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Hardware

Archos Announces Portable Mediabox 135

Posted by timothy from the tempting-toys dept.
An Anonymous Coward writes: "Archos has just announced the Jukebox Multimedia Portable Entertainment Center. Due this January, The unit is the same size and weight as the company's Jukebox 6000 MP3 portable, plays and records MPEG4 video, MP3 and WMA audio, has a color video screen built-in, and offers a FireWire interface as an option. What's most interesting about the player is an expansion connector that allows additional modules to be attached to the unit. One module lets the player take digital photographs and another allows the unit to record video from a TV. Neat concept that's more flexible than the Bokks AV component reported on Slashdot last week, but I think I would want more than the 10GB drive it uses for storage."
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Archos Announces Portable Mediabox More

Archos Announces Portable Mediabox

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  • MPEG4 video? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Bonker ( 243350 ) on Friday December 07, 2001 @01:27AM (#2669356)
    Question for me is, are the different mpeg4 formats similiar enough that I can play my DiVX 3 and DiVX4 anime fansubs on it?
    • There is only *one* MPEG4 standard; DiVX and 3iVX etc are bastard children of the MPEG4 standard.

      Now there may be multiple implementations (Apple, Microsoft, etc), but like MP3, should, if the standard means anything, be cross compatible, though I have heard that the MPEG4 standard allows for multiple codecs (ala Flash layered with MP3 audio etc)... but I don't know about the last bit.
    • If you look at the article closely, it says it uses CIF format [rutgers.edu] video, which can be used interchangeably with VHS in their implementation. This allows you to use the device as a VCR, but not as a DiVX player. However, since CIF is not a corporate proprietary format, most professional video editing software packages will allow conversion of standard MPEG video to CIF.
      • In video processin CIF ussually refers to the "Common Image Format" = 352 H x 288 Vertical, this is a CCITT standard, which is neither NTSC or PAL compatible, as ussual. VHS resolution is roughly 320x240 so this would be about as much data as you could support anyway, too small for desktop playback but this LCD is about that size. There is also 4CIF = 704 x 576 and QuarterCIF (QCIF) = 176 x 144.
    • have you figured out the answer to "your" question yet??

  • I fear the battery life will suck royally (Score:4, Insightful)

    by NickV ( 30252 ) on Friday December 07, 2001 @01:32AM (#2669368)
    The major problem with products like these is the battery life is going to suck royally. My iPaq uses a high end Lithium Polymer battery, and I still only get about 8 hours of battery life... and that's not even doing something too intensive like playing mp3s or watching movies.

    Can you imagine the processor needed to decode mpeg4 on the fly? Can you imagine the processor needed to RECORD mpeg4 on the fly? Can you imagine how long this processor will run on 4 Rechargable NiMH AA batteries?

    Ick.

    • Invest 30 seconds to visit the site (Score:4, Informative)

      by Chairboy ( 88841 ) on Friday December 07, 2001 @01:57AM (#2669442) Homepage
      If you took even the briefest moment to visit the site before trying to get 'fp props' or something, you would have been able to read that the unit has a 10 hour playback on one charge.

      It's not clear what this was 10 hours of playing, eg, is it the same for video versus music?
      • ummm, I own the arhcos jukebox 6000, and I can tell you that the "6 hour battery life" they claim is more like 2 or 3... the device also seems to have a mind of its own -- some days I get 5 hours, some days I get 2, on the same charge time.

        keep that in mind when you think about "10 hours"...
        • I get 6 to 8 hours on the 2nd set I got from them. They put out word that the had some bad batteries and to call them for an RPL, took all of about 5 mins total, then a few days for them to get here. and if you don't like the life the get some better batteries, use some 1800 maH NIMs, they realy bring up the life and will charge fine in the unit.
        • Wouldn't that be false advertising?

          I bought a piece of crap Teac CD-RW that advertised a two megabyte buffer, but 768k of that buffer is used for firmware! That leaves me with about 1.2MB to use, and I don't even have the luxury of burn-proof. Teac sucks royally these days. I remember when Teac used to make good, high quality stuff.

          Maybe we should start prosecuting the companies who pull this shit with us.
        • Ummmm, I own an Archos Jukebox, and I can tell you that the "8 hour battery life" they claim is more like 9 or 10... The device also seems to act relatively consistently, with a standard deviation of no more than 1 hour. Perhaps it's time you switched to that second set of batteries they sent with the jukebox. After all, if the batteries are fucked, then you aren't going to get the full potential out of them.
      • Umm... if you've ever used an Archos device or ever read any battery marketing bullshit before hand you'd realize that those claims are NEVER true. Do you get 6 hours of battery life playing a DVD on your laptop? I don't think so.

