Buy Archos 404 30GB Portable Digital Media Player with Camcorder (500867)Archos 404 30GB Portable Digital Media Player with Camcorder (500867) Product Description:
- Archos 404 Camcorder 30GB Portable Digital Media Player (500867)
- Lightweight and portable digital video, movie, music player and photo viewer with 3.5-inch LCD and 30 GB hard drive
- Integrated camcorder/camera for capturing video up to 640 x 480 pixels and 1.2-megapixel still photos
- Compatible with MP3, WAV, WMA and protected WMA music files, JPEG, BMP, and PNG picture files, and MPEG-4 and WMV video files
- Uses high-speed USB 2.0 for both file transfers and charging, and includes a rechargeable Lithium-Ion polymer battery with up to 12 hours of music and 4 hours of video life
Product Description
Built-in camcorder to record up to 75 hours of personal video. Store up to 85 movies, 300,000 photos or 15,000 songs with the 30GB hard drive. Enjoy high quality video on a 4.3" color screen. Easily navigate menus with touch screen capabilities. Turn your ARCHOS 404 into a DVR: Record TV from a TV, VCR, DVD Player and cable box or satellite reciever on your ARCHOS with the optional DVR Station
Customer Reviews
Most helpful customer reviews
32 of 36 people found the following review helpful.
By Jungle NYC
I hate writing reviews like these.Why? Because this little guy has so much potential...! And I was so excited to finally get this thing! But, at the end of the day, it's a bit of a mixed bag.Some back story: I'm a Mac guy who had given up on a widescreen iPod (thanks a Steve!), but stumbled upon this. All the reviews on the Archos 404 from the "in-the-know" sites like Wired and CNet gave it really good reviews: "Great little screen...! fairly spacious hard drive...! decent camera/camcorder...!". Sure, it was a jack-of-all trades they said, but it was a darned good one.So I bought one. And, well, it's not bad! It wasn't too expensive. It certainly does have a great screen. And the camcorder and camera aren't too shabby either. Even the interface, for a Mac user, wasn't the worst thing in the world.But then I tried to play a movie.It's supposed to play .mp4 movies "right out of the box", and it does. Sortof. I had transferred a movie I own (and watch way-too-much: "Office Space") w/ Handbrake (a great program) and saved as an .mp4. But I could only watch the first 20 seconds on the Arcos. Anything after that the sound still played, but the picture froze. And fast-forwarding or rewinding just made it angry. Always kicking me out to the video menu.So I put some smaller .mp4s on. But not only did it have trouble playing them, when I scrolled down the list, the unit restarted! I thought I was crazy, but it did it over, and over.So, undaunted, I download the "Podcast Plugin" from Acrhos: $19.99. It allows you to play H.264 video (a better compression) and AAC audio, which is darn good too. I was impressed at the Mac friendliness of the offering to boot.I then re-ripped my movie in Handbrake using the H.264 setting, and it played. Finally. Without crashing. And it looked, and sounded great. Yay. Whew!But then I tried the camcorder.I've got to give Archos a bit of credit here, because for what it is, this is a cool little camcorder. You can even get this optional little "snake cam" (which I bought: $129). Stock, even though it doesn't have a zoom, it makes impressive video.The only problem is the resulting .mov movies don't play in Quicktime. Or iMovie. Or anything else I can use. While the video looks fine, the sound stutters uncontrollably. And it sortof plays in VLC, but while the sound is good, the video glitches.Well, it says right on the box that it's a Windows Media Center® device, and I began to wonder if some of the files I was trying to work with were just a little to "Appley".Hmmmm, I thought. And I did a little "get info" and I found that the sound on the camcorder's .AVI files uses DVI ADPCM compression. Both very Windows®-esque formats. And while Quicktime, etc, does support most AVI files, it doesn't support DVI ADPCM.I called tech support. And after a looonnnngggg time on hold, a sleepy guy finally answered and curtly answered "sorry, you can return it who you bought it from" to every one of my questions.So I emailed tech support. And I got the same answers, plus an offer for a "repair" (I think it was the same guy!)... but I kindly explained that it wasn't broken, but simply needed some support and firmware upgrades.... To no avail.So, bottom line is the Archos 404 is has got a severe case of the yinyangs. On the one hand it's simple, beefy and gorgeous. On the other it's twitchy, finicky and handicapped. Especially for us Mac people. In fact, I'd like to go on the record and say this is an EXTREMELY Windows® friendly device... And for a guy who got this primarily to quench his iPod jones, that's a bit of a heart breaker.Archos, if you're listening, you need to offer a free plugin for Quicktime so the sound works, pronto. Or, a firmware update that allows for a different on-deck sound compression option. Or better yet, do both.Until then, this will be a crippled unit. Another could-have-been in the handheld what-have-you category. Another iPod casualty. A frigid lover. Especially for us Mac users.e
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful.
By Z
I bought this for recording TV programs and making videos without using external device and wires. It works great when connected to my Panasonic HDTV which has a video output on the back. This little device also allows you to make photos at the resolution for e-mails, such as made by a cell phone. The 30GB storage and the USB connector make it a replacement of a needed computer for transferring files from other portable devices or cards. For the price and portability, it is a great buy.
6 of 8 people found the following review helpful.
By Shamall Ramos
I bought this for my son so i guess I'll let him write the review from here on in. Hell yeah this is better than an over hyped mp3 player(iPod). I've had it for about a day now and to be honest the only complain that I can make is that Archos is cheap. This product deserves the 5 stars it's just that you have to buy simple little things that should've came in the box. My brother's mp3 player came with a/v plug that could connect with the tv to record or play on-screen. Archos wants you to fork up $99.99 for the DVR station, when I buy mines i'm getting it from Walmart for less than $74.00. The camera and camcorder is great and the built-in speaker is superb. The clarity and crispness of the 3.5" screen is eye-orgasmic when watching pictures or videos. Pros: It's a damn good mp3 player/camera/camcorder Cons: Archos wants you to pay for certain things that should be included in the box
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