Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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133 of 135 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
It's not perfect, but I'm happy with it, October 19, 2007
I bought this to replace a Creative Zen Vision:M 30 GB MP3 and Video Player (Black) that had been stolen. I really liked my Zen, but I wanted to see what new stuff had come out in the time since I bought it. This led me to getting the Archos 605 80GB instead, mainly because of the optional TV hookups. I've never liked to watch movies or TV shows (or even music videos) on my PC monitor because I can't relax and enjoy something passive while I'm at my computer. I'd also never used the Zen's video capabilities much because the screen was too small. The Archos 605, on the other hand, could be hooked up to a TV (with the DVR station or other accessories--I bought the DVR station), which would allow me to watch downloaded TV shows and movies in comfort--and even better, with other people (it's difficult to crowd around a computer desk to watch a movie), plus I'd be able to watch stuff on the go with its larger screen.
The wifi access, web browser plug-in and PDF reader also helped sell me on the Archos 605. I particularly looked forward to being able to read ebooks in PDF format.
So when I ordered the Archos 605, I was thinking of it as an MP3 "with benefits."
When the Archos 605 arrived, I found out that its screen was totally large enough to watch video comfortably. Shortly after I got it, I watched two and a half seasons of Weeds on it. It's fantastic! I can carry a TV show into the kitchen to grab a snack, etc. When I'm home alone, I'm even able to rely on the built-in speaker--for TV shows, I don't need fantastic sound quality; I just need to be able to hear what they're saying. It's very cool; I'm very addicted. :)
Like I said, I bought the DVR station with it. I had wondered how a video file from the Archos would hold up enlarged on a TV screen, but no worries--the picture quality is good (we have a 32" set). I've recorded some stuff from our TiVo onto the Archos, and the picture quality is good in that direction, too. Since we do have a TiVo, I haven't used the Archos as a DVR (with the downloaded TV listings and scheduled recordings), so I can't say how easy that is to use, but it's definitely easy to manually record something, and I was happy to see that I could tell it how long to record for.
As an MP3 player, it's not as good as the Zen, simply because it's not, primarily, an MP3.
One way the Zen (and probably most other MP3 players) is a better MP3 player than the Archos is that if you power the Archos 605 off while you're playing music, it doesn't automatically start up where you left off when you turn it back on. Instead you boot up to the main screen, and then you have to tap the "resume" icon; otherwise nothing happens. In this way it's less "plug and go" than my Zen was; sometimes if I'm only going to be driving for a few minutes (like a hop from the grocery store to the gas station), I won't bother starting it up at all. Also, the way you lock the controls takes a few seconds longer than the Zen did. With the Zen, you just slid the switch to the lock position. With the Archos, you hold down the TV button until the lock icon appears on the screen.
If you're playing from a playlist when you turn the unit off, and then you hit "resume" after you turn it back on, it doesn't seem to resume the playlist--it does indeed play the song you were on, but it's playing it from the album instead of the playlist, so the next song after that is the next song on the album, not the next song on the playlist. Possibly this is glitch that will be fixed in a firmware update (or perhaps has been--I haven't updated my firmware in a couple weeks).
Finally, changing the play mode (normal, shuffle, repeat one, repeat all), takes a lot more navigating around than it did on the Zen. It really shouldn't take that many clicks.
Sound-wise, the Archos is good as the Zen was, and its drawbacks as an MP3 player aren't so onerous that I'd consider buying a separate MP3 player. The Archos does well enough.
The PDF reader, however, turned out to be a disappointment. First, it takes several (loooong) seconds to go to the next page. Second, there's no way to bookmark where you are so that you can pick up where you left off. I figured I could just remember what page I was on and use the Go To Page feature to get back to it, but the Go To Page feature uses a slider, which is nowhere near as quick as if they'd let me type in a page number, and it takes a long freaking time for it to then load that page. Ugh. So this thing definitely hasn't replaced my Palm Tungsten for e-reading.
I haven't used the web browser or wireless much. It seemed pretty slow the times I have, and there's no "tap feedback" in the Content Portal, so when you tap on a link, you often don't know whether the tap has registered or not because the screen stays the same while the Archos (slooooowly) downloads the data for the next screen. That's frustrating. The web wasn't as frustrating as the Content Portal; I just haven't had much of a need to use it.
Another downside is that there aren't any cases for it that will protect the unit while allowing you direct, immediate access to it, the way the skin I had for my Zen did. Instead it comes with a padded, envelope-like case that you have to slip the unit completely out of if you want to use it. (To be fair, it's much better than the cloth pouch that came with the Zen.) Leather case options are limited, and all the ones I've seen require you to open the case in order to view the screen or access the navigation. The one from Archos won't even let you turn it off with the case closed, which isn't very handy if you're listening to audio and want to shut it off quickly.
I don't know how many hours I'm getting out of my battery. I did listen to music for 10 hours on a recent road trip without it giving out on me, but I didn't keep going to see how much more I could get out of it. I've also watched a couple hours of video without it running out of juice--and again, I ended up dropping it in the DVR station (which charges it) before it did run out, so all I can say about the battery is that it's lasting long enough for my needs.
Despite the caveats I've listed above, I LOVE my Archos 605. I love being able to take TV shows and movies with me everywhere. I love that I can finally watch bootleg concerts and other stuff I've downloaded on the "big screen." It's easy to use. The DVR station is easy to use. The two work together seamlessly. The Archos holds a ton off stuff. It plays my music. It lets me browse the web if I need to.
I'm happy with it, definitely. And I'm keeping my fingers crossed that future firmware updates will make me even happier with it.
