New Audio-Video player to be released "early" 2004.



Video Formats
- MPEG1
- MPEG2
- MPEG4
- AVI
- DivX
- NTSC
- PAL

Audio Formats
- MP3
- Ogg Vorbis
- Monkey Audio

Other Features of Note
- 4" transflective LCD screen
- Swappable hard drives in sizes ranging from 20GB to 80GB
- Macromedia Flash ™ based user interface
- Decoding and outputting a high definition video signal in any high definition format (720p, 1080i) via its on-board component video connectors
- Dimensions (approx.) - 6.3" x 4.2" x 1.5"
- Power - Internal XV DC battery; approximately 9 hours video playback, 20 hours audio
- SD/MMC card slot
- On-board microphone; line in (stereo)
- Accessories: Sennheiser PX-200 headphones!!!; hand-made leather carrying case;
connecting cables; battery charger

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Very interesting stuff. With any luck, it wont become vapoware. Here's another picture, just because:

That's tight!

(did I just say that?)

I remember on the archos multimedia forums this player was discussed around April of this year. Do they have any pictures of the real player, or just mock ups and photoshops? Nice specs if it's not vaporware.

According to one of the posts on their forums, real pictures are expected after the first of the year. I've signed up for email updates. I definately want to keep my eye on this one.

The specs are a little weird, no? Support for MPEG-2 & MPEG-4 video, but not AAC (or MP4 for that matter) audio? Support for Ogg, but not related FLAC (Monkeys instead)? Possible, but seems like unusual choices.

One thing that strikes me as really odd about the site is that they're selling "gift certificates" for $375, though they're valued at $425. I can see the appeal from a business standpoint - a good way to raise more capital. As a consumer though, I'd be very hesitant to hand over 400 bones to a start-up who doesn't even have real pictures of their product yet.

I'm really hoping this product sees the light of day, but I'm not holding my breath.

One more thing - in one of the forums the CEO spoke about price. All he said though was that it would be more than $650. My guess would be $800-1000.