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Wednesday, November 2, 2011

Archos 605 Wi-Fi Portable Media Player (30 GB)



Amazon Sales Rank: #35245 in Network Media Player Size: 30GB Color: grey Brand: Archos Model: 500948 Original language: English Dimensions: 3.00" h x 1.00" w x 5.00" l, 1.75 pounds The 30 GB Archos 605 Wi-Fi bridges the gap between the PC and the TV; for the first time, you can stream content from the PC or the Internet to the TV or PMP--all through a wireless home network, the Archos 605, and the DVR Station Play all your digital entertainment: movies, TV shows, photos and music Record your favorite TV shows Stream and watch videos from your PC Download movies and music directly on your PMP using the Archos Content Portal

.caption { font-family: Verdana, Helvetica neue, Arial, serif; font-size: 10px; font-weight: bold; font-style: italic; } ul.indent { list-style: inside disc; text-indent: -15px; } The Archos 605 generation 5 portable media player comes with a convenient WiFi feature, an attribute that offers the fastest and easiest way to access digital entertainment. You can use the built-in Wi-Fi capabilities of the Archos to download online media content from the Archos content portal: All you need is a usable Wi-Fi connection, and you're good to start downloading (fees may apply). With the Archos in hand, for the first time you can download favorite movies, TV shows, and music wherever you are, without being tied to the PC or Mac. Other great features include a full-color 4.3-inch touchscreen that crams in an amazing 800 x 480 picture resolution for superior picture quality and 30 GB of built-in memory. The Archos 605 features a touch screen, high quality screen resolution, and WiFi capabilities. View larger View bottom - View side. Download your favorite movies, TV shows, and music, and bring it with you. With full Internet access, the player's Opera browser plug-in offers Adobe Flash support, which lets you access and enjoy YouTube and other Web video sites on your Archos device. By using the player, you can view and post YouTube videos wherever you are with an active wireless connection. In addition to downloading media straight from the Archos content portal, you can stream and watch videos from your home PC or laptop. For added video playback versatility, the player is compatible with MPEG4, AVI, and WMV video files. The player features robust music playback features, too. On-board music file playback capabilities support MP3, CBR, VBR, WMA, protected WMA, and WAV files. To help round out the player's multimedia superiority, the Archos even comes with photo viewing capabilities. JPEG, BMP, and PNG files are 100 percent compatible with the player, and the player can pull up PDFs for portable review -- an ideal means to take bigger documents or e-books in PDF format on the road with you. Because of the Archos's USB 2.0 compatibility, files can be quickly transferred to the device in the absence of a WiFi network connection. Charging the device can also be accomplished with an active USB connection. (An AC adapter is sold separately for additional charging options.) Other great features include mass storage capabilities, automatic firmware downloads, and a 3.5-millimeter headphone jack. With an advanced Li-Poly battery, the player supports up to 17 hours of continuous music playback, and 5.5 hours of continuous video playback. Weighing in at a scant 6.7 ounces, the Archos generation 5 605 measures 4.8 by 3.2 by 0.6 inches. New widgets for the Archos 605 include a calculator, currency converter, unit converter, news, and weather (above) as well as a note writer and data vault (below). New Free Widget Pack Archos has launched a new widget pack that is free for the 605. A widget is a piece of software that adds new features to your player. It gives you fun, quick, and easy access to hundreds of tools, right on the device. The package contains seven widgets, including a calculator, a currency converter, a unit converter, news, weather, a note writer, and a data vault. To be able to use the widgets, you need to purchase the Web Browser plug-in (about $30). Then, you can download the free widget pack via Archos.com. New Dish Network plug-in for the Archos 605. New Dish Network Plug-in With a new plug-in, you can transfer recorded movies and TV shows from your Dish Network set-top box directly to your Archos 605. Play back Dish Network-recorded movies and TV shows on the go or on TV--in DVD quality. Multi-language is supported. The plug-in is compatible only with Dish Network STB models 622 and 722. What's in the Box Archos 605 Wi-Fi portable media player, headphones, USB cable, adapter for optional DVR Station Gen 5, protective pouch, quick start guide, and legal/safety notice. The device comes with photo viewing capabilities, supporting JPEG, BMP, and PNG files. Play any content that resides in the Windows Media Player library of your home PC or laptop. Most Advanced PMP Featuring the highest quality screen resolution, highest quality video, a touch screen, and Wi-Fi capabilities for streaming content to the device or a TV, the Archos 605 Wi-Fi is the top product in the line-up for flexibility, portability, features, and price.