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159 of 165 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Nice, but not without quirks, November 11, 2007
I have owned this device for about a month now (after waiting for quite a few weeks for the backorders on Amazon to fill). Overall I am pleased with it, but I cannot say I endorse it whole-heartedly. There are enough little quirks and annoyances that I would caution anyone thinking of buying one to reconsider before clicking that Purchase button.
Don't get me wrong: the nice features are very nice indeed. The screen is bright and clear and the capacity can't be beat. The UI is pretty and the wi-fi works well. As others have addressed all of these points, I'll concentrate on the things I found somewhat surprising upon opening the box. The quirks range from minor annoyances to serious issues, ranked below accordingly.
- The audio is indeed *much* too low. It's fine for quiet situations, and usually not bad if the particular audio track is recorded at a high level. However, I have tried to watch certain movies on a commuter train (with what I would call a moderate noise level) and the audio track is completely indecipherable at max volume. If you're going to use this out in public (and isn't that the point of the whole device?), you're going to need noise-cancelling headphones at a minimum.
- This is a portable device, but I would not call it a "pocket" device. It has some serious heft to it (especially the 160 gb version) and it's pretty big. Fortunately, most of the device is taken up by the screen, which makes it more worthwhile; still, this is not at all something you stash in your shirt pocket.
- Plenty of others have mentioned the short battery life, but it bears repeating. This is especially notable since the battery is non-removable, so you're completely stuck with it unless you're using some external power. I find it reasonable for most uses, but don't forget to recharge at the end of every day or it will become a doorstop on your next commute.
- Generally the OS works well, but sometimes loads very slowly (hourglass or splash screen for quite a few seconds) and occasionally outright crashes. I have had to reset the device a handful of times already.
- The audio track on large video files (2+ hour movies) can get out of synch with the picture if you jump around too much using the controls. This is especially sad because there is absolutely NO "resume" functionality, so you are forced to load the file from the beginning and jump forward if you are resuming watching a file.
- The touchscreen works well overall, but the smaller buttons can be fairly difficult to press. (The pop-up USB activation button sometimes requires some serious button-mashing in particular.)
- The unit comes with two plastic styli to use on the touchscreen, but there's absolutely nowhere to store them. (i.e. they don't attach to the device as is the case with pretty much every other stylus-using device.) It's nice having a stylus but this screams "Lose me."
- The PDF browser is *extremely* slow. It can take upwards of 30 seconds to draw each individual page, and any slight navigation or zooming can cause it to redraw forever again. Not to mention it seems like they are just "printing" the content to a PostScript file and then displaying it, so protective "print only" watermarks actually show up on the screen. I was looking forward to this feature for browsing scans of some graphic novels, but the load times make this far too frustrating to be practical.
- The DVR function is somewhat of a joke. I'm not even sure why they include the "TV Guide" and timer functionality, since it won't record anything unless your TV and cable box are on the right channel at the right time. It will record TV shows, but I'm not sure what functionality the "DVR" adds since it's pretty much the same as just connecting the device and pressing record when your show is on.
- On a related note, the optional "DVR Station" is also somewhat of a joke. I think it flirts with false advertising to label a device as a "TV recorder" when it doesn't even accept a cable signal. It's really just a docking station with some additonal outputs, and doesn't get around the fact that you have to manually set your TV and cable anyway.
- The manual that explains the functions of the device is wrong in many places. For example, the placement and function of the LEDs is completely different than the diagram. (In fact, for some inexplicable reason the HDD light is on the *back* of the device, so you never really see it.) I suspect they cut and pasted the diagram from another device (the 04 series?) and didn't update. Somewhat minor, but there are enough functions on the device that this is annoying when trying to learn them all.
All in all, you might find this device useful if the above quirks don't really bother you. It's still fairly nice to have on a long commute, but it's not quite the "wonder device" that some have painted it to be.
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137 of 143 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Bar Is Raised on Mobile Video, September 4, 2007
While I'll probably never use this as an MP3 player (I have smaller devices for that), it makes one nice video player. I've been playing with one for a little while and here are my impressions thus far:
Positives:
1) The video. Wow!!! I doubt there is anything this clean and crisp out there that is this small and portable. The video looks fantastic and I've yet to have any hardware lag while viewing it.
2) 160GB. That is massive and just the right size for carrying around video.
3) Intuitive user interface. I've got a Zune for my mp3's and I often find that complicated (and irritating) to navigate around but this is quite easy to figure out. You don't need to be a rocket scientist to get this to work the way you want it to. Navigating around a movie is fantastic as well because it is so easy to pause, fast forward, or do anything else you would want to do on a video player.
4) Responsive Touch-Screen. Using the touch screen was quite easy... I don't think I even touched the buttons on the side much. I had no problem even though I've got some thick fingers.
5) Sound quality. This thing sounds great some with nice earphones. I can see why some might use it as an mp3 player as well. It sounds awesome!
Negatives:
1) No standard USB Connection on the device? Come on, if you are going to be this large then give us a standard USB interface, please. For one, it is smaller than this ending. Also, if we are near a computer we can use the USB to charge it without having to carry the proprietary cable around. USB is just sooooo... universal... I'm flabbergasted anytime somebody doesn't include a USB connection.
2) Battery. First, this isn't removable so you can't carry a spare pack around. But it doesn't last that long when playing video. This wouldn't be too much of a concern if it had a USB connection because there is always a way to charge it that way. But if the battery doesn't last as long as a laptop... there isn't much point.
3) Browser is not good. You can download video from Youtube and a few other sites but you can't just get out on the web and grab stuff. I've read you can buy a browser to do this, but something decent should have come with the device. If you are going to have Wi-Fi, why not make it as functional as possible?
So, if you are willing to shell out the cash this is an excellent device for video. I'd have other preferences for music but this is quite capable of handling that as well.
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