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: Archos is a solid performer, and I like it
Summary: 5 Stars
The Archos player is pretty cool. Not as cool as it could be, but cool enough. Here are my observations:
a. Awesome video quality. The fact that the screen is bigger really helps.
b. Multiple file formats supported. That by itself beats out the iPod and other players. You can drop divx, mpeg and a host of other formats onto the device and they will play just nicely.
c. It is really easy to use. Drag and drop is the way to go. The only thing that you will have to pay attention to is editing video that you record from TV. If you screw it up it could be painful.
d. Archos support has not been bad. It will take them about a day to answer your emails. If you are patient you can call the hotline. The folks there were really helpful. So I don't have a problem with them.
e. The battery sucks so bad it is sad. You can barley turn the damn thing on without it losing 2 bars on the energy indicator. So if you are doing a lot of traveling you will need to buy the battery pack (whichever one you want).
f. They nickel and dime you on the plugins and other stuff. That is really frustrating. I shelled out $70 for the internet, podcast and video plugin. These functions should be inherent to the device. If each player came with these features out of the box I am sure Archos would gain a greater market share.
g. The DVR station is a must. Correction...don't buy the DVR station buy the travel one. It is cheaper and does the same thing. Either way you are going to want that capability. It ain't cheap. The DVR station was another $80 or $90 bucks. I recorded a show the other day and edited out the commercials on the device. Worked like a charm and now I am hooked.
h. I bought the 80g version. I have loaded about 50 music videos, 10-15 movies and a bunch of music and I still have about/or more than 40 gigs left. If you are going to DVR a lot of stuff you will need to get the 160gig. You can basically put your whole collection of stuff on the 160gig player. You won't play much of it due to the battery life.
i. Don't buy the leather case from the archos website. It is the one with Archos stamped on it. If you are going to buy a case buy the one that has the stylus holder on it. I think it is about $50 from Amazon. It is a better leather case. A better buy is to pick up a $10 case logic case from best buy. They sell them for holding external hard drives.
j. You need to buy a screen protector. I have not but I will.
k. The wifi thing is kind of overrated. It works and works pretty well. But I don't use it very much. If it were like the iPhone it would be better. If you can't use the internet on the go, outside of the house, it does not do much for you.
l. Also, no one has really talked about any security issues either. I am not sure how much we are at risk when using this thing in public.
Digital camera Review: Archos is alright but software add-ons sneak up on you
Summary: 3 Stars
I've been very happy with the function of my Archos 605. My only complaint is that there are extra charges for the software needed to get on the internet and for viewing most movies.
In bright sunlight it may be a little hard to see the screen and unless you are in a quiet place, forget the one external speaker and stick to the ear buds.
This is perfect for the airports and airplanes I spend a lot of time in.
With the basic unit, it can only be charged from USB. I just got a 12V USB car plug and can charge it in a rental car or use a 120VAC to 12VDC adaptor in hotel rooms.
Keep in mind, with the 80 gigs of space, plenty can be placed on the hard drive.
Digital camera Review: At least it looks nice
Summary: 2 Stars
I've had my 605 for about a week now and I'm seriously considering returning it. As said in other reviews, it has a wonderful screen and lots of space but that's about it as far as positives go.
The first thing that really bothered me was that the battery life is nowhere close to what Archos advertises. 17 hours for music playback? The most I've managed to get before it dies is 7. Not even half. As far as Video goes, you'll be lucky to get 2 hours on a complete charge.
The audio quality is what Really makes me want to return it. Not only is it quiet, but the EQ is not a true EQ. It actually attenuates one frequency when another is turned up, so it doesn't really boost the frequency you want, it just appears to be boosted by lowering other frequencies. The sound quality is a Big step back from even my old Archos Jukebox Recorder V2 and it gives me headaches after a while, which is something that has never happened to me while listening to music before.
