Product Description

Record directly from your TV, VCR, DVD player, cable or satellite box. Make scheduled recordings. Store up to 130 hours of video, 85 movies, 15, 000 songs or 300, 000 photos. Transfer photos directly from your digital camera using the USB host port. Play MPEG-4 files. Play TV recorded shows, movies and home videos on a 4" color screen, your TV or any external screen.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #40829 in Consumer Electronics
• Brand: Archos
• Model: 500679
• Original language: English
• Dimensions: 4.90" h x .70" w x 3.00" l, .56 pounds
• Hard Disk: 30GB
• Display size: 4

Features

• Record television programs, movies and home videos and watch them on 4-inch LCD whenever, wherever
• Plays and stores up to 400 hours of video, 250 movies, 55,000 songs or 1,000,000 photos
• Compatible with MP3, WMA, WAV, protected WMA, MPEG-4, WMV and protected Windows Media Video
• Supports the Mophun mobile gaming platform; USB 2.0 port for fast file transfers
• Up to 15 hours of battery life for music and up to 4.5 hours for video playback on the built-in LCD

Amazon.com Product Description
Amazon.com Product Description Your movies, your games, your music, your photos -- all in one little device. That's the Archos AV500 30 GB Mobile Digital Media Player. This exciting media companion offers direct TV recording and the best of home cinema, gaming, digital music and more. Now you can bring all your entertainment with you wherever you roam. This 30 GB model, which is less than an inch thick, lets you store up to 130 hours of video, 85 movies, 15,000 songs or 300,000 photos. Using the AV500's rechargeable, removable battery, you'll get up to 15 hours of life for music and up to 4.5 hours for video playback on the built-in LCD.

The AV500 measures up nicely.

A world of entertainment in your hands. And the included TV Pod docking station makes connectivity a breeze.

Record video directly to the device.

Organize and play your music library.

Personal Video Player
Used in conjunction with the included TV docking pod, you can record television programs, movies and home videos directly from your TV, VCR, DVD player, cable box or satellite receiver. Then watch them on the go whenever the notion strikes you. Plus, with the integrated scheduler you can program your recording schedule a week to a month ahead of time. Play back your favorite program on the 4-inch widescreen or on any external screen in near-DVD quality. The unit plays DivX, Windows Media, protected Windows Media, and MPEG-4 video files. You'll also have excellent control over your viewing experience with features such as slow motion, adjustable screen size, video editing, and a video bookmarking function.

Photo Viewer
The AV500 is a great digital photo companion. Transfer thousands of photos directly from your digital camera, or another mass storage device using the built-in USB connection. You can also transfer from a computer using the AV 500's high-speed USB 2.0 interface. Then, organize your photos and watch them in slide shows on the unit's screen or on any external display.

Music Player
The AV500 features Archos' newly-designed music player application. Now you can easily organize your songs and customize your view by artist, album, type of music, title, year, and play lists without having to use a computer. The AV500 also offers an audio recording application that records in high-quality WAV format from almost all analog stereo sources. You can also use the stereo microphone if you want to record notes, presentations and lectures.

Connectivity
The player has a USB 2.0 port that enables you to copy, share, connect and transfer files directly from other powered mass storage devices. The unit is also recognized as a mass storage drive on your PC or Mac, giving you the ability to transfer any computer file using the high-speed USB 2.0 interface.

PlaysForSure
The AV500 lets you purchase, download, subscribe to or rent protected video and music content from Microsoft PlaysForSure websites. The Archos AV500 works with many online subscription and pay-per-download music services such as Yahoo! Music Unlimited and Napster To Go. The PlaysForSure designation ensures compatibility with Windows Media Player 10 and Windows XP. Using the USB 2.0 interface, the AV500 will easily auto-synchronize this content with Windows Media Player 10 each time you connect it to your PC, or convert your Windows Media Player 10 library content to one of many compatible formats (MP3, WMA, WAV, protected WMA, MPEG -4, WMV and protected Windows Media Video).

Play Games Anywhere
Because the AV500 supports the popular Mophun gaming engine, it's designed to integrate with the Archos Web site for purchasing and downloading games. You can also connect an optional mini game pad to kick your games up a notch.

What's in the Box
AV500, TV docking pod, remote control (with batteries), audio/video cables, USB 2.0 cable, USB host adapter, AC adapter and charger, stereo headphones, protective case, user guide.

Customer Reviews

Archos AV500 Review
As many of you have probably done, I have researched and read the few limited reviews I could find on this item, but finally i purchased it yesterday from the Sharper Image. So far its amazing, I did have the Archos AV420 but returned it because the battery failed on me. The AV500 is truly an amazing machine. The screen is so much sharper than the AV400 that it is indescribable. You can record directly from your DVD player, VCR, Satellite or Cable Box, which I am doing as I type this. I already put about five different cd's on the AV500 from my collection from Windows Media Player, and that took a mere twenty seconds for each cd. Also, the AV500 displays the album cover for each cd. The AV400 did not recognize many of the album covers that the AV500 does. The "TV Pod" is much easier to hook up on your tv than that of the AV400, and it seems that there are many less wires coming out from the pod. The built in speaker is good if your sharing with someone else, but the included earbuds have very good audio quality. In the case comes a user guide, 2 sets of audio and video cables, a USB 2.0 cable and USB host adapter, AC adapter and charger, Stero headphones, the TV cradle and IR emitter cable, Remote control with batteries, and the Protective Case. All in all the AV500 is a must buy for anyone who likes music, photos, and videos. I am in luck too because I am going to Washington in a few days which is an eight hour drive. On average the AV500 probably will have about 4 hours of playback on the battery while on video, and 10 hours of playback for music, but I have yet to test that. I am very happy i purchased the AV500 from The Sharper Image.

[...]

Fantastic and Useful Display
I read a review on CNET stating that the Archos AV500 didn't have as good a screen as the Creative Zen Vision 30Gb player. Closer scrutiny shows that there is much more to the story, however. For those of you choosing between these two major competitors in the personal multimedia player category, I'll summarize what I've learned in my research (leading me to buy the Archos AV500).

1. Archos AV500 has higher screen resolution than almost all current laptop computers. The AV500 has a 138 DPI (dots per inch) screen. The current Apple MacBook has a 110 DPI screen (looks gorgeous playing videos). Sony VAIOs tend to have 128 DPI screens, identical to the Sony PSP. If you like video on your PSP, MacBook, or VAIO then you'll definitely like video on the Archos. The Creative Zen Vision has a 216 DPI screen, but see additional points below.

2. The Archos AV500 has a 16:9 screen: perfect for widescreen movies. The Creative Zen Vision has 4:3 screen, so your nice widescreen movies will be little letterbox movies on the Creative. The Creative is best suited for TV shows, but these will display at almost exactly the same size on the Archos (with black on the left and right, as they would display on a widescreen TV). The Archose definitely makes the most of your video files since it displays TV shows at about the same size as the Creative, and does a much better job with movies.

3. The Creative has serious problems with limited viewing angle. You have to hold it just right to get a good picture, and even then many people report that the angle is so narrow that one eye can have a good view and another can see a slightly "silvered" view. The Archos is much more forgiving here, making it a lot easier to enjoy on a long plane flight and a lot easier to watch with a friend.

4. The Creative can't record. The Archos can; it can even record DVDs legally, working with the MacroVision copy protection on the discs you own. I was able to save about $130 on a device to record from my DVD player or DVR. I count that as a $130 discount on the price of the Archos.

5. The Archos is Mac and Linux compatible. The Creative is locked into one operating system (Windows XP) and won't even allow music and video files to be transferred when it's connected as a USB drive. This means that you have to use a bunch of proprietary software and drivers to get the thing to work: not a lot of fun if you want to use it with a friend's computer or if you're having problems with getting the software to install correctly on your system. The Archos can connect as a standard USB drive: universal access and no reliance on a bunch of proprietary software.

6. The incidence of the Creative freezing and requiring lengthy recovery procedures is fairly thoroughly documented in the Amazon reviews. The Archos appears to have a much lower incidence of problems.

So, if you're looking for a portable video player you may want to consider the above in making the choice. Obviously these points led me to the Archos. Your mileage may vary.

The Good, The Bad, And The Down Right Beautiful
Throughout all of my experiences of shopping for a perfect portable media player I have decided that no such device exists. The Archos Av 500 is one of the closest to that high standard.

The AV500 has all of the requirements for a great pmp and then some. However, it also has it's flaws. It boosts a monsterous 4 inch LCD which is one of the biggest save for the Archos AV700 (that supports a lousy resolution).

I purchased the 30GB model and I was impressed right off the bat with the power of the videocorder function but was unimpressed with the fact that there is no middle ground between the 30GB model and the 100GB model memory wise. I really wanted a 60GB version that cost somewhere in between the two.

The movies look spectacular when you connect a dvd/vhs/tv input and record at the right settings, I didn't even try to go the computer route because the AV500 has such a simple recording interface that there is no desire to use the computer as a middle man between the dvd and the Archos. Several dozen recordings later, I thought about attempting to go the computer way and I found a very interesting peice of info that I would like to pass on to you. The resolution recording settings on the archos are VGA (640x480) and a lower version of 512x(something I forgot). However, the screen resolution is 480X272. When the archos has to shrink the picture, it causes some distortion in the picture quality. This happens because there aren't enough pixels for the video resolution. The archos then decides whether or not to show some of the pixels and when the camera is moving or there is a particuarly large amout of detail on the screen then the garbage quality is shown on the screen. If you can find a good dvd to avi converter program (I used the "dvd to pocket pc" program from www.pqdvd.com) then I recomend that you set the settings to have the output resolution to be exactally 480x272. I did this and I recieved a picture resolution that I thought was literally DVD quality. It blew me away! Note: If you go this route then you cannot use the cropping feature.

If you dont want to go that way, then use the onboard recording feature. Be warned that it is very possible to make the recording look like crap so pay close attention.

The way to avoid this is to set the resolution at VGA and keep the KBS at 1500 (the files become a size that about 16-18 movies can be stored on the AV500). This sweet spot is my key to making the movies that I record look on par with DVDs on my AV500's screen (not a tv output). I encountered some glitches (the AV500 randomly froze during a recording process)that caused me to worry at first but several recordings later and I forgot all about them.

One secret hidden feature that I had no idea about was the editing feature of video files. Due to the fact that I wanted as many movies on my Archos as possible and that I typically only watch the action sequences, I was able to cut out all of the scenes of Anakin Skywalker and Padme in Star Wars Episode III to make a 45 minute movie that jumped from one action sequence to another. I am now able to get all of the aciton from any movie into one file roughly 300-700MBs which allows me to fit 50-60 movies on my Archos.

The photo feature is OK. I say "ok" as a way of being nice. The photo feature is there so i can't really complain. However, it sucks. The photo feature has very limited zoom function that becomes quite annoying. The load times are delayed just slightly which made the device seem a bit slow compared to the fact that it can record a tv signal at VGA resolution with 2500 kbs and sound at 48khz.

The device went above and beyond on the music standards. The AV500 automatically sorted all of my music files into categories such as Artist, Genre, Album, ect. The music from the headphones sounds nice but the built in speaker comes up just a little bit short, a very little bit. The control of a built in equalizer was also a very nice touch.

One of the flaws that I came across was the USB host and what it could connect to. My deepest desire was to connect the AV500 to a portable USB hard drive and cut a corner to save me money from spending 700 dollars on the 100GB version but that plan failed. The AV500 flat out didn't recognize the hard drive. The Archos will however connect to a digital camera and a desktop hardrive but no portable ones.

The feel of the Archos (which I should have probably talked about at the beginning of this review) is that of a peice of solid metal except for those lousy buttons! The face buttons of the AV500 are the worst part of the whole device. I can't stop giggling them while I am watching my non-stop action movies.

All in all, the AV500 is the best gadget for your buck. It has it's minor flaws but the tought of overlooking them isn't really that bad. The AV500 out performed every single other pmp that I have tried and belive you me, my quest for the perfect pmp has driven me to nearly try every single one.

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