New Archos 5, 7 firmware adds OGG / FLAC support, fixes bugs

We noticed a few problems with the firmware on the Archos 5 we got our hands on last month, and it now looks like the company is going some way towards addressing a few of those complaints with its latest update, and it's thrown in a few goodies for good measure. The biggest of those is added support for OGG and FLAC formats, though the promised increase in battery life and boost in USB transfer speed will also no doubt be especially welcome to anyone that's already taken the plunge on one of the players as well. The list of bug fixes is even longer, and includes promised remedies for all sorts of system hangs and crashes, plus some fixes for a number of video playback and recording problems. Hit up the link below to grab a copy.

[Via ArchosLounge, thanks Billy]

[ben @ Oct 13th 2008 7:39PM]

Wow...And to think I'll be getting the Fuze in the mail tomorrow...

Also, I'm happy to see more devices getting ogg and flac support. It shows the growing influence of open source software.


This is good.

[dghughes @ Oct 13th 2008 8:05PM]

iRiver has had .ogg support for many years, almost since day one, but yes you're right it is nice to see OSS and formats supported.

[PeteC @ Oct 14th 2008 4:14AM]

About bloody time too! This is the reason I've never owned an Archos product, hopefully they'll adopt this from now and give .ogg users a little more freedom.

[Wwhat @ Oct 14th 2008 10:56AM]

Samsung mp3 players also often support OGG, surprisingly.

[E71 @ Oct 15th 2008 6:15AM]

What the hell happened to MKV support? That's like, even more important because these devices are more for video than audio... I mean, that's why they have that huge screen and insanely capacious hard drive.

Archos you lazy bums, we need 720p(/1080p) H264 AC3/(DTS) MKV support. Now!

[m-p{3} @ Oct 13th 2008 7:40PM]

Nice to see some open-source format adopted on more PMPs.

[Patrick R @ Oct 13th 2008 8:22PM]

this is looking more and more attractive...is it seeing anyone?

[Flashpoint @ Oct 13th 2008 7:43PM]

now, if it only had a PHONE built in.

[fischju @ Oct 13th 2008 7:47PM]

Wow, didn't see this one coming.

[noyp @ Oct 13th 2008 8:21PM]

Yeah i expected them to make us pay for something like this.

[EEaudio08 @ Oct 14th 2008 10:05AM]

That's what she said.

[JohnTitor @ Oct 13th 2008 9:21PM]

@noyp
archos only makes you pay for licensed codecs, Flac and ogg Vorbis are free, so it's a suprise they took so long to add support

[noyp @ Oct 13th 2008 9:59PM]

D'oh! i was even going to say something about their open sourceness to chris

[fischju @ Oct 13th 2008 10:11PM]

You may have it a little confused John. Archos licenses codecs for the OMAP 3530's DSP from TI, and passes that cose onto the consumer. Here they must have figured out that mplayer (which they use) CAN play formats they don't pay for.

[Chris @ Oct 13th 2008 7:51PM]

I know that RockBox and VLC and such play FLAC and Ogg but I've never actually had a media file of either format. The only .ogg things I see are on Wikipedia.

[rishi @ Oct 13th 2008 8:08PM]

Frets of Fire (awesome game like Rock Band/GH for PC) uses .ogg files....
but otherwise, yea, thats the only place i've seen 'em.

[ethana2 @ Oct 13th 2008 8:41PM]

100% of my music library is .ogg
It's the linux equivalent of wma or acc.
mp3 sucks and just needs to go die.

[tekdroid @ Oct 13th 2008 9:22PM]

foobar2000 is a good player for windows, IMO.

Chances are you have played a PC game with Ogg Vorbis audio, because virtually all of them now use Ogg Vorbis for years now (though often 'hidden' from view in proprietary containers), largely due to its superiority and royalty-free nature. MP3, being patented, costs big bikkies:
http://mp3licensing.com/royalty/games.html

http://www.fsf.org/resources/formats/playogg
Ogg allows artists and publishers to share / stream their content without fear of dealing with lawyers. FLAC does a similar thing for lossless. Great for artists and publishers alike. Everyone wins, and there are no hidden royalties being paid and passed on to Joe User when he buys a device with FLAC or Ogg Vorbis support, unlike MP3.

[noyp @ Oct 13th 2008 10:01PM]

You put my thoughts into words good job!

[Troels C @ Oct 13th 2008 8:20PM]

Nice too see lossless support. Does seem to get its ass kicked in most reviews though.

[cesium @ Oct 13th 2008 8:24PM]

Flash support is nice too :D

[Charbax @ Oct 13th 2008 8:27PM]

Archos 5 has the worlds fastest browser as well.. according to http://pocketables.net/2008/10/website-load-ti.html who did a comparative page loading test with the iPhone 3G and Nokia N810 browsers.

Cause one thing is liking iphones momentum scrolling and two finger zoom modes. But Archos loads the page much faster and has a screen size that is big enough and has enough pixels so side-scrolling and zooming is NOT required.

Sure it would be nice if Archos added momentum scrolling as well. But right now, NYT.com loads in less then 3 seconds and Engadget.com loads in less then 5 seconds. And you can see the whole width of the page on the 4.8" screen without needing to zoom. And unlike the iphone browser, most of the webs AJAX and Flash is directly supported.

[dan! @ Oct 13th 2008 9:07PM]

this is nice

[Bevon Findley @ Oct 13th 2008 9:12PM]

I'd buy that for a Dollar! lol

[tekdroid @ Oct 13th 2008 9:14PM]

Archos, congratulations on your OGG and FLAC support.
http://www.vorbis.com
http://flac.sourceforge.net

[FluidPusher420 @ Oct 13th 2008 9:20PM]

Do any of these stupid companies TEST their equipment before shipping out the the WORLD? Come on! System crashes and hangs? WTF??? What a low class manufacturer and Quality Control Department. Hurry, lets get this out to Best Buy Tomorrow! But what about the problem with the.... Awwww F**k it...We'll just send out a crappy update/bug-fix in a few weeks. Never mind that the customers will never buy another one of our PMP devices again, we got their BIG Money for this one!

[Badger_badger_badger @ Oct 13th 2008 9:45PM]

Calm down, you don't even own one.

[Charbax @ Oct 13th 2008 10:05PM]

How about a company called Apple, who released a so called iPhone 3G 3 months before the firmware bugs on core features such as phone calls dropping off and app store not working. Still Apple's mobile me doesn't work. That didn't harm them much.

[Lonewolf @ Oct 13th 2008 9:28PM]

I don't mind putting up with a few problems AS LONG as it gets fixed. My Ipod video still works like crap. I will never buy another related Apple product. If they would have fixed all the major issues quickly, I would have no problem with them.

[ai4281 @ Oct 14th 2008 1:21AM]

Yay for new format support! Especially FLAC. I hate Apple for STILL not offering FLAC support. Who the hell uses Apple lossless codec??

I wish the UI was improved on Archos though. The only thing holding me from buying an Archos product is the laggy UI and glitchy apps I've been hearing about. Hopefully they'll work on the software more (hardware is perfect, IMO). Till then, I'll stick with other full screen PMPs with internet capabilities.

[Ebbe @ Oct 14th 2008 3:51AM]

I do, use Apple lossless codec, that is.
After having been an Archos fan for years, I wanted to go lossless. I also wanted the biggest disk, I could get and thus there was exactly one choice: The 160 GB Ipod. Archos could easily deliver on the big disk but they didn't support any lossless formats. They do now - well, too late guys.

[Wwhat @ Oct 14th 2008 10:55AM]

Hmm, although I agree that apples should support such formats I must say though that converting a lossless format to another lossless format is in fact.. lossless :)

[LocalToast @ Oct 13th 2008 10:17PM]

Glad that developers are taking open-source into consideration.

Or maybe they're just mad people are using Rockbox? I know I'm not...

[ichiban1081 @ Oct 14th 2008 12:32AM]

Sounds great but what about us 605 wifi users? Ive had a 605 wifi for a while now and would like FLAC and OGG support, where is the love Archos! :(

[Ballog @ Oct 14th 2008 1:26AM]

I second that. All 605 owners should get on the bandwagon and ask Archos for Ogg & flac support (in a future firmware maybe).

[Ravnos @ Oct 14th 2008 8:03PM]

I've also been after FLAC support for my 605 for ages. It's the one feature that would make me upgrade from my GFT-capable firmware. The fact that Archos isn't making this codec support available to owners of older models (hell, I only got mine in January of this year!) is pretty insulting. With how unhappy I've been with my 605, it seems like they've missed a great opportunity to bring me and others like me back into the fold and maybe consider Archos again when the next upgrade cycle comes around.

[Félix @ Oct 14th 2008 6:28AM]

CAN I GET A HALLELUJAH FOR THIS ? !!

Man this is like the best piece of news coming from Archos since ... since I was a kid actually and they made a pretty good 6Gb-almost-first-ever hard-drive-based mp3 jukebox

I getting the 5 as soon as the SFR version with 3G+ comes out ..
which should be no time mhuahahah I love being in france (for once)

Archos 5 3G+ and HTC TOUCH HD ? Who's your daddy america ? :)

[Scarpad @ Oct 14th 2008 8:38AM]

Hell I'd settle for bug fixes on the 605 I have the 4gb flash version and everytime I boot it I get an error 102 and I have to go thru hoops to get it to work. I got a 5 and the first thing I got after charging it 8 hours was an error 102, add to that that it had a bad screen, I sent it back, I just can't trust Archos anymore for such a high ticket Item. I went with an A3 (I already had an A2) missing the wifi stuff, but I just wanted a Better screen and I got that on the A3

[Jash Sayani @ Oct 14th 2008 9:53AM]

Wow!! Looks amazing!!!
I want one for Christmas !!!!

[GarthBock @ Oct 14th 2008 10:57AM]

You certainly don't want to get your Archos at Circuit City. I have been to two so far and while they advertise the Archos, one store only had a dead 605 and the other one had one of the new ones parked next to the new iPods and it had a frozen screen. I was looking at the iPods and when I asked the "salesman" ..."what about that Archos?" he said "what about it ?" I left and went to WorstBuy.