Just thought that some might be interested to hear about my new picture storage device - an Archos 604 "Multimedia Player".

It's a general-purpose "media playing" device, with an excellent quality 4.3" LCD screen, which will play videos and music and store photographs, as well as acting as a general purpose USB hard disk. It acts as a USB "host" meaning that you can plug a digital camera or other storage device into it and transfer the pictures or video clips from the camera onto the Archos' hard disk. It will also record video from external sources (eg a TV or DVD player), so if you have a digital camera with a live video feed output (as most of them have) you can use the Archos to record video from the camera directly onto the Archos' hard disk.

I'm only scratching the surface of what this device will do, but if anyone has a desire to be able to watch video or listen to music "on the go" or store pictures or video from a digital camera, this is certainly something to consider. The screen on it knocks the socks off anything you'll find on a camera, so it's a great way to view your pictures.

I'll still continue to use my iPod for listening to music (the sound quality is a lot better on the iPod) but this will definitely take over in the "arsenal" for video or picture storage.

See http://www.archos.com for more information, or I'll be happy to answer any questions if I'm able to do so.

Great looking piece of equipment. Had a look at the web site, no mention of price. What would you expect to pay?
Happy Travels

quote:

Originally posted by MandyAust:
Great looking piece of equipment. Had a look at the web site, no mention of price. What would you expect to pay?

Hi MandyAust,

The online store on the website linked by Chris shows the price as $349.99 Canadian. That's around AU$401.

Thanks Dragon

Thanks Chris, it sounds very interesting, particularly for downloading digital video.

Yes, if you have a video camera that produces MPEG4 files, as many modern cameras do, you can transfer the video file directly to the Archos and it'll play it. It's a USB2 interface, so file transfer is very fast.

With the wifi: $450 here; w/o wife: $350

Chris enjoy it looks like a great entertainment piece. Let us know your new discoveries with it. Santa Claus is coming maybe some us will put it on our wish list!

quote:

Originally posted by Roxy:
With the wifi: $450 here; w/o wife: $350

Chris enjoy it looks like a great entertainment piece. Let us know your new discoveries with it. Santa Claus is coming maybe some us will put it on our wish list!

Roxy...

Does that mean that a single person (w/o wife) pays only $350?

You beat me to it Cats.

Having had some more experience with the Archos now, I'm increasingly impressed. I still think the iPod is better for music, but for video and photos the Archos is just superb. The screen is big enough to comfortably watch video and the quality is excellent. I've bought from the Archos web site the software "plug in" which allows it to play video intended for the iPod, and for watching things like the BBC News "Video Podcast" it's excellent.

Cat's WIFI - guess you wished it was WIFE

To say that this is a rapidly changing market would an understatement. That WiFi model of the Archos 604 hadn't been released when I bought mine - less than a week ago . I don't think I'd have bought the WiFi version anyway - it doesn't really add anything I need to it.

I am happily single, Cat's .

Thanks Chris for this information. Will copy the information because we are not very good in knowing what to do with the 8 hours of video we recently took of our recent holiday.

I'm not sure I follow you, Jenno. The Archos would be a device on which you would "dump" video from the camera while away on a tour, not somewhere to store it permanently. For permanent storage, once you got home from your tour, you would presumably want to transfer it to DVD or video tape, wouldn't you?