Most helpful customer reviews 154 of 158 people found the following review helpful. It's not perfect, but I'm happy with it By ScrewTheDaisies I bought this to replace a Creative Zen Vision:M 30 GB MP3 and Video Player (Black) that had been stolen. I really liked my Zen, but I wanted to see what new stuff had come out in the time since I bought it. This led me to getting the Archos 605 80GB instead, mainly because of the optional TV hookups. I've never liked to watch movies or TV shows (or even music videos) on my PC monitor because I can't relax and enjoy something passive while I'm at my computer. I'd also never used the Zen's video capabilities much because the screen was too small. The Archos 605, on the other hand, could be hooked up to a TV (with the DVR station or other accessories--I bought the DVR station), which would allow me to watch downloaded TV shows and movies in comfort--and even better, with other people (it's difficult to crowd around a computer desk to watch a movie), plus I'd be able to watch stuff on the go with its larger screen. The wifi access, web browser plug-in and PDF reader also helped sell me on the Archos 605. I particularly looked forward to being able to read ebooks in PDF format. So when I ordered the Archos 605, I was thinking of it as an MP3 "with benefits." When the Archos 605 arrived, I found out that its screen was totally large enough to watch video comfortably. Shortly after I got it, I watched two and a half seasons of Weeds on it. It's fantastic! I can carry a TV show into the kitchen to grab a snack, etc. When I'm home alone, I'm even able to rely on the built-in speaker--for TV shows, I don't need fantastic sound quality; I just need to be able to hear what they're saying. It's very cool; I'm very addicted. :) Like I said, I bought the DVR station with it. I had wondered how a video file from the Archos would hold up enlarged on a TV screen, but no worries--the picture quality is good (we have a 32" set). I've recorded some stuff from our TiVo onto the Archos, and the picture quality is good in that direction, too. Since we do have a TiVo, I haven't used the Archos as a DVR (with the downloaded TV listings and scheduled recordings), so I can't say how easy that is to use, but it's definitely easy to manually record something, and I was happy to see that I could tell it how long to record for. As an MP3 player, it's not as good as the Zen, simply because it's not, primarily, an MP3. One way the Zen (and probably most other MP3 players) is a better MP3 player than the Archos is that if you power the Archos 605 off while you're playing music, it doesn't automatically start up where you left off when you turn it back on. Instead you boot up to the main screen, and then you have to tap the "resume" icon; otherwise nothing happens. In this way it's less "plug and go" than my Zen was; sometimes if I'm only going to be driving for a few minutes (like a hop from the grocery store to the gas station), I won't bother starting it up at all. Also, the way you lock the controls takes a few seconds longer than the Zen did. With the Zen, you just slid the switch to the lock position. With the Archos, you hold down the TV button until the lock icon appears on the screen. If you're playing from a playlist when you turn the unit off, and then you hit "resume" after you turn it back on, it doesn't seem to resume the playlist--it does indeed play the song you were on, but it's playing it from the album instead of the playlist, so the next song after that is the next song on the album, not the next song on the playlist. Possibly this is glitch that will be fixed in a firmware update (or perhaps has been--I haven't updated my firmware in a couple weeks). Finally, changing the play mode (normal, shuffle, repeat one, repeat all), takes a lot more navigating around than it did on the Zen. It really shouldn't take that many clicks. Sound-wise, the Archos is good as the Zen was, and its drawbacks as an MP3

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