Customer Reviews

Archos AV400 20 GB Video Player/Recorder and MP3 Player AV420

5 star:		(24)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

The Archos AV420 is very nearly the perfect personal multimedia device. If you want to be able record videos from your cable or from non-copyrighted DVDs and play them back in near DVD quality, this is the device to get.

The fit and finish of this device is very good, an order of magnitude better than its predecessors in the AV100 and AV300 series. The controls are easy to learn and solid. The screen is clear and super bright.

I agree with the reviews that caution that if you're not into video, there are devices that offer better price performance. Even with the 20G model (AV420), I can store hours of recorded TV programs and other video material to keep me happy while my commuter bus lumbers through heavy NYC-bound traffic.

The built-in compact flash slot allows me to show off my digital pics on the bright, clear 3.5" screen. I don't miss having to have a laptop always at the ready to act as an intermediary for file transfers.

Adding to the versatility is the built-in mike for recording meetings and conferences, and the USB-2 connecion that allows me to use the hard drive to bring home files from my work computer. And of course, the MP3 capability is a given with excellent organization software for playlists, viewing album covers, etc.

What's missing? Nothing I care about --The predecessors offer camera attachments; I guess Archos figured most people wouldn't want to add that functionality option so they've dropped it. No biggie.

The reason I bought the 420 vs the bigger models is two-fold: cost and the fact that you can get a spare battery for the AV420 for those long flights.

Check it out!

I got this as a present from my mom, she was supposed to give me an Ipod, but when I learned that she's going to , I asked her to give me Archos AV420 instead because I'm more into videos than music. And I love this product, this is one of my all time favorite possessions.

The Good:
The style was good enough for me, elegant with its grayish color, probably not as hip as the Ipod, but this is more appropriate for professionals becasue it has a more sophisticated look. And the style is miles better than AV 300 because it's lighter and smaller. The screen was larger compared to others so it's really convenient to watch movies. Easy to follow instructions I practically did everything the first time I tried it. It can store based on my calculation about 160 20 min TV episodes in video in the lowest quality but still very clear. The best thing of all is it can record from practically any source, tv, dvd, vcr etc without a hassle. It has also a scheduler that records your favorite show when you're not home (like a vcr). It can also record music/sound with it's built in mic or analog source which means you can record speeches, commentaries in dvd, concerts etc. and you can also edit them when you're done recording. It can store practically all your photos because of it's 20 GB capacity.

The Bad
Sometimes when I'm recording for a long time, moist builds up in the center, it's minor but noticeable flaw. But don't worry after a while it's gone. Sometimes also when the source is not very clear in recording, the result is a little jerky in the sides, minor flaw but noticeable. But I guess it depends on the source because the movies I copied from DVD's are clear even in the lowest quality bitrate. Another bad thing is that you can't play the movies you copied from DVD or VHS in your TV or computer, in short those that you copied that are copyright protected can only be played in the Archos device. It's not really a big deal since you have the DVd so just use it when you want to watch it in your tv. But of course TV shows and your own personal videos can be played anywhere TV or computer.

Bottomline: If you want to carry your videos with you and have an mp3 player, buy this thing. It will change your life.

Grade: A

This apparatus is nice - great screen, you know the works. To carry it around, though, is a different story. It's just too big, in my opinion. If I attach the enclosed holster to my belt, I'm suddenly retro. I'm not retro-man.

Anyway, this thing will record ALL copy-protected DVDs onto it, but, IF IT RECOGNIZES the signal that designates the DVD as copy-protected, it puts a little 'P' icon which means it's protected. It will play BEAUTIFULLY on the Archos that just made the recording - absolutely beautiful screen. Howevere, it can ONLY be played by the player, so once you copy it to the hard drive of your computer - all 700 or whatever megabytes - it opens up in media player with a big "COPY RIGHTED" label on the screen, but you get full audio for the entire length of the movie.

Now, here's the funny thing. Because there's so many motion picture companies, they don't all have the same code for copy-protecting DVDs. Most VCRs and DVD recorders recognize ALL signals that designate a DVD as copy-protected by the individual motion picture companies. The Archos AV420 only recognizes some studios like Paramount and Dreamworks. It does not recognize the signal from MGM, Warner Brothers, Columbia Tri-Star, and others. So what this means is that you can copy a DVD from these studios it does not recognize right into this device and then download it to your local hard drive on your computer and play it there, too - in perfect MPEG-4 format. You could also download it from there onto another player, like the Archos Gmini, and it will also play. So, the point is, the copy-protection on the Archos AV420 is not all there, in case you were wondering.

4 hours of video on 1 battery, $50 for a spare battery makes long trips bearable. The IR transmitter on the cradle controls my JVC Dish Network receiver, changes to the channel I've programmed in my Archos AV420 and records automatically. I could spend all day talking about how great this little device is. The only drawback I've found is HD space, the manual says "record up to 80 hrs of video" you can get that but it's at 500KBS and pretty poor quality. I've found 1000KBS on LCD gives you about 35 hours of video that is good quality. 2500KBS is the highest setting and that brings you down to about 8 hours but is DVD quality.

