Archos 605 Wi-Fi Portable Media Player (80 GB) by Archos
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Digital camera reviews of Archos 605 Wi-Fi Portable Media Player (80 GB)
Digital camera Review: A Good Player Hampered
Summary: 3 Stars
pros:
+Great sound quality and the music browser does both folder indexed browsing or tage based very well.
+Good Support as external HDD (until my USB port failed)
+UPnP worked VERY well surprisingly.
+massive support at http://forum.archosfans.com/ for this and all archos products. any questions you just want answered; this is an amaxzing resource before AND after you buy. for a real review peruse the forums. ie, what are the hacking limitations etc; what games are actually worth downloading for free and where?
cons:
-Size: only a few pair of pants fit this guy comfortably. i have resorted to expanding my collection of jackets so that they all have breast pockets.
-Tasking: as with most multi-function PMPs, remember, you cant listen to music and do all of the other things you might want to do... like surf the internet.
-PDF support: raw PDF works, if its password protected (ie bought) or has other advanced features then it wont work.
final note on experience:
this player makes for a great media experience overall. the keyboard is more natural than the iPhone imho. however, i had to send my unit away after about two weeks because the USB port failed. i am honestly unsure if it was my fault or if it was some kind of lemon because i dont know what went wrong, the port just went bad. ANYWAY, after receiving the unit 2/20 (according to fedex tracking), i was told they didnt receive it until 2/27. then the repair center moved. and my unit had to be "received" again, and not until 3/12. so it takes an average of "10 business days" for the repair to get done, but it's now 3/26 and i haven't heard anything from Archos telling me its on its way.
their service reps are very nice and apologetic, and promptly reply to emails. but their service department needs to get their act in order.
also, based on comments here and there, archos is done with firmware updates for the 605. so if it doesnt have some feature now, it most likely never will. or maybe they will release a firmware update so i dont lose my song ratings and personal settings when i reset the unit.
Digital camera Review: A fine piece of kit, with the usual Archos eccentricities
Summary: 4 Stars
Some updates after 4 months of ownership of Archos 605 WiFi 80GB - In short, I love it. Extreme geek tech heaven. Why I bought it:
I own an Archos Gmini120. Apple products are trendy, well built and aesthetically pleasing but way too much money for the functionality they offer. I also think iTunes is hideous. The iPod touch is the best of that bunch, but the screen is only just big enough and a few GB of flash memory isn't enough for me.
I was considering the Creative Zen Vision W 60GB Slim, but it seemed expensive considering no WiFi and a much lower res, lower colour depth screen. Also, a Compact Flash slot is fairly useless nowadays.
People complain about Archos' customer support and product reliability, but I never had problems with my Gmini and the build quality on that is terrible. It is now 3.5 years old and still going strong, after a DIY battery replacement. I hope the A605 lasts as long.
- Size/Weight portability-
It's fairly slim, but quite heavy. I can put it in my shirt pocket, but wouldn't want to. Measured at 10.5 oz, which is 1.5oz heavier than my old 'brick' Gmini. The one I saw in Circuit City was lighter and thinner - must have been the SD card / Flash only version. The HDD version has a dark grey expanse sitting out the back of the unit, unlike the one I saw, which was totally silver.
There is a single metal leg that folds out the back of the unit, which stands it up perfectly on a hard, flat surface. However, plug in the USB power adapater and the leg becomes useless. I wish they'd included a mini USB socket.
The build quality looks pretty nice. No sharp edges or misaligned case parts like the Gmini. I think the case is all plastic, except for the HDD back cover and screen bezel. It has already picked up a little ding in the bezel. Don't know how it got there because I am meticulously careful with this kind of kit. I have also noticed that the paint finish on the rear cover is wearing through where the 4 little feet bumps are. White plastic underneath - eek!
- HDD -
The HDD is quite noisy - I can't hear it without sticking my ear on the case, but can feel the vibration through the player or my pillow if I'm listening in bed! It shuts down completely when it gets bored while playing MP3s, videos or web browsing. The HDD appears to get quite warm, since the case is cool when playing MP3s or just charging the battery. HDD activity when playing movies varies, dependent on encoded data rate. Playing DVD .VOB files directly is the worst. Encode your video as MP4 or AVI and you should see a marked improvement in battery life over DVD files (MPEG2).
- Battery / Power -
Battery life appears to be pretty bad, as expected. This doesn't seem to be one of Archos's strong points. The Gmini was advertised as 10hrs but the most I've ever got is 6. Creative and Apple seem to go the other way; underestimating their battery life. Of the 5 segments in the battery meter, the first disappears after a few minutes of use. Only 0.5 hour of use and the 2nd bar is gone. 2 hours of .VOB video playing and it's in the red. The WiFi doesn't clobber it as much as video. I got a 4AA to USB battery pack for $10 from Walmart which helps, but the power drain while watching videos exceeds what can be replaced via USB. I have the mini Dock, but that takes a 5V DC 2.1mm mini jack for power. It charges way faster than from USB, but still takes ~3 hours for a full charge.
There are several shutdown modes. When externally powered it will only shut down the HDD and screen. HDD shuts down when no activity as a USB storage device. When on battery power you can 'suspend' or switch off completely. It boots almost instantly from a suspend but takes about 30s from 'off'. Annoyingly, you cannot 'suspend' when on ext. power, so you have to chew a few seconds worth of battery charge to power it down after a full charge.
I wasn't too bothered about the lack of removable battery pack, since I already replaced the one in my Gmini. The A605 actually has screws on the case, so it should be a cinch once someone on eBay starts selling replacement batteries. It would have been nice to be able to buy two (or more) batteries and swap them when one runs out. Advantage: Zen Vision W.
- WiFi -
The Wifi is not as sensitive as a typical PC, but not surprising since there is no external antenna on the A605. Also the WiFi 'Available Networks' UI is a bit annoying, as it keeps shuffling the list of access points, dependant on signal strength. This makes it tricky to connect to any particular one, since they keep jumping around in the list! Several times I've tried connecting to the wrong access point due to this. Fortunately it remembers your default AP setting. On many occasions the unit has locked up and needed a hard reset when browsing on a weak WiFi connection.
- Streaming A/V files from a server -
This works perfectly. I haven't tried streaming from Windows Media player, because I hate using extraneous software. I can stream directly from my Linksys NSLU2 NAS device (original firmware). Player finds all devices on my LAN and even lets me login to the NSLU2 with my username/password. Then it's just a matter of browsing to the folder you want and playing the files.
- Plug ins -
Player can connect to the Archos server without you buying the Opera plug-in, but I couldn't buy the plugins from there. Resorted to doing it on my desktop PC and transferring the .AOS update files to the A605 via USB. The Archos website was annoying in that although I'd entered all my personal details when signing up for a user account, the plug-in buying pages were not linked to my account info. I had to type it all in again to buy the codecs.
- Video quality -
I've played .FLV, .MPEG and DVD folders (.VOB) on it so far. Screen resolution is pin sharp. Black levels/contrast aren't as good as my $1800 Samsung LCD TV (which isn't as good as a CRT), but it's perfectly watchable in most situations. Is not watchable when sitting outside in the sun however. LCD backlight has only 3 brightness levels; the lowest of which isn't really low enough to prevent eye strain when viewing in the dark. Tweaks to the contrast, brightness and gamma controls improve that. Annoyingly, the unit doesn't allow you to save presets so you have to manually change 4 settings for different viewing environments.
- Sound quality -
Sound quality is pretty good but not awesome. There's a slight hiss noticeable when no audio is playing, which is a shame. My ancient Gmini didn't do that. I can't hear any HDD-induced noise that others have reported. I can however hear substantial noise induced by the WiFi chattering. This makes listening to streamed content from the headphone socket useless. The mini dock A/V output is immune from the WiFi noise.
The built-in speaker is surprisingly clear for its size, but doesn't play that loud. You need a quiet room. Headphone level is perfectly OK for efficient headphones; not quite enough with cheap 'on-ear' headphones in an aircraft. I use some cheap Koss 'The Plug' earbuds most of the time, since they are LOUD and block out most external noise.
- User interface / Firmware usability -
Intuitive UI - no need for a user guide for that. There's a home page with icons for the various things you can do - Video, Music, Photos, Web, etc. You can browse the hard disk folders or use the 'ARC library' (music library) to select content to play. The library sometimes updates itself automatically and you can get it to manually update.
