This morning, across the pond,
Archos had a press conference where they presented the rest of
Generation 4 of its personal media players. Those lucky French got the first crack at the latest three additional Archos models, the 404 Camcorder, the 504, and the 604 WiFi. So here are the deets: the Archos 404 Camcorder (359€) is your
404, but armed with a 1.3 MP camera and will be able to take 640 x 480 MPEG-4 videos and save them to its 30GB drive (
remind you of anything?). The 504 (399€ - 699€), essentially the same unit as the 604 with its 4.3 inch screen, but it comes in 40, 80 or 160GB sizes, and packs a bigger punch too. The 504 is lightly thicker (22mm) and has a better battery life, up to 17 hours of audio or five hours of video. Which brings us to the 604 WiFi (499€): same as the 604, except with touchscreen capability (either with its stylus or your fingertips). It's designed to last for 16 hours of audio, five hours of video, and four hours of WiFi, using the Opera-based browser. According to Henri Crohas, president of Archos, the 604 WiFi will soon be compatible with IPTV. Archos also demoed some of its accessories, including the DVR Station, which turns your Archos PMP into a mini-TiVo for the cost of a cool Baroque bridge (i.e. 100€). In addition, it announced a Docking Adapter and DVR Travel Adapter for 29€ and 49€ respectively. Archos seems to raise its own bar each time it comes out with one of these -- we can't wait to get our hands on 'em.
posted August 29th 2006 2:25PM
Hawt.
Ready to take the PMP plunge with these devices.
The true video ipod will never catch up.
I hope these things can play back (or at least convert to stereo) AC3 this time. The Archos 700 couldn't play back AC3 and other certain formats (which i have forgotten.. I sold mine on pretty quickly because I did not have time to convert my whole avi connection to the format Archos wanted..)
Am I missing something or are these devices far, far better than the iPod is or the Zune could be? Is there some hidden drawback? It looks incredible!
Dont bother looking for more info on the 404 product youll just get site that says Page Cannot Be Found. =-P
I'll get it when I find out it has:
A) A voice /speech interface for me to make selections doesnt have to be that great .. I am welling to spell things out loud.
B) Touch screen or a touchpad under the device.
C) Less buttons, and which are only on the side of the device.
iPod with integrated camcorder function... Wow, I hadn't thought about that, but what if Apple could keep the same form-factor yet add halfway decent camcorder functionality? Based on the photo with the post, these just look clunky, and I think people are drawn to stuff that looks cool and is easy to use (hence the popularity of the iPod/iTunes system).
I have some questions about this article. Lets start:
1- "packs a bigger punch too" - what does that mean? That doesn't give us any information. Why does the 504 "pack a bigger punch" than the 604? Because the capacities are bigger? But you said that just before this, so is this just being redundant?
2- I'm skeptical about something. You mention the 504 is "thinner (22mm)." Now, AFAICT, you could mean it is 22mm shorter, left to right, than the 604 (though I don't know why that would be worth mentioning). However, I assume you mean it is 22mm thick, and that the 604 is thicker than that. While that would be worth writing about, I'm left confused. I assume the 604 is using a 1.8" hard disk. Now, whatever work Toshiba is doing, they haven't created a 160GB 1.8" hard disk yet. So how will the 160GB 504 (which I had assumed would be using a 2.5" drive) be thinner than the 30GB 604? I know I'm using the word "assume" a lot in this comment, but there isn't a whole lot of info to work on...
*update*
Um, scratch #2 of my previous comment. I think you may have your specs wrong, Mr Farivar. The standard 604 is 17mm thick, so the 504 can't be thinner at 22mm. This would also account for the bigger hard disk (although that's still very thin for a device that has a 4.3" screen AND uses a 2.5" drive.
"Am I missing something or are these devices far, far better than the iPod is or the Zune could be? Is there some hidden drawback? It looks incredible!"
Hehe, that's what the Archos faithful have been saying all along. So far I don't think the build quality has been up to par with Apple and the other top companies, but the AV500 was extremely close. They also finally got products into US retail stores (Sharper Image sells the 30GB AV500 and the AV700). I strayed from Archos, but I plan to return with this new line of players. Now I just want some more info on this second group, like a launch date. Their website has already been revamped and the standard 404 and 604 are on there, so I can't wait until the others pop up and I can give them a good looking over. A 160GB portable player would be amazing...
"The 504 is lightly thicker (22mm) and . . ." He said thicker. Not thinner.
what does this mean Dignan17?
"So far I don't think the build quality has been up to par with Apple and the other top companies, but the AV500 was extremely close."
Yeah right Dignan, the AV500 blew past the Ipod with alot of features, and quality. Sure you can't really find them in stores, but that's other people's problems if they don't want to come up with the times and order products online.
As for the new products by Archos, I will wait for alot of the bugs to be found and fixed before I consider buying one, right now I am happy with my AV 500, and the price should go down considerably in a year or to also. Just start researching products before you buy anything. Other than that good release Engadget.
