Archos Jukebox AV420 20 GB Digital Media Player Review
| Design |
| When things are supposed to be portable we like it when they’re light. And the Archos is just that. Weighting in at just under 10 ounces making it the ideal weight to shove in your pocket or day bag. There silver exterior surrounds a 3.5 inch LCD. The joystick of the AV320 that was so irritating has been replaced by a much more agronomical pad and three navigation buttons. There’s a built-in speaker just under the navigation buttons and a CompactFlash slot on the side. There’s even an additional adaptor you can buy to give you room for a Memory stick, MMC, SD card or SmartMedia card. And best of all there’s a cradle for the AV420 to sit in. All the AV sockets are attached to the cradle making it much easier for you to transfer things to the AV420 and it also doubles up as a perfect stand for the recorder. |
| Setup/Installation |
| The actual use of the portable video device is fairly easy thanks to the friendly icons. But the software to transfer things on to the machine could be improved and simplified as at times it could be complicated and cumbersome. |
| Features |
| Where do we begin there’s so many features. The first thing is the 3.5-inch LCD that produces images at 320x240-pixel resolution. The AV420 comes with a 20GB hard drive that stores several hours of video but if you’re an avid music and video fan you might want more storage space as 20GB gets used up really quickly and like us you’ll just end up getting frustrated at the lack of space. On a positive note the Archos records in compressed MPEG-4 format so there is room for a bit of stuff to go on. So we’ve covered the amount of space you’ve got to store on the machine, but can you put in that storage? Like its predecessor the AV420 can record directly from your video player, DVD player or even your telly which means you can take your favourite TV shows away with you too. And like a video recorder you can also pre-dictate when you want it to start recording a particular programme. The only drawback is there’s no EPG so you have to manually key in times and dates. The bookmark facility means you can place a note on the shows or music you want to watch and on a later date go back directly to it. There’s very few other PVR’s that do this. You can listen to MP3 and WVA files on this baby and the sound quality is great. What’s really good is the list of information it tracks – showing you everything from the artist, album to track listing and even genre. Like the iPod you can create your own playlist. We’ve mentioned the cradle. Not only can the AV420 sit on it but it homes all the cables which means you can leave them plugged in and not have to worry about them when you walk away with the AV420. The cradle also doubles up as a battery charger which we think is easier than having to plug in a USB cable. The wireless remote control means you can access your machine anywhere in the room without having any unseemly wires dangling, or more importantly waiting for someone to trip over them. |
| Performance |
| There won’t be any time for a snooze with this machine. It zips through all its functions form the initial switching on through to moving form icon to icon. The image produced by the screen is really good, you get a crisp, clear image that is bright but not glaring. Even the TV recordings were good and showed little graininess. While there’s only 20GB of hard drive, the fact you can store compressed files gives you more flexibility and the sound and picture quality of this compression is good and the Virtual Dub mode allows you to transfer files quickly to the player from you PC. Sound quality was good, even with when listening through the in-built speaker the quality of sound wasn’t bad. But the cheap, plastic earphones were a bit of a let down and we would have hoped that for such a stellar product at around £200 they might have put a bit more effort into the ear equipment. And finally the battery life was fabulous. When watching videos the AV420 played for over five hours and with music it was close to 14 hours, making it idea for those long haul flights or weekends away. |
| What's In The Box? |
| Archos AV420, cradle, power adaptor, headphones |
| Overall Opinion |
| The design of the Archos Jukebox AV420 is great. It looks cool sitting in your hand. The screen makes viewing really easy and pleasurable and the long battery life makes it ideal for travellers. It comes with a wireless remote control and also has bookmarking functions which makes this a top buy. The only drawback is the limited 20GB storage and the price. |
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Pros + Looks great + Compression file facility + Easy recording |
Cons - Cheap headphones - Limited storage space |
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Appearance 8/10
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Media Capacity 7/10
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Ease Of Use 7/10
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Build Quality 8/10
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Value For Money 8/10
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Overall Rating 
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By Babita Wakelin
19/7/2006 at 12:39:52pm
19/7/2006 at 12:39:52pm
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