When you plug the USB cable in (to a power supply or PC) the A605 asks whether you want to enable the USB or just charge the battery. This is very useful, since you can't do anything on the A605 itself when it has a data connection to a PC. You can choose to have the A605 be a media player compatible with Windows or a generic USB mass storage device. I chose the latter, because I like to be in full control of my files and don't need automatic syncing. It's also great that you don't have to segregate part of your HDD to work as a USB mass storage device - the whole thing is one!
The user interface is fast enough, but not super fast. The only crashes I've seen are WiFi related, although sometimes it reboots itself when attempting to play a corrupted video file. I have discovered that holding the power button in for about 12s does the same as pushing the hidden reset button. This saves having to carry a sharp pin around with the unit. A hard reset means it boots up again from scratch, and loses the time setting. The A605 can set the system time from the Internet incidentally, which is a nifty feature.
The device plays MP3s in a folder sequentially, without a playlist. It used to make a very short glitchy sound when changing tracks but I reported this to Archos and one of the recent f/w updates fixed it.
The device automatically bookmarks the last media file that you stopped playing. if you hit the resume icon on the main menu, it starts playing from that point. You can also manually set bookmarks in up to 32 files, but have no access to the list of bookmarks. To access them, you have to browse to a file you bookmarked, then hit resume on that file.
Other, minor annoyances -
* When the device has the keylock on, it still accepts inputs from the keys or touchscreen. The LCD backlight comes on, an egg timer appears and then a message to tell you the lock is on. This is pointless, since if you put the device in your pocket while listening to MP3s, your battery will still get drained by the LCD coming on.
* Volume levels 1 thru 4 (out of 33) are actually all level 0.
* If you leave the player on pause, it will never shut down. Bye bye battery!
* There is no sleep timer. Most MP3 players nowadays can power themselves down after a set period while playing. Useful for bedtime listening.
Hopefully these issues will be fixed in future firmware updates. For me, owning an Archos is like owning a British sports car. It's a fine machine but definitely an enthusiast's product. You have to accept that some quirkiness comes as part of the deal.
Digital camera Review: A great portable video player
Summary: 4 Stars
I got the 605 wifi about a month ago together with the DVR. I mostly use it on my commute to watch movies, videos recorded using the DVR function and listen to music. I found it to be a very capable PVP.
Portability: I came from a 3rd generation iPod. So the 605 is quite a bit bigger and heavier. I will not be carrying it in my pants pocket to walk in the park. But nowadays, many device can play music. I can use my motorola V3i to provide 2 hours of music. For my commuting use, I can easily put it in my bag so it is not a problem. I may get a flash music player if I want it for some other activities. With the bigger size, it comes with a great screen! It is clear, sharp and color display is excellent. I have played with iPod Touch (which I had also considered at the time of purchase) and the iPhone in Apple Store. Their screen clarity are all wonderful. When I use the 605 on the train with bright light from overhead, I've found that there is little reflection on the screen, which is good. So with the 80 gb capacity and the DVR TV recording capability (no transcoding required) I went with the 605 instead of the iPod Touch.
Controls: The touch screen control and the buttons on the unit are very responsive. Volume is a bit low for my train ride. I usually have to set to 3/4 of max. and use a Sennheiser noise cancellation headphone for my viewing. The bookmark feature is good because it lets you set one bookmark on each video. Not just the video currently playing. I can jump around to different videos and resume where I left off. I did not buy the browser plug-in so I have not use the wifi feature yet. It should have been included in the first place. I have tried to view photos on the 605. It displays large jpg pictures relatively quick. The brightness and color are also very good. The finger-flipping control on the touch screen is cool and works pretty well. May be I have the screen protector on, it is not as sensitive as I would like it to be.
Miscellaneous issues: I have mp3s in Chinese title. The 605 can display them properly. But the way I get it to work is to change the language setting to Chinese. Then all the menu controls are in Chinese, which is not what I want. It is just a little annoying. And from time to time, the hard drive spins up for a few seconds, the video I am playing will stutter for a second. Then it will resume playing smoothly. It doesn't bother me that much but it may to somebody.
