I went about my normal life and incorporated the Archos into it!
I've been on several three- to four-hour train trips over the months I've had the player and found that rather than being boring necessities the trips became enjoyable visits to the cinema or the concert hall.
The battery lasted well on the trips but I always took the main charger and at least one of the trains always had mains power I could plug into.
In fact waiting for delayed trains was no hassle. Just plug into the Archos and I was watching Frasier, Grease, M*A*S*H, even the Disney High School Musical put on by my kids.
I've taken it shopping and placed in the shopping trolley as I watched re-runs of Dad's Army and listened to Bob Dylan and The Black Eyed Peas.
I've walked to and from the Manchester Metro listening as I walked. The only downside is that the tram itself was so noisy that even with the unit and earpiece volume controls turned to the maximum there were times when it was difficult to hear.
You can even use it as a high capacity voice recorder for making notes and you can plug a microphone in for high quality recording.
The Issues
There were three minor issues that cropped up during my review. And I'd stress these were minor issues.
One rare issue was that sometimes the unit froze and I had to remove and re-insert the battery. It didn't affect anything and was only a slight annoyance.
Another is that the earphones became uncomfortable after long use as there were no foam covers with them.
The final issue was that the TV docking pod wasn't as easy to cart round as just the Archos itself so I couldn't record TV programmes at other places I went to.
Would I Recommend It?
That said I would unhesitatingly recommend the Archos for listening to music and marketing seminars, watching films, and recording and watching TV programmes. If I'd kept the Archos it would have replaced my current (newish) video recorder and I might well have transferred some of my DVDs to it, too.
It's so flexible that I would defy any user to find a better portable way of storing their photos, songs, and videos.
Article comments
1 - Bliffle
Sounds good. I don't need a portable DVR, so I have an LG 3410A, with 300gb, and it records HDTV OTA so it suits my needs well.
An important point with any DVR is ability to dump a program off the DVR to DVD so as to reduce clutter. Most don't do it, except for maybe a D-VHS output, which is clumsy.
2 - Jim Symcox
Believe me doing a long-term review really helped me decide that it's a great machine.
The Archos actually did record my Dad's Army DVDs no problem. Although I suspect it may not have had copy protection.
Jim
3 - Bliffle
I read the specs on the Archos and could find no way to export from it to any other media. Thus, you will fillup it's HDD and have no recourse except to delete items. This makes the device unacceptable to me. They probably did that in response to pressure from the entertainment industry which doesn't want people to dub their content, which they could do if the Archos could export.
4 - Jim Symcox
Actually my anlogue VHS video of Grease was near to being knackered because my kids play it so much. So I recorded it onto the Archos and then simply plugged the Archos into my PC using the supplied USB lead and it came up as another hard disk. I then simply copied the file (quite large really!) to the PC.
No problem whatsoever. In fact you can copy files to the PC from it too.
Jim
5 - Derrick
All the news of Archos
www.archoslounge.net
6 - Bliffle
Now that's interesting, but is it o nly SD or can it record HD as well? What kind of video file is it? MPG, AVI, IFO, ISO, etc.
7 - Jim Symcox
Bliffle it records them as AVI although I suspect you can choose the format. It's been sent back now so I'm afraid I can't check.
Jim
8 - Bliffle
If it's avi it's probably OK. AVI is just a microsoft wrap around another format, like MPEG.
But I still need HDTV recording.
9 - Jim Symcox
HD-quality screens are not on the market yet for portable devices. So, you can record the HDTV, but you won’t see the same quality during playback on the Archos.
Jim
10 - Jake
Addressed to Mr. Symcox:
In your article about the archos av500 you say:
"You can even use it as a high capacity voice recorder for making notes and you can plug a microphone in for high quality recording."
How did you accomplish this? (I tried attaching a Sony ECM-MS907 mic to the AV500 via the travel adapter and the sound comes out extremely low)