As a long-time Archos user I can safely say to #3 that Archos is in a different league to everyone else when it comes to PMPs. They fall down a little on support and out-of-the-box ease-of-use but nowhere else. It really pains me to read all the crap about video iPods and Zune usually without any mention of what Archos is doing. If you want a top-of-the-line PMP forget both and go with any of the Archos products. You won't go wrong. Pretty much any Archos user will tell you the same thing (although I'm sure a few with bad experiences will pop up here and say otherwise). There are also a ton of good forums for them to help counter that ease-of-use thing.
Ok, I just read that back and should probably point out I don't work for them, though maybe I should and also, did I set a record for hyphen usage in one short paragraph?
I'm a longtime Archos user and although I HAVE had problems with their units, in the long run, I like their products.
I have good experience with their service but like the man said, it's my experience. I've had FOUR units from them and I will continue with the 604. I just sold my 500 to a friend when I heard about the 604 (to be prepared money wise) and I'm now just waiting to see if they will release the 604 wifi with the bigger drive.
That's going to be a clincher for me.
As for quality and build, they seem superior to me than most products and don't even mention ipod in this conversation, they never even came close to Archos for features. They built their reputation on being simple to use in a time when things weren't so simple to use and of course, being apple...
I've heard so much bad stuff about them, the same thing you've heard about Archos applies to them.
I don't work for Archos either and needless to say, if their products didn't work, I wouldn't have bought 4 units from them.
To the guy that wondered if you can hook it up to a DVR, you should be able to as long as the DVR has OUTPUTS and if not, maybe you can hook it up through the TV while playing whatever's on the DVR.
Later boys
George
Although I am most likely going to pick up the basic 404 (a site named after a river :D has it for $279 preorder), you will have to BUY codecs from Archos for particular formats such as AAC, AC3, and MPEG-2.
That being said, this player still looks incredible!
Archos is a French company, so no surprise that they launched there.
There's always someone like JS who says "I won't buy one until...[add anything unlikely to be added and not necessary at that.]" But there are some Archos models out now with a touch screen if you have to have that. I have a Archos 680 running Qtopia Linux with a touchscreen.
They have always been better than the video iPod because you can use them to encode TV and your other videos as well as playback.
I own an AV480. Here's my view of what's good and bad about Archos relative to an iPod:
Pros:
Huge screen
External speaker
Built-in voice recording
CF card slot
Displays photos from original file
Media bookmark ability
Acts as a HDD; drag and drop your media
Cons:
Very thick (only for large capacity versions)
No lossless codec support
Unable to play music and view photos simultaneously
Takes a couple seconds to boot
After 2 years of hard use my player is still in great shape, but the battery doesn't old a good charge anymore. I'll probably buy another Archos seeing as they're just about the only company selling high-capacity player (over 60GB) with a good set of features.
"Yeah right Dignan, the AV500 blew past the Ipod with alot of features, and quality."
Not that it matters anymore as this post has gotten old, but I was mostly talking about build quality. No need to get defensive there. The AV500 was really solid, but those buttons wobbled like crazy.
You seem to make me out to be hating on Archos. Not so! I really like the company and I want them to succeed. They pioneered in the portable video field. At times they were years ahead of every competitor. That doesn't mean they don't have things to fix.
I'm going to be selling the iubi Blue I bought a couple months ago and picking one of these up.
I really want to get the 604 wifi though im wondering can you hook it up to say a dvr like you can with the pocket dishes hm and actually will they come out with a pocket dish version of the 604 wifi. hm just wondering to but when is this coming out for the u.s.?
Im probable going to get one of these but before i do Does the 604 have an fm radio reciever and can it record fm radio?
Does anyone have information on the Archos 504s electrical interfaces? I would like to record an external PAL video source and I'm looking for pin out info and protocols etc.
I'm the proud owner of an AV500 100gb.
The unit is great.As I'm a movie buff just the ability to carry my video library where ever I go & able to wath it on big screen where ever I am is great.No DVD to take along.Also the build in screen definition is fantastic.
In fact I like Archos products so much I just purchased the new 504 160gb model.
Remember you get what you pay for $$$$$$
Pro / everything
Con / nothing
When the outgoing Archos range showed up in Sams Club recently I bought the largest one immediately. Purpose? Music and mobile video. Got it home, read through the arcane instructions concerning use of the dock to actually get video into the machine. Voila! Blank screen. Took it back the next day.
Consumers are attracted to iPod primarily it is a culture of performance you join. There is a presumption of actually caring for and listening to music. The machine itself needs to be as invisible as possible.....
I don't have an iPod... and I am not part of th Apple culture....or Microsoft....or Archos
Next time, just hit the TV/LCD button on top. The blank screen is a feature when it is in TV output mode. There was probably nothing wrong with your unit.
I have bought three Archos PMP's and LOVE them! The wife, daughter and I each have our own when we go on trips. I also own two Video Ipods and the wife and I mainly use them for music since the screen is comical to try and watch a movie on. The dughter didn;t even bother with a video Ipod and got a Nano. I bought a Zune, but returned it and bought the third Archos.
After several years of use, the LCD on my Ipod 60G is going out (a few bad lines in the screen) but the Archos I got at the same time is still going strong.
Is it possible to transfer my whole playlist and videos from Itunes to my Archos 504?