Archos 500648 AV480 80 GB Video Player / Recorder and MP3 Jukebox Player

Rating:
Summary: Very good gadget and very promising
Review: Actually, I am very much astonished from the reviews written on the AV480 here on amazon as well as on other sites.

Since this device is no cheap at all, i had to run an extensive survey trying to evaluate this equipment. And all the feedback was very discouraging.

All the reviews said that the AV480 fails much and doesn't work and stuff like that. But, since i was desperate to have a large (more than 50 GB) portable media device and i couldn't find other choice (May be except the iPod, and the Zen) i decided to take my chances and try one.

Let's cross our fingers:

I have it now for around a 1.5 months, and this piece of art is really amazing.
I tried almost every possible combination of features together to check if it is working. And yes, i admit that i have extensively tested it.

- I connected it to my computer, and it worked fine, nothing needed to recognize the AV480 as a USB 80GB harddisk.

- I ran up to 10 copy operations of large data from the PC to AV480 (2GB) simultaneously and with 3 copy operations from the AV480 to the PC. This test was done all together to randomly test the scheduler (OS) of the AV480 and does it que the data in a correct manner or not. With these threads opened, the odds should be very high that the disk will fail in one of them. But, amazingly it went through very smoothly. So I am now pretty sure from the OS is rigid.

- The other tests were rather easy, i tried to run MP3's on the unit and sucking the battery dry. Trying to check when the unit abnormally or urgently shutdown, and expecting a failure when booting it, i didn't have any problem. The unit when just charged, started up very normally.

- I tested recording as well (Audio only) and it is very clear to me.. It records to WAVs, but there is no problem. Any ripper will change that to MP3's.

- I still have the video recording test to go. I didn't try that yet, though i believe that it will pass fairly.

Ok, looking very impressive with the above tests, i tried to be picky, and try to catch anything bad in that device:

1. The battery charging looks very primitive. When you charge the unit, it just charges over the level it is originally at. Meaning: If you have a total empty battery, charging in 4 hours. Then a half empty battery will charge in 2 hours, a 1/4 empty battery will charge in 1 hour and so on. I think that this way the battery will experience memory effect. Meaning that for a half battery charging, the next time the battery will tell the unit that it is empty only after a 1/2 battery discharge. Though my unit is not experiencing a memory effect, but this rather takes long times.

2. The unit power connector is sloppy. Using the charger that came with the unit, it is very easy for the charger to get disconnected from the unit if you accidentaly pushed the unit a bit away.

3. I don't know if the power connector is a standard size! I tried buying a car charger from RadioShack. The charger didn't fit in the unit. Actually the unit needed a little longer jack to fit in. The jack at RadioShack was short, and when you push it hard in it contacts the power, when you release the pressure it disconnects.

4. The design was meant to be elegant, but the finishing quality isn't that elegant. If you look from the side of the unit you can see the light of the LCD.

5. The carrying case is very premitive. It has no place to carry the earphones with it. And it is very hard to reach the buttons when the unit is in the carrying case.

6. The recording unit comes with a very large bunch of wires that makes the connection with the TV and Sound system in my room even more harder and messy :)

7. Archos' customer service SUCKS! When i was researching for this unit, and found the discouraging reviews and found a more encouraging reviews on the AV380 i asked them if they still support the AV380 (because Archos' site is the only place that doesn't sell the AV380!). And till now i have no answer back :)

Conclusion:

It is a very efficient device with couple of drawbacks that can be solved by firmware upgrades.

Rating:
Summary: TRUE about the short-lived device, good concept but immature
Review: i can imagine before buying it you'll need to listen to a lot of people's reviews and still be not sure whether to put your
$700 stake on it or not. Well just to save you the trip and struggle, dont! Let me tell you this as an experienced user who owned it for 2 weeks before finally shipping it back to J&R, this little snazzy gadget is defintely a great concept, but it's way too immature at this stage to be put into the market. As most other buyers have noted, this thing won't last more than a week, seriously. when it works its awesome, music/video/photo/storage, anything you wanna take with you all the time. you can even watch porn on it, believe me, i've seen people do that before. ok, in a word, if you wanna spend $700 on a luxury that lasts 10 days, go ahead and have a blast. otherwise, dont waste another second of your time staring at this thing. its not worth it!

Rating:
Summary: iPod who?
Review: I must say i'm very surprised by the reviews below; about them not working after a little use. I'm also worried, because now i'm wondering if mine will break soon. I've had no problems in about 3 months that i've owned it... hopefully if it's lasted this long then i'll be OK for the long term.

My experience with it is great. I'm sure you know all it's features, so i'll just list some complaints (nit picks):

- The shell is quite delicate. You must handle it with care or you may ding it.
- In the dark it can be a little difficult to feel out the buttons; they don't stick out very far so it helps if you can see the buttons well.
- I wish you could record "audio" in MP3 format. Currently it records in a format that yields a huge file size.
- When you fast forward a video, you don't know how far you've gone until you stop fast forwarding. It screen doesn't update as you fast forward.
- If you get video from the internet, or elsewhere, you must convert it to a specific format that the AV400 can read. The package comes with very easy to use software, but if you're converting lots of videos, it can be time consuming.
- I would like the photo viewer to have more options... for example, i think it would be great if it could show a "histogram" of a photo, so you can make sure a photo is exposed correctly.
- The LCD gets dark if viewed at a high angle. If viewed directly on it, too low, or too far right or left, however, the quality is great! But i'm sure that's just a limitation of LCD screens.

So far I am very happy with it, and I can live with my little complaints. I'm just still hoping that my unit will continue to work well for a long time...

John

Rating:
Summary: An awesome product
Review: I purchased the AV 480 a week before Xmas. Despite all of the negative reviews on this product, I have yet to experience any problems. The model has seemlessly recorded several movies and at least twenty CDs. With that said, I have about 72 GB left. I can probably get fifteen more movies and 100 more CDs on it. This product is great. On trips, you no longer need to carry your DVD player, DVDs and MP3 player separately which saves a great deal of packing space. This is the perfect all in one media player.

Also, there have been recent upgrades on this product from the Archos website which may have alleviated any prior snafus.

As the manual suggests, it is best to download Windows Media Player 9. I don't know whether the machine accepts any other players.



Rating:
Summary: Very impressive... and I'm not easily impressed!
Review: I've had the unit for about 2 weeks now and have done everything you can do with it. It's performed flawlessly and quite impressively. I find it becomes quite easy to use if you spend just a little time with the comprehensive manual. It's very cool. No complaints so far, and there is a good discussion group about the Archos players on Yahoo.

Rating:
Summary: Worst media player ever
Review: My comment on this product is simply, DON'T buy it. This is the worst piece of electronic I ever bought. They need a way better QC for this product. I have gone through 4 different units and they all fail to read the hard drive after a couple days. If you plan to put two or three files in your 80GB player, it will work fine, but when you start putting more files to the player, it will break. I know someone get a unit that works, but tons of people have problem with this player when I ask the customer service lady about this. Do you really have the time to do the mailing exchange for a few times? If you do, you can think about this product. If not, get something else.

Rating:
Summary: Some units MAY work
Review: Obviously there is something wrong with quality control on this product. The unit I received never worked. For the price, I'm not willing to risk a short term performance and got a refund instead of a replacement. Good luck at getting a functioning unit if you order the av480. I'm waiting for a reliable product.

Rating:
Summary: CAN NOT REPLACE BATTERIES
Review: On the AV480 it is not possible to replace the batteries, they are a proprietary design and needs to be sent to Archos for replacement. That means you can not have extra batteries for long trip.


Rating:
Summary: HDD "Read Access Error" annoying but fixable.
Review: The Archos AV480 is an excellent product. There is an annoying design flaw, that causes a "Read Access Error" to occur. The Hard Disk Drives are not bad. It seems the disk drive has a rigid connection to the printed circuit board (PCB) instead of a ribbon cable. When the device encounters shock and vibration, the drive can shift and become slightly disconnected. The device needs to be turned off. If it is hung-up, you need to hold the OFF key for about 30 seconds. Hit the archos (Compact Flash port side) against the palm of your hand, then power back up. The force reconnects the drive to the PCB inside. I've had this problem happen about 8 times over 6 months. I discovered it when I was holding the player in my hand one day (luckily the first time it happened to me). I tilted it to the right and the message "Read Access Error" appeared. Then when I tilted it back to the left it started working. I was able to do this a couple of times. It is anoying, but other than that, the features of this product are great. I had a RCA Lyra 2780 before this one, and it puts the Lyra to shame.

Rating:
Summary: Had it for only one week Works Excellently
Review: Well this is the best.. Nothing even comes closer.

I totally love this. I have had no problems with this and this is working fabulously. I read somewhere that the early batches were faulty and maybe that is what has happened to all the guys who have had these problems. i think they are fixed now but i am keeping my fingers crossed.

There is a group offering help and advice on the Archos products and is highly responsive -
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/archosmultimedia/