Archos AV560 60GB - Currys/Dixons/PCworld Online (merged)

smsmasters

sockpuppetuk wrote:

Damn, now Im tempted to open the Archos just to see the difference.

You should open it. You will find the Archos will win hands down. :money:

emujuice

oh my god! it sings and it dances!
The usb host is pretty damn fast. i've very impressed. best of all i can copy games/music between this and my psp. it sees the psp and allows me to delete existing files on the memory card and move new ones over. That's pretty damn handy for me, it means i can have all my games with me on the 560 without carrying the discs around. pretty cool
now to see about it's next trick...can it play the files that my freeview recorder creates (humax 9200)

gromituk

You can download Archos' manuals from their website under "downloads" - I didn't spot this, but the helpline guy told me about it. Another nice touch is the helpline is an 020 number (which happens to divert to The Netherlands).

The 500 series and 700 series both have the same resolution screens; the 700 just has bigger pixels. Therefore, the only advantage of the 700 is being able to view it from further away/by more people.

There seems to be one fairly serious flaw with the Archos devices which may not be present on the others: there is no RGB or even S-video out. This means that picture quality on a television will be seriously compromised. Don't let the SCART adaptor fool you - this does not give RGB but merely composite, the worst form of video. I don't understand why they do this, especially as they have an S-video in. I have my suspicions that it might be to discourage piracy, as it plays Windoze DRM (protected) files.

The helpline guy told me it would play time-limited DRM files for 30 days after upload. This seems a bit odd, as you can limit DRM files to less than 30 days. Anyone have any more info/experience of this please?

emujuice

the next trick was plugging the tv break out box into the new shiny lcd tv my boyfriend bought. Can then use it to watch photos at full resolution on the tv. Can use the remote control to control it, very responsive, probably faster then telling the windows picture viewer to move to the next pic. you can also rotate the pics and zoom in.
i think i'm in love!

emujuice

oh yeah, and you can also watch divx movies from it. only problem is that as far as i can see you need the break out box to plug it in to the tv and this needs to be plugged into a power supply. just a bit fiddly if you want to take a movie round to a friends on it.

sockpuppetuk

Well so far the NHJ-MPM202 and the Archos do exactly the same thing apart from the MPM cannot read memory sticks, it reads compact flash and SD cards. It also has S-vid in and out and a tv tuner built into the cradle which is quite handy for recording.
For £150 the MPM202 is a suberb MP3 player, with the added bonus of a 60 gig HD and a more than watchable small screen.

MY Archos is still sitting on the side all sealed .. so far :snow_laug

emujuice

how are you finding the battery life on the mpm?

sockpuppetuk

To be honest I keep it in the charging cradle when Im not using it so I'm not sure what it is .. I will have to let it run down later and see but I wont have any use for it over a few hours anyway and the rechargable batterylooks like one of those in a digital camera so should be cheap enough to get a second one.
Looks like Empire direct have sold out now. .. No doubt all the people that have them on Ebay will be rushing to bump up their BIN prices a little :snow_laug

digitalsafari

According to the lastest Stuff magazine NHJ have gone out of business, which explains why it's so cheap.

sockpuppetuk

digitalsafari wrote:

According to the lastest Stuff magazine NHJ have gone out of business, which explains why it's so cheap.

I just read that myself but its got 12 months warranty, it does what it says on the box and I'm happy so why worry. :beer: