess for those stupid TV displays in cars... not to mention WTF are people putting tv's in cars anyways!!! Sheeeesh.... cell phones are bad enough.

    Ok sorry... end of rant. In the end, this product just seems like a massively overpriced, relatively useless gimmick to me.
    • The in-car TV's are for the passenger and children in the back seat. These people don't need to keep their eyes/attention on the road. It is intended to cater to the family that often makes long trips or takes long vacations.
      • I hadnt considered those... minivan-esque vehicles... or SUV's ( Minivans for those people that refuse to admit they need a minivan ), I suppose it makes sense... although I think I would go batty listening to kids watch Shrek or whatever... over and over while I had to drive... Or worse yet... Barney!

        I had more intended the Stereo add-on screens you can buy. I think its one of those things that fast and the delerious crowd started. Then again... nobody ever said people that pay 60K for a civic, are t

    • Re:Why oh Why do people buy this stuff? (Score:4, Insightful)

      by dspyder ( 563303 ) on Friday August 29, 2003 @10:49AM (#6824792)
      People buy them because they fulfill a need... quite well too! They're like those portable DVD players with a 5" screen. Perfect for use on a BART train or on an airplane. My Multimedia Jukebox even with the 2.1" screen is watchable for times when I need it... and it's portable, so I can bring all my MP3s along with me... like when I went camping last weekend!

      Yes, if I'm sitting at home, and I want to watch a DVD action movie I'll put it on my high-definition projector and blast it about 100" on my homemade screen.... but when I'm commuting on a bus??????????

      --D

      p.s. And it's a hard drive and camera!!! For way less than a portable HD and MP3 player on it's own.

      p.p.s. I've heard the video recording options both on this moel and mine suck... but that would be a cool feature!

    • " Granted... its a cool gimmicky toy... but for 600USD!!!"

      I hate comments like this. It's as if people think price is a constant. There's never consideration given that when a new product is launched, it is targeted to the early adopters group. R&D costs are made up, the product is improved to expand into a greater market, and new cheaper versions are made.

      You are not the target. There are a few people out there (including myself) who thinks a device like this is a god-send. Okay, you can't se
    • not to mention WTF are people putting tv's in cars anyways!!! Sheeeesh.... cell phones are bad enough. The first time you drive for more than two hours in a car with a cranky two year old, you will see the joy in having the ability to play a movie or other entertainment for that child. Take a 10 year old and a 8 year old on an extended trip and soon the ability to let them take out their boredom and frustration by playing X-Box (or playstation, gamecube, whatever) manifests itself. They have their uses.

  • Awesome (Score:3, Funny)

    by Goo.cc ( 687626 ) * on Friday August 29, 2003 @10:37AM (#6824678)
    A portable porn machine!

  • The big question is (Score:3, Interesting)

    by rhadamanthus ( 200665 ) on Friday August 29, 2003 @10:37AM (#6824680)
    I cannot find a straight answer for this in the article. It seems like you can record a DVD to .avi on the portable unit. Can you then take the .avi off of the portable unit and store it on your computer?

    ---rhad

    • Yes, because you can download avi files from it that were made with the camera attachment.

      People often use these things to share mp3s right now.

    • Re:The big question is (Score:3, Informative)

      by dspyder ( 563303 )
      Yes, you can... they're standard Mpeg 4 encoded AVI streams........ BUT....... they may or may not be ideal resolution and settings for watching on a computer screen and/or saving to VCD.

      --D

  • I will refuse to buy one of these until (Score:5, Funny)

    by Savatte ( 111615 ) on Friday August 29, 2003 @10:41AM (#6824710) Homepage Journal
    it plays .ogg files, runs linux, irons my shirts, arm wrestles my little brother, makes a tasty denver omelette, beats me at Marvel Vs. Capcom 2 using Tron Bonne, Dan, and Ruby Heart, has a built in rubber stamp for voiding paper work, and walks 12 miles uphill both ways to school barefoot in the snow and likes it.

