playhooky's Full Review: Archos AV 700 (100 GB) Digital Media Player
Why did I spend $700 on a Digital Media Player? Well, simply because I figured that this media player would serve the purposes of a growing list of electronic gadgets I seem to be carrying around in my head - video recorder, MP3 player, portable DVD player etc.
Since I haven't bought any electronic stuff in a while, waiting for the prices to come down and the technologies to stablize, I figured I could get a device that would handle a number of my digital wants and needs.
(I figure in terms of electronics these days good things come to those who wait - lower prices, improved technology etc. I learned this lesson from a friend of mine who ran out and bought one of very first DVD players and an expensive home theater receiver. Now ten years later he still is stuck with only Dolby Pro sound instead of the vastly supieor Digital Dolby and DTS surround sound.)
Sure a $700 laptop can handle a lot of digital entertainment (play MP3s, DVDs etc) but on the top of my list was something that could replace my VCR to record tv shows without having to shell out a monthly fee for something like TIVO. I never really program my VCR so I just want something to record TV when I want to. Archos seems to be the only company that is making portable media centers that addresses this basic need. Plus since this baby will handle MP3s and work as a portable media player for the kids I figured it would kill a few birds with one stone.
Beside my laptop is always getting crunched on the plane when the Bozo in the seat in front of me flips his seat back and the laptop just takes too long to start up, plus the batteries are always dieing.
Then I figure that I might as well have something portable for car and plane rides as well as being able to move around the house instead of being chained to the DirectTV in the living room.
The Archos does just that. Using the docking station the Archos is easy to hook up to your media center. I bought a second docking station for the bedroom so I could easily bring my recorded shows back and forth. It also includes a remote control.
The size of the display and the hard drive is what ratchets up the price on this unit. The screen is about the biggest on the market and any bigger really would degrade the portablity. Unfortunetly the screen is not as sharp as I would like to see. The 100 gigabyte hard drive provides an enormous amount of storage so you don't have to delete your shows as often as you would on a small unit.
You can record in real time from DVD, VCR, Camcorder, Cable/Sat and other video devices with RCA (composite) or S-Video outputs. But if you want to copy a movie from your home collection you can only view it on the Archos and not on a TV due to copy protection. Kind of sucks since you are allowed to make a copy for safekeeping under copyright laws. So if your plan was to copy Netflix movies into the unit as soon as they come and get them back in the mail ASAP this won't work unless you want to watch them on the small screen.
One nice touch is that you can do a little cropping of recorded movies so you can cut out the commercials on "Mulan" that you recorded off of the Disney channel for instance.
You can time record through a very scheduler so you can use the Archos almost like a TiVo which was the killer feature for my uses. Other personal media centers are all chasing after the person who apparently is too busy to record programs and doesn't mind paying $2 to download that missed episode of "Lost" off the net into their iPod. I'd rather use the VCR method of recording programs I'm already paying for via DirectTV simply by doing a little planning ahead.
The Archos has a photo viewer but and can be set up USB disk drive or a Windows Mobile Media device so you can transfer photos on to it.
On the downside the player runs very hot, has poor quality built-in speakers, and the quality of the video recording is not up to DVD quality even at the highest recording levels.
Archos 100 GB Portable Digital Video Player/Recorder Features:
Record and watch up to 400 hours of video directly from a TV, DVD, cable or satellite receiver.
Store and watch up to 250 full-length movies on the large 7" 16:9 wide-screen LCD or output them to a TV
Easily schedule and record your favorite TV shows with the ARCHOS TV Scheduler
Plays and stores up to 160 hours of video, 100 movies, 20,000 songs or 400,000 photos Supports the Mophun gaming platform for mobile gaming fun USB 2....More at Amazon Marketplace
Plays and stores up to 400 hours of video, 250 movies, 55,000 songs or 1,000,000 photos Supports the Mophun gaming platform for mobile gaming fun USB ...More at Amazon Marketplace
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