Archos AV 500

The AV 500 is actually marketed as a portable DVR (digital video recorder), rather than an ordinary portable media player. Still, its media playback capabilities are excellent, and later in this article we take a close look at the AV 500's award-winning features.

When it comes to features, the AV 500 flat-out shines. First, the physical dimensions. The AV 500's gorgeous brushed aluminum case is approximately 7.6 x 12.4 x 1.8 centimeters, somewhat bigger than the competition's players, but considering the wealth of features packed into this little big box, the size is actually not bad. The silver aluminum box is sleek and professional looking and weighs a mere 255 grams.

The Archos' display is a bright, vibrant 4-inch (diagonal) LCD capable of a maximum resolution of 480x272 with 262,000 colors. Controls are laid out to the right of the screen.

Media support is quite good, but the format choices are not as comprehensive as players from other manufacturers. For audio, the AV 500 supports the popular MP3 format, up to a maximum bitrate of 320 kbps, Microsoft WMA (both protected and non-protected), up to a maximum bitrate of 320 kbps, and two types of uncompressed WAV: PCM and ADPCM. The AV 500 offers some basic sound-sculpting options in the form of bass and treble controls as well as a BassBoost feature.

Video is a decidedly straightforward affair: the AV 500 supports only MPEG-4 in AVI containers of up to near-DVD quality (720x480 pixel resolution at 30 frames per second for NTSC, 720x576 resolution at 25 frames per second for PAL), and Microsoft WMV9 (both protected and non-protected) of up to 352x288 resolution at 30 frames per second.

Recording is the AV 500's main claim to fame, and this is where it shines the most. The unit records video in MPEG-4 optimized for TV, with a maximum resolution of 640x480 and a frame rate of 30 FPS. Its audio recording facilities include a line-in jack for recording from analog sources and a built-in microphone. The AV 500 can save recorded audio to plain PCM or ADPCM WAV formats.

Archos states that the battery life of the AV 500 should last about 15 hours for non-stop audio playback and 4.5 hours for video playback on the unit's built-in screen. However, it should come as a pleasant surprise that on our battery test, the AV 500 ran for about 5 hours and 45 minutes.

The AV 500 comes with an array of accessories: gold-plated A/V cables, a leather carrying case, an infrared transmitter cable, USB cables, TV docking pod, and remote control.

After testing the Archos AV 500, one thing was very, very clear: the AV 500 smokes. The 4-inch LCD is big, bright, and sharp, and it is nicely viewable at an angle. It is actually bigger than most of the competition's screens, albeit with a lower resolution than, say, the Creative Zen Vision which has a 3.7-inch screen that has a resolution of 640x480 pixels.

The controls of the AV 500 are surprisingly intuitive. Earlier Archos gadgets have a history of having less-than-intuitive controls, and it appears the AV 500 is the first step in the right direction. The navigation buttons and the center select button are sized just right, but the four context buttons could have been made a bit bigger.

Video and audio playback on the AV 500 is excellent. Audio comes out loud, clear, and clean. Unfortunately, the bundled earphones simply don't do the sonic quality of the AV 500 any justice at all. We highly recommend replacing them with better earphones; the difference in sound quality will be like night and day. Also, the AV 500's equalizer consists of simple bass and treble controls – not a great deal of sound-shaping there. Photos and videos look clear and sharp on the AV 500's LCD. Too bad, though, that the selection of supported file formats is somewhat limited, especially when compared to players from the competition, such as Creative or Apple.

Video recording with the AV 500 is a pleasure and a joy. It does, however, irk us a bit that the unit must be docked into the included TV docking pod (which should also be plugged into a wall outlet) before any recording can be done. The AV 500 has varying levels of quality for recording, up to a maximum of 2.5 Mbps variable bit-rate, which is very good quality. Even at the lowest recording quality settings, video came out adequately watch-able. The AV 500 is flexible enough for normal recording tasks; we were able to set up a recording schedule for our favorite TV shows and the AV 500 did the rest. One can even attach the included infrared transmitter to the docking pod and the AV 500 will switch on the television, VCR, or set-top box at the appropriate time.

The Archos AV 500 is an excellent portable DVR and media player. With a big, bright screen, good media format support, excellent audio and video output, solid recording features, and a wealth of accessories, the AV 500 integrates functionality and fun in a package that exudes a lot of class. It's by no means cheap, but the AV 500 is worth the price.