[mythtv-users] Archos Video Formats ?????
Emery Guevremont
emery.guevremont at gmail.com
Thu Mar 20 18:40:33 UTC 2008
Meatwad wrote:
>> 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.
I'm curious on the performance aspect for videos. What kind of videos
have you tried? Codecs, bitrate, resolution, file size, fps? My videos
are mostly Xvid, 920kbps, 640*480 videos at about 30fps, 1.5GB in size,
can mplayer on the N800 handle this without hickups?
> 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
>
>
>
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