Pros- Excellent screen, lots of space, easy file transfer
Cons- Sub-par to Bad sound quality, Horrible battery life
Digital camera Review: Avoid Archos products
Summary: 1 Stars
This review will seem harsh but it is not a knee jerk reaction to some minor problems I'm experiencing with the device. I have spent hours reading the user guide and blogs on Archos devices and here are my findings.
Bear in mind that I'm an experienced IT guy who sometimes has to repair laptops and other computer systems for a living so if I can't manage to get this thing working, how is a regular consumer ever supposed to use this thing?
It's an Archos 605 Wifi (30GB) I bought while in Holland at a Media Markt. (Sadly I can't return it.)
Here is a list of the problems I've had and AM HAVING with the device:
(Even today it hung on synch and would not restart properly. After about 5 attempts to boot the thing it finally came up.)
1. Even with the latest firmware operating system you can download from Archos.com, it simply does not work like it should:
- If the system locks up and you reset it, it may never reboot properly which would require yet another reinstallation of the firmware.
2. Working with Windows Media player to manage play lists and installing movies onto the device is relatively painless except for the extreme slowness with converting movies to the Archos format and then Synching them into the Archos.
- It takes a good hour to synch (USB 2.0) a 20 minute show to the device above and beyond the long time it takes to convert a show into the Archos format. (It took 20 hours to convert one season of scrubs into the Archos compatible format.)
- You have to purchase aftermarket software to convert media to the Archos format, whatever that is. (I sadly use WMV)
- Fortunately the synch cable also recharges the device so it doesn't run out of power while you synch content.
- The box claims to support MAC but it doesn't work. In fact, the Archos crashed while connect to my Apple MacBook Pro never to reboot and I had to reinstall the firmware. (Which isn't too difficult to do.)
3. Once you do get a stable firmware install you can't do anything with it until you let it connect to the internet to download a more recent (stable) firmware update. That would be reasonably fast but I'm in Afghanistan on a satellite link that is slow so it cost me to pay for internet access to let the thing connect.
4. Even with the latest firmware the device is still flakey.
- It locked up despite repeated hard resets.
- If it doesn't boot properly you may have to format the drive and reinstall the firmware, then connect to the internet to get the latest firmware THEN copy again all the content I want to see which takes hours on hours to do.
- We're talking hours just to get back to where I want to be AND you'd better hope it doesn't crash again.
In the end, avoid these devices until Archos spends money on QA and further testing to work out the bugs.
I have worked extensively in QA testing and I am, honestly, surprised at how a company could release a product with so many obvious bugs to the general public. (US Army Special Forces guys use these devices and even they have problems with them. (I worked at Fort Bragg with them for a bit when these were fielded to them a few years ago.))
To make matters worse, I tried to register the product at Archos.com only to find that my product ID had already been registered to someone else preventing me from getting support for the device AND they refuse to answer mails for support.
AND! To add insult to injury, RIGHT after I bought The 605, I saw the newer model available for only 30 dollars more.
Who knows what Archos is thinking but I'm done with their products until I see them improve.
Finally, in the defense of Archos, when the device does work the video is quite nice, audio is good but it locks up whenever I view videos as thumbnails which necessitates a hard reset. This can make the device fail to ever boot again requiring a total rebuild.
PS Here are some other bugs:
- It crashes (Locks up) when I disable wireless.
- It JUST stopped letting me connect to any computers' USB port to sync files into it so can now not add anything to it to watch. It simply is not recognized by the computers I hook it to AND when I disconnect it, it locks up and I have to hard reset it.
The hits keep coming.
I hate this thing.
Digital camera Review: BEWARE you will need extra $ needed to get this running
Summary: 1 Stars
I purchased the 605 and the DVR station. I didn't realise that you had to purchase a whole bunch of "plug ins" to get it working - I feel totally duped. One to get the Wifi web browser running, another to get the TV recorder to work, another to play MPEG2 at $20.00 - $30.00 each....