archos mp4 video players - also media centre question

[craigw]

anyone know much about them?

plotloss has been v helpful, thanks matey, I need more!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

In short.....

I have.. a laptop with a fair bit of music on it, I am currently streaming this wirelessly to an xbox 360 connected to my plasma.

This works well & I can use for looking at pics, listening to music etc.

However, the only way to plug in the xbox was through my skybox and if I want to use the xbox I need to put my skybox on standby.

My other option was to (remove my dvd player &put xbox into my dvd connections rgb, however, I have many multiregion dvd's & the multiregion xbox hack looks complex ?

I could stream tv from the laptop but the signal through win tv isnt reliable...

To complicate matters further I use a tivo hard disk recorder to record sky programmes, this has a built in programme guide, but in general its a bit primitive & doesnt work that well (and costs £10 a month for the prog guides)

So i thought, I could get the archos av700 (portable 40gb video player with built in digital tv) see below

www.archos.com/products/video/av_700TV/pdf/AV_700_TV_en.pdf

Plug this in instead of tivo & use it as another source ie recording digital tv, so.....

does anyone know

- if the archos has a programme guide
- if once you have recorded onto it, you can play this back in good quality on your own tv
- if you can record direct from dvd to it

If it will work for what I need generally?

Cheers chaps.

c

[jodypress]

craigw said:

- if the archos has a programme guide
- if once you have recorded onto it, you can play this back in good quality on your own tv
- if you can record direct from dvd to it

I have an Archos AV560 (same software)

not sure about program guide, but yes to question 2 and 3

[craigw]

thx mate, how do you find it generally, anything particularly good or bad?

[jodypress]

i bought mine for a specific purpose. i am on secondment for 6 months, and am traveling around asia and staying in hotels.

so i wanted a way to watch my downloaded tv shows and films. easy to hook upto hotel tv, has a remote, and watch stuff whilst traveling.

it has been awesome. i considered the cowon a2, but no remote (lets face it, when lazing on the sofa, it's a godsend)

has been great. only the odd file won't play, and i just re-encode it. great for mp3's too.

def recommend

Edited by jodypress on Tuesday 19th September 16:22

[craigw]

cool, thanks matey

[Plotloss]

I'd guess having never used one that the Archos is up to the job, I'll have a look for some specs in a moment.

Would an autosensing SCART multigang not help matters here?

I must visit at some point like I said I would, its all very difficult to fathom remotely...

[craigw]

Plotloss said:

I'd guess having never used one that the Archos is up to the job, I'll have a look for some specs in a moment.

Would an autosensing SCART multigang not help matters here?

I must visit at some point like I said I would, its all very difficult to fathom remotely...

pls do mate, always very very welcome.

[GIMPTON]

Can the archos record direct from sky?

[Plotloss]

Not from the downlink but it could just record the output of the box.

[craigw]

i can see with a bit of tweaking & with someone with half a brain for these things, the whole setup could be great.

[GIMPTON]

Plotloss said:

Not from the downlink but it could just record the output of the box.

Not a techie dude so lost me a bit, do you mean i could record anything i am presently watching, i dont have an aerial just use my sky dish for all my channels.

[Plotloss]

Yeah, record what you are currently watching.

So connect it downstream of the box.

[GIMPTON]

Cheers, whats the playback quality on a TV like on these gizmo's

Is it ok for the price, good and comparable to lower priced standard hard disk recorders or pretty poor?

[Plotloss]

Not used one personally, know a few people who use them with bullet cams for trackdays and racing and the quality seems alright.

I'll look into the tech specs, please hold caller.

[jodypress]

GIMPTON said:

Cheers, whats the playback quality on a TV like on these gizmo's

Is it ok for the price, good and comparable to lower priced standard hard disk recorders or pretty poor?

it depends on the quality of the avi? it look s great to me on most tv's etc

[Plotloss]

Just had a quick look and the device is more than capable of recording standard definition television.

[GIMPTON]

Mmm tempted to get one in place of a hard disk recorded/ DVD player.

At least the kids can use it in the car as well.

Cheers, plotless, you are a gadget god.

Any tips on a graphics card ie ati 1900 XT over a 7900 GT, I am leaning towards the ATI.

[Plotloss]

New computer components are beyond my scope I'm afraid, I'd have to have a direct link to Toms Hardware.

If you view a lot of video though the Divx player is optimised for ATi hardware...

[catretriever]

Just a thought but does your plasma tv have a VGA input? If so then this will be the best way to connect your 360.

[craigw]

hmm, i'll take a look, what does it look like? (vga I mean)