Geeks.com sent us in one of their consumer electronics, the Linux-based Archos 604 PMP for a whirl, and we surely gave it one. This 30 GB PMP is the fourth generation video product from Archos, one of the biggest names in that market.The Archos 604 comes with 30 GBs of storage and a 4.3″ 480×272 32bit screen. On the box we found some earbud headphones, a rechargeable Li-ion battery, a dedicated USB 2.0 charging cable, a DVR Station adapter (DVR Station sold separately), a nice carry case and a Quick Start Guide. There are no software CDs coming with Archos, as it connects as an external USB drive to the computer, and then the user can just drag n drop files to the appropriate folders already found there. Our device came with the latest firmware version in it.
On the top of the device you will find the power button and the TV/LCD switch button that also couples as a button lock. There is a mono speaker on the front of the device and a kickstand on the back of it. On the left side there are 4 indicator LEDs, and on the right side, there’s the 3.5mm A/V jack, while on the bottom you will find the DVR port, and the charging and data port. The charging/data port on the 604 is not a standard USB port. Speaking about charging, the USB cable is the only way to charge the device, and in fact, if you decide to buy the wall charger, you are forced to buy the DVR Station too with it. I was thinking of getting the Archos with me on our vacations soon, but the lack of a wall charger is prohibiting. Even if I was to get a laptop with me to charge the Archos, it takes a good 5 hours to charge via USB. Regarding battery life, I could not get the claimed 5 hours of video playback. Instead, I got a good 3 hours — although this might be unit-specific.
All the user interface usage is done via the button panel on the right side of the device. All 5 buttons are “rocker” buttons, so depending if you are pressing them towards their left or their right side, they will carry out a different action (so in reality, they are 10 buttons). Depending in which application you are each time, the buttons will do a different thing, and this was a bit confusing. For example, you press “menu” to open the menu while playing back a video, and you can press “X” to discard that menu. If you press the “reload” button next to the “menu” button, a full screen status screen will open. But if you press “X” on that screen, you are thrown out of the video playback, instead of just taking away that screen. I personally find the interface experience much more inferior to the iPod’s, or the Zune’s, although it’s better than on some cheap Asian PMPs that are sold in the market today. The OS loads in about 10 seconds and it is pretty snappy.
Where Archos shines compared to any similar product out there today is video codec support. This is the first PMP that I have reviewed that was able to playback any DivX/XDiV file, and without a hitch. The Archos people also sent us the h.264 and mpeg/mpeg2 plugins for the purpose of this review (sold separately as addons, $20 each), and with these plugins Archos played back all such files we threw at it. Archos also played back normal mpeg-4 files, like the ones cellphones usually record. WMV9/ASF worked too, although it was not able to fast forward on these kinds files (or set “bookmarks”). The only files we tried but the device was not able to playback was WMV8, 3GP and the old kind of .mov files that Apple used to encode with Quicktime back in 2002. The point is though, as long as the resolution of the file is up to 720×576, the Archos 604 is able to playback without dropping frames 95% of the user-oriented formats out there, and that’s quite an accomplishment.
The device has a number of menu options during playback, like back/fast forward, 30-second fast/back forward, information screens, speed of playback, save screenshot from frozen frame, save bookmark (on supported file formats only), bass boost, audio balance, screen brightness, audio output choice, volume and more. My favorite setting is the screen playback mode: original size, maximized (the picture zooms in to fill up the 16:9 screen), and fullscreen, which both zooms in and crops. The “fullscreen” mode is a very interesting one because it’s the most “fair” way of viewing a 4:3 footage on a 16:9 screen without distorting too much or throwing too much of the corners away. SHARP is the only TV manufacturer that has this feature as far as I know, they call it “smart stretch” and it’s their default mode for non-HD TV channels.
Now, regarding audio (wma, aac, mp3, ac3, wav) and pictures (jpg, bmp, png), there are the usual features to be found there, nothing special: shuffle, repeat, slideshows, etc. The Archos is able to use album art too, but I haven’t found a way to do just that. The picture viewing application is basic but impressive, but the audio one doesn’t hold a candle compared to the iPod. Other applications that are included with the device is a (very slow) PDF viewer, a file browser which I still haven’t figure out how to use it properly (it’s the most cumbersome application in the whole device), a TV scheduler which is useless without the DVR Station that’s sold extra, and some system settings: language, display (supports component, s-video, RGB and composite via the DVR Station addon), color themes, a clock setting application, battery and power off settings, and a TV control application that recognizes many TV tuners (again, I think this also requires the DVR Station as I haven’t noticed any infrared port on the Archos 604 itself).
In conclusion, I find the amazing video compatibility of the 604 its biggest feature, and the lack of a wall charger its biggest problem. But as long as you are willing to pay the extra $40 for the h.264/mpeg/mpeg2 codecs and you don’t mind the lack of a wall charger, this is a very worthy video device. Screen quality is good, and screen size is bigger than any other as-portable device out there and this makes the Archos 604 a good buy at $175. You may also consider the 80 GB version, or the 4:3 3.5″ screen version. There is also a WiFi version available, that uses the Opera web browser.
Rating: 7/10
It was only a few years ago that I had to save up in order to buy the Archos Jukebox Recorder, which was just a laptop disk in a box with an mp3 decoder and I think it cost me more than this thing would. It’s crazy how fast things move on.
I wouldn’t buy this myself, because I don’t really see the point of watching videos on the go, but it’s always good to see a useful Linux device. I wonder how much it would cost if they’d had to fork out for some proprietary software instead?
The Archos UI and libs are proprietary, so they don’t save that much. Most such media devices don’t even run full OSes, but even if you had to license a full embedded OS, that would be a few cents up to 2-3 dollars per unit.
