Archos AV500 100GB Portable Audio - review, compare prices, buy online

I have owned an AV500 for two years now, and I wouldnt want to be without it. This is an absolute must-have for any movie fan who spends a lot of time travelling. Other reviewers have spoken about software and file conversions but Ive never bothered with any of that. All I do is plug it into my home cinema system and record TV programmes and DVDs onto it. I can carry all my favourite movies with me wherever I go: provides an excellent `personal cinema` option when youre on a long-haul flight and the in-flight movies arent up to much or -- worse still -- not working. I recently flew from London to San Francisco in a section where none of the seatback screens were working. Didnt stop me though: I watched The Matrix Reloaded and Harry Hills Hooves show. All the passengers around me had a boring entertainment-free flight except me and the guy next to me. I was sleepy so I lent him my Archos AV500 and he spent two hours chuckling through Nacho Libre. You wouldnt believe how grateful he was.
Battery life is very good: at least four hours playing time between charges. Accessories I would strongly recommend are a spare battery and the Travel Cable, with which you can hook your Archos up to a full-size TV and play through that. Great for holidays when rain stops play.
Go for the 100Gb model if you can afford it.

The only downside is the internal speaker is useless, but with headphones its great.

Reviewed by: Amazon Reviewer Rating:

Date Reviewed: 16Jun2007

Archos: AVOID AT ALL COSTS

I have had 2 Archos devices(not bought through Amazon) and both have failed due to internal batteries expanding and breaking the external housing, rendering the units useless just outside the warranty period.

Archoss reply? . . . . . . . . . . . . still waiting for one, 3 months on. They are not interested. What a waste of the best part of £1,000.00

Should be quality products, but are not. Buy another brand, Epson, Creative etc

Buyers beware

Reviewed by: Amazon Reviewer Rating:

Date Reviewed: 04Aug2006

My player has out lived the Honeymoon and is going strong.

I have one of those shift jobs where your on call and hence need something to keep you alert.

I looked at MP4 players and after reading the Magazines and reviews settled for the AV500 (the 60 GB model), I have to admit I didnt buy it from Amazon as I used the Pre-Christmas sales, But for the size and quality I would advise any one to try this one.

I have now had my AV560 for over 4 months (Now 18 months) without a glitch and comparing the screen to the AV700 some of my friends have it might be smaller but it is more vibrant and clear.

I have had no signs of any glitches and my policy is to always try to break a Gadget in the first week makes the exchanging easier.
The navigation is excellent and recording via the docking station is a breeze. Although anything recorded will be Copyrighted and not be playable on another device such as your laptop.
I tend to favour PC based software to encode my films, on this matter connecting the Player via its USB port is simple and its then just a case of Drag and drop.
I have been to the Archo site and dowloaded the Firmware upgrades with are regularly upgraded and this is easily done, again drag the new upgrade file onto the hard drive and under system select upgrade...
I find that 1000kBits rate encoding is adequate and at this ratio of encoding I get 1 film per 1Gb (you can get the files smaller but at a price of quality). Id say I get 130 Hours of film on my 60Gb.
Therefore, on my 60Gb player I have 60 films. No music (its a little big to be a personal MP3 player) although the tracks do sound good on it.
The external speaker is a problem in that it can be turned on as well as the headphones, This is imbarrasing when the person next to you points this out half was through a war movie as you wont hear this. You soon learn to check the icon at the top of the screen for this prompt.
If I lost my Av500 tomorrow Id buy another one the day after, thats how good I find mine. Hours of numb waiting are now gone.
The battery life is excellent as 4 and a bit hours per charge thats a good 2 movies maybe 3. But Ive invested in the super battery which makes the player 6mm thicker but now play movies for 3 time longer. MP3 playing time is oviously a lot longer too long to be an issue really.

Also for reference if you do get a 60Gb version it is comaptible with all the 100Gb extras as only the Hard drive is smaller, so you can fit 100Gb batteries to 60 Gb players.
30 Gb players are different however, needing smaller batteries.

Reviewed by: Amazon Reviewer Rating:

Date Reviewed: 02Feb2006