Archos 5 250 GB Internet Tablet
by Archos
List Price:
Our Price: $165.00
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Category: CE
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Digital Photo Product Details
Manufacturer: ArchosFormat: CD
Platform: Mac, Windows
Model: 501129
Color: black
Product features:
- NOTE: For best experience, fully charge your device before turning it on (about 8 hours)
- 250 GB capacity for up to 300 movies, 2.5 million photos, or 145,000 songs
- Up to 22 hours music and 7 hours video playback time on a single charge
- 4.8-inch TFT LCD touchscreen; 800 x 480 pixel resolution; 16 million colors
- Video support: MPEG-4, WMV, and M-JPEG; Audio support: MP3, WMA, Protected WMA, WMA pro 5.1, WAV
- It has 250 GB capacity for up to 300 movies, 2.5 million photos, or 145,000 songs.
- It has 4.8-inch TFT LCD touchscreen; 800 x 480 pixel resolution; 16 million colors.
- It plays Up to 22 hours music and 7 hours video playback time on a single charge.
- It supports MPEG-4, WMV, and M-JPEG and MP3, WMA, Protected WMA, WMA pro 5.1, WAV.
- NOTE: For best experience, fully charge your device before turning it on (about 8 hours).
- Plug-ins available for further video and audio format support
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Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Archos 5 250 GB Internet Tablet
Customer Review: Fine if you want to fight to get things working...
Summary: 2 Stars
I bought an Archos 5 160GB from Amazon just over a year ago. I got it because Archos is the only manufacturer of decent sized hard drive media players (I have an iPod classic, those are NOT decent sized). Flash players simply don't have enough space and you have to spend a small fortune to even get 64GB of space on them (at least Creatives have expansion slots). Who wants to be constantly swapping out your music collection for what you "might" be in the mood for? I'd rather have all my music all the time so both my wife and I can be satisfied with the selection. That's not even considering if I wanted to have any videos on there...
Anyway, when I got my A5, it wouldn't charge fully. I sent it back to Archos and 3 and half weeks later it came back to me with NO CHANGE. I contacted them again, they said to send it back. So, I did... This time a different player came back to me. It was a scuffed up 120GB (not the 160GB) that had a non-functional touch screen.
I was fun trying to even convince support that they had sent the wrong player cause their documents said they sent a 160GB. Anyway, they finally agreed to give me a pre-paid to send it back. So 6 months after buying the player I had a player that charged. Unfortunately that's not the end of it.
First, let me say that Archos firmware is terrible. The layout and graphics are decent, but the actual internals are horrid. It frequently crashes/stalls for no reason... Connecting to a wireless network, switching from audio to video files, changing the background, etc. There are other issues that I will continue with...
FUN WITH SYNCING:
I tried transferring all my music (approx 65GB) over using it as a Windows Media Device (aka MTP mode). No program can finish a sync successfully (Window Media Player, Songbird, MediaMonkey). It dies part way through. After extensive discussion with Archos support, I was able to determine that the MTP protocol my be to blame for this. My music is on a Samba share and at some point, the MTP protocol triggers an error in the Samba server and the MTP protocol cannot recover itself.
So I gave up on MTP... Switched the player to hard drive mode. Tried transferring all the music over at once and running the library update function. Well, that results in only about 50% of the music being added to the library. Well, more time talking to support... They let me know there's some limits on the number of files per folder. Something like 999 files (maybe it was 9999, can't remember). Anyway, I was within the limit and changing it around didn't fix the problem. So I had to load sections of music at a time in order for all of it to show up. Eventually I was able to figure out that when MTP fails, if I run chkdsk for a few hours on the A5 from Windows and then redo the MTP sync, I can eventually get all the songs on that way.
FUN WITH THE INTERNET:
All of a sudden a few weeks ago, I stopped being able to connect to the internet from the A5. I could access UPnP stuff in my network, but nothing on the internet. Well, after debugging with 3 different access points and tons of settings, it turns out that something in my gateway had changed and the firewall was blocking all outbound requests from the A5. It could use DHCP and my DNS successfully, but the traffic going to the internet would be dropped. I ended up having to add a specific firewall rule to allow all traffic from the A5. Didn't really feel like spending more time figuring out what else they had programmed poorly.
FUN WITH VIDEO:
Well, if you're looking at this player, you know that you have to buy plugins to get AC3 decoding and HD playback for videos. Since I had a working player (internet and music), I figured I'd get a few DVD's on there to take on a trip with me. Well, I rip my DVD's to a hard disk for my Media Center, so they have DVD resolution with AC3 audio. The files are in XVID at 2600kbps because that's the codec and lowest rate that gave me the quality I wanted in an MPEG-4 AVI file. Since I didn't want to have to keep two copies of the AVI (one with stereo sound, the other with AC3), I purchased the Cinema Plugin. The purchase was an experience because it took three different support people to get the correct media player registration in their system since it had been RMA'd.