        Do you really think you'd even get more than 1 or 2 hours from record a video stream into mpeg-4 with 4 NiMH batteries? Yes I did read the release throughly... this wasn't some FP crap.
    • I have a friend who works for Consumer Reports, and they tested a version of this model recently, actually. The report should be shortly after the final release. In general, it's clunky and overloaded. The battery life was a major issue-but interestingly it varies considerably between units. They decided to get cheap, and buy batteries without rigorous quality assurance, and the result is the stuff you see described in some of the other posts. One unit gets 5 or 6 hours, another gets 4, and one gets 8, even though they're performing the same tasks. Of course, using the more energy intensive features will cut the battery life down to as little as 2 hours. Buying a top quality replacement battery can help a lot, if you don't mind the work and extra expense. Overall, we found individual single purpose gadgets to be more efficient and effective in every respect; you'll be better off getting the jukebox's functionality from multiple devices-plus the multiple devices can work in parallel, whereas the jukebox can use only one module at a time. They haven't announced the price yet, but rest assured it will be quite high. With modules, it's price will likely rival that of a PC.
      • Consumer Reports has a policy of only testing products that are shipping and that it buys in a store. It doesn't take pre-release stuff, and it doesn't take stuff sent directly from the manufacturer.

  • pockets? (Score:2, Funny)

    by magicslax ( 532351 )
    While the article claims the device will fit in a pocket, the odly shaped modules sure wouldn't. And at 12+ ounces already, it becomes an ungainly, low resolution digital camera...

    ...or a digital video camera with a _very_ long recording time. Somebody mentioned in a previous article how nice it would be to attach a 40 gig ieee1394 drive directly to a camera for hours of digital footage. 10gigs is certainly a step in the right direction, it just looks strange.

    ****IT SLICES IT DICES IT MAKES MPEG4 - your fully buzzword compliant device!****

    • Re:pockets? (Score:4, Informative)

      by MstrFool ( 127346 ) on Friday December 07, 2001 @02:05AM (#2669458)
      It can get better. I have the 6000 jukebox and found that a 30 gig drive fits quite nicely in it and works as well as the 6 gig it comes with, and at $150 it makes a nice upgrade and only drops battery life by about an hour. Using the Monster 1800 ma NIMs corects that quickly as the bats it comes with are only 1500 ma NIMs. They also have 48 gig drives that are the same size over on pricewatch.com, havent tried one of those in my jukebox, but I bet it would be real nice in this player.
      • I also have a Toshiba 30GB drive in my Jukebox 6000 (does that make it a Jukebox 30000?) Tishiba's highest capacity drive in the 9.5mm form factor is 40GB. I don't think that the 48GB drives you see on Pricewatch are 9.5mm, I think they are 12.5mm, which will not fit in the Archos. I'm not certain, but I think that 40GB is the max for now, but just a few months ago when I upgraded my Jukebox 30GB was the max. I suspect that by the end of 2002 you will be able to buy a 100GB drive that will fit.
      • As an early purchaser of the Archos MP3 Recorder I have found that Archos has not completed the work on the MP3 Recorder (common these days) and if this carries over consumers would be advised to wait until the Video version has had plenty of "break in time" so Archos fixes many of the bugs.

        1. MP3 recorder powers off regularly when used in a car. My guess is that vibration is a factor, but even after adding much padding to the protected placement the unit is virtually unusable in a car. (I am talking 2002 model not a 49 chevy :-) )

        2. The firmware needs more revision as it is plagued by odd display bugs and other anomalies. These do not affect performance, but do impact the user experience. Powering off and back on will clear the display.

        3. Better documentation would be a nicety :-)

        4. Realize that the 10 hours claimed does not mean while the device is transfering files to/from pc. Better have that puppy plugged in or it will be drained in no time. (current draw is greater by HD under continual use blah blah blah... but they need to document that)

        Overall I love the MP3 Recorder and will be looking forward to reviews of the Video Recorder.

  • Hmm... (Score:3, Interesting)

    by cascino ( 454769 ) on Friday December 07, 2001 @01:33AM (#2669372) Homepage
    I'm sure that the the features of this new model will attract many, but I'll personally stay away: I've had three bad experiences with Archos products.
    I purchased an Archos 6000 MP3 player from ThinkGeek about two months ago, and it arrived DOA. It simply would not turn on. I got my money back (TG was excellent as far as service is concerned, by the way), and used it to purchase an Archos HD-MP3 from a retailer in New York (who offered the better model at approximately the same price). I figured that the first time was probably a fluke, and besides - the better model offered the ability to record MP3's, something I could definitely use to for live music recording.
    Two more returns later, and I'm still waiting for my fourth Archos MP3 player. My experiences may be the exception to the rule, but I'd be wary of something like this until reliability figures come out.
    • Similar experience last June. Jukebox 6000 #1 (from Fry's, San Jose) worked for an hour, then died. Jukebox #2 reported an error and "RETURN UNIT" on its tiny little screen.

