Archos goes live with the Gmini 402 and AV500

So being that Archos's new Gmini 402 and AV500 devices—both of which we're certainly down with—have gone live on their site, we're gonna guesstimate that it's not long now. Of course we still don't know when they'll be released for sure, but if nothing else we've got the final final list of specs (which happen to be nothing more than a refresher from what we already knew). The AV500 will have 30 and 100GB mass-storage compliant models, 4-inch 480 x 272 pixel 262k color screen, and a removable battery with "super battery pack" option. The 402 will have the same 20GB drive as before, in addition to WMV10 support; both will support MPEG-4, DivX, WMV9, and AVI, PlaysForSure WMA, MP3, JPEG, and USB On-The-Go.

[Thanks, bigouz]

[Johnny Envelope @ Dec 19th 2005 1:05AM]

Any idea if the Gmini 402 will be able to play my Tivo ToGo files without having to strip the DRM and running it through some video conversion like Dr. DivX? I have the Gmini 400, and I have to hack all my TiVo shows before I can watch them on the Gmini.

[Nairanvac @ Dec 19th 2005 1:05AM]

You know, it might just be me, but doesn't that Gmini look dead up like a Gameboy Micro?

[Dignan17 @ Dec 19th 2005 1:05AM]

I'd like to know about TivoToGo files for the AV500 as well. That would tip me back over to Archos from Creative for my next PVP purchase.

I've been planning to upgrade from my current Archos 340 for a while now, but wanted to wait one more generation. At the moment, I have to decide between the relatively inexpensive Neo Vision with the CF slot and TivoToGo, or the [probably] very expensive widescreen AV500 with recording capabilities and much larger available hard disk space. One has the card slot, one has USB on-the-go.

This is going to be a tough battle.

[Dignan17 @ Dec 19th 2005 1:05AM]

Wow, I just realized something. The AV500 is nearly the exact same size as the Creative Zen Vision! I don't know why I assumed the Archos would be larger (and the 100GB might be), but I was pretty suprised they're the same. Now that I see it, the screen on the Archos is a little shorter, but longer because the buttons don't take up a lot of space. That was one selling point of the Vision for me, and I'm happy that Archos is designing a little better, even though I think the look of the AV500 leaves a bit to be desired.

[Dignan17 @ Dec 19th 2005 1:05AM]

Wow, Ryan did you notice the accessory page? Check out the first item:
http://www.archos.com/products/prw_500760.html

I wonder what "High-resolution" means...

[jazzay @ Dec 19th 2005 1:05AM]

480x272 is the exact same resolution as the Sony PSP, but smaller, suppose the battery life is a good amount longer and it has a great HDD, *sigh* if Sony made a PSP-compliant HDD id buy it... even if it was 100 bucks overpriced