You would think everything would be fine... NOPE! Video looks fine, audio sounds fine... Except for the fact that they're really out of sync. Not just bad dubbing out of sync. Can't watch the video out of sync. I know the movie files are good. They playback correctly on an original xbox with XBMC, Windows 7 Media Center 32bit, Windows 7 Pro 64bit, openSUSE 32bit, and even a eeepc with windows XP pro on it. However, Archos support says that it's the files (which were ripped/encoded using different programs)... Even though they've already confirmed that MPEG-4 AVI's are the ideal format. Archos support said that stereo is ideal for sound and that I should use that... Then why do you even offer the Cinema Plugin?!
FUN WITH MUSIC:
I've noticed a few things with music. If you don't use Windows Media Device mode to sync the player, you cannot modify ID3 tags and have the player update the information in it's database. If you remove a file, it stays in the player's database. So in short, don't sync the player out of Windows Media Device mode. If you embed the album art into your music files expect SLOW response out of the media player. Basic navigation becomes choppy, switching songs takes longer, and you even get occasional pauses in music near the beginning of the song. As soon as I had MediaMonkey remove the album art from the tags and put it in the folder with the songs, everything started running MUCH faster.
You're probably thinking this is just one person's experience with a bad player... It not... I have a friend with the exact same player. He was able to confirm all of the problems that I've been having with the exception of the internet issue. However, we tried his player on my network and it did the same thing.
Fortunately, I'm a software engineer with degrees in computer and electrical engineering, and have the technical background to debug most of these problems without contacting support. Can't even imagine if my parents had been having problems like these. It just annoys me that companies can get away with putting out devices with sub-par software/firmware.
To summarize this short novel of a review...
It'll be a cold day in h*** before I buy and/or recommend another Archos product. Other companies need to bring back hard drive media players. What happened to the hard drive players from Creative, Toshiba, iRiver, and even JetAudio?
Description of Archos 5 250 GB Internet Tablet
ARCHOS, award-winning for its constant technology innovation, now introduces its new ARCHOS 5 Internet Tablet. This product combines all the multimedia know-how that ARCHOS is famous for, with the ANDROID operating system. It offers you an uncompromised Internet, Media and TV experience in a customizable interface. In perpetual evolution with the continuous arrival of new applications, you can personalize your ARCHOS 5 Internet Tablet to perfectly reflect your tastes and needs.Archos, award-winning for its constant technology innovation and leadership in portable media players now introduces a new concept: the Internet Media Tablet (IMT). The Archos 5 is the flagship product of this new line, bringing you a new way to enjoy the Internet, your media, and TV--all in a handheld device. The Archos 5 250 GB IMT is a high-end portable device with an ultra-thin design, a black stainless steel body, a high-resolution 5-inch touchscreen, and the horsepower of a laptop.
 Enjoy Internet, media, and TV in a handheld device with a 5-inch touchscreen. Click to enlarge. |
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| (Click on image below to change view.) Buy or rent media from the Archos Media Club, surf the Web, and enjoy your music, photos, and videos anywhere, anytime. |
 Ultra-slim at just half an inch deep. Click to enlarge. |
Uncompromised Web Surfing in the Palm of Your Hand
With an 800-pixels-wide resolution and a 5-inch screen, you can browse the Web just as you would on your PC. No need to zoom in and out, as web pages are fully displayed on the Archos screen. Plus, with Adobe Flash 9 video support, you can natively browse video-sharing websites, such as Dailymotion or YouTube. The Archos IMTs boast enough processing power to surf the Web on the go, just like you were doing it with your laptop. No more endless waiting for the page to load; just grab your Archos 5 and check the latest news right away. Your PC wouldn't have finished booting up by the time you've put the Archos back in your pocket. Once connected to a Wi-Fi or 3.5G network, the included email software allows you to check your email accounts (compatible with POP/IMAP) whenever you want. See the number of awaiting emails right on the Archos 5 home screen, answer back, or share attachments with anyone (only compatible formats). Stay in touch while on the go.
Download hundreds of useful and fun widget applications and then put your favorite ones on the Archos home screen. Check the weather before leaving for work, or see the latest sports results without having to start a new application. In less than three clicks, you can access nearly 1,000 Web TV channels, more than 10,000 Web radio stations, and 100,000-plus podcasts. There's no downloading wait time. Radio and TV start streaming right away from a worldwide list of traditional and independent radio and TV stations.