Recording: You need the optional accessory, DVR to record video. Recording from TV is relatively simple. The quality is quite acceptable. It is very convenient though. I was considering the iPod Touch. But that option, I will have to get an EyeTV (which records in MP2), transfer to MP4 (time consuming), then transfer to the device. The 605 does it in one setting. But, I found out that it uses the DVR's IR emitter to control my VCR for on/off, duration and channels switching. I need to input those information with the 605 and DVR facing me, then I have to turn them around so it faces my VCR's IR receiver before I walk away. Perhaps I haven't figure out a better way yet. It can also moonlight to be a portable storage device, PSD--I am planning to get the mini dock or battery dock for photo storage while on vacation. With it USB host capability, I can offload photo from memory cards to the 605 either as a back up or empty the memory card for more photos.
All in all, I found it to be a great portable video player, a capable PVR.
Digital camera Review: ARCHOS, read this and you can double your sales...
Summary: 4 Stars
Problem # 1:
The process of buying the separate plug-ins is painstaking and will leave a bad taste in your mouth afterward. The only "out of the box" experience customers are having is one that says, "Nice, I can't use any of the features that made me want to buy this thing in the first place until I buy and install all the extra plug-ins" (which are NOT easy to install until you talk to tech support, btw).
Solution:
Bundle them in the unit - even if you have to increase the retail price. I'd gladly pay more to not go through what I did for installing plug-ins.
Problem # 2
The design of the Archos 605 feels and looks cheap. This is astonishing to consider when your main rivals (and market leaders iPod, Creative, etc.) all have cheaply-produced (yet slick and cool-looking) molded plastic outfits. The worse part is the rough-finished, sharp-angled, powder coated faceplate that surrounds the display on the 605.
Solution:
Smooth out the sharp edges and rough, grabby finish around the display. Remember, that's where people's fingers will be doing the most work. Bottom line...you should make a unit that looks good and feels good to hold or NO ONE will buy it over your competition (ESPECIALLY WOMEN).
Problem # 3:
The lack of a proper charger to accompany a $300+ unit is madness. I know the highest margin items are all the add-ons and accessories, but this is going too far. Right now, I've had this unit two days and the long USB charging time is only increasing my dissatisfaction with your product and company.
Solution: Include a damn charger!
Finally, even though I may have harsh comments for the unit (Archos 605, 80GB) and Archos' marketing angle, it's only because I think the 605 has the guts of a REAL iPod killer. The video is awesome and the features blow Apple's Touch away. I'm only adding my two cents as a picky, impatient consumer who wants to see a unit that he can actually recommend to friends, family, and everyone else.
Come on guys, make it happen so I can buy a Gen 6 and make my iPod
Touch-owning friends weep with jealousy! When you do, your sales will DOUBLE because electronic junkies like me will tell anyone and everyone to buy one.
Digital camera Review: Amazing Archos Device - 605 WiFi
Summary: 4 Stars
This device known as the 5th Generation 605 WiFi is amazing.
Before I begin on the Positive note, lets talk about what I didn't like.
Wifi access is limited to an open shared source ex.(Starbucks or Hotels). I didn't have luck at all connecting to a wifi device with enhanced security enabled. Also the internet interface (Opera) lacks the activeX ability I was hoping for. Lastly the Battery takes too long to Charge, coming in at a wopping 8 hrs via usb or 4 hrs from a wall outlet. Once you tackle these hurdles your Golden! This little puppy is amazing! Internet connectivity is relatively fast, the screen resolution is beautiful and very sharp. The layout of the buttons and the overall feel is just right. They got the sound right too it is smooth and crisp. A new feature is the Content Portal which still seems to be in development but has great potential, Love the concept. Widgets are plentiful for that personal touch and the menu and settings are very detailed. Adjustments range from alarm clock to parental control, appearance and tv control. I hope this description doesn't sound all business, because this device is a lot of fun. Speaking of fun did I mention the cool games that are available? There are 4 game packs you can download from archos' web site and that's not all! Setup an account with CinemaNow and view movies right on your device or PC cheaper than renting at Block Buster. I'm happy with this amazing device, I'm sure you will be too.