This is a really great device. I just received it yesterday. So far everything that I have tried to use has worked perfectly. I
spent some time reading everything I could find in user groups and bulletin boards on line prior to purchasing. This was very helpful and I think helped me avoid some pitfalls. The manual explains some things well--and does not touch on others. The quick start guide is not that well prepared either. Some things I just figured out by trial and error.

The recorded video is crisp and clear everything worked perfectly. Music downloaded quickly from my computer. I love the memory card slot for viewing digital photos.

The real selling point for me was a removable battery. I invested in an extra battery so that I will always have plenty of power on trips--- this (and price) is why I did not buy the 480 model which does not have a removable battery.

The only suggestion for improvement with this model would be to include a stand that could be used to place the device upright for viewing.

I would highly recommend!!!

As soon as the Apple iPod Video hit the market, reviews about it came flooding in. I don't own an MP3 player, and I have never used one. When I found that there was a device that could play video and was ultra portable, I knew I had to find out more. I read a NY Times review about the Apple ipod Video in comparison to its competitors. Brands mentioned were iRiver and Archos. I looked into both, but discovered that the Archos had better features and were better priced. Then, I landed with the Archos av420.

Basically, this is a complex handheld device (approximately the size of a palm pilot) that has the ability to play movies (avi, divx, xvid, and others) record video files off the TV, VCR or DVD player, SCHEDULE recording sessions, (just like a portable Tivo!) store photos and data, PLAY MP3's. You can read all the perks above and take the product tour, which says all this, so I am going to discuss my reaction to the product.

PROS: I could use this thing as soon as it came out of the box. Essentially, after charging the battery, you can plug it into your computer (PC or MAC through USB 2) and drag and drop files onto the device. It is THAT easy. Files copied very quickly, it took less than a minute to copy the movie "The Notebook" from my computer's hard drive onto the Archos av420. How do you get these files? You have two options: you can record movies from your TV, VCR or DVD's, or you can download files from the internet that you can play on the Archos, just like downloading MP3 files. The device has a crisp and clean screen, it is light and very sturdy feeling, and it COMES WITH headphones and all the various cables you'll need. I found it EASY to use and navigate, but be warned that recording takes time, as does copying DVD's.

CONS: Too many cables. There are tons of different cables, the most annoying come from the dish that connects to the TV. Keep your cables organized, and you shouldn't have a problem.

Besides that, this is an excellent product with a wide range of files available, unlike its competition, the Apple iPod Video. If you want something that can be used for portable video and music and photos, this is the gadget to get. I adored mine as soon as I got it plugged into my computer. I couldn't get over how nice the images were, and how EASY to use it really was. Literally, DRAG AND DROP. If you are confused by file formats or don't know how to download files, this is NOT the device for you. I was downloading movies and video files before I got this device, and now I can bring those files with me when I travel or go to work. It is much more convinient to use this than my personal DVD player, and takes up a 10th of the space in my backpack. Thank you technology!

I used to have one of the original Archos 20GB recorder models from 3 years back (the LCD screen exploded when left in freezing temperatures in a car over Christmas - so be careful!). I decided my replacement should be an upgrade. I always liked Archos - their customer support was fine and I never had a problem with the player.
The AV420 is very good - it is much easier to navigate compared to the old Jukebox player I had, I like the way you can sort music by genre, by album, artist etc. Photos upload very quickly and easily. Putting videos on it is also very interesting. There are a number of ways you can do this:

a) Using your DVR (eg Tivo) - this is very useful, just hook up the cables and play the Tivo recorded program and press record on the Archos.

b) Via video recorder - same way as Tivo

c) Via DVD player - same way as above

d) Ripping DVD's via the computer. I tried one of the recommendations by a previous reviewer using the DVD to AVI - I never had any success - the program saw the DVD in the drive but always crashed after 40 seconds or so, or it said it couldn't read the file. I deduced that you probably have to get a program to rip the DVD onto your hardrive first and then use this software. I downloaded Magic DVD Ripper from [...] , you can have 5 trials before you pay and burned the DVD onto my hardrive whilst converting it to .avi format. Its compression meant that I could have about 7MB per 1 minute of video and the file, when copied to the Archos played perfectly and was crystal clear. It's a good bit of software and so easy to use, you can set it to burn the DVD and then turn the computer off afterwards, eg if you run it overnight (takes 1.5-2 hrs for a typical movie)

You can also edit your recordings on the Archos by cropping or cutting out unwanted scenes - eg adverts, very useful.

I think this device is a great tool to store / back up some of your favourite videos, whether home made or bought.

Mine came with a FM receiver which you can record songs from, there is a feature which records 30 secs of every song in its buffer memory, so if you are half way through the song and decide to record it it will record it from the beginning - very nifty. You can also record music from your Satelite radio receiver - if you have the new XM MiFi (which can record 5 hours of music) you can thus copy those songs off of that onto the Archos...

The 20GB model also has a replacable battery which is useful.

All in all I am very pleased with it.

