Fury's Archos Blog

Finally New Firmware for Generation 4 Archos!

2007-03-13T20:47:00.000+01:00

Finally, after almost exactly 2 month of desperate waiting, it's there, the desired firmware update!

So what's new? Check it out below(list includes wifi devices as well):

Version 1.6.2x
-----------------
Improvements:
- Photo: allow to turn slideshow transitions off
- Videocorder & Audiocorder: audio gain is now from -12dB to +10dB
- Videocorder: Widescreen setting in now saved
- OPERA: Added right to left language support
- PDF: Added right to left language support

Bug fixes:
- Video: high bitrate VOB files with AC3 played jerky
- Video: fix video playback pausing for a second when buffering from disk starts
- Video: ASF MPEG4 files from Hitachi cameras hanged the unit
- Video: pause symbol in statusbar updated after saving the current video frame as wallpaper or thumbnail
- Video: when playing a video with multiple audio tracks in slow motion, the current speed was not visible on 404
- Video: Allow to step a recorded video by 1 second using the touchscreen
- Music: MP3 parser more robust
- Music: Sometimes the player hanged after a resume
- Music: some MP3 album art ware not displayed although embedded in ID3tag
- Photo: fix info displayed in info screen disappeared after a TV/LCD toggle
- USB: Fixed PTP issues with EOS300D
- TV output: S-Video mode was not working after a standby or a TV/LCD toggle
- WIFI: Fixed a problem which prevented copying of files to some types of network shares
- Double-Browser: Fixed cursor position when switching from left panel to right panel with the touch screen
- Double-Browser: Fixed file information not updated when moving the vertical scrollbar or tapping on a new item with the touch screen

Now what do we have here...looks like a good hand of bug-fixes there. Although I have to admit I'm a little disappointed. Indeed, there is no word about flash, nor java, nor subtitles and nothing about the desired (and stated in the manual) option to turn the arclib off. Well, I'm expecting one last really big update before they'll discontinue firmware support for those devices. That was their way to handle AV500 and other devices before, so it wouldn't surprise me if they'd continue like that. But hey, if they sort out all the major bugs, I don't have a problem with that ;-)

Check here for latest firmware downloads:

Archos 404	Firmware 1.6.20
Archos 404cc	Firmware 1.6.20
Archos 504	Firmware 1.6.20
Archos 604	Firmware 1.6.20
Archos 604wifi	Firmware 1.6.21
Archos 704wifi	Firmware 1.7.10

New Archos devices!

2007-03-13T20:28:00.000+01:00

I know I'm a little late... :-)
Quite a while ago, Archos now officially released the 704wifi. A few days ago, a "new" 20GB Audioplayer was released to complete the Generation 4 series, the 204. For detailed information about the 704wifi, check here. Info about the 204 (which looks like the gminixs202s (but with color screen and probably cheaper price) check out the Archos website here.

Preorder Archos 704wifi!

2007-03-01T09:53:00.001+01:00

Scott of HotMP3gear.com is now taking preorders on the 704wifi! The 80GB version is 549$

The package comes with:

ARCHOS 704-WiFi
headphones
USB 2.0 cable
USB 2.0 host adapter
DVR Station saddle
2 styli
remote control
power adapter/charger
protective pouch
QSG
legal and safety notice

Also check out this discussion on archosfans.com for exclusive reports from one of the first users of this brandnew 7" touchscreen device!

New 704wifi on sale in Singapore...!!

2007-02-18T10:49:00.000+01:00

10 days ago, FCC posted the first pictures of the new 704wifi on engadget.com . Just yesterday, someone on forum.archosfans.com reported he actually bought a brand new 704wifi - in Singapore!

To view the site the above ad comes from, click here.

To prove this incredible and surprising development, the guy who bought it took some pictures. You may have noticed, on one of the pictures the 704wifi slides out of Archos case. It came with the player! Here is a little list what the package included:

ARCHOS 704wifi
Headphones
USB Cable & USB host adapter cable
Stylus (2)
Remote Control
AC/DC charger/adapter
Protective Case

As you can see, the price is set to 1.099 Singapore Dollars, which is roughly 718 USD, 546 EUR and 368 GBP. Oh, before I forget... it still doesn't do Flash - So sites like youtube... no fun at all :-( For news about the 704wifi and info straight from the horse's mouth, check the discussion at forum.archosfans.com

Generation 4 Sourcecode Available!

2007-02-14T15:41:00.000+01:00

Finally, Archos uploaded the Generation 4 Sourcecode to their website. Go and get it here

Hopefully this contains useful stuff to "modify" the firmware to users needs or to at least built and run own applications. People are tearing the package apart already. Check out this great discussion.

Generation 4 - Archos Survey

2007-02-08T15:25:00.000+01:00

Hi all, Since Archos doesn't seem to be very interested in what their customers think, just wait for them to ring the support-bell... I created a survey about the Generation 4 devices. Let's ring that bell together! Spread the survey link to your favorite forum, newsgroup and what not...

If enough people will participate, I'll send the results (nicely edited) to Archos. If they have an opinion on the results, I'll publish it here. In addition, I'll send the results to all people who took the survey. Everyone should have the chance to know what others think about Archos, too.

Here's the survey: http://www.gofurygo.de/survey.php

PocketDivXEncoder updated!

2007-02-02T12:13:00.000+01:00

Finally, after being part of Omniquiti, PocketDivXEncoder shows some activity on its freeware version again. Just on January 8th there was a major update which added profiles for Archos PMPs. The Gmini400, AV500 and AV700 can now be selected for videoconversion. Even Generation 4 users will be able to use it as it lists 'em, too.
Best thing is, it's FREE and your videos will play on your Archos smoothly.

Latest stable version is 0.3.60. Get it here.

New Look at forum.archosfans.com!

2007-02-02T11:26:00.001+01:00

Once a neglected place, filled with spam and tons of spam users, forum.archosfans.com has now come back to life - better than it ever was.

While it offers great help and support for Generation 4 users, there are still sections for earlier Archos devices. The forum layout is also very nice! Brushed metal - like the latest Generation 4 PMPs and even the "archos-green". Looks great, I think.

As you can see, it says "Unofficial Archos Support Forum". This is - according to some posts on the forum - because Archos will be linking to the forum - someday.. :-)

Well, it certainly is a great place to go, if you'd ran into problems with your Archos! http://forum.archosfans.com

New Firmware Version for all G4 devices!

2007-01-16T18:32:00.000+01:00

Only hours after releasing firmware 1.6.04 on the 604wifi, Archos released version 1.6.10. While 1.6.06 is still available for 604wifi owners, all the 404/504/604 users have to stick with 1.5.56 as a backup if the latest release won't work for them. Archos pulled 1.6.04 off their servers as a lot of users reported serious clitches. Surprising to see, that the firmware history now lists version 1.6.04 again which has been erased as well.... very strange things going on there...

Well, here's the list of version 1.6.10 improvements for the 404/504/604/604wifi:

Version 1.6.10
-----------------
Improvements:
- Video: Support MPEG-TS files playback (require cinema plugin)
- DVR station: in S-Video out mode, S-Video Y signal is also on yellow output

Bug fixes:
- Video: Fix u-law support for .MP4/.MOV files
- Video: Fix playback of 16bit mono PCM in .MP4/MOV
- Video: Fix sound sometimes broken after seek in .MP4/.MOV files
- Video: Fix playing 4/3 videos in PAL TV 16/9 AUTO mode without corruption
- Videocorder: Fix recording videos in composite PAL/SECAM from a VCR without chroma
- Photo: Fix garbage at bottom of thumbnails
- Photo: Fix thumbnail of previous screen is not cleared when toggling TV/LCD with thumbnail slideshow running
- Photo: Fix slideshow sound/settings menu can be partially or completely cleared when slideshow run on background
- Photo: Fix slideshow menubar zoom button isn't added at right time on rotation
- Photo: Fix getting the right info while the photowall is drawing thumbnails
- GUI: Fix help browser content can be wrong after return from video browser
- GUI: Fix page down in video/help browser with one or less item
- GUI: Fix helmetcorder vertical volume bar isn't grayed when speaker is muted to avoid larsen
- GUI: Fix slideshow menubar is blended after moving over item with popup
- USB: Fix wrong detection of USB device when USB cable is plugged/unplugged while in message box
- Update: Fix some firmware updates or plugin installation failed once and then worked fine (error code 10)
- WMV DRM: Fix playback of WMV DRM files could fail for rented videos (after setting a bookmark)
- WMV DRM: Fix transition firmware 1.5.57 to 1.6.04 could loose DRM licenses for pre-loaded content (Depeche Mode)

Archos 404	Archos 504	Archos 604
Download Version 1.6.10	Download Version 1.6.10	Download Version 1.6.10

And here the previously released update for the 604wifi with version 1.6.06:

Version 1.6.06
-----------------
Bug fixes:
- Wifi: Under certain rare circumstances the Opera web browser would not connect to web sites but respond with a timeout message.
- Wifi: SSL secured connections did not work in Opera web browser if the products' time and date were not set correctly.

Download the current version: OS v. 1.6.10

Its last mix...

2007-01-11T11:31:00.000+01:00

Ouch.... that really hurts when watching...

...LOL, that's hillarious... "...now that's one smooking iPod"

Wanna see more stuff that blends? Click here.

Archos! This is how it goes...!

2007-01-04T22:50:00.000+01:00

A week ago, I was at the airport and I grabbed the latest edition of my favorite "toys" magazine --> Popular Science.
While going thru this years top 100 gadgets, I noticed a small article about the Nokia 770 internet tablet. This thing is just awesome! Check you what it says on the article... OPEN SOURCE FIRMWARE! This is how firmwares should be handled. Very impresssing the examples below.

portable Navigation thru GPS
PC Remote Control
VoIP Calls everywhere

...and now take a look how Archos is f***ing around with handing out their sourcecode. The only consumption I can make, is...that they may have something similar in mind for their next PMP Generation.

Wouldn't it be incredible to have such functionality on the 604 Wifi...?

How Archos could improve!

2006-12-27T20:02:00.000+01:00

Hi everybody, hope you made it well through christmas holidays! :-)

Now that it's about time for New Years pledges, Archos could take the opportunity to improve a few things. I picked up some things on various message-boards I'm periodically reading. So here is what I think Archos should improve:

Customer Support in general:
The permanent issue. I think just about every company has learned that customers support is an essential part of business - except Archos. Back in the days, when I had my old Archos 6k Player people were already complaining about the unattainability of email support. Some never got a reply to their problems. Even more surprising that Archos hasn't learned to much obviously. The forums are full of threads of support not getting back. Luckily - calling Archos seems to help in some cases.
Support tracker:
When I once had trouble getting my router back up after a firmware upgrade, I did what everyone else would've done - logged on to their support site. I was very happy with the way they handled the whole process. I got a support-tracking number, which was logged to my issue. Due to that, I've been able to email back and forth with the same support person all the time. I was even able to add additional information of what I've tried in the meantime to fix it by myself before I got the first reply. Everything I sent it was collected under the same support-tracking number. That's what I call customer email support!
Software for Videoconversion:
The ipod has one, Iriver does, the PSP, too. Software that works flawless for the specific device. People are having problems to get their videos to work - even with the cinema plugins. Archos once released an MP4 converter as frontend for virtualdub. They stopped it with adding support of the PMA400. What is so hard to either support/recommend an free alternative or to negotiate a refund on a commercial product for Archos users? Most free software offers an IPod profile for video conversion... some have one for Archos as well...but not for every model. So wouldn't that be something for Archos to at least team up with some software programmers and finally pop out a working software to handle videos? I think it's absolutly ridiculous to offer all the plugins and push all the problems with it to their customers.
Terrible website translation:
Just today I tried the "german" website of Archos while selecting "Germany" on top of the site. What I saw was more than retarded. I know this was done by some sort of translation software, but still...it's just horrible. As a new customer, I'd really doubt that I picked the right "professional working" company here... Really sucks. Even Italian is crippled as well, some things are translated, some are not. Really poor job.
An own forum:
Not that I don't like the great and free message boards around, dealing with Archos devices and all their issues. I found help there more than once myself. Thanx everybody :-). The fact that really bothers me, is that Archos a) doesn't have an own forum to get help straight from the horse mouth nor b) links to some board of their choice. Not a single word. Very poor as well.
Manuals not constantly updated:
After adding new features thru firmware updates, Archos just about never updated their manuals. In fact, their current manuals do not match the actuall products. A good example is the option to turn of the Arclib mentioned in the manual. It was part of the AV500 firmware, but is not available on the 04-series - even the manual says so.

Any thoughts on this anybody? :-) Feel free to add a comment...'cos that's just my 0.02$.

Christmas present for 604 wifi users!

2006-12-21T18:38:00.000+01:00

Just today and a with 2 day offset, Archos released this years last update for the Archos 604 Wifi. This update is - guess what :-) - almost identical to the one released for the 404/504/604 on December 19th. Differences between the 604 and the 604 Wifi update are marked bold.

Bugs fixed AND new features:
Version 1.6.05
-----------------
Improvements:
- Wifi: Dynamic wireless power management to speed up downloads in Opera web browser
- Wifi: Better handling of hidden wireless networks
- Wifi: Bigger icons and fonts for Opera browser on TV
- Audio: Better sound presets.
- Arclib: Arclib maximum capacity increased.
- Video: Support VC1 encoded video files.
- Video: Support MJPG encoded .AVI and .MOV files.
- Video: Enable animated thumbnails for DRM videos.
- Videocorder: Allow recording of widescreen NTSC content.
- Photo: Use EXIF orientation to avoid rotating every Picture by hand.
- Photo: Take rotation into account for wallpapers.
- Photo: Declare ".jpe", ".jfif" and ".jif" as valid picture files.
- Photo: Support CMYK (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, blacK ) jpegs.
- GUI: Improved battery status display in the statusbar.

Bug fixes:
- Wifi: when scanning for wireless networks, signal level of already discovered networks was not updated
- Audio: Album Art synchronization with Windows Media Player 11.
- Audio: When using the video browser, the audio in background was sometimes lost.
- Audio: duration was wrong in info with some MP3 VBR tracks.
- Audio: Fix elapsed/remaining time corrupted when switching from a track >1h to a track <1h.
- Video: folder+shuffle mode sometimes failed.
- Video: Some .MP4 files did not stop at the end.
- Video: ASF files with 0 sized chunks did stop playback.
- Video: ASF FPS estimate was sometimes wrong.
- Video: Image better centered in original and auto modes.
- Video: Fix jerky playback of H264 B-frames after seek.
- Video: Better A/V sync at start and after seeking.
- Videocorder: Apply PAL PLUS correction if detected during recording.
- Videocorder: Preview better centered on TV.
- Photo: Fix weird effect when scrolling portrait pictures in photowall.
- Photo: Fix thumbnails could be displayed on background of sound/settings screens
- Photo: Portrait picture zoom sometimes crashed on TV-out.
- Photo: Fix corrupted band at the right of some picture on TV-out NTSC 4/3.
- Photo: Allow sound control with the IR remote.
- Photo: do not try to zoom small pictures.
- USB host: Some devices did not work high speed due to CRC errors on the bus.
- USB MTP: sometimes cancel didn't work with usb full speed.
- DVR station: video pass through mustn't be disabled as soon as the unit is on the DVR station.
- GUI: Repair and format menu displayed was empty after toggling video output.
- GUI: Suppress some video glitches on TV when no external module is plugged.
- GUI: Fix issues when switching LCD/TV output with the USB charge message displayed.
- GUI: Fix ARClib update messagebox overwriting the charge message at startup.

Download the current version: OS v. 1.6.05

Santa Archos brings new firmware version!

2006-12-19T18:33:00.000+01:00

FINALLY, the long anticipated firmware update is out! This looks like a huge update and will satisfiy most G4 users. While taking a brief look, it seems the fixed alot of things and whiped away the things I adressed a couple of days ago.

Bugs fixed AND new features:
Version 1.6.04
-----------------
Improvements:
- Audio: Better sound presets.
- Arclib: Arclib maximum capacity increased.
- Video: Support VC1 encoded video files.
- Video: Support MJPG encoded .AVI and .MOV files.
- Video: Enable animated thumbnails for DRM videos.
- Videocorder: Allow recording of widescreen NTSC content.
- Photo: Use EXIF orientation to avoid rotating every Picture by hand.
- Photo: Take rotation into account for wallpapers.
- Photo: Declare ".jpe", ".jfif" and ".jif" as valid picture files.
- Photo: Support CMYK (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, blacK ) jpegs.
- GUI: Improved battery status display in the statusbar.

Bug fixes:
- Audio: Album Art synchronization with Windows Media Player 11.
- Audio: When using the video browser, the audio in background was sometimes lost.
- Audio: duration was wrong in info with some MP3 VBR tracks.
- Audio: Fix elapsed/remaining time corrupted when switching from a track >1h to a track <1h.
- Video: folder+shuffle mode sometimes failed.
- Video: Some .MP4 files did not stop at the end.
- Video: ASF files with 0 sized chunks did stop playback.
- Video: ASF FPS estimate was sometimes wrong.
- Video: Image better centered in original and auto modes.
- Video: Fix jerky playback of H264 B-frames after seek.
- Video: Better A/V sync at start and after seeking.
- Videocorder: Apply PAL PLUS correction if detected during recording.
- Videocorder: Preview better centered on TV.
- Camcorder: avoid image blinking is some conditions (404cam only).
- Photo: Fix weird effect when scrolling portrait pictures in photowall.
- Photo: Fix thumbnails could be displayed on background of sound/settings screens
- Photo: Portrait picture zoom sometimes crashed on TV-out.
- Photo: Fix corrupted band at the right of some picture on TV-out NTSC 4/3.
- Photo: Allow sound control with the IR remote.
- Photo: do not try to zoom small pictures.
- USB host: Some devices did not work high speed due to CRC errors on the bus.
- USB MTP: sometimes cancel didn't work with usb full speed.
- DVR station: video pass through mustn't be disabled as soon as the unit is on the DVR station.
- GUI: Repair and format menu displayed was empty after toggling video output.
- GUI: Suppress some video glitches on TV when no external module is plugged.
- GUI: Fix issues when switching LCD/TV output with the USB charge message displayed.
- GUI: Fix ARClib update messagebox overwriting the charge message at startup.

Archos 404	Archos 504	Archos 604
Download Version 1.6.04	Download Version 1.6.04	Download Version 1.6.04

Emm...? While being so excited about it, I wonder what happened to the 604 wifi? No update on this one? I'm very surprised, since the 604wifi must've suffered just about the same issues as the 604 and the 504... :-| Maybe they'll shot out another update tomorrow...!?

Did you know...? #3

2006-12-15T18:45:00.000+01:00

...if you have problems to log on to eg. google-mail and get an error message like:

"unable to complete secure transaction"

your problem might be easily solved by setting the Archos' clock. The SSL certificate will fail, if it's not set.

Also, a lot of people use this addy: http://m.gmail.com/ to check their google mail account.

High Demands on next firmware update!

2006-12-15T18:09:00.000+01:00

Well, it's been a while since Archos released their last firmware update for the Generation 4 PMPs. Actually that was more than 3 weeks ago. So the release cycle has been tripled - from one over two to three weeks now. They must've been flooded with bug reports. I mean real bugs, not just little annoyances. Let's hope they're doing their homework and fix some serious issues.

As there are:
With the 504/604 (wifi) series

Huge problems with lots of MP3s --> Arclib updates forever. Option to turn it off definitely needed
Some people reported worse screen quality than the AV500
MP3s sounding fuzzy, but play fine after reboot.
No subtitle support
Static charge causes reboot
Low sound volume (this is limited by european law)
WMV8 doesn't seem to work properly - only sound, no video
Units lock up once in a while

With the 604 wifi

VOB file streaming obviously doesn't work - avi does though
Opera browser lacks features like flash, java
No copy/past in opera

I hope I caught the most common things here. If I didn't feel, free to add a comment below. There is certainly more to complain, but as every new product, sorting out bugs in the beginning has become a usual process. Let's hope they'll be fixing the above issues with the next release.

Archos 604 wifi firmware updated

2006-12-13T15:42:00.000+01:00

Very minor update today.

Dunno what they're doing. There are quite a few other issues that need attention. Although, the SSID-bug was very annoying, I expected more... like fixing the display issue the 504 suffers as well. I'm afraid, if they didn't do it on the wifi, they might not fix it on the 504 either. OR, Archos fixed this little issue and saves all the major improvements for the next overall Generation 04 update. :-D

Let's hope they'll add at least an option for turning arclib off.

Version 1.5.58
-----------------

Bug fixes:
- Connecting to a hidden wireless network could prevent other networks from being detected

Download the current version: OS v. 1.5.58

Welcome to the Zoo...!

2006-12-08T20:55:00.000+01:00

Already at the end of November, the guys of openPMA released their new version of opensource OS for the PMA430. Giraffe follows Zebra.

Quite a few new features were added:

Now using second "hidden" partition instead of fragile progfs.img
Unionfs with system partition to have everything writeable.
free'd 6MiB of RAM by moving less used things from aimage to the partition.
Dutch translation
Bluetooth support (especially for dialup)
Fixed and improved Embeddedconsole terminal application
Vastly improved Virtual keyboard
Samba for PMA - GUI frontend for Windows style file shares and control of built in file server.
Support for new hardware devices (USB-Ethernet, USB-WLAN, USB-Serial)
updated applications in package feed (available via Software Packages applet)

Can't wait to make your precious even more valuable? Download the files here. Andrew of Pointlisse/PMA430 provides an excellent installation guide.

Did you know...? #2

2006-12-04T18:53:00.000+01:00

...that you can use instant messenging on your Archos 604 Wifi? All you have to do is go to eBuddy Mobile, fill in your data and you're ready to go.

Archos 404cc now official and firmware updated!

2006-12-04T18:14:00.000+01:00

ARCHOS 404 Camcorder

Already on December 1st, Archos introduced the 402cc follow-up model, the 404 Camcorder. So what basically seperated it from the "normal" 404, is the ability to act as a camcorder or digital camera. A full overview can be found here.

Record your own videos in standard MPEG-4 format in VGA resolution (640 x 480) with the integrated camcorder and upload to blog sites. Take photos up to 1,3 megapixel resolution: easy for storing and sharing the best moments of your vacations, sports and family events.

In addition, or better in advance, Archos updated the 404cc firmware:

Version 1.5.56
-----------------
Improvements:
- Better handling of low battery conditions to increase the autonomy, especially in video playback.
- Add a charging reminder message.
- More user-friendly "plugin missing" messages.

Bug fixes:
- Allow automatic power off on battery low when USB is plugged, to prevent battery full discharge in some cases.

Archos 404 Camcorder

Download Version 1.5.56

Userbars for your forum signature!

2006-12-03T16:00:00.000+01:00

"Userbar....what the hell is that..?" ...you may think. If you're a registered member of a forum or messageboard you may have noticed, that some people carry things like that in their signature:

The purpose is, that other users know right away, what you're into, or in this case, what Archos you're calling your own. Due to that, they'll always know what you refer to. Of course, the forum admin has to allow html-tags as part of your signature. Board being up to date usually do.

There is only a minority of boards out there, that do not allow things like avantar pictures or pictures as part of the signature.

Here's a little sample of userbars I made:

The image already shows what models are available so far. Every Archos is available as GREEN, BLUE, RED or GREY userbar.

To add one of these images to your signature, download the zip-archive (~330kb), upload your desired image to eg. imageshack and add the following line to your signature: < img scr="[the link to your picture]" > (without spaces after < and before >). That's it.

Tick, Tick, Tick....Kling, Klang, Klong....

2006-11-26T17:05:00.000+01:00

I'm certainly not the first man in the world who has been through a hdd crash. What really makes me angry, is that it always happens in a period where you did not backup your data regularly. Why is there no way to find out WHEN you're drive will finally die. I guess that's really hard to tell. Although, there are quite a few diagnose tools available for IDE based drives. Some of them are listed below.

According to Toshiba, they do not offer any kind of diagnose tools. But it seems that Hitachi's diagnose software works for Toshiba drives, too.

For more utilities check here.

Archos Icon for your Desktop --> UPDATE

2006-11-26T15:26:00.000+01:00

Well, you never stop learning, do you? Right, neither do I. Yesterday I was searching for an icon painting software that can do multi-layer icons. That means, no matter what icon size (16x16, 32x32 etc.), it's all stored in one file. So if you'd use a multi-layer icon to customize your desktop, it would always look perfect - no matter what view you're using. After searching like crazy, I finally found out, that the software I used for my first icon-set, was already able to do the trick. :-(

Anyway, I repainted all icons I made so far and made them multi-layer icons. Now it's much more comfortable to use 'em. In addition, I added Windows-Vista-Support for those icons. As you may know, Vista will be introducing a new standard with icons sized 256x256 (wonder who would ever want huge icons like that). So the icons I made, already contain a 256x256 icon on one layer. That means you're all set, just in case you will get Windows Vista some day.

Below is a little preview of what the Icon-Zip-Archive (~1MB) contains:

Instructions on how to set the icon up can be found here.

Fantastic Archos 604 Wifi Review by Charbax!

2006-11-25T17:39:00.000+01:00

Great job, Charbax! Keep up the good work!

Lame firmware update G4

2006-11-23T18:15:00.000+01:00

Well, after poping out a new release weekly, Archos reduced pace a bit and waited 2 weeks before releasing an update. Unfortunately there is neither much new nor a lot of bugs fixed. Let's hope they'll make a bigger step forward with the next release.

Bugs fixed AND new features 404, 504, 604:

Version 1.5.56
-----------------
Improvements:
- Better handling of low battery conditions to increase the autonomy, especially in video playback.
- Add a charging reminder message.
- More user-friendly "plugin missing" messages.

Bug fixes:
- Allow automatic power off on battery low when USB is plugged, to prevent battery full discharge in some cases.

Archos 404	Archos 504	Archos 604
Download Version 1.5.56	Download Version 1.5.56	Download Version 1.5.56

Bugs fixed AND new features 604 Wifi:

Version 1.5.56
-----------------
Improvements:
- Better handling of low battery conditions to increase the autonomy, especially in video playback.
- Add a charging reminder message.
- More user-friendly "plugin missing" messages.

Bug fixes:
- Fix some issues with video recorder encryption
- Fix web browser crash when certain characters appear in bookmark title
- Allow automatic power off on battery low when USB is plugged, to prevent battery full discharge in some cases.

Archos 604 Wifi

Download Version 1.5.56

Excellent Archos Comparison Chart

2006-11-22T19:28:00.000+01:00

Most of you may already know Hotmp3gear.com. Just today, I discovered that they've got a fantastic - up to date - Archos Comparison Chart. It goes from Jukebox Multimedia to the latest Archos 604. It compares just about all features and technical specifications. Great job!

Click the picture to view the chart.

Archos Icons for your Desktop

2006-11-18T13:49:00.000+01:00

Today, I created a bunch of Desktop-Icons for Archos PMPs. So far, I made icons for the following models:

Archos 104
Archos 404
Archos 504
Archos 604
AV400
AV500
AV700
PMA400
Gmini400
Gmini500

So, what would you use those icons for? Icons come in handy, when eg. adding a desktop shortcut, linking to your Archos. Before I'll tell you how to do it, you better download the icons first.

First, extract either all icons or just the ones for your model to a location of your choice. After that, minimize all program windows to get a clear view of your desktop.

Next, right click on your desktop. Hit "New" and select "shortcut". Now a little wizard pops up, exactly telling you what to do (just in case your Archos wasn't connected yet, do it now)

Click "Browse" to pick your Archos and hit "Next". After that you may wanna pick a name for the shortcut. Most likely that's the name of your Archos eg. AV500.

Alright, now you've set up the shortcut. Now we'll change the look of it.

Right-click on the shortcut, select properties and after that the "Shortcut" tab. At the bottom, hit "Change Icon". Navigate to the location you saved the icons before. I'd pick the 48x48 icon, since it get's shrinked down all by itself and it still looks good if you're using symbol-view in Explorer.

Tada, you just customized your desktop while using a stylish Archos Icon to enter your PMP.

If that's not enough, you can also change the drive icon appearing in Windows Explorer. Doing that, you'd have to edit the registry. A good how-to can be found here.

Enjoy!
Your Archos is not part of the zip-file? Leave a comment and I'll add your model, too.

Did you know...? #1

2006-11-12T18:40:00.000+01:00

...that you can always restore the original data your Archos came with, without making a backup by yourself?

Archos currently lists the following models with their original files:

AV400
AV500
AV700
AV700 TV
Archos 104
Archos 504
Archos 604
Gmini 400
Gmini 402
Gmini 402 Camcorder
Gmini 500
Ondio
Ondio FM-Recorder
Ondio SP
XS 100
XS 202

I wonder were the Archos 404 is? And what about the PMA430? Well, I guess they just "forgot" those... :-/

But for those listed above, go here.

Official Archos 604 WiFi Overview

2006-11-09T13:49:00.000+01:00

After everything one needs was released these days, Archos finally introduces the new Archos 604 WiFi. Get an overview of this whopping touchscreen - WiFi device here.

To bad it comes with 30GB only. Let's hope Archos will offer at least 60GB soon...

Archos 604 Wifi firmware updated

2006-11-07T20:12:00.000+01:00

Shortly released and already stuffed with a bunch of bugfixes and new features.

Version 1.5.53
-----------------

Improvements:
- Support Helmet Camera, with timestamp
- Allow mute/unmute the speaker while recording video
- Fix video record resolution at the optimal setting
- Allow displaying on TV extern while helmetcorder is plugged
- Allow to start an helmetcorder recording from standby mode
- Support plugin videopodcast (H264 and AAC codecs)
- Display the plugins info in the System menu
- USB connection faster in Windows Device mode
- LCD now turns off automatically after a long USB connection (save power)
- Always output audio on the analog output of the DVR station (music playback or video playback)
- Improved video playback quality on LCD with very dark movies (fix persistance trails)
- Improved playlist management and playlist playback in shuffle mode
- Support plugin cinema (MPEG-2 and AC3 codecs; .vob, .mpg and .ps file formats)
- New podcast category in ARCLIB

Bug fixes:
- Make it possible to start charge over USB while viewing a video
- Arclib sometimes crashed when entering Music/Photo if it is empty.
- Makes Arclib more robust to broken ID3V2 and WMA/ASF tags
- Fix bad behavior of the photo viewer zoom when music is playing in background
- Detect correctly all the video files recorded with a Archos PMA400
- Fix changing video playback speed could crash the unit
- OSD nicer on the TV output
- Make videorecording with HelmetCam more stable
- Fix selecting an empty folder in the photo browser could crash the unit
- Fix hard disk free space in the videorecorder
- Fix some GUI glitches
- Fix MPEG-4, H264 and AAC decoder bugs
- Fix playback glitches with some WMV9 video files protected with WMDRM10 (sound was noisy sometimes)
- Make Exif parser more robust against corrupted files
- Fix some Arclib issues with very large number of files
- Display plugin names in the system menu
- Factory reset now does reset theme and font color
- Fix some issues with video recorder encryption
- Improve french virtual keyboard

Download the current version: OS v. 1.5.53

Cinema Plugin Finally Available!

2006-11-07T19:49:00.000+01:00

As predicted yesterday, Archos released their Cinema Plugin for Generation-4 units.

With this plugin you can:

Play back videos on and from your ARCHOS in DVD quality: MPEG-2 format (.vob, .mpg and .ps extensions). Multi-language supported.
Listen to 5.1 sound on your home cinema system through the SPDIF output (through the DVR station).

Can't wait to get it? Click here

New firmware release supports Cinema Plugin

2006-11-06T20:27:00.000+01:00

Well, it was about time :-). After spoiling us with weekly firmware updates, it took Archos 2 weeks to pop out a new release this time. As you can see, they've prepared their Generation-4 models to work with the cinema plugin - which has not been released YET. So I guess it'll come out pretty soon.
Bugs fixed AND new features:

Version 1.5.52
-----------------

Improvements:
- Support plugin cinema (MPEG-2 and AC3 codecs; .vob, .mpg and .ps file formats)
- New podcast category in ARCLIB

Bug fixes:
- Fix MPEG-4, H264 and AAC decoder bugs
- Fix playback glitches with some WMV9 video files protected with WMDRM10 (sound was noisy sometimes)
- Fix SPDIF sound is sometimes cracking on 504
- Make Exif parser more robust against corrupted files
- Fix some Arclib issues with very large number of files
- Display plugin names in the system menu
- Factory reset now does reset theme and font color
- Fix some issues with video recorder encryption
- Turn on charge LED when usb attached on 504
- Improve french virtual keyboard

Archos 404	Archos 504	Archos 604
Download Version 1.5.52	Download Version 1.5.52	Download Version 1.5.52

Archos Extension Updated!

2006-11-05T19:23:00.000+01:00

The guys of MediaCoder updated their Archos Extension. Now you'll in fact see the AV500 when changing the setting. Of course the AV700 is still there.

I noticed that the extension is now called Archos AV Series (was AV700 before). The developers of MediaCoder will be adding more Archos-models in the future.

While posting this, I noticed that the mediacoder website is down... Well, you can still get the lastest release at sourceforge.net. Click here for the latest release candidate.

Archos Search Engine

2006-11-03T22:13:00.000+01:00

Did you ever get mad while searching the internet for valuable and useful information about your Archos? Search engines usually spit out a zillion results. Wouldn't it be great to have a search engine that only searches Archos-Related websites?

There is hope!
I created an Archos-Search-Engine, which currently searches a bunch of good sites dealing with Archos.

This search engine is still in beta stages and needs some serious fixes. I did put this up for testing. A mayor issue is that sites of the so called "supplemental index" can not be included in the search - yet. That's why a search on google.com brings up different results.

Happy testing! Click to Enter.

Do you wanna contribute one of your favorite sites? Get in touch.

Archos Extension for Mediacoder available!

2006-11-03T20:01:00.000+01:00

Finally, the guys of Mediacoder added an Archos Extension to their great Videoconverter. For now, video for Archos AV500 and AV700 can be converted with ease. After adding your files to the filelist, there's only one thing you have to do: Hit >Devices< >Extensions< and there it is >AV700<. Now pick your desired videosetting and the resolution for either the AV500 or AV700. I also chose >Crop to fit screen<, which worked quite well with my videoclip.

Here's what the AV-Extension Interface looks like:

Remember, Mediacoders current version still is a pre-release. So don't set your computer on fire, if it ain't working out the way you want it to. I can only speak for myself, I had only very very small problems with the whole program so far. For me, this thing just rocks!

To get Mediacoder with the Archos extension, download the latest built here. After that, get the newest update-file as well, 'cos that's where the extension is. Install, and you're ready to convert.

If you're willing to share your experience with the mediacoder guys to improve and most likely add more Archos models to Mediacoder, check their forum or post your comments below. There is a feedback topic on the board already.

Let's do the Time Warp again..!

2006-11-01T23:00:00.000+01:00

Today, I made a timeline for "all" Archos Audio/Videoplayers ever made. So why did I write "all"... I did find quite some information about newer models. For some reason, even wikipedia can't tell about the release dates of:

FM Recorder
Recorder v2
Ondio SP
Ondio FM

So if you used to own (or still do) any of these models, just drop a line and I'll add it to the timeline. But you better hurry, only 6 days left before the shareware expires :-) So here's what I made so far:

Long-sighted people Click here.

Most likely, dates on the chart and on the internet may vary...still - Enjoy.

Video Review of Archos 504

2006-10-30T21:46:00.000+01:00

...this is the first look from CNET...ehmmm...from Archosfans.com...

He almost made it through :-) Anyway...still a very nice review!

Video Podcast Plugin Available for G4

2006-10-24T20:19:00.000+02:00

Just today, Archos released the optional available Video Podcast Plugin for Generation-4 Models only.

With this plugin you can:

Listen to audio podcasts, free audio files downloaded from the internet in AAC or M4A format.
Play back free video files downloaded from the internet with .mp4, .m4v or .mov extensions, encoded with H264 video codec and sound track in MP3 or AAC format.

Can't wait to get it? Click here.

Weekly Firmware update G4-Series

2006-10-23T19:49:00.000+02:00

Allright, time again for some firmware updates. There was a smaller update on the AV500 firmware a few days ago. Only a minor issue fixed with the helmet camera.

Archos is still keeping the speed up for firmware updates of their G4-Series PMPs. Bugs fixed AND new features:

Version 1.5.04
-----------------
Improvements:
- Support plugin videopodcast (H264 and AAC codecs)
- Display the plugins info in the System menu
- USB connection faster in Windows Device mode
- LCD now turns off automatically after a long USB connection (save power)
- Always output audio on the analog output of the DVR station (music playback or video playback)
- Improved video playback quality on LCD (a504 and a604) with very dark movies (fix persistance trails)
- Improved playlist management and playlist playback in shuffle mode

Bug fixes:
- Detect correctly all the video files recorded with a Archos PMA400
- Fix changing video playback speed could crash the unit
- OSD nicer on the TV output
- Make videorecording with HelmetCam more stable
- ARClib now supports more malformed MP3, ASF or JPG headers
- Fix selecting an empty folder in the photo browser could crash the unit
- Fix hard disk free space in the videorecorder
- Fix some GUI glitches

Archos 404	Archos 504	Archos 604
Download Version 1.5.04	Download Version 1.5.04	Download Version 1.5.04

No Greasy Fingers please...!

2006-10-21T15:46:00.000+02:00

Recently, different sources on the net reported that Apple will release a "Touchscreen-Ipod" due to their 30th company anniversary. I've been searching the net, and here is what I found:

Dammit!! That looks really nice... no buttons, navigation by screen gestures. If you wanna get more information, check out: Trustedreviews.com.

It seems Apple is accepting the challenge. The PMA400 already came with touchscreen and a stylus. In November Archos will be releasing the Archos 604 - Wifi which could give the lead to them. I'm looking forward to see the fight continue...

Manage Your Music and more with Songbird 0.2

2006-10-21T11:54:00.000+02:00

How do you manage your Media? Are you one of those people who have a software for every certain task? This could end here! If you're willing to give Songbird a shot, you'll be able to:

Organize Your Library
Play MP3, AAC, OGG, FLAC, WMA and more
Build Custom Mixes
Play the Web
Set Music Watch Folders

All that with one application...and that's not all yet. Check out the features page for detailed information.

Songbird supports 39 languages and is a Cross-Plattform application, which means you can use it on Windows, Linux and Mac OS.

Check out the self-explaining screencast to learn more about the great features of songbird:

Convinced? Curious? Well, get the download here.

Damn!! Another Firmware Update

2006-10-16T19:06:00.000+02:00

Second update within a week for G-4 models. It seems that Archos is trying to sort out bugs and add features as quick as possible... maybe to leave the firmware alone after a certain stage of fixes :-)...Dunno...for now, good job!

Bugs fixed AND new features this time:

Version 1.4.06
-----------------
Improvements:
- Allow displaying on TV extern while helmetcorder is plugged
- Allow to start an helmetcorder recording from standby mode
Bug fixes:
- Make it possible to start charge over USB while viewing a video
- Arclib sometimes crashed when entering Music/Photo if it is empty.

Version 1.4.07
-----------------
Bug fixes:
- Makes Arclib more robust to broken ID3V2 and WMA/ASF tags
- Fix bad behavior of the photo viewer zoom when music is playing in background

Archos 404	Archos 504	Archos 604
Download Version 1.4.07	Download Version 1.4.07	Download Version 1.4.07

Again, identical changes were made for all G-4 Models.

Video Conversion with MediaCoder 0.5.0

2006-10-14T11:53:00.000+02:00

Most of you probably have good tool for converting videos to view on your Archos... like PocketDivXEncoder. But there is only and older version available for free. The technology is now being used in "Lathe" which ain't freeware.

Two days ago, I stumbled over this great program called MediaCoder. This thing really kicks ass! If you don't have a decent program for converting videos to match your Archos specifiations, this might be the right piece of software for you. It can even deal with flv (Flashvideo) files like being used on Youtube.
I did some testing with 2 videos. But before, check out what kind of data MediaCoder can handle:

MP3, Ogg Vorbis, AAC, AAC+, AAC+V2, MusePack, WMA, RealAudio
FLAC, WavPack, Monkey's Audio, OptimFrog, AAC Lossless, WMA Lossless, WAV/PCM
H.264, Xvid, DivX, MPEG 1/2/4, H.263, Flash Video, 3ivx*, RealVideo*, Windows Media
AVI, MPEG/VOB, Matroska, MP4, RealMedia*, ASF/WMV, Quicktime*, OGM*
CD*, VCD*, DVD*, CUE Sheet*

* supported as input file

When starting MediaCoder for the first time, you'll probably get an error-message saying something like: "..failed to...blabla... 127.0.0.1:8109". This is because the program runs with an built-in HTML-daemon. Here's the explaination according to the FAQ:

What does the built-in HTTP daemon do? The only use of the tiny built-in HTTP daemon is to generate web-based user interfaces which are rendered by XULRunner (no XPCOM stuff is needed in this manner). This HTTP daemon is derived from another open source project of mine, called MiniWeb. By default it only listens on 127.0.0.1. It never acts as spyware or anything else (I hate spyware to death), and if anyone is suspicious of it, I suggest they inspect the source code.

I configured my firewall to allow access at 127.0.0.1:8109 and I was up and running.

So first, here's what the interface looks like while converting:

As you can see, there are 2 areas below the filelist windows with lots of tabs. On the right you can adjust the audio settings, depending on what audio you wanna use. On the left there's everything for setting up the video-conversion. You can easily adjust the video resolution in the "picture"-tab. Just check out your players tech-specs for your display-specs and you're ready to go. Newer Archos models can play WMV and MPEG-4 (AVI) files.
I did 2 different tests:

Converting a .WMV file to .AVI (Bakkom - First Contact) using the 320x240 resolution of the G-4 404
Downsampling an DVD-ripped .AVI file (Fantastic 4) to match the 480x272 resolution of the G-4 504 and 604

For audio, I used Lame-MP3.

	Bakkom (WMV)		Fantastic 4 (AVI)
	Before	After	Before	After
Resolution	500x280	320x240	548x226	480x272
Audiorate	508 kbit/s	54 kbit/s	112 kbit/s	91 kbit/s
Videorate	479 kbit/s	18 kbit/s - 12fps	118 kbit/s - 25fps	31 kbit/s
Filesize	5.6 MB	1.7 MB	718 MB	185 MB

As you can see, there is a significant reduction in file-size. As far as the time goes...it took 39:04 minutes to downsample the .AVI-file on a 2.2Ghz machine. The .WMV file was done - of course - much quicker. You can view the result of the converted .WMV file here.

I can only recommend MediaCoder 0.5.0. It's fast, easy to use and delivers excellent results.

One more thing...You may have noticed the "Devices" button. There are some preconfigured settings for certain gadgets. Unfortunately no Archos is listed there and you have to set it up by yourself.

Firmware Updates released

2006-10-11T18:08:00.000+02:00

Guess what, Archos has been working on the firmware. They released an update for the 404, 504, 604 models of the G4-series.

No bugfixes, but additional features added for all 3 G-4 models:

Version 1.4.03
-----------------
Improvements:
- Support Helmet Camera, with timestamp
- Allow mute/unmute the speaker while recording video
- Fix video record resolution at the optimal setting
- DRM10 upgraded to version 10.1

Archos 404	Archos 504	Archos 604
Download Version 1.4.03	Download Version 1.4.03	Download Version 1.4.03

Another interesting thing... While looking at the firmware history of these models, I noticed that there is absolutely no difference in what they fixed/added - no matter what model. To me it appears, that Archos uses the same basis for all 3 new PMPs. So that means they have to do every modification / bugfix "thrize". :-) Well, certainly makes work easier, but not less.

Wanna pimp your Archos..?

2006-10-08T19:40:00.000+02:00

Yesterday I went through my bookmarks and - surprisingly - I found quite a few links about Archos firmware. No, not about the original Archos firmware :-) I'm talking about open-source alternative firmware and software for quite a few Archos-models.

I don't think there is another PMP (beside the infamous Ipod)which inspires so many people in writing firmware, making apps or just deal with Archos stuff.

Right from the start, Archos did kind of a bad job in writing firmware for their units. Not that it didn't work at all, but it certainly lacked a lot of features and included restrictions like a 999 song limit on a 20GB player. :-/ After Rockbox started making a better firmware, they didn't release an update on their own firmware for ages. For players like the JBMM , the Gminis and the AVs, Archos got away from their .ajz-file firmware and went for the .AOS structur which is the result of the AVOS-project.
After a short trip to Qtopia-Linux on the PMA430, Archos immediately went back to AOS firmware for their new models.

Below I want to introduce a couple of open-source firmware projects:

The Rockbox Project

This was probably the first huge project of its kind. They got it all going. The story of Rockbox started back in 2001 with the first disassembled firmware version. Not even a year after that, they released Version 1.0! The first release I used on my old JB6000 was 1.2. Meanwhile they're on Version 2.5. In addition, the rockbox guys are popping out "daily builds" with small changes and new features. You can compare the Rockbox features over the Archos firmware here. Archos didn't release firmware updates for ages. So infact, the appearance of rockbox made a lot of people buy used Jukebox Players / Recorders etc.... just because of this great "Archos"-OS. After Rockbox reached a very final stage on the Archos units, they're now off to new shores and currently working on porting Rockbox to the iriver-series, the iAudio X5 and, guess what... to a lot of Ipod-models as well. Check the daily-builds for current files.

Supported Archos Models:	Ondio 128 & 128 FM Ondio 128 SP Player 5k, 6k Studio 10, 15, 20 Recorder 6, 10, 15, 20 Recorder V2 FM-Recorder

The Archopen Projects

Archopen was formed by former LinAV-developers. The goal is still the same - making Linux work on Archos Jukeboxes. Archopen throws out "daily-builds" too. Unfortunately the website doesn't show pictures of MediOS in action, but single apps in use like Zelda, SuperMarioBros. and Doom. Archopen comes in 2 parts: AvLo: AvLo is a customizeable graphical bootloader that allows to load the original Archos firmware as well as alternative firmware such as MediOS. MediOS: MediOS is a kernel that provides a cross-platform API among Archos multimedia hardware. If you developed an application with MediOS, you can easily port it to one of the supported Archos-models. There are a hand of nice apps out already: aoDoom - Doom --> Damn right, THAT Doom! aoBoy - Gameboy Emulator aoSMS - Sega Masters System Emulator gCalc - Calculator aoSPC - SPC (SNES) music player aoNES - NES Emulator

Supported Archos Models:	Jukebox Multimedia AV100-Series AV300-Series AV400-Series AV500-Series (thru firmware bug-exploit) Gmini 400, 402(CC)

The gmEmu Project

The gmEmu Project used to aim for porting Rockbox to the Gmini120 and the Gmini220. Unfortunately there has been no sign of life from the only left developer. The forum seems to be redundant too. There was already good progress but still a few tasks left to complete the port. The site still hosts good information about Gmini hardware and an upgrade How-to. The site is very slow and might not be available 24/7. So be patient.

(aimed) Supported Archos Models:	Gmini 120 Gmini SP Gmini 200 Gmini 220XS

The openPMA Project

openPMA is an open-source project that aims to implement an improved operating system for the Archos Personal Media Assistant, short "PMA". It has been possible to hack the bootloader of the PMA and therefore it's now possible to modify the PMAs operating system which resides in a file called "aimage.img". They've already been able to implement ogg/vorbis and mpc audio decoders. The openPMA-Team released openPMA v0.1.1 - called "Giraffe" this November. Andrew of Pointlisse.com has an awesome site with fantastic information for PMA users. He also hosts a How-to for hacking the bootloader. As with most other open-source projects, you're welcome to help developing. Due to the use of QTopia-Linux as OS for the PMA, people wondered if apps for the Sharp Zaurus - which uses QTopia too - would work for the PMA... and guess what, they do!! Zaurus apps just need to be repackaged. I've collected quite a view links with already repackaged apps and Zaurus apps: My PMA400 page Archos PMA400 Software Index PMA Extended OS - PXOS (French) IDev4PMA

Supported Archos Models:	PMA 430

Comments and links for other projects are very much welcome! ;-) Next week I might be popping out a little list of software written especially for Archos Music Players / PMPs.

Would you just...plug me in for some...?

2006-10-05T21:44:00.000+02:00

I know this has nothing to do with Archos. It's not even technical...anyway :-)
Today I read a magazine about online-contests of morphing and manipulating pictures. This is the site mentioned in the article: www.worth1000.com. This site is awesome. There are more than 257,000 images in 7000 galleries available for browsing. Registered users can participate in contests and view pictures in full view. I just wanted to share this with you ;-). Below you'll find 2 nice examples.

Oh yeah... a plug for everything a man needs!

I wanna grab a byte of that one...!

"Generation 4" - Feature Comparison

2006-10-03T15:57:00.000+02:00

Okay, I took all tech-spec. sheets of the Archos website and threw all data in a nice and handy table. I did put the 104 in there too, even if it's no competition to the other models at all.

		Archos Generation-4
		104	404	504	604

Capacity	4GB	X
	30GB		X		X
	40GB			X
	80GB			X
	160GB			X

Display	TFT	1.5"	3.5"	4.3"	4.3"
	Res.	128x128	320x240	480x272	480x272

Video Play	MPEG-4		X	X	X
	WMV		X		X
Plugins*	H.264		X	X	X
	MPEG-2		X	X	X

Audio Play	MP3	X	X	X	X
	WMA	X	X	X	X
	DRM WMA	X	X	X	X
	WAV	X	X	X	X
Plugins*	AAC		X	X	X
	AC3		X	X	X

Photo Viewer	JPEG	X	X	X	X
	BMP		X	X	X
	PNG		X	X	X

PDF-Viewer	PDF		X	X	X

Video Rec	MPEG-4 SP		X	X	X
	Res.		640x480	640x480	640x480

Audio Rec	Voice		X	X	X
	WAV		X	X	X

Interfaces	USB 2.0	X	X	X	X
	USB-Host		X	X	X

Battery life	Music Play	13 h	12 h	17 h	16 h
	Video Play		4 h	5.5 h	5 h

Power Src	Internal	X	X		X
	Removeable			X

Weight	in gr.	80	190	315	255

Dimensions	in mm	91x43x14	100x78x15	130x78x23	130x78x17

Prices on Amazon.com	4GB	~ 150$
	30GB		~ 270$		~ 330$
	40GB			~ 350$
	80GB			~ 360$
	160GB			~ 550$

* = with optional software plugin.

Well, after looking through the table, it's quite obvious that the 504 is the "ferrari" of the newester PMP-Generation.

It's got the best battery-life and Archos offers it with 3 different HD capacities. But why the hell (according to their own spec-sheets) doesn't it support WMV-playback? Does that make sense to you? I mean it even's got the removeable battery, so why skipping the WMV-playback on this one? I'm just hoping this is a mistake by some overpaid manual and tech-sheet writer. As well as not mentioning that there is a 40GB version as well.

Also interesting is the pricing on Amazon.com (prices Okt. 3rd 2006). The 80GB 504 is just 10$ more than the 40GB version!! Also surprising to see, that a 50 GB difference in capacity makes a 30$ gap between the 80GB 504 vs. 30GB 604. Really dunno why the 604 follows the 504. As far as features go, it's exactly the same...besides the 604 can playback WMVs and storage of course. It's even a bit smaller and 60gr. lighter...but well, wouldn't that be a surprise, if Archos didn't do things like that? :-)

Handy programs to go

2006-10-02T13:02:00.000+02:00

Nowadays, when the capacity of USB-Sticks has gone beyond 1GB of possible storage, there is quite more you can do than just throwing your documents on it.

Infact, you can manage your documents with your favorite programs on just about any computer. All you need is a free USB-plug. No software installation required. Just launch from your stick and you're ready to go.

Portableapps.com hosts a good collection of everyday software and tools.

As there were:

Development:

Nvu portable
XAMPP

Games

Sudoku portable

Graphics and Pictures

Gimp portable

Internet

Filezilla portable
Fireftp extension
Firefox portable
Gaim portable
Miranda IM portable
Sage extension
Thunderbird portable

Music & Videos

Audacity
VLC Media Player
MP3DirectCut

Office

AbiWord portable
Calender extension
OpenOffice.org portable
Sunbird portable
Thunderbird portable (addressbook)
Foxit PDF Reader

Operating Systems

Mac-on-Stick
DSL Damn Small Linux

Utilities

7-Zip portable
ClamWin portable
Torpark
PStart
SyncBack Free
Deepburner Free

Items directly linked were added by myself and not listed by portableapps.com.

Office-Anywhere...!!

2006-10-02T11:30:00.000+02:00

Quite a while ago, I signed up for Google-mail. I was very impressed by the 2GB of memory they offer. Anyway...Now Google is introducing a bunch of online applications you can use with your original mail account login and password.

I'll just call those apps "Office-Anywhere", because what I'm talking about is online

Writing
Spreadsheets
Calendar

...accessable from any computer hooked up to the internet.

Writing:

Google-Writely is a very nice word-like interface for online letter writing. Writely was bought by Google and already is a very well developed application. It offers alot of Word-known features and even allows to collaborate with your friends to work on the same document - at the same time - online. Just invite 'em by adding their email address. Knows how to deal with .ODF files.

Spreadsheet:

Google-Spreadsheet is supposed to be a basic Excel-Spreadsheet editor. It comes with (really) basic features to create tables. Also offers collaboration with your friends. This is in early development stages and not as perfected as writely YET and still needs alot of work.

Calender:

Google-Calender holds all your appointments at one place. Easily keep your life scheduled anytime, anywhere. Get SMS notifications about upcoming appointments or meetings. Share the calender with your friends or colleagues or create invitations for particular events.

Well, as always when Google comes up with something, Microsoft does just about the same thing - or the other way around. And so here too.
Microsoft is currently working on Microsoft Office Live which is an online office suit. While in beta, it's still free. As soon as it reaches final development stages, they'll charge you with 29.95$.

Allright everyone...remember, all you need is a Google-Account to use all the free (but yet partly basic) services Google offers. Find out more about Googles free software at: Google-Labs.

How will I find the right Linux for me...?

2006-10-02T11:14:00.000+02:00

Allright... You kinda fell for my last post and are now willing to give Linux a try.

Now which distribution is the right one for you? Well, you could just read through a bunch of websites and computer-magazines... not very exciting, ain't it...!?

But wait, there is help out there. There is a rough step-by-step "Test" which leads you towards the Linux-distribution that comes closest to your needs of computing.

Take the test at: zegeniestudios.net

Honey... Can I scrap your old notebook..??!

2006-10-01T17:52:00.000+02:00

WHAT!! Take your hands of my lappy wife! Put it right here... back up...don't you ever touch it again....please :-)

Alright, that was a bit exaggerated. But do you have an old notebook or one of your old computers down in the basement...in a lonley and dark place?

Why not resurrect your old computer with a free distribution of Linux. So did I with my old Dell Latitude 4000. I used the "Dapper Drake" Edition of Ubuntu. And what can I tell you...it works like a charme!

Linux is a completely free operating system. Every free Linux distribution of course uses free/opensource software. Eg. on Ubuntulinux, you can find your favorite tools out of 18000 installable packages. The aim of most Linux distributions is to provide a "out of the box" setup with everything the average computeruser needs for his daily work.

Complete Office-Suits (Openoffice, Koffice)
PIMs (Evolution, PIM)
Email (Thunderbird, Kmail)
Internet (Firefox, Konquerer)
Graphic-Manipulation software (Gimp, Inkscape, Krita)
Instant-Messengers (Gaim, Kopete)
Mediaplayers (Totem, Kaffeine)

...and lots more. Games, Scanning software, Learning and Educational programs.. and so on... this list could be just about endless.

Everything is updateable with the click of a button and - most important - FREE. Ubuntu uses "Synaptics" to manage all the installed and installable software, Kubuntu "Adept". Through the fact of free software, there are a lot of different distributions out there. I'll be introducing some of them below.

Ubuntu-Linux: Debian based. A great All-in-One Linux package. Comes with all the necessary tools you need for solid computer usage. Gnome-Desktop. Very good hardware recognition. I only had to fumble around with my WLAN-card. Review

Kubuntu-Linux: Kubuntu's got Ubuntu under the hood. But it come with KDE instead of Gnome and lots of other KDE complements. This is probably easier to get used to for former windows-users. Review

Freespire-Linux: Freespire is the FREE-Edition of Linspire. The desktop-theme is very Windows like. So if you don't wanna change your habbits, go for Freespire. Also Debian based and with Firewall onboard. KDE-Desktop. Review

Musix Musix is a very nice distribution made for people who are really into music, recording and editing their collection - great free audio tools onboard! IceWM (KDE). Review

Videolinux: VideoLinux is a PCLinuxOS-based distribution with focus on DVD backups, video encoding and transcoding, DVD authoring, format conversion and pretty much anything else you want to do with video. KDE-Desktop. Review

I know this doesn't really lead someone to install Linux right away. But maybe you got curious about it and wanna know more. Almost every distribution offers a Live-CD. That means you can burn the .iso-image on a CD and boot your computer from it. Doing so, you can try the entire OS without installing anything.

Check http://www.distrowatch.comfor links and detailed information about all kinds of Linux distributions.

Long time no see

2006-09-29T18:18:00.000+02:00

It's been a while since I last posted. Now I'm hoping to keep you updated and informed with new stuff about Archos. They 've released a couple of new models. I'll just call it the 04-Series. Archos released the

104 (follows the gmini xs100)
404 (for the gmini400)
504 (new gmini500)
604 (this one's new to me, doesn't seem to have a forerunner)

Besides the 104, all other models "only" come with a 30GB drive. I think that's because they use 1.8" drives according to the measurements:

404 --> 100x78x15 mm
504 --> 130x78x23 mm
604 --> 130x78x17 mm

Here is what the new PMPs look like:

I'll do some further display comparison later. Let's see what was improved. Also a second edition of What can I do with MY Archos? with the new models couldn't hurt either.

Ipod - something awful

2006-02-28T19:30:00.000+01:00

Today I've been going through my Firefox favorites and - not remembering what it was - entered the site. This is probably well known and has been viewed by thousands of people. Well, not new, but certainly funny, some are very mean though... here's a little example --> link can be found below:

Something Awful

WAV-Recording on older Jukeboxes

2006-02-26T19:25:00.000+01:00

The rockbox guys finally got a hand on the full documentation of the Recorders DSP (Digital Signal Processor).

Which means, that the chip can be reprogrammed to record .WAV!
If you're really into programming you can try it by yourself and download the necessary data:

More detailed information can be found here: Rockbox.org
Maybe this feature will be implemented into Rockbox firmware in the future... Jörg already suggested to discuss this topic on the DevCon2006.

How many hours of DVD really fit on my Achos?

2006-02-22T20:43:00.000+01:00

Hi everybody, This kinda mirrors my post from newmp3technology.com, but I thought it would be helpful, so I decided to place it here too. The question was:

So to help me can anyone advise me on how many hours video i could store on the 40Gb at near DVD quality. The manufacturer states 130 hours but i gather this is at quite a low quality.

Here is a general calculation:

Archos recommends 1500 kbits/second for near DVD quality
That means 1500 * 1000 bits/second.
To get bits/hour: 1500 000 * 3600 = 5 400 000 000 bits/hour
Now we don't want bit, we want byte, because that's what our drive has ( eg. 40 Gigabyte)
8 bits = 1 byte
That means: 5400 000 000 / 8 = 675 000 000 bytes/hour
Now 1 GB = 1 000 000 000 bytes
That means 675 000 000 bytes = 0.675 Gigabyte
The drive capacity is 40 GB
Finally we'll end up with a total of 40 / 0.675 = 59.259 hours of DVD joy.

You can easily modify this calculation by changing encoding bitrate and drive size towards your needs. Of course this calculation only gives a rough idea about how much hours will fit on your Archos. The exact result is less because:

The formatted capacity of a eg. 40GB drive is always less than 40GB
Well, kinda small influence but its there... the firmware eats up some space as well... only a view MBs though.

Discontinued MP3-Encoding?

2006-02-20T20:41:00.000+01:00

When Archos started with their AJB-Recorder product line back in the old days ( March 2001), their devices had the ability of real-time MP3 encoding from any analog and digital source ( most likely 30 - 160 Kbps - VBR). Even the early Gmini120 was still able to recorder on-the-fly to MP3. Just connected your stereo to the line-in port of your jukebox and you were set. Nothing easier than that.
But now, with all the fantastic newer models like the Gmini400/500, the AV500... Archos seems to discontinue this feature. I went through just about every datasheet they offer on their site and found this:

The following models are/were able to encode to MP3 in real-time from an analog/digital source:

Recorder V1 6/10/15/20
Recorder V2
FM Recorder 20
Multimedia 20
Gmini 120
Gmini SP
Gmini 220
AV120
AV300

The models below (fairly new ones) are only able to record to WAV from an analog source:

Gmini 400
Gmini 500
AV400
AV500
AV700

The only one who rules 'em all is the PMA430. This thing can do just about everything but making a good coffee :-)

Now why is this? Did Archos find out that no one used the MP3-encoding? Or did they switch to WAV because the hdd capacities were increasing rapidly? Maybe people just use that WAV recording thing for making short voice notes...?
What do you think? Would you like to conserve this feature?

What can I do with MY Archos?

2006-02-20T17:53:00.000+01:00

A general overview of what Archos' models can or can not do.

Model	Audio Play	Audio/FM Record	Video Play	Video Record	Picture view/take
Players/Studios	X
Recorder V1	X	X	.rvf*
Recorder V2/FM	X	X	.rvf*
GminiXS100	X
GminiXS200/202	X
Gmini100	X	X
GminiSP	X	X			view
Gmini220	X	X			view
Gmini400/402	X	X	X		view
Gmini402 Cc	X	X	X		both
Gmini500	X	X	X		view
Multimedia 20	X	X	X	X**	both**
AV100	X	X	X	X**	both**
AV300	X	X	X	X**	view
AV400	X	X	X	X	view
AV500	X	X	X	X	view
AV700	X	X	X	X	view
PMA430	X	X	X	X	view

* click here for .rvf converter.
** with external module.

Sorry about the Ondio players. But not even Archos hosts tech. spec. sheets on their site at all. All table entries are based on current Archos tech. spec. sheets available at Archos.com

Comments and error corrections on this table are very welcome

Archos LCD Comparison

2006-02-19T13:04:00.000+01:00

While browsing the Archos website I noticed that the AV500 and the AV700 almost got the same screen resolution. But the AV700's got a whopping 7" screen... hmm... could be interesting to compare the screