Archos 605 Wi-Fi Portable Media Player (80 GB)

I have been using this for almost a month now and am very pleased.
Overall the unit is easy to navigate and the screen is very clear and bright. The touch screen is ok but not as responsive as say an IPHONE. The hard buttons are nice to help navigate as a backup to the touch screen. Menu's can get a little odd but once you know your way around it is easy enough. It holds an amazing amount of stuff and easily all the media I could use on any given trip.
I have connected it to my DISH network receiver and had quickly and simply downloaded several shows and movies. I also have the browser add-in, which will work in a pinch but is not the best mobile browser I have ever seen. And finally, I have the GPS attachment, which is great. The instructions are clear and decently loud with the included speaker, or you can tie it into your head unit's input jack if you have one. There is some logistics getting the thing mounted to the GPS cradle (it in NOT a quick snap in) but the display is pretty glare resistant and menus are easy once you know your way around.
Overall, I am very pleased and will use it for traveling as both GPS and for taking my movies, shows and music with me.
RGUARD.

Decent set of features. Recording television works well with the portable DVR. The portable DVR worked better, for me, than did the Archos TV+. With the TV+, I could not record any of the HD channels, but could, although not in HD quality, with the portable DVR. Nice sound quality from the mp3 player. Nice video player. Nice screen clarity.

Web browser (Opera) crashed too often. I would not consider this a fully functioning web browser (e.g., cannot compose email). Cannot open many different file types (e.g., Word documents).

I had my Archos for slightly less then two months, when the LCD broke and rendered the unit inoperable. The unit was in a lightly padded media player pocket in my backpack, which suffered no noticeable trauma or droppage, so to my mind, this is an unacceptable vulnerability.

Archos support responded promptly but will not cover the repair. I have to return the unit before they will even quote me a price for the repair. A Google search indicates I can expect to pay $200 or more. I am on the fence about whether to proceed given my other reservations about the product (below) but I also have the DVR station which is useless without a unit, so it's a difficult call as to whether to spend 30 to 50 percent more to recover my initial, substantial investment in this product.

As far as the unit itself, prior to the break, my experience was mixed. Before the screen break, I was having serious qualms about the decision to buy the Archos. With the break (which occurred without any unusual abuse of the unit), I seriously can't endorse this product. Nevertheless...

Pros:

* Excellent LCD brightness and resolution
* Impressive video quality when viewing on unit
* Acceptable but low quality video when viewing on TV through DVR station
* Decent touchscreen interface
* Excellent and painless network sync using Windows Media Player
* Fair battery life, optional external battery raises this to very good (5 to 7 hours watching video).

Cons:

* Insufficient power on audio -- even with cancelling headphones it is not really loud enough on an airplane
* Audio is even quieter when viewing video recorded through DVR
* PDF Viewer is so slow as to be unusable; they shouldn't even have bothered offering this feature (and I wouldn't have bought it without this)
* Cannot rotate PDF view for portrait viewing of PDFs
* Slow Web browser
* Browser not compatible with many public hotspots requiring login or purchase of access time
* Text reading through browser difficult to navigate and save location for future reference
* Many Web pages will not scroll with buttons. When you drag the page using the touch screen it's difficult to avoid clicking a link.
* Unit runs very hot when accessing hard drive

I purchased the Archos 605 Wi-Fi from Amazon's site last week. First of all, I selected this media player because of the ability to customize it with plug-ins and accessories, and because it is more flexible than the ipod touch with its capability to play/view more file formats.

That said, the day I received my Archos was the same day Archos decided to launch their new Internet Media Tablet, and this new product launch has prevented me from buying the plug-ins and accessories from the Archos online store which I need to use the product. The Archos online store has been down for six days. Customer service cannot help, because they need to use the same site to put through a purchase. This has all been very frustrating, since I need the plug-ins to use my product, specifically all the combined features that made me choose the Archos 605 Wi-Fi over the Ipod Touch:
-To browse the web
-To record from TV and DVD
-To Stream and watch videos from my computer
-To download movies and music using the ARCHOS Content Portal
-To download and play games

All in all, it's a great product, but customer service and the Archos website have failed.

It's interesting reading reviews and what people don't like. I read the interface wasn't that good and buttons on the side were excess duplication. Hogwash! I read a critique of the battery and saw a shot of the Cowan interface with Windows CE. That was horrible. I like the interface. It's simple and to the point. I also found the keys on the right to be great. When I don't have a sylus in hand I may use a fingernail or opt for the keys. I got this for a trip to Europe for a geek conference and found out someone I know had worked on part of the interface. Small world.

Here is the good. The video is awesome. Mostly I was viewing video recorded through the DVR dock. I also had some camera videos and some downloaded video. It played whatever I handed it. I have an iRiver PMP120 which required a lowgrade rip and when I got it used it had one movie on it which I could not navigate. The Archos not only worked perfectly but it has bookmarking. You can turn it on and restore to your movie, but if you did something else with it you can go back to videos and every one of them can have their own bookmark! That's sheer genius. I played a lot of music on it in flight with an in ear noise reduction system and it was excellent.

I thought the wifi might be kind of cool. It's better than that. It's easier to use the Archos to buy hostspot time for a wifi phone than get the notebook out. The amount of internet radio and podcasts available is also huge. I haven't started using the network streaming yet, but the popup touch keyboard works nice and I've checked my email and composed emails with it.

I had problems installing a plugin and tech support was prompt and very helpful even on a Sunday. I had to reset it and thought the touchscreen was messed up but there is actually a menu item for calibration. I have a word for people complaining about the cost of plugins... Chill! Look at the price! I got the DVR dock, the browser, web radio and vidieo and the cinema plugin as well as a leather case. For this I have a Tivo with three times the disk space of my Tivo, all my music and pictures and I can check email in coffee shops and watch TV in the can... plus network it all. I spent around $400 for that and I can carry it in a cargo pocket in my pants. I'm amazed this exists, forget the price.

Now for my recommendations. I'm not sure about the battery life. I recharged for almost two hours between 7 and 5 hour flights. It was plenty for music. Video eats more battery. I got a USB lithium ion unit that is supposed to charge an iphone three times and it ate it every time. I recommend the battery dock for long flights as I expect it would work better. Also as far as I can tell the Cinema plugin may be able to play *.vob files but it looks like I still need to rip and due to copyright issues Archos isn't answering questions there. What is recorded onto the DVR station plays back on the TV very nice. I'm not sure the full benefit of the Cinema plugin as yet.

As to how much I like it, I'm thinking of getting a second one with the 160 GB drive if the wife wants to use this one to act as a Tivo on the second TV. It's not perfect, but closer to 5 than 4. I would like to be able to plug a camera into it without the dock as well as play into a friends TV without a dock. It has operated close to flawlessly. I was just viewing and downloading images from my camera on the TV with the remote. I think this is nearly the ideal personal entertainment device and it will impress your friends too.