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

Meatwad meatwad.get.the.honeys at gmail.com
Thu Mar 20 14:52:59 UTC 2008


> Brad DerManouelian wrote:
>> On Mar 18, 2008, at 8:30 AM, Emery Guevremont wrote:
>>>> 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.
>> This sounds like a cool device. Can anyone comment on the quality of the 
>> screen and how videos look when playing back? Dead/stuck pixels?
> 
I used one for about ten minutes last night. When held, the feel was 
solid and the heft was there too. The Nokia n800 is somewhat lighter. 
The buttons were usable and had good spring tension and tactile 
feedback. Big, gorgeous screen (non-touch model) with hardly any border 
creep.

Tried to view nikon raw photos from a CF card straight from the camera 
to a USB card reader and then the base station. Under 'Files', a typical 
   monotext two-column nav window immediately presented us with the 
DCIMxxxx root directory of the photo card.

Drilling down to the photos, it lacked previews and much scrolling 
around was required only to have to guess where a certain photo was. 
Very disappointed with that. Archos shouldn't be rehashing that awful 
dime store mp3 CD player interface.

Selecting the first photo required about 2 seconds to display on screen. 
Responsiveness when subsequently seeking through pictures was 
inconsistent at best. To be fair, there were no JPEG photos on the card 
and I imagine the smaller files would improve response time but the 6mb 
raw files at hand were giving it a hard time.

Most annoying: while going forward or backward through the photos, the 
Archos would decide to skip ahead or behind to a random spot on the 
card. With the inconsistent load times and the random seeking our 
excitement to play with the new toy began to fizzle. When the photo 
player froze up, the main menu button dumped us back to the unit's start 
screen.

The proprietary data cable was a complete dealbreaker for me. Overall, 
excellent construction feel, very impressive screen and fairly smart 
hardware input arrangement. For traveling really light and leaving the 
laptop at home, the Archos would not be my first choice, or second.


R. G. Newbury wrote:
> For some more money, you might want to look at the Nokia N810 which is a 
> full Internet tablet with bluettooth and wifi, running the Debian based 
> Maemo distro. Fantastic touch sceen. Smaller and lighter than the 
> Archos, plays transcoded mythtv files BEAUTIFULLY, using mplayer.
> 
> So it will play basically anything you want to push at it.
> Various music players including rhapsody.
> 
> Ssh and other goodies of course.
> 
> Best extra benefit? Someone has written a program which makes the Nokia 
> N810 a remote control for myth! (Using wifi/LAN or bluetooth). A small 
> server program on the mythbox passes control codes to the network 
> control port in a similar manner to lirc.
> 
> Awesome.
> 
> Only niggle: comes with only 2G memory, and you have to add a mini/micro 
> SD card for your 'real' memory.

Bought the n800 back in november when Geoff pointed out the sale at 
Newegg. Of the three models, the 800 has the sturdiest build and has the 
two full size SD/SDHC slots; one on the bottom edge and another next to 
the battery in it's belly. I use an 8gb card internally, partitioned 1.5 
for the cloned OS and applications and then 6.5 for music, photos, 
ebooks, small videos, and maps for the third-party nav package. For full 
length movies and other large video, the external SD slot is great for 
sneakernet. The USB port is now OTG/host/peripheral selectable by the 
user and a hacked cable is no longer needed. Battery life is impressive 
for such a hefty thing. 3-4 hours of solid WiFi use, days when left to 
idle. I typically recharge every two days per my usage.

As mentioned above, mplayer just works for video, other options 
available. Underneath the Hildon user interface is Debian and the 
manufacturer encourages hacking. http://maemo.org is the "official" 
third-party development site. On the downside, the OS and Nokia apps are 
not open and have a number of niggles but no show stoppers. someone 
usually writes a replacement app or method. The repositories can be a 
royal pain. Something went awry between Nokia and Akamai over the 
holidays and the official repos were knocked off DNS for weeks. A user 
had to put up a fix to get around the issue. Very lame on Nokia's part.

Third party apps are abundant. Using openvpn is a big plus and more 
often than not I'll bring along a Stowaway bluetooth folding keyboard 
(lxDoom plays especially well with it) but the full-sized and thumbboard 
on-screen keyboards are perfectly fine for every day use as well. The 
mythremote app is a bonus and there's now an DIY 'infrared' remote 
designer that looks very Philips Pronto-ish. No IR emitter on the unit 
so it must speak to an lirc listener elsewhere to drive a blaster. One 
last niggle; the included carry cases are worthless and will 'help' you 
drop it. The Nokia branded magnetic flip case made in Greece is of 
really impressive leather/quality but a little pricey at 30usd. Protects 
the 800 very well and gets out of your way quick.

Overall, it fits my needs well. When compared to the iTouch, the Nokia 
tablets can't match the ease and grace that Apple touts but I had been 
turned off by the iPod/Phone/Bling because of my distaste for itunes[1]. 
The n800 has rough edges and the factory apps, while adequate, are a 
little feature-flat. Adding third-party repos means you are "going off 
the reservation" but that is of no consequence to anyone running myth.

The ultimate goal is to get the D300 wireless grip option to work with 
the tablet. Trying to fumble about with memory cards and readers for the 
laptop on jobsites just to email a quick photo is quite a hassle.


[1] itunes doesn't seem so bad anymore since the acquisition of an Apple 
TV.  but the ATV review will need to wait until I can rehack it to Take2


-- 
mw


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