Your Digital Library in a Thin Handheld Tablet
The Archos Media Club remains the easiest way to get video and music content on the go. With an even richer library featuring new partners and the biggest industry players, the Media Club lets you discover a large library of movies, documentaries, music, and games. Buy or rent your entertainment in a couple of clicks and start watching it on your Archos 5. Enjoy a great multimedia experience on the go with a high-resolution 5-inch touchscreen right in your hands. Enjoy your favorite videos, browse through your photos with a simple flick of your finger, or play a slideshow of your last vacation.
Plus, you can store your entire CD collection comfortably on your Archos device--there's plenty of room. Rediscover songs left aside for months, or show your friends your latest discoveries. The unique Archos music browsing system allows you to create your playlists without using a PC, and the displayed album covers complete the experience.
Don't get bored on your commute. For a little fun before getting to work or whenever you have a little time to kill, grab your Archos and enjoy some poker, Sudoku, or a round of golf. Premium games can be purchased directly from the tablet or at www.archos.com, or find Flash-based games downloadable for free on the Web.
When you're at home and want to watch a movie or listen to music stored on your PC, just browse the device's hard drive wirelessly and play it without transferring the file. Just stream it via your Wi-Fi network and enjoy it on your Archos.
Experience the Best TV at Home or on the Go
With the optional DVR Station, you have the perfect match for your Archos 5 at home and on the go. Schedule and record TV shows and movies in one step with the included remote control. Just locate the TV show on the program guide grid, and you'll have a recording to enjoy at home on your widescreen TV or in the palm of your hand. The DVR Station also will turn your TV into a real multimedia platform connected to the Web. Enjoy all the Archos functions on the big screen in your living room. Watch your movies in HD, listen to your music, share your high-resolution pictures, play games, or surf the Web.
| Plug-ins: Add even more capabilities to your Archos 5 Free with registration: |
 Web browser: Open up your Archos device to the full power of the Internet with a full-fledged Internet browser. Surf the Web via the Opera web browser with Adobe Flash 9 video support. |
 Web TV & Radio: Receive via the Internet nearly 1,000 Web TV channels and more than 10,000 Web radio stations. Select your stations by popularity, genre, country, etc. from the Archos video and audio browsers. |
 TV Program Guide: Easily schedule your recordings with the TV Program guide embedded in the tablet. A couple of clicks are enough to check the scheduler, get instant information about the program selected, and schedule the recording. |
| Available for purchase: |
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Technology Meets Design
The Archos 5 features a comfortable, clear widescreen that'll earn a few looks over your shoulder. The touchscreen technology ensures the most instinctive and direct way to access your movies, view your pictures, listen to your music, or browse the Web. The new graphical interface has been designed for total touch control. Reach the main functions with a tap, return at any moment to the home screen, and use the search function to access your files right away. Add shortcuts to your favorite files and display them directly on the Archos home screen for quick access. You also can bring your home screen to life with the new animated wallpapers.
This Archos 5 gives you 250 GB of storage for up to 300 movies, 2.5 million photos, or 145,000 songs--and the processing power to handle them. Enjoy blazing speed with the ARM Cortex superscalar microprocessor.
Add-ons--Enhance Your Archos 5
- DVR Station
Record TV, play video back to your TV, and charge your Archos device via the DVR Station. With the included TV Program Guide, scheduling and recording from your satellite receiver, cable box, Digital TV adapter has never been so easy. You also can surf the Web or stream web video to your TV while comfortably laid back on your couch using the included remote control as a keyboard and mouse pointer. - DVR Snap-on
Record from most any audio or video analog source on the move with the DVR Snap-on, a small device that's no bigger than a pack of gum. - Mini Dock
Transfer your files directly from USB keys, digital cameras, or other portable media players with the Mini Dock. Quickly charge your Archos with the included charger/adapter. Play video out to your TV with video output in high quality S-Video or standard quality composite. - Battery Dock
Benefit from all the great features of the Mini Dock and get extended playback with the built-in backup battery. - Helmet Cam
Turn your Archos into a hands-free digital camcorder with the Helmet Cam, perfect for sports and family fun. - FM Remote
A built-in FM receiver and microphone on the FM Remote let you listen to radio anywhere or make voice recordings. - Protective Cases
Protect your Archos and show your style with a protective case. - GPS Car Holder
Turn your Archos 5 into a high-end GPS with the GPS In-Car Holder. - TV Snap-on (Available by end of 2008)
Watch live digital TV right on your Archos, record, and enjoy the time-shifting function.
What's in the Box
Archos 5 250 GB Internet Media Tablet, headphones, Archos USB cable, DVR Station adapter (DVR Station is sold separately), screen cleaning cloth, quick start guide, legal and safety notice.
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