  • Stay away from Archos - no tech support (Score:3, Informative)

    by deanj ( 519759 ) on Friday August 29, 2003 @10:42AM (#6824713)
    I have a nice little paperweight on my desk... it's supposedly an Archos MP3 player, but it sure doesn't act like one.

    This thing broke shortly after I bought it, and despite repeated attempts to get through to their tech support (e-mail, phone), they just won't answer.

    I'll never buy another Archos product again.

    • Re:Stay away from Archos - no tech support (Score:1, Interesting)

      by Anonymous Coward

      Funny. I sit in the same room as a bunch of people doing Archos phone support for Europe. They are not more busy than me, so usually (every day except Monday, as everyone leaves their problems till over the weekend) there should be ~instant answer when you call. Of course, I don't know how the situation is for the U.S., as those customer are sent to another call center.

      Oh, and if it broke - why do you call support? Usually when something breaks, it's Back To Dealer. The helpdesk can only help you if the d

      • I called support because the dealer didn't want to take it back.

        I wrote to support asking how much it would cost to fix the thing, never got a reply. I wrote back again each week for a few weeks. When I phoned them, they only had a recording that asked me to leave my name and number so they could call back. I did this several times.

        I went through all the normal routine, like I have for any other product that went bad. My first hint that something was amiss should have been not being able to get it r
    • I have a Jukebox Studio 20. Had a problem about 6 months in, talked to them on the phone, tried a few things, mailed it in to them and got a working one back in a week or so.

      I still have some qualms about some aspects of the device but the support has been fine for me.
    • They have never once replied to any email I have ever sent them, but I had better luck with phone support. I think my first call or 2 went unanswered, but then I called, the phone was answered by a HUMAN who then forwarded me to another HUMAN who was honest but not that helpful.

      There firmware sucks donkey balls though. I gave up on them completely and use the opensource RockBox firmware. Now my mp3 player doesn't crash every hour or two and it doesn't make a constant high-pitched squeal at the same freq

  • Perfect for Journalists (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 29, 2003 @10:42AM (#6824725)
    Boy, seems like a journalists dream! Slip it in your pocket and have a spy camera on you, do undercover reporting soo much easier! Also record memos for yourself or audio interviews. And, be able to review your recording on the spot.

  • so basically... (Score:1, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward
    This is a miniature digital camcorder/camera with an oversized screen

    (compared to relatively larger size digital camcorders with a smaller screen)

    It is already possible to record from a TV, VCR or DVD on a MiniDV camcorder that uses MiniDV tapes, and I think the miniDV market is going towards digital recording on non-tape media, so if I had to choose between that gadget and a decent future digital camcorder, I'd wait and choose the latter.

  • iPod DVR? (Score:2, Insightful)

    by immel ( 699491 )
    "rumors are that a video iPod is in the works"
    In my experiences, it has not been in Apple's philosophy recently to make a "superproduct" that does "everything". Apple is a very specialized company in itself, so I do not see why they would make a multifunction iPod. All the "features" that would be included would most likely complicate their famously intuitive iPod interface that everyone is noi doubt expecting.
    • i'm not sure that a mult-function iPod is a "super-product." It is a portable media device, to play digital media (movies and music)

      that is a pretty specialized device.

      If they added palm-like functionality and cell-phone compatibility, etc... then it might be a "super-product."

  • Low Rez (Score:2, Funny)

    by macserv ( 701681 )
    "The Jukebox Multimedia camera module offered middling results with its 1.3 pixel resolution"

    1.3 pixels, eh? Yes, I'd say your results would be middling, at best.

    • Re:Low Rez (Score:3, Informative)

      by terradyn ( 242947 )
      "The Jukebox Multimedia camera module offered middling results with its 1.3 pixel resolution"

      Read a bit more carefully... 1.3M pixels was for the original addon module for the old video player. The new one has a 3.3 megapixel camera with 3x optical 10x digital zoom capabilities. The review author wasn't able to test the performance of this module though.
      • Yeah, that's true. And 1.3 *MEGA*pixels is nothing to sneeze at either. However, the joke wasn't about the device at all, it was about the typo the author made. Read a bit more carefully ;-)

  • AV380 already selling... (Score:4, Informative)

    by Erik_ ( 183203 ) on Friday August 29, 2003 @10:48AM (#6824783)
    Archos is already selling AV380's with a 80Gb disk for a price of around 1000 Euro's.
    This will give you just enough to load all of the Star Trek episodes from all series (STTOS,STTNG, STDS9,STVOY & STENT).
  • Archos seem to be offering good value for money, and lots of add-on options.

    What I'd like to see:

    1. Linux
    2. Camera plugin
    3. Foldable Wifi keyboard
    4. General slot for GPS cards, etc.
    5. More disk space

    Then we have something that looks pretty much like my ideal portable device, and for which $600 is not a lot.

    • Re:It's a nice product (Score:1, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward
      What, you mean like a laptop?

      -sorry, couldn't help it...
      • Yes, up to a point. I have a SonicBlue web pad, and it's very, very nice, but too little disk space, no extensibility, poor battery life.

        A laptop is too large to carry in your pocket. The Archos is just right. A laptop can't work as a digital camera or videocorder, the Archos can, easily. A laptop is a nasty music player (how do you skip tracks without opening the thing?). A laptop can't be used for playing games on the subway. A laptop can't work from one hand.

        Why Linux? Because then I can install
    • What I'd like to see:

      1. Linux
      You can access the JukeBox as a USB mass storage device under Linux.

      2. Camera plugin
      Available. 3.3 Megapixels

      5. More disk space
      There are the AV340 and the AV380 with 40 and 80 GB drives. Not sure about shipment status.

  • Not in the same class as the iPod, duh. (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Joystickit ( 529613 ) on Friday August 29, 2003 @10:51AM (#6824804)
    The iPod is not in the same class not because it is inferior, but because it doesn't try to be everything like the Acrhos. The Acrhos tries to do both MP3 playing and video playing, and suffers as a result. Who wants to spend that much money for a bulky device with poor battery life that's windows only? The iPod keeps it simple, doing music and other PDA like things. Plus, lets not forget that the interface on the iPod takes a backseat to no one. Is pocket video really the killer app? I doubt it. The whole point of an MP3 player is that you can listen while you do other things. Video obviously is not the same way, and has less of a need to be so portable. These devices will never see anywhere near as much success as the iPod.
    • What makes you say it only works with Windows?
      The device can be attached as a simple USB mass
      storage device.

      Even if it does not ship with extra software for
      non-Windows systems, it's perfectly useable with
      Linux and MacOS X.

  • File Trading (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Jaguar777 ( 189036 ) on Friday August 29, 2003 @10:54AM (#6824834) Journal
    For those of you who didn't read the review I found this portion to be very interesting.
    Is this a product review or an opinion piece???

    It is fair use to record a show off of television for later viewing; it doesn't matter if you use a VCR or a digital video recorder. It is fair use to lend that tape or file to your friend next door so they can watch it. Is it fair use to trade with 4 million "friends" simultaneously on the Internet? In Canada it is, but the US is another story. That's what the RIAA is suing individual music file traders over (the MPAA -- the RIAA's motion picture lobby equivalent -- is waiting before taking the same route, they too might consider the same tactics against file trading.)

    Since the Archos allows users to make good quality recordings of TV programs and DVDs, you will start to see more such programming reach the Net as the mediabox niche grows. The Archos player records via analog methods (a cable to a DVD or VCR), so it is unaffected by any Digital Rights management protections added to DVDs. If you can view it on your television, the Archos can record it. This doesn't make the media companies happy.

    In our opinion, file trading is not the threat the entertainment conglomerates make it out to be. Yes music sales are down and that allows the record companies to blame it all on file trading, but DVD sales are up. Way up. Every major movie release has made it on the Net, usually well before the DVD comes out. Did DVD sales go down? No. Did they stay the same? No. Did they go up? Yes, by 61 percent.

    But our protests and logic mean little if Disney takes you to court. You lose the moment you have to shell out for that first session with the lawyer, so our advice is to be cautious with the files you create and remember, Micky Mouse is not a nice guy in real life.
    • But our protests and logic mean little if Disney takes you to court. You lose the moment you have to shell out for that first session with the lawyer, so our advice is to be cautious with the files you create and remember, Micky Mouse is not a nice guy in real life.

      Ah... I hate growing up..

    • I dunno, I didn't even read your comment. However, umm, a little bird (that lives in my head) has noticed that more and more files are showing up on P2P with little (Archos) tags in their title names.

      Considering the previous difficulty of ripping DVDs, that you own and want to watch on the road from a VCR that fits in your pocket, this is a useful convention.
  • I went to Amazon and they list it as discontinued.. Where can I get this?
  • This device only supports the mpeg-4 SP profile, once it supports the ASP profile and h.264 and will auto-scale whatever geometry it's given, it would be the must-have device it wants to be. However, a low-power ASIC that supports the latest mpeg-4 goodies will need to be made mass-available first. :-)
  • 1. Copy Apple, without intuitive features 2. Create ads in which actors smash objects used in Apple ads 3. ??? 4. Profit!! Does this model support IDv3 tags? If not, chuck it in that wastebin. My friend has an Archos Multimedia 20, and it's bulky, a little slow, its menus are difficult to navigate through, and there's no IDv3 support allowing easy ways to find your music. It also makes duplicates of MP3s when you create playlists.
    • Copy Apple??!! The Archos Jukebox was around for over a year before the iPod came out!

      Yeah, yeah, the iPod is smaller, but explain to me how I can A. get open source firmware for it and B. increase the hard disk size to 60Gb.. both of which I have on my original Archos Jukebox, which is now at least 2 and a half years old and still working perfectly despite me taking it to bits and adding a new hard disk..

      Q.
      • I forgot to answer some of your other comments. I don't know about the multimedia jukebox but the standard jukebox has none of those faults. It supports ID3 tags just fine and never, ever duplicates MP3s (it doesn't have the ability to do that!)

        Q.
        • Sorry about that; I was not specific enough -- that wasn't a complaint about the device itself as the software used with it. When you use a media player (most conventional ones, at least) on your PC to create playlists and copy them over, it will copy the songs over to the device whether or not the song is already on it.
    • lay off my crack pipe! the archos jukebox not only predates the ipod, they've had MORE innovative features that the ipod still dosent have, like video display, video output, webcam support, etc.

      i don't know what you're babbling about IDv3 tags, i had the original archos jukebox 20 and it could read those just fine. It also supported m3u playlist files. that i could just author with winamp and keep in the top directory.

      The JB20 held me in good stead until a lightning storm toasted it, now, nothing seems
      • Of course it reads IDv3 tags... but it doesn't organize the music by them, into convenient categories like the iPod.

        I fail to see how the terrible video support (before this new model) has been all that innovative, or other basic features it has. When you look at sheer innovation of the iPod, the Archos doesn't compare. With the iPod, I can get to exactly the song or album I want with zero trouble, and could right out of the box.

        Sorry about my error regarding which came out first...
        • its kinda fun making m3u playlists and sticking them all into the top directory. I want to organize things myself, i dont want the machine doing it -for- me, that would just be silly.

          Also, as a cross-platform USB device, the archos is much more useful (despite all the messy junk finder.dat files that get seeded in all the dirs whenever i hook it up to a mac). If i want to take this to any particular aquaintance's place and be sure that i can hook it up to any computer i come across, all i need to do is h

  • Acceptance of lower quality (Score:3, Insightful)

    by dpbsmith ( 263124 ) on Friday August 29, 2003 @11:20AM (#6825068) Homepage
    It's interesting to see how this is all playing out. No doubt in the future digital bandwidth will be high enough that there's no quality tradeoff, but in the present I find it fascinating that, on the one hand you have audiophiles insisting that CD's are an impossibly compromised format while, on the other hand, the public seems to be perfectly happy with the distinctly lower quality of .mp3 (and .aac).

    Now we have DVD's which are far inferior to, say, traditional 70mm projection to begin with... people watching DVD's on small portable players... and, soon, people watching highly compressed digital video on even tinier players.

    Will cheap, plentiful, convenient low-quality digital media undercut the market for HDTV, huge plasma displays, etc?

    I think the very last thing I would ever have expected would be for digital media to result in a general lowering of quality--not the subtle lowering audiophiles claim to be so disturbed by, but gross, obvious lowering.

    Perhaps in a few years I will be sitting down to enjoy Lawrence of Arabia in 640x480 pixels at 15 fps...
    • Is 70mm film what we see movies at the theater in?? Give me DVD quality ANY DAY over that crap. Theater quality is crap, I understand it's film and higher resolution, but you're blowing it up to a 50'+ screen, of course it's gonna look bad. Give me smaller screen with higher quality. Aside from the resolution, what's with the jitters and jumps? Have you ever noticed that everything on the screen is jumping all over the place 3"-1'? It's no wonder they make the credits more edgy these days, or people would n
    • Actually, the trend in digital video quality is generally upwards. There have been a few sudden drops in quality whenever a new platform for media appeared. Witness the progression from full color glossy photography to ASCII pr0n, to what we have now.
  • The article didn't discuss how the unit interacts with Macrovision mangled input. That seems like a key issue for transfering many source media. It is 'not an issue' because it works, or a hidden gotcha?

    -dB

    • buy a video image stabalizer and call macrovision done.

      Macrovision has been the EASIEST "protection" to remove cince 1989.

      hell I remember in 92 modifying people's VCR's to disable the AGC circuit to completely defeat macrovision.

      The newer version is a tad more difficult to scrub, but the hardware is out there already in the $49.00 to $79.00 range in price.

  • Nice box but a bitter taste... (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Lispy ( 136512 ) on Friday August 29, 2003 @11:24AM (#6825122) Homepage
    I don't own one of those new ones but I have (had?) an Archos Multimedia Jukebox 20. And as far as the technical specs g(and this review) go it looks pretty much like an updated Archos MMJB 20. First of all, it's an incredible machine. Ideal for recording sessions if you have a band or doing interviews and stuff like that. And besides the great sound features, wich are near to perfection, I liked the possibility to view Buffy on the subway or taking that downloaded movie over to my friends place and watch it on his huge TV-screen. And here's the big and sounding

    BUT:
    - My Archos display broke after 14 days and was sent back to the manufactorer. I haven't heard anything about it since (8weeks!!)

    - I wasn't able to convert any of my movies with mencoder into a format the archos could read. I am pretty sure I did everything right and read all of the Howtos and doublechecked every setting twice. And still, I couldn't get it to work. The VirtualDub Software worked on Win2k but I wish I could just write a script for mencoder and let it encode EVERYTHING in my moviefolder for the archos. No luck so far. Any hints welcome...

    just my 2cents,
    Lispy

  • Additional notes (Score:5, Interesting)

    by dpille ( 547949 ) on Friday August 29, 2003 @11:27AM (#6825157)
    Things I find relevant not mentioned in the review:

    1) The display does indeed power down when you're listening to mp3's, but you have to power it back up to skip songs or even adjust volume. It's especially irritating in that you need to hit the relevant control once to wake it up, the second time to do what you're trying to do.

    2) The ability to record from DVD is somewhat suspect- I've been putting Baby Einstein [babyeinstein.com] videos on there to have a portable version, and there's a certain DVD in my collection that has turned into garbage halfway through the recording process like 10 times. Not longer than the other ones that work, not identifiably any different at all, but still, it isn't recording. DRM issues or what, I couldn't tell you.

    3) Ships without any kind of screen protector. Try getting this in the mail and _not_ carrying it around in your pocket or playing with it until you've had a chance to discover that no standard PDA screen thingy fits and you have to cut your own. Mine has small scratches on the screen from merely a couple of days of use.

    4) The video file format conversion process is kind of haphazzard. Their program to convert has rejected numerous .avi files I've attempted to convert and it is invariably too much work to figure out why.

    I love this thing, but it's not without a few problems that went unmentioned in the review. As to those that can't believe someone would spend money on this, I say: it's fun and useful right now and it does enough that you'd be buying its future replacement for weight/dimension changes only. I'll enjoy mine while you wait for the weightless free version with infinite battery life and forward compatibility with dimensional warp generators.

