[mythtv-users] Archos Video Formats ?????

Tue Mar 18 15:30:55 UTC 2008

Chad wrote:
> On Mon, Mar 17, 2008 at 4:39 PM, Brian Wood <beww at beww.org> wrote:
>   
>>  On Mar 17, 2008, at 4:20 PM, Robin Hill wrote:
>>
>>  > On Mon Mar 17, 2008 at 03:51:55PM -0600, Brian Wood wrote:
>>  >
>>  >> TigerDirect is advertising an Archos 504 multi-media player for $129.
>>  >>
>>  >> The Advert claims it supports "all popular video formats, including:
>>  >>
>>  >> MEPG-41, WMV2, H2643, MPEG-24 and VOB4."
>>  >>
>>  >> I have never heard of any of those formats. I suspect they are
>>  >> "popular" only with someone trying to sell this device, or perhaps
>>  >> it's just a bad job of proofreading the video format names?
>>  >>
>>  >> Anyone have any information? It might make a nice companion to a Myth
>>  >> system if it could actually play some video format that originated on
>>  >> planet earth.
>>  >>
>>  > You could try looking at the Archos web site - plenty of details on
>>  > the
>>  > device there.  Supports MPEG-4 ASP (or so they claim - they may mean
>>  > DiVX only though) and WMV out of the box.  You need to download (and
>>  > probably pay for) codecs for H.264, MPEG-2 and VOB.  Looks like a
>>  > lot of
>>  > the functionality requires the "optional DVR Station" (i.e. cough up
>>  > some more cash).
>>  >
>>  > I'd avoid it.
>>  >
>>
>>  I also see reference to the "optional docking adapter", in addition to
>>  the DVR station. This thing might break me even if it was free :-)
>>
>>  But what has really caused me to decide against it is the "Microsoft
>>  Screws Up for Sure" feature.
>>
>>  Thanks.
>>
>>
>>
>>  beww
>>     
>
> As a proud Archos owner I would have to say this device is in a
> completely different market that where it shines.  I view it as a
> competitor to the Video IPOD.  I have a 40GB model and scored it for
> almost an even $100.  Here's my miniature review skewed for Myth:
>
> It's a small unit that seems slightly heavier but has aluminum instead
> of plastic housing, so feels stronger at the same time.  It's mostly
> screen without a bunch of plastic taking up precious video space, but
> my version is not touch.
>
> Pros:
> * Very simple to use
> * I read long ago it's "powered by linux" (but can't offhand find
> something to back that up)
> * Comes pre-loaded with plenty of "test" material
> * Has good battery life with real-world use (not best case scenario garbage)
> * Looks fairly sharp and sounds very good
> * Price-for-given-features  By this I mean the cost of this device is
> well under anything comparable (especially the Video iPOD)
>
> Cons:
> * As has been noted, you do have to pay extra on some models to view
> certain types of files (h.264 encoded video, AAC encoded audio in
> video files, etc).  There are 2 "packs" for mine, each are $20 bucks
> that make it so I can encode video in a LOT of formats and watch it on
> my archos.  Otherwise I'm limited to (so far it seems) DivX/XViD
> encoded files.
> * Seems somewhat heavy
> * Proprietary connectors for charging/data transfer
> * No touch screen (on lower end models)
>
> That's about it.  Overall I really really really think that these
> devices are a bigger bang for the buck than anything similar.  Archos
> has been in business for a long time, at least 8 years ago I remember
> eyeballing one of their video players and really wanting it; but it
> had a high price tag and was out of my budget.
>
> Hope that helps!
>
> -Chad
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>   
I'm also a proud owner of the Archos 605 (4GB flash model). I bought it 
used from ebay for $227 but the previous owner had bought all the 
plugins and the DVR station so for me it was a great deal.

Pros:
- Huge touch screen with 16 million colors.
- Play mpeg4 (divx/xvid) out of the box
- Supports a lot of different formats
- Has wifi (54mbps)
- Has a web browser (Opera)
- Can act as a usb host with the DVR
- With the DVR the unit charges in less than 4 hrs
- Lots of ways to transfer files (usb, flash card with my model only, 
samba, upnp, website)
- Can connect to a uPNP or samba server
- Can act as a samba server
- With the DVR and Mythtv, I can stream to my TV through samba all the 
recordings I have.
- Wife approved. My wife refuses having a computer as a frontend, but 
loves being able to just pop-in my Archos on the DVR and viewing 
recordings on the TV. Before I would burn my recordings on DVD and watch 
everything through our dvd player.

Cons:
- Proprietary usb connectors (unless you use the DVR)
- Takes forever to charge through the USB connector
- Somewhat heavy (because of metal casing), I get tired of holding it up 
after a while, but it does have a kick stand.
- I haven't been able to get uPNP to properly work with mythtv (only my 
music shows up).

As a myth user, I like the fact that I can connect with my Archos to 
mythweb, schedule recordings and then transfer them either by USB or 
through the wifi interface. I've had mythtv for over 2 years and all my 
recordings have been re-encoded to Xvid for archiving (4 or 5 movies per 
DVDs). But before I got my Archos last month, if I wanted to watch a 
recording on my iPod video (30 gb), I had to run 2 jobs. One that saved 
my recordings to .avi (xvid) and another one that also re-encoded 
certain recordings to .mp4. Now I've eliminated my last job.
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