Archos 'Generation 4' DAP/PVR Lineup [Information, questions and impressions]

[philodox]

Archos 104

Available in Pink, Silver [pictured] and Black.
Disk: 1" technology hard drive, 4GB.
Display: 1.5" OLED color screen, 262 000 colors.
Battery: Up to 13 hours.
Weight: 80 g [2.8 oz]
$159USD

Archos 204

Disk: 1.8'' technology hard drive, 20GB.
Display: 1.8" OLED color screen, 262 000 colors.
Battery: Up to 20 hours.
Weight: 118 g [4.2 oz]
Price Unknown

Common to Archos 104 and Archos 204:
Music: Stereo MP3 decoding @ 30-320 Kbits/s CBR & VBR, WMA, Protected WMA and WAV

Pictures: JPEG


Archos 404

Disk: 30GB
Display: 3.5'' TFT [320x240 resolution] 4/3, over 16 million colors.
Battery: Up to 12 hours audio, 4 hours video on built-in LCD.
Weight: 190 g [6.75 oz]
$249USD

Archos 404 camcorder
Identical to the Archos 404 except for the following.
Integrated Camcorder: direct video recording on the 30GB hard drive in MPEG-4 up to VGA resolution [640x480] @ 30 or 25 f/s, in AVI format. Photos up to 1.3 mega pixel resolution.
$299USD

Archos 504

Disk: 80GB or 160GB
Display: 4.3'' TFT [480x272 resolution] 16/9, over 16 million colors.
Battery: Up to 17 hours audio, 5.5 hours video on built-in LCD.
Weight: 315 g [11.15 oz]
$399USD for 80GB or $599 for 160GB

Archos 604

Disk: 30GB
Display: 4.3'' TFT [480x272 resolution] 16/9, over 16 million colors.
Battery: Up to 16 hours audio, 5 hours video on built-in LCD.
Weight: 255 g [9.05 oz]
$349USD

Archos 604 WiFi
Identical to the Archos 404 except for the following.
Display: Touchscreen
Internet: WiFi [802.11g] connection [Opera Browser]
Size and Weight: 5.2” x 3.1” x 0.7”, 290 g [10.23 oz]
$449USD

Archos 704 WiFi

Disk: 40GB or 80GB
Display: 7'' TFT Touchscreen [800x480 resolution] 16/9, over 16 million colors.
Internet: WiFi [802.11g] connection [Opera Browser]
Battery: Up to 25 hours audio, 5 hours video on built-in LCD.
Weight: 630 g [22 oz]
$549USD

Common to Archos 404 through Archos 704 WiFi:
Video: MPEG-4 [ASP@L5 AVI, up to DVD resolution], WMV [MP@ML, up to DVD resolution]
Optional: H.264 up to DVD resolution and AAC sound, MPEG-2 MP@ML up to 10 Mbps [DVD resolution] and AC3 stereo sound [Need to purchase a plugin]

Music: Stereo MP3 decoding @ 30-320 Kbits/s CBR & VBR, WMA, Protected WMA, WAV (PCM/ADPCM).
Optional: AAC3 music files, AC3 stereo sound files [Need to purchase a plugin]

Pictures: JPEG, BMP, PNG
Documents: PDF [May not implement all features]

…more to come…
[Specifically: Details on all the accessories, the DVR station in particular. Personal experiences with my Archos 404]

 

[LFC_SL]

I had the 204 predecessor the XS202s. Puppy chewed it up. Free advice: never, ever let a golden retriever pup be unsupervised for more than 2 seconds. Lovely player - appreciated the small size and simplicity. Despite the masses, some of us do not need video. Or would ever want to watch it on a DAP sized screen. The problem is in the interim, my music collection has grown. 20gb is too small. Even minimum 30gb would be OK. Why only 20gb Archos?

 

[philodox]

Video is actually surprisigly good on these 4th gen PVRs. The 504/604 models have essentially the same screen size and quality as a PSP. The 404 is slightly smaller, but still very watchable... a huge step up from the 2.5" screen that the iPod Video comes with.

The 404 is basically just an MP3 player with the added bonus of being able to play AVIs. If you need lots of space, the 504 is hard to beat... though it is quite large.

Your advice about puppies is duly noted. My cats chewed up my K81DJ cable.

[Gave me an excuse to get them recabled though, so all is well]

 

[erlik]

I would probably have bought a 604 IF creative had not dumped a lot of brand new zen visions (the video one, not the M) on Ebay at bargain prices when I was in the market for a video DAP (they had just released the W and were probably dumping older stock).

Still, these look very good, if I had to pay full price for both players I would probably have picked the 604 over the zen.

 

[Lord Chaos]

The Archos AV500 I bought last year is a good unit, but useless for my purpose as it won't play Windows Lossless. I assume the same is true of the new line. If these will play lossless I'd be interested.

 

[philodox]

With the new line you can buy 'plugin packs'. I think the apple format pack includes apple lossless, but am not positive. I am hoping that they release packs with the free formats or allow others to do so to allow FLAC and OGG. Either way, it is no big deal to me as I use my portable setup like it is intended... lossless is for home use IMO given the space/battery restraints when on the go.

EDIT: What is 'Windows Lossless'? AFAIK the Gen 4 players can use any of the 'Windows Media' based formats.

 

[wolfen68]

Quote:

Originally Posted by philodox /img/forum/go_quote.gif My cats chewed up my K81DJ cable. ]

You guys need to get fish.

 

[Rossy836]

The XS202s was a nice little player (sold it and replaced it with my X5 which decided to start working again after 6 months), which was very pocket friendly. However the sound quality was far from fantastic (admittedly went from an X5 with Shure E500s to it) so it's more just a style player.

 

[philodox]

What was wrong with the sound quality? I've always found the Archos DAP's to have great sound quality, though I've never tried their small form factor units.