Archos has made itself the premier company for portable video players, gradually chipping away at a niche market until its products are now available on the high street. It's now easy to see the appeal of video on the move -- Apple's iPod now has video capability, which will soon make it the most popular portable video player in the world by default.
The AV500 is Archos' answer to this massive threat. Sleeker than its predecessors and with a new high-quality screen, the AV500 is the realisation of Archos' early promise. While the interface could never be described as intuitive and the chassis is prone to scratching, this is a hugely desirable product that is competitively priced and packed with features. If you regularly use DivX video and you're a frequent traveller, then the AV500 is indispensible.
Design
The Archos AV4100 was robust but the screen wasn't a wide format. The AV700 tried to copy Apple's cool white styling, but it scratched easily and was too big for everyday use. The AV500 combines the best parts of the previous models and combines them in a sleek, endlessly desirable package. The brushed metal finish looks great and it feels built to last -- although our obviously pre-used sample had collected some scratches on its travels. The screen is also in a widescreen format and the perfect size at just over 100mm diagonally. The connectivity is excellent on Archos' player. We love the way that it can connect directly up to a digital camera and act as a host, so you can downaload images without having to go through a PC. There's also a standard USB 2.0 connector for linking up to a computer.
Archos has also included the docking station from its previous media players. The player itself doesn't dock in the same great way as the iPod -- instead it sits in the dock's rubbery grips and then a cable plugs into the same slot as the headphones. Cables for video output and input (the latter for recording TV shows) then plug into the dock. So, unlike the iPod, you'll need to carry the dock around with you to use most of the advanced functionality.
The package also includes headphones, although sadly they do not remotely operate the device from the cable. It's also rather annoying that the volume adjustment is placed on the main four-way joypad instead of being a separate wheel. It makes it fiddly to change volume and skip tracks without taking the whole device out of your pocket.
Features
When you connect to a computer running Microsoft Windows, you might want to use Windows Media Player to sync with the device automatically. In the system setup, you tell the machine to act as a Windows Media device as opposed to an external hard drive. This means that when you connect up, Windows Media Player will transfer all of the media on the computer, and if necessary, perform conversion so it will play back. This is the novice's route -- more experienced users can just drag and drop files into the relevant folders.
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Richard Whent 27 January 2011
Good: Almost everything
Bad: The leather case/headphone socket placement.
Comment: I have had my AV500 for about 6 years now. I love it, and I still use it regularly.
There are the occasional glitches - mostly freezing, but replacing the battery solves that . Have had no issues connecting to my PC either in hard drive or media device modes. I have upgraded the hard drive a couple of times, too, and had no issue with firmware updates either.
The main niggle I have is that the case is designed for watching video, rather than listening to audio - you cannot have headphones plugged in and close the case (neatly, anyway, and only if you have a 90 degree adaptor).
Frank Skilbeck 23 March 2007
Good: Fantastic for long haul flights
Bad: Not much, Archos customer support?
Comment: Had my AV560 for over 12 months now and in that time it's been pretty faultless. It has a couple of niggles and is best used in hard drive mode rather than windows media device. But the playback is great and movies encoded in DivX are really good. I watch this on planes now rather than the awful seatback video screens
Jeff Russell 26 October 2006
Good: Most things are excellent
Bad: Cannot store on
Comment: Both my brother and I bought the av 500 - one 80g and one 30g. Both are excellent as players but that is all they are. We have both had to reformat the hard drive numerous times on one occasion losing 50gig of media!! On speaking to customer support I was told, in other words, to go take a jump. They are not interested and say they do not sell it as a hard drive, but it is pretty useless if every time you connect to your PC to add or remove stuff you have to reformat before the PC will recognize it!!! In fact it is unbelievable.
Archos should not be allowed to sell this as a portable media centre as part of the use of a PMC is to be able to add or remove stuff to use the device properly.
BE WARNED!!!
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