Pocket rocket that's TV-tastic

Advantages: Pocket sized power, Hours of TV
Disadvantages: Fussy about its formats

...How could I resist buying one of these wee beasties? They're so cute and cuddly, it's enough to make you weep! I don't know if you'd realised or not, but I love my Archos. As a film fan of inordinate stature, having the power to fit many hours of video into my pocket is a dream. No matter where I travel, all my favourite tv is there..in the palm of my hand. Setting up the Archos is simple, and so is the associated software. Connect it up to a USB2 port and pop in the CD. Follow the instructions and very soon, you're done. This does, however, bring me onto it main (but minor) drawback. It's a bit fussy about its food. You can't just feed it any old video file. They have to be converted to one of the several formats that this baby will digest. Simple software does the simple job of making it palatable though. It's just...

Maf9000 10.06.2005 (14.06.2005) · Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful
Review of Archos AV480 Pocket Video Recorder 80 GB

The perfect Pocket VideoCam

Advantages: size, smartzoom
Disadvantages: no stabilisator, weak video light/flash

...I got it as a present a week ago, in the last days I had many occasions to test it in different situations. It films at the resolution of 640x480 realy good quality not only when there's enough light but I also cought some splendid nightvideos in poor-light-situations. I also used it on a stativ and the quality of the video turned out to be great, many frames, rich color, alldaugh I never felt the efect of the Stabilisator. Even if it doesn't have Optical Zoom, it has SmartZoom which is pretty much the same, the quality of the picture remains almost the same when zooming in. I took some 5 mp pictures, at daylight the quality realy impressed me, but at night it turned out not to work so well, but when you are filming in a closed space you always can turn on the video light. The design is outstanding, you can always carry the cam...

wpsilon 05.12.2007 · Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful
Review of Aiptek Pocket DV T300 LE

Recording Digital TV to Hard Disc - Must Have

Advantages: 14day Electronic Programme Guide-Simultaneously Watch a recording and record 2 other programmes
Disadvantages: The temporarily restricted power of terrestrial digital transmissions

...This gadget is a Twin Tuner 'Digital Video Recorder' (DVR), or 'Personal Video Recorder' (PVR) which records to its own 80GB Hard Disc Drive. It can receive and record Digital Terrestrial (received through a rooftop aerial) Free-to-air TV At around £125 (£90 'refurbished') it is not much more expensive than a video recorder but can do a lot more. In many areas the extra cost of an aerial upgrade needs to be taken into account but no monthly fee or other subscription is needed, and there is no facility for decoding pay-per-view digital programmes (TUTV) We watch a lot of TV but have to hunt for anything interesting and the FVRT200 makes this as easy as possible. Because it displays lists of all programmes for 2 weeks ahead, with synopses, on the TV screen where they can be selected, the amount of button pressing is minimised...

tranx 13.06.2006 (19.07.2007) · Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful
Review of Digifusion FVRT200 Digital Video Recorder

What do you mean it doesn't dance!

Advantages: Film, music, photos and storage on one device!
Disadvantages: Need to be a sound engineer to use! Scratches easily.

...on manually. But on the Archos site you can now get a plug in for Media player, which means the device is recognised. Problems with the AV420 · 20gb is more than enough for music playing, but when you are recording TV 20gb is no way near enough. For example you couldn't fit an entire series of friends on this thing! The solution to this is to buy the Archos AV4100, but at around £610 (from the Arcos website) which is 100gb, but this thing is costly! · The arcos is complicated at first but is well worth it if you stick with it. · There were problems with the operating system on some of the older models that haven't been updated. · The screen becomes easily scratched, which ruins the video playback. · It is quite large to use as a portable music player, but I have been taking it everywhere with me and it does fit in your pocket! Tips...

ross88guy 05.07.2005 · Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful
Review of Archos AV420 Pocket Video Recorder 20 GB

Digifusion FVRT200 Hard Drive Recorder

Advantages: Twin tuner, ease of use, easy to navigate remote control, 14 day EPG
Disadvantages: Needs good reception, makes some running noises

...I have had this product for almost 2 years now and I can honestly say that I couldn't live without it now! Ease of Use The set-up is pretty self-explanatory but if in doubt the manual is very helpful. Once all set up it's relatively easy to use. Channel surfing is as you would expect, but there is also an electronic program guide which you can access by the cleverly named "guide" button on the remote! Setting programs to record is easy too, however I found that when setting several programs to record in one go a little tiresome as you have to go through several screens, the interface could have been a little smoother. Again, to play what you've recorded it's easy peasy. There's a library button marked on the remote which makes it virtually foolproof to access, particularly for people like my Mum who is a little nervous around...

lwp04rsl 15.06.2007 · Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful
Review of Digifusion FVRT200 Digital Video Recorder

An excellent replacement for a lot of equipment

Advantages: Can be used to replace DVD, MP3 player and VCR
Disadvantages: Archos keep bringing out new innovative products to replace these, so it may be outdate soon

...station, so it makes the set up very simple. Video recorder: This is a superb function that many pocket media players are not even thinking about at the time of writing, but Archos have built it in superbly. You can connect your Archos to the av out on your TV, set top box, VCR or anything that has av out and then it will play on your archos. All you have to do is simply click the record button and everything that is inputted to the archos will be recorded! There are options for the more advanced users, you can edit the bitrate, brightness etc. If you do not think you are going to be in, you can use the Archos' scheduler to start and stop recording at the time you tell it, if you have a compatible set top box or VCR then it will also change the channel for you too. I have an NTL box which it does not change the channel, however if...

ian132 10.04.2005 · Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful
Review of Archos AV420 Pocket Video Recorder 20 GB

iPod Nano Video reveiw, Great new look

Advantages: Plays videos, music and views photos and high quality.
Disadvantages: Not easy to get video to a Ipod compatible format quickly.

...This is a ipod nano. It is great beacuse of the size. It fits easily in my pocket, about the size of a credit card. The main appeal of this ipod is the video feature. The screen is 5.5cm from corner to corner but it has a great picture and the soud is floorless. It can fit quite alot of video before it is full. I have a few full films on it but its still not full. Another new thing for this ipod is the cover flow feture. Great new way to look for a song on your ipod. However it is hard to get artwork for each song. Unless you have an itunes account and even if you do it doesnt always reconise a song. A let down for me is that you cant really add music or remove it without the Itunes program. But this is the same with all iPods ( you can still use other programs but they dont always work) Sleak new look and size makes this...

Cheesychip1 07.03.2008 · Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful
Review of Apple iPod Nano video 8GB Third Generation

A Versatile, Quality, Easy to Use Piece of Kit

Advantages: Strong, Durable, Good quality capture, Easy to use, Versatile
Disadvantages: Speaker not very loud for use in the car, headphones recommended

...with the diamond shaped four-way button and press in the middle one to select it. If you make a mistake, you just press the small button that sticks out to go back. The playback of recorded video on the in-built screen is almost flawless, with little or no ghosting or blurriness. I think personally that it's as good as any portable dvd player when it comes to quality. It's considerably easy to record video in aswell. You just navigate to [Video Recorder] on the main menu, then it detects the video source and it comes on the screen. From then, it is basically touch of a button to start recording, but Archos takes it one step further still. You can actually timer record programmes just like a vcr or a dvd recorder would do, and play it back on the in-built screen, or even your own television screen. All you have to do to switch between...

suttond987 19.04.2006 · Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful
Review of Archos AV420 Pocket Video Recorder 20 GB

7 Devices In One

Advantages: Good size screen, replaces need for alot of devices and nice little features
Disadvantages: none

...I bougth my 80GB archos av400 in novemebr last year for £400 and since then ive had no problems with it, apart from once when the screen froze during a long recording. Other than that i love it, its got alot more features than its competitors and its got the style to go with the talent. 1) Video Player The main Feature of Archos's Device is its ability to play video's downloaded from the net, recorded from a video camera or recorded from a TV. It has excellent screen quality and can store and record DVD quality films. Which can then be viewed on the LCD screen, A PC or another TV. The version i bought is the 80GB so it has alot of storage and i have already stored 10 full lenght films and my whole music collections and have harly took a chunk out of the storage. 2) DVD Recorder / VCR This device replaces any VCR or DVD...

johnson_s4 27.06.2005 · Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful
Review of Archos AV4100 Pocket Video Recorder 100 GB

Great idea but not so well executed!

Advantages: Huge hard drive (80gb); record from video, DVD, TV, cable and satellite, easy one-time set up of TV cradle
Disadvantages: Expensive, doesn't support Sky Plus digi boxes as there is no code for the IR emitter yet!

...This gadget is a great idea but is by no means perfect or streamlined yet. It records from video, TV, DVD, cable and satellite but if you have a Sky Plus box, don't expect the infra-red emitter to work as there is no code for it yet and therefore you cannot programme the timer record feature so the Sky will change the channel with the Archos! They don't tell you this before you buy it! Archos say they are working on a code but it hasn't been released yet! With regards to recording your copyright protected DVDs, the easiest way to do this is by simply plugging the scart socket into the back of your DVD player and recording directly. This is a slow laborious task as it will only record in 'real-time' - i.e. if you have a 2.5 hour movie to record, it will take 2.5 hours to record and you can't watch anything else whilst you're doing...

ToriaOxford 11.10.2005 · Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful
Review of Archos AV480 Pocket Video Recorder 80 GB