I absolutely love this unit. I did a lot of research before I made my final decision, looking at everything from I Pod to iRiver to Creative Zen, etc. You name it, I checked it out. I have a hard time understanding any portable video player that does not have a removable battery. When watching video the battery can drain quickly (Archos claims 4 hours - have not tried it out yet.) I always want to keep a back up charged. To me it's a must to be able to swap out a dead battery.

I have read the comments by a lot of people to "just use your laptop" to watch movies on the plane. Well, I for one don't always want to lug my laptop. I have a relatively small and light laptop compared to many, but this little unit will fit in a pocket coat pocket! It's the perfect size without getting so small as to not be able to view the video clearly. Image quality is incredible. Playback of content recorded from TV is great. I have yet to try transferring DVDs, but the TIVO-type feature buit into the AV420 works flawlessly and is easy to set up, although I will admit that I did have a few issues with recording initially. I kept getting great video but no audio. It was my mistake, thinking that I was plugging into audio out on my television. Since my TV only has audio out on the back, I bought a cable from Radio Shack that expends those outputs around to the front of the TV. Now that I know what I am doing it works flawlessly. And audio quality is great for both music and videos.

My next favorite feature is the CF slot. I have not seen another unit that offer this, and it is huge for me. I take a tons of pictures when I travel, but my personal preference is for smaller CF cards (512mb or less). Problem solved. Simply plug in your card, select "Copy All", and they seamlessly transfer over to your portable unit to view as a slideshow or print at a later date. Again, no need to lug the laptop, CF reader, etc. When you get home you can plug the AV420 into your home computer via USB2. It will be recognized as a portable device, and you are able to simply drag and drop files to your hard drive. Could not be easier.

One note: Archos claims to have a firmware update that will allow you to view WMP files on the unit, but I still have not be able to do so to date. Probably me doing something wrong again, so I will keep trying. This brings me to the issue of Archos' customer support. I have read many reviews of their products by people saying that have horrible support. I have NOT found this to be true. Yes, I did sit on hold for 30 minutes the first time I called, but the tech gave me his e-mail address and promptly responded to each of my subsequent queries with thorough, concise and very helpful solutions to my problems.

If I would have one complaint about the AV420, it would be that it really is not intuitive to navigate all of its features. I have found myself referring to the manual a lot more than I would prefer (for things such as how to install a firware update), but once you get the feel for it there's no turning back!

This is an amazing, multi-purpose unit. In my humble opinion there is nothing out there that can touch it.

I just got this yesterday so I haven't had a whole lot of time with it, but so far have not had any technical problems with the device, everything seems to record, play, and sound like advertised and consistent with the positive reviews here.

The only issue I have, and it's a big one, is that it doesn't support the Windows Media format. All of my home movies (Moviemaker, photostory, etc.) and CD-ripped songs are in wmv or wma format. That's what came with my computer, so that's what I use. In order to get them to work on the Archos I will have to encode them to avi or mp3, which is an extra step I'd rather not take.

In fairness, as of this writing, there is no other portable video *recorder* out there that supports the WM codec (I've searched everywhere), so this is as good as it gets until the flagship WMA video players (Creative, Yepp, RCA, iRiver, etc.) have video recording capability.

I just purchased this device a few days ago and I have to say I am very impressed. I had been thinking about this purchase for about 6 months, doing research weighing the pros and cons, etc. I finally deceided to take the plunge and I am glad I did. It does have a few drawback but the good far out weighs the bad. I won't bore you with the obvious stuff if you are looking at this device you already have a pretty good idea what it is all about. So I will just stick with the highligts and my thoughts.

The Good Stuff

Recording VHS tapes are a snap no problems really at all quick and easy set up and you walk away and a few hours later, you have it.

Playback is incredible, it is so clear it is almost easy to forget how small it is.

The size, fits right in your shirt pocket. Can your portable DVD player do that?

Music, just send it over create playlists and you are set. Protected music too. Just add the plug in.

Pictures, again just send them over and start the slide show.

The Not So Good Stuff.

The Manual, I am pretty intuitive but even this manual left me stumped at times. But if you are patient and go over it a few times most things can be figured out pretty easily.

The TV cradle and remote, I am still trying to figure out how to get the IR transmitter to work with my VCR after about 2 hours I deceided to try again later. You can still set up scheduled recordings you just have to leave your VCR on and on the channel you want to record, not the most ideal situation but workable.

The WMP plug in, it doesn't say so but you have to download some stuff from the site and copy it to your ARCHO's then run the set up, after I figured that out it took no time at all.

Overall this is a great device, the biggest knock most people have is the encoding and transcoding of movies (getting around the whole copyright thing). I am no fan of the number of restrictions that Hollywood and the music indrusty wants to force upon us. But that is not why I bought it. I want to record tv and vhs and dvd's and watch them on the Archos and for that it works just fine.

One last thing on this whole coping DVD thing, one other nock I have heard is that to record a DVD you have to do it in real time. I hate to tell people this but to rip a DVD, it can take a few hours just to do that so the whole time issue is a moot point. DVD's take time.