OK, this was my first review but I have now updated it to hopefully give a bit more information. as I was told the first one wasn't too good, Please comment.
In about January this year, I bought my Archos PVP (Portable Video Player) for £350, I decided to buy the 40GB version as 80 or 100 was too much but by the time you get onto the video side of things 20 is probably not enough. I would advise going for the 40 or 80 as these also have a slightly larger screen to watch the video's on.
Archos's PVP AV400 series is by far the best available today. It is jam packed of nifty features, that aren't found on its competitors.
1) - TV recording -
(My personal favorite, and the thing that attracted me to the archos) the ability to record things directly from your television into digital format, much like a DVD recorder but straight onto the disk. You can either just manually record them or set the player
to record certain times, both features work perfect. When it is on your player it can be watched on the screen, another television or transferred to your pc then sent, edited, or watched. I love this feature as I could record my favorite programs and films in DVD quality I might add, to watch while traveling or just at you're leisure. No other video player offers this feature.
2) - Built in speaker -
Another reason I chose this instead of an ipod or another PVP is it's built in speaker. I hate carrying speakers round and sometimes you will want to show off your player or just play music for you and your friends to listen to. The sound quality is not excellent and it is quite quiet but never the less and excellent feature to have.
3) - It's outstanding durability -
At first glance the archos looks quite delicate, oh but it isn't. I did not find out about this until a couple of months ago. Set the scene: I had had a bad day at work, absolutely boiling hot weather and I was stuck in the office, I then finished late at work because of an awkward customer, as I left the building I realized I had left my pass upstairs, I then went to get it , came back down to see the bus at the stop, I ran towards it and as I was running I forgot that my archos was in my inside pocket. It lifted and floated majestically out of my pocket into the air, traveling at quite a high speed to fell to the ground bouncing as it smashed on the floor,. It traveled about 2 meters before stopping to a halt. I picked it up and just caught the bus. I couldn't believe it, my worst day at work and my £350 mp3 player was broken. I inspected the damage only to realize that there was none. One of the rubber corners had came out of place and there was a crack/scratch at the top that was barely noticeable. I popped the rubber cap back in and turned it on. Everything was fine. I was absolutely delighted. And that is another reason I would definitely recommend the archos. For its outstanding built quality.
4) Its interface
The archos has a really nice user interface, very easy to use and navigate as well as looking a lot better than say an ipod or another mp3 player when playing music. It displays the album info, track name, how long it's been playing, how long is left on the track, even a picture of the album cover. Very nice touch. Also you can even change the background and cooler scheme of the player.
5) Its battery life
The archos's battery is amazing, I watched two full films and an episode of top gear when on the plane on my last holiday and it still didn't run out. It also charged very fast.
6) Analogue to digital converter
If you have any tapes from years ago that you would like to keep, it is quite hard to transfer them to a digital form e.g. recording to a blank DVD, but with the archos its all made simple, it can be recorded straight away and saved to your pc then whether kept there or put onto a DVD/VCD. Very nice if you want to save all those memories when VCR's are obsolete
7) Built in microphone
Speaks for itself, nice extra tho
8) Compact flash
If you have a digital camera with a compact flash card this is a great way of viewing your pics. The archos has a compact flash shot in the side so you can then transfer them to the player and view them or just have a look on a larger screen than your camera, you can also put them onto the television without having to make a JPEG disc.
Overall its an excellent product and I would recommend it to anyone, however there are some slight drawbacks:
The major downfall is its size/weight. Compared to other PVP's it is actually quite small and light, but compared to an ipod or mp3 player it is big. It measures about 5 inches in length, 3 in height and 1 in width. The 20 GB version is slightly thinner, but the screen is smaller. But really considering all of its features it isn't very big.
It also has a lot of cables to record from tv but theyre not too complicated, once you've sorted out which scarts are for which job. Also when converting sound from a CD it does take up a huge amount more storage than an mp3, as it records it in WAV format.
For someone who wants just to listen to music, go for the ipod or creative zen touch. But this does have alot more to offer. If you can put up with something abit bulky in your pocket then go for it. It's a similar scenario as to whether you would want a video messaging phone. Great features but just slightly big. So if its a video player you want, this is 100% certainley the one to go for.
Thanks for reading, hope it's abit better than my original review
by (27%):
This product has not yet been reviewed.
15.07.2005 18:32
I soo want one. Maureen
27.06.2005 20:26
i've got one of these, theyre great, but i did find that it froze once when i was recording for a long time and i tried to end the recording. But apart from that its faultless, great review. Hope my first one will be as good
23.06.2005 18:06
A good up-date keep it up Milt