      Archos support suggested to me that I return unit #2 at a different Fry's location, because perhaps "the crate at San Jose Fry's got dropped." Sound advice: unit #3 came from a different location, and it's performed flawlessly from day one. Great product.

      Perhaps with an Archos, if you get past the first day, you're in the clear.

      • Perhaps with an Archos, if you get past the first day, you're in the clear.

        Unfortunatly not if your me anyway :-( My Jukebox 6000 worked fine for nearly two months and then the Hard Disk died :-( Now I'm deciding where the money from my refund will go :-) I think I'll wait a few months for a firewire+usb(+network) 25Gb+ Hard Disk that's no bigger or heavier than the Jukebox 6000 was (that was my weight limit for sure) and preferably has a good battery life (like 24 hours of play so you can take it away for the weekend and at least one hour as a portable hdd).
    • I purchased an Archos 6000 MP3 player from ThinkGeek about two months ago, and it arrived DOA. It simply would not turn on.

      Did you let it charge for a few hours before trying to use it first? And you have to hold down the power button for a few seconds before it will turn on.

      (No offense intended; it took me a while to realize how to get it on, and I hope your luck isn't so bad as to get 3 bum units...)
      • Did you let it charge for a few hours before trying to use it first? And you have to hold down the power button for a few seconds before it will turn on.
        Yeah, I let it charge. No text in the display would come up at all - even when charging. The backlight would turn on, but regardless of how long it had been charged, I couldn't get text to appear on the screen. It worked just fine as a USB harddrive, but something seemed to be wrong with the LCD screen. My second unit did not suffer from the same problem, so I'm pretty sure that I wasn't at fault. Thanks for the thought, though.
        • Sounds like your archos had it's contrast set to 0. There are instructions on how to adjust the contrast blind via the menu system out there somwhere. It probably worked fine.
    • I can't explain 3 bad units, but I can tell you the unit acts *very* flaky when its batteries are completley dead/bad ... won't power on, won't charge (this is the kicker!) ... it seemed to me the cpu draws its power from the batteries regardless of wether its plugged into the wall ... The batts went bad on mine one day, and it wouldn't charge, wouldn't play, gave HD errors when it *would* turn on ... I changed out the batteries -- it ran like new again ...

      • Re:Hmm... (Score:2, Informative)

        by Simulant ( 528590 )
        Mine is somewhat flakey on low batteries also....(It is one of the first hardware revs) It also sometimes says "USB Active" and then powers off for no apparent reason. But it plays MP3s very well most of the time, is pretty much flawless as a USB hard drive and was more affordable than anything else at the time. (Still is, I think). I've abused my too.. I broke the backlight when I installed a 20gig drive and I can't even count how many times I've dropped it, usually on the concrete while getting out of my car. I still love it though! I would like a more stable version of essentially the same thing. Wish they sold them cheaper, without the drives. They could also use a redesign so it's easier to get the batteries in and out. Oh.. and of course fire wire would be great! Not so sure I want to watch video on it though.
    • Well I'm glad that they decided to go with the some sort of high-speed transfer, the Archos 6000 skips pretty bad when playing through a playlist, when hooked dirctly to the computer, now stand-alone with headphones its OK, but Firewire and USB 2.0 will sweeten the deal...
      • Mine never skips when playing a playlist, even a list generated from a random selection of songs on the box. The only think that has made it skip much is when the MP3's are encoded at over 192Kbps. Also, you should check that you have the latest revision of the firmware downloaded off of their site. Of course it could be that when I hacked mine the 30GB drive I put in has a much better data throughput than the original 6GB drive.
      • It will skip if the drive is fragmented.

        Using a Defragging tool on the drive should help stop the skipping, and a new charge / new batteries should help as well.
    • Your experiance is the opposite of mine. I purchased a Jukebox6000 in March and have never had any problems. perhaps i am the fluke?
    • I have personally had miserable experiences with the Archos MP3 recorder. I am still awaiting shipment of my #4, after a poor history.

      I purchased directly from Archos.

      #1: Charging Jack on the unit was loose and finally shorted completely. Took Archos a month to get on the ball and issue an RMA.

      #2: Badly beaten refurb was sent out. HD errors out the wazoo, caused a bus storm if hooked to the computer.