  • I have an Archos... (Score:2, Interesting)

    by havoc ( 22870 )
    I have had the mp3 player for over a year now and simply love it! I use it to store all of my CDs for taking to and from work. I always have my CD collection with me. I can also use it to transfer data that I download to my home or work machine and as a second harddrive for my work laptop.

    My friend has one that she uses to record lectures with. She can record weeks worth of lectures without ever having to worry about flipping a tape:)

    The Archos that I have is a wonderful product, the only thing keeping me
  • What I really want is a portable digital audio disk recorder with digital inputs that records uncompressed (WAV) format. I'm currently using a portable CD recorder to record my live shows but it's *heavy* and I have to change disks after an hour and change and thus lose some material.

    Anyone got any ideas?

    • For "Better than CD" quality Try any laptop computer with USB (and sufficient HD space) and one of these:

      http://www.midiman.com/products/m-audio/transit/

      • I *have* a perfectly good laptop but that's not what I want to use -- too large, too unreliable, too expensive, too fragile. I want a dedicated unit that I can just plug in and press record that takes very little space and that won't ever crash.

        In my smallest setup, a laptop would be the largest component, particularly since you can't stack things on top of it.

    • Jeez, I don't know where to hook into this discussion, so I'll try here.

      I currently use a 20Gb iPod on a daily commute and for background music. When I first got it, about the first thing I thought after "Mmmm... shiny" was "it really needs a record button". For an iPod-based solution, I reckon you could go with a PC-104 motherboard and firewire controller and mount the iPod as a hard drive. But that's a bit Heath Robinson (left pondians: read 'flaky') for serious use in the rough and tumble of the mosh p

  • Recording MLB... (Score:3, Funny)

    by Remik ( 412425 ) on Friday August 29, 2003 @11:48AM (#6825363)
    "Once in, we immediately saw the signal come up on the AV320's screen, a baseball game between L.A. and St. Louis. We hit record and the player did just that. Even though connecting the player to the source was a fuss, recording was effortless."

    They didn't even have implied oral consent.

    -R
  • ... is a DVD player that can play my DivX's burnt onto DVD's (+R or -R, don't care).

    I don't care for having to boot up a laptop/PC every time I want to watch a DivX.

    Does anyone know of such a beast? Even more so, can you get it in the UK?

  • Does anyone else pronounce this like Homer? i.e., "sax-a-ma-phone"?
  • I bought a Dell Axim X5 400MHz last year. The PocketPC OS notwithstanding, it is a great little unit. I can store 2.33 hours of DivX MPEG-4 encoded video on my 256MB flash card, and that's at 30fps 320x240 with 16-bit 22kHz mono audio. In addition, I have all sorts of emulators for old game systems and my old HP48GX, plus (surprise) it's my information organizer and remote Internet access device. Its battery life for movie playback is about 4 hours on a full charge on the standard battery, and 10 hours
  • I bought an Archos Jukebox Multimedia last year, and I really like the large amount of disk space and the ability to read directly from CompactFlash and SmartMedia cards (it was very handy to be able to back up pictures from two digital cameras while on vacation last winter).

    What I don't like is the terrible battery life I get from it. The best it can manage is about 4 hours of play if I've just unplugged it, and if it sits unplugged over night, I sometimes only get about an hour. I'm not the only one h

  • Why not just read a book?

    $600US can buy a lot of books at a used book store. Most of those books will be a lot more compelling than watching some crappy hollywood movie again and again on the bus.

    It's not the life changing device most sub-25-year-olds would think it is.
  • I keep on saying again and again that what the world needs is a new niche market which is a cross between a budget laptop and a high-powered PDA.

    This would be very similar to the clamshell Zaurus, but about twice the speed, or have some kind of hardware video decoding acceleration so that it can play back CPU-hungry codecs like XVid/DivX without transcoding with ease.

    Everything I've read about today's PDAs indicates that they BARELY, and I mean BARELY play video files at 30fps.

    The Archos device costs mor

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