Detailed Review of the Archos AV420 PVR 157
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?"
Laptop? (Score:5, Insightful)
I mean, even an iBook works out less.
PC? (Score:2, Insightful)
Overkill? (Score:4, Insightful)
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.
How's the construction? (Score:3, Insightful)
Needless to say, I was not able to revive this piece of crap.
-Todd
Re:Laptop? (Score:1, Insightful)
What? (Score:3, Insightful)
8+ lbs vs 10oz - you decide (Score:4, Insightful)
-Em
At least they made Sync'ing easy (Score:5, Insightful)
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?
What it's for / geek factor (Score:2, Insightful)
As for the pure "geek" factor: you can get a 20 GB iPod for $300. For $60 more (if you shop around) you can get the same hard drive space with the ability to play DivX movies, read from compact flash and get roughly the same battery life (the gMini is rated for 10 hours playing MP3s). Why *wouldn't* a geek get one over an iPod? The only reason I can see for iPod left is UI (I transferred all my iTunes music to MP3).
Would you show Apple such disrespect? (Score:3, Insightful)
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.
Re:How's the construction? (Score:3, Insightful)
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? (Score:2, Insightful)
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!!
Here's where they will succeed or fail: (Score:3, Insightful)
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