Archos 400 / 700 ??

[Lighty]

looks like my ipod is going to a new home so i'm looking for a new piece of kit !!

a bit of mp3 + photos + some video is order of the day - the archos looks the answer....

has anyone seen the 700 yet, the 100Gb is tempting but i've read mixed reviews on the screen quality + the 2Gb file thing is concerning me on the film front ...

thanks for any help

oh yeah is it a heap cheaper in the usa?
just asking because a friend is going next week!

cheers
lighty

 

[pompeyboy]

As a gadget freak I've had a 700 for a month now. Basically my Zen was stuffed full and going nowhere. I mainly choose the 700 for the larger screen, USB host port and 100GB.

Currently, I have loaded 12,000 WMAs and several films recorded from Sky as a trial.

I chose to sync with media player for simplicity which went without a hitch.

I find the audio quality excellent and the screen clear and sharp if a little dark in high ambient light. I did get some interference when first recording from TV but played with the cables and it went away- never did find out what caused it. I have left the recording settings on default so far so I dont think the ouput is bad.

Having updated the firmware there are still a couple of annoyances. The tag data seems to display "album artist" by default and I havent found a way to change that. This is OK unless you set your compliation albums to an album artist of "various artists" (like I have).

Also the RESUME function is fine but it doesn't differentiate between music and video. So you watch half a film, play a bit of music and loose your resume spot in the movie.

I havent bothered looking at the game demos- not my thing.

No lockups/extended pauses/crashes to date.

Anyway, if you want everything in one package the 700 is an excellent choice if you dont mind lugging it around

 

[lukey]

you could always go half way and go for the archos av500, with a 4 inch screen and all the toys but more portable that the av700, was considering one myself as can be used as a camcorder, video recorder etc. certainly worth a look and good value for £350 or thereabouts