      #3: Slightly bruised refurb. Played for 5 minutes (exactly) and locked up. Every time.

      Aside from the poor reliability, the jukeboxes have problems with large directories, playlists, etc. The random function can only be applied to one directory, and has a poor randomizing algorhythm.

      Example: My daughter's christening, I filled a directory with 300 songs and put them on random. The jukebox would play one song and then choke on the directory while looking for the next random song to play.

      Recording is VBR ONLY, and I often had trouble with recorded tracks playing back.

      Archos will be toast if they ever get some real competition. But heck, that's what I said about Microsoft.

      ~Hammy
      nothing4sale.org
  • Why do people even want to bother with this kind of thing? A simple video in board and some PVR software on a Shuttle FV24 [shuttleonline.com] with an additional remote would be a much better solution.

    Perhaps its just that geeks prefer to hack things apart more than hacking them together?

  • I don't know if anyone else noticed tis, but.. (Score:4, Informative)

    by jx100 ( 453615 ) on Friday December 07, 2001 @01:58AM (#2669443)
    for some reason it lists the specs for the Archos Jukebox at the bottom, not the Archos Jukebox Multimedia

    I mean:
    "Capacity: 6GB Low Voltage Hard Drive "?

    "Display: Graphic Backlit LCD (Up to 8 lines of characters)"?
  • Players getting more and more complex
    More portable desktops (LCD iMac)

    It ought to be rather interesting when these 2 trends run into each other.... the digital home appliance, maybe?

    • Your analysis is interesting. However, I don't think there will be one digital home appliance, just as there isn't one kitchen appliance. There will be many, and unfortunately from the ones in existence (Gamecube, iPod, Palms) they will be proprietary and non-upgradable.

  • I surprised nobody has meantioned its use as a digital wallet.

    Now there are many options available these days including THE Mind@Works Digital Wallet(tm), Terapin Mine, Nixvue Digital Album, etc...

    This is actually the first product I've seen that allows you to view the pictures on the LCD. Plus the fact that there are other uses makes it handy when you're not using it as a digital wallet for your photos while travelling.

    Depending on price and availability, this may be one option I will consider for my 3 week digital photo storage needs.
  • I just bought the Terapin Mine... now this??

    Is the pcmcia port able to use lan or wireless cards or what??? Although firewire looks sweet, now I would REALLY have a pretext to buy a mini-DV camera too! Wheee!!

    That's the best thing about the Mine that I liked... forget USB, do your transfers over ethernet. That, and Terapin is getting ready their SDK for the linux kernel inside... Hopefully Archos could do something like that, let's say, we add support for Ogg Vorbis on this thing??? Hopefully it will have a generic CPU and not a bunch on dedicated chips that we can't mess with.

  • official site (Score:4, Informative)

    by pneuma_66 ( 1830 ) on Friday December 07, 2001 @03:18AM (#2669584)
    As i was reading the article, i thought the item was a fake (all those badly rendered images), so i went to archos's site and here [archos.com] is the official page on the device. however, it still sounds like vapor to me.
  • I really like this idea. I want to be able to watch my SnapStream (www.snapstream.com) captured TV shows on the go. Right now I lug a laptop around, but with the new airline security restrictions lately I'm worried one day I won't be able to do that anymore. If this little device can play back my shows, then I would be ecstatic!

    In second place, I'd take a product that's a laptop hard-drive connected via Compact Flash card to my PocketPC. It's two components to carry instead of one, but man it'd be cool to catch up on Farscape since I'm never home to watch it.

  • Is that real? (Score:1, Redundant)

    by Fishy ( 17624 )
    Is it just me or do some of those attachments look like concept drawings, not actual hardware.
  • Word on the street is that Apple is working on a similar device: Video, Windows Compatibility on Tap for iPod [go2mac.com]
    • There's always word-on-the-street that Apple is working on something users want -- don't believe it until you see it AND can buy it. There have been too many rumors in the past that some idiot got out of some Apple employee by getting them drunk at a popular restaurant near Apple's HQ.

      Sure, Apple works on a lot of stuff and a lot of employees know about and work on that stuff personally, but whether or not that stuff ever makes it to market is always a HUGE "if" with Apple...
  • or are you just happy to see me?

    if this think plays Divx that would be sweet.
  • Here's something that I've not heard mentioned at all - does anyone make or plan to make some sort of a module that could connect to either a laptop HD or a standard IDE drive, and let you play media files on it? With drive prices as cheap as they are, I'd be pretty happy with having something that clipped onto a normal, full size IDE drive and played the media files contained within. Then, you could unclip that module and plug it back into your home IDE channel in your system to transfer files, etc.

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