I would have thought that as this device is Linux based, then it would have been easy to add ogg vorbis support for audio, and whilst they’re at it, how about ogg theora video ?
Regards, Toonie.
Will we ever see the day that ogg gets the equal treatment that the other formats get?
no…
No. We will not. Basically mp3 is good enough, the patents are about to expire and hardly anyone uses ogg vorbis anyway. Furthermore, the ogg vorbis format is similar to WMA and whatever ogg claims, nobody wants to risk lawsuits over a format that hardly anyone is using.
If that device ever becomes a reality it will IMHO blow everything away. I love big screens ( 720×480 would rule ). And the option to buy it without a digicam is just cool ( i never use those cheap ones anyways ).
http://en.meizu.com/userforum/forum_posts.asp?TID=704&FID=12&PR=3
First off, your post is off-topic since it is little more than an advert for a completely separate device. Ignoring that, and bringing things back to the Archos 604…
I like the way that Meizu thing looks better than the iPhone, but I don’t see any other really good reason to get it. The dimensions and resolution trump the iPhone, but I couldn’t seen any other info about actual hardware capabilities such as processor speed, built-in memory, or WiFi. In addition, it runs Win CE. I’ve had Windows Mobile for the past few years, and the only thing that I can say that I really preferred was contact navigation. That single benefit is lost/obsolete with a touch screen, and there are multiple things that I don’t like about Windows Mobile.
I do think that if someone can make a product that works well as a phone and a portable media device, they will do very well. The iPhone proved this, but for my money the iPhone still falls short. From the meager details that I found about your device, I have no reason to think that it will fill that niche completely either. So, in the meantime there is plenty of room for specific-use devices.
The 604 is a specific-use device. Archos has traditionally made some of the best video devices anywhere. As stated in the article, they are continuing that tradition here. Other devices really don’t compete when it comes to video codec support. Try putting video from various sources on just about anything other than this and you’ll quickly see how attractive it can be to own a device that doesn’t force you to convert files before loading them.
Well, I still don’t really like the price of it, a new one costs currently ~$230 (the $175 price mentioned is for a refurbished one).
Why’d you wanna watch a movie on that kind of screen, anyways!?
Because you’d look rather silly toting one of those big plasma screens onto the train and then looking vainly for a power plug, that’s why…
Exactly. While in mainland and west US people don’t use trains or busses or underground much to go to work, in NY and Europe people do. And they need something to pass the time with, and such a device helps. I know my brother in law watches “Lost” on his 2″ iPod Nano on the way to work and he doesn’t mind that small screen, let alone Archos’ 4.3″ screen.
Edited 2007-11-19 20:03
No one needs to watch movies in a train. This is pure materialism and shallow cultural digestion. People who care about movies watch them in a proper environment.
This thing was made for a stupid consumer generation. Just like Hollywood movies. And I bet that’s exactly what people watch on these silly devices.
(this post is subjective.. please beg to differ)
We beg to differ. Personally, I don’t read many books (I read technical and non-fiction books alright, but I am getting bored with novels). When I used to commute via train when I was living in UK, I wish I had a video player back then. But they were non-existent in 1997-9. And so I slept all the way through to work. It was boring. If I had a video player, I can assure you I would have used it.
Hang on, I will just book myself into the local scriptorium and librarium and lock myself into monkish meditation before I turn the pages of this holy thing called a book…(and yes, this is just a stab at humour)…
seriously, these things are made for people with, yes, money, and, unfortunately, a lot of time on their hands waiting for the infernal transport infrastructure in this neck of the woods (the UK) to unstick itself.
By the way, what do you watch in the hushed tones of your home ampitheatre :-)?
You read my mind.
You could always buy one of those Mains to USB chargers, or car cigarette lighter to USB charger if you want to take this on holiday and not your laptop.
There quite cheap as well.
Unfortunately this is not always an option. USB-to-cigarette-lighter does not always use the right kind of Volts, there are many generic such adapters that will kill your device, simply because your device expects different power strength. Unless you buy one from Archos, you can’t be sure that it will work correctly.
Is there any reason why they don’t just add the software needed to make it an E-Book reader?
I have tons of stuff in HTML, and most can be converted to simple text if needed.
If you can handle HTML, PDF and text on something this size/weight/price I would love it. My laptop works fine if I am sitting down but is a pain to carry/read if I go on a walk.
The device has support for both PDF and HTML. But you will want to buy the newer A605, which sports an 800×480 screen and is cheaper.
I’m surprised that they sent you a 604WiFi. I have been enjoying my 605 WiFi for a few weeks now. Its basically a cleaned up version of the 704… Some of the new features include better button layout, 800×480 resolution, 160GB HD and better codec support. However there’s a catch with some of the codecs/extras. Archos have decided to remove OPERA from the unit. Its now a plugin you must buy separately. The other plugins are the podcast(H.264 – AAC sound), the cinema plugin (MPEG-2/VOB – 5.1 sound – AC3). Archos Tech support have mentioned they are working on other plugins too, such as Opera Widget support.
Geeks usually carries surplus and refurbished items (new items too of course), so the 605Wifi will be available to Geeks.com reviewers in many months from now.
Archos does not give away review items, journalists only get a 25% discount for a review.
Good review, sounds like a cool device but if things like the Asus EEEPC can extend their battery life I would take one over these any day.
Also my Hitachi 720p projector does have some interesting cropping systems for working with 4:3 material, it has a few different pure cropping modes and then cropping modes which also stretch the AR but not uniformly so the middle of the screen doesn’t become as stretched while the outer does. These modes can be great for watching content broadcast at 4:3 and the like excluding things like news broadcasts just be cause then you start cropping titles.
I prefer devices that play vorbis, flac and theora plus can handle ogg containers.
So this one does not fit in