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General discussion

ARHOS AV500

Sep 27, 2005 7:08PM PDT

Guys,
Can any of u give a review about this latest product from archos.Also Can u specify the price and its availability in Asia(Dubai)

Discussion is locked

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help!!!! archos av500 or creative zen vision
Sep 29, 2005 1:16AM PDT

Guys ,
i am buyin a device this weekend its either the archos AV420 or archos AV500 or Creative Zen Vision
plzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz help

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AV 500 is my choice
Sep 29, 2005 12:11PM PDT

Here are just some of my pros and cons

AV500 is a better version or AV420, same functionalities except for the games i guess for AV500 and the soon camera attachment that can only be seen in an earlier version which is similar to Samsung' Miniket's attachment camera.

Creative Vision though has slots for some media cards but does not record videos from TV or VCR unlike AV500.

Plus the AV500 is smaller than AV700 series.Check for a working unit because when I saw video on a working AV700 demo unit, its was a bit ''blocky'', i dont know if its the resolution of the device or the video it self.

Also consider for battery life and expansibility aside from features. As for my vote, go for AV500.

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Archos AV500
Sep 30, 2005 1:21AM PDT

I agree. Archos AV500 would be the choice. It has lots of bells and whistles Plus a decent battery life of 15 hours for MP3 and 4.5 hrs of Video. Plus more importantly a removeable battery. So you can buy another battery for extended viewing. Plus look at its size and the Cool factor. There is no player out there today with that small size and a 4'' screen. Also as pointed out in the previous post it has TV out and you can also record from TV. Plus the External Camera records Video. Also that external camera has one of the best Industry CCDs for Video recording from Sony. I think this will be one of the Hottest products in the market for the holidays. It has an IR emitter cable for tuner control of VCR, cable box or satellite receiver. It also hads built in Speakers and microphone for Voice recording, Plus it doubles as a USB Host for starage needs.
I am definitely going to buy this one.

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so does the av420!!!
Sep 30, 2005 8:31PM PDT

Yeah U r right , but i hav 1 question
the av420 also has all theses features except the screen and it is cheaper.
dont u think its better than av500?

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yea....
Dec 24, 2005 10:14AM PST

You have a point, but that is referring to economy. The av420 has the lesser screen and probably has some other little things about it that are better on the av500. It may be a better economic choice if it is that important, but leaving out the money factor, the av500 surpasses the av420

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password
Oct 31, 2005 11:07AM PST

can the access to the av500 or its files be password protected?

Ken

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I bought them both!
Oct 1, 2005 12:21AM PDT

This is a tough one!
I received the Zen Vision from the Creative website but noticed straight away that my unit had two dead pixels (Creative won't replace your unit unless you have more than three dead pixels)this kind of annoyed me.
The Transflective screen has a seriously limited viewing angle but the resolution is amazing.
It could have been my unit but I noticed poor audio performance also(watery sounding mp3 even at high bitrates) after a couple of days I decided I couldn't put up with the dropped pixels and the audio poroblem so I sold it to a colleague at a small loss and bought a 30GB AV 500.
It's a nice piece of kit but there are a few issues with it - less compatibility with certain video formats,
lesser quality screen resolution and audio sync problems associated with VBR encoded XVID and DIVX files.
90 percent of everything I transferred has this sync problem - meaning I've got to re-encode everything, this is not good!
However the fact it has a 16.9 screen and recording capabilities makes it a better buy if you're prepared to put up with the Sync/re-encoding issue

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What about AV420!!!!
Oct 1, 2005 12:52AM PDT

Thank u.
But u did'nt say anything about AV420?Is it a better buy than AV500 coz its cheaper.Also is the screen worth sacrificing for 50 odd $ ?

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ahh i have the same problem!
Nov 1, 2005 10:45AM PST

Out of all the Portable Media players i have cut it down to the same 2 players that i see many others have done. The Creative Zen Vision, and the Archos AV500.

Now, from other forums i've heard that the vision is harder to put DVD's on because you need te use there program, while the Archos is just a drag and drop. But in one of these forums someone said that for the Archos you need to convertt and spend time to put on the player.

so my question is which player is bettr for the SIZE (which player is smaller?), the video resolution quality(which playuer has better VIDEO quality?), and the looks. Because from pictures the creative looks pretty sleek and nice. But things liek the video recorder, pictures, or money doesnt really matter to me.

If ANYONE could PLEASE answer my questions that wouild be MUCH APPRECIATED!
Thanks,
Sarmen

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no probs.... u have lots of options!!
Nov 1, 2005 10:59AM PST

I'll say u go for the AV500,not bcoz i have it,BUt it is the best.Creative zen is a very good product and its screen and resolution may beat AV500 but look at the other things
1)AV500 is less bulky
2)it has a camera attachment
one thing,u cant put DVDs directly into any PVP and expect it to play.u have to convert it into a particular format recognized by the player,Again Archos offers a number of formats into which u can convert .
As you said cost is not a constaint for u then i will even suggest u go for Gmini500.ITs got evrything the ZEN has, at a lesser price (and also a 4' screen)it doesnt hav recording
or even check out the GMini 402cc

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iTunes?
Oct 26, 2005 6:55AM PDT

Has anybody used this device with a Mac/iTunes? From the review, it looks like you can use them together, but wondered if anybody has actually done it.

Thanks!

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Great device AV500!!
Oct 1, 2005 12:57PM PDT

Well,
i got the player at last.its the archos AV500.it is splendid with its 4'screen and usb host supoport .Music playback is perfect and flawless and so is the video playback.also the TV pod is an improvement from the AV420's cradle.But the only thing which bothers me is the video recording .i havent checked it out .Will post a review when i've done so

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Video Recording?
Oct 6, 2005 9:52PM PDT

kumar007 -
You wrote this comment:
"But the only thing which bothers me is the video recording ."

Could you tell me what you mean?

I want this unit mostly for recording video. Is it equal to the AV400? Is it better than the AV400? Is it worse?

Let me know!

Thanks

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AV500 rocks!!
Oct 7, 2005 1:41AM PDT

I havent tried it out yet(we have exams in India now)
but I heard that av420 can cause a lot of trouble while video recording.But overall , this unit is much better than av420.Recordin is similar to av420 but some of the improvements are

1)4' screen comapred to 3.5' in 420
2)USB host capability replaces compact flash slot(i
will never use a compact flash card
3)The creadle is replaced by a TV pod which has
removable wires
4)its price is same as that of av420

check out the archos site for improved features of av500

if you can spend 500$ ,its worth buyin
(I wonder why cnet has not published a review)

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Release in Canada?
Oct 13, 2005 3:06PM PDT

i was just wondering if anyone could tell me when the av500 is coming out in Canada

thanx

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Canada
Jan 11, 2006 10:17PM PST

I bought it in Christmas sell (CND$ 599) in Future shop. They had just version Archos AV500 with 30GB and as usually no too much knowledge how to do connection with TV.... to record some video. I tried all other functions and it is working well. I found also much better program (for free) in Internet for reformating of different video formats and this program is working much better than programs recommended in Archos AV500 manual (Virtual Dub with MPEG4 Translator or WindowsMediaPlayer synchronization). Program has name PocketDivXEncoder and you can find it in http://divx.ppccool.com/langue.php?lang=EN&PHPSESSID=df63aaa18a8bf66faed54ca8a2a0279a

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wat about comparing
Oct 22, 2005 12:47PM PDT

the AV 500 to the Creativc Zen Vision instead of to the 420. I like the Zen Vision better by these reviews becuz its cheaper, smaller and visually pleasing in terms of color. I do regret it has no recording but its seems better than an iPod, even the new iPod because of the screen

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you got the money- get the av500
Oct 22, 2005 1:16PM PDT

well the screen is a bit larger than zen vision.ANd u have a usb host support,u have video recording capability and pretty soon u will have a camcorder attachment .how cool is that?
If u r ging by a budget,i suggest instead of the zen vision go for the 420.Even though they are have the same price tag ,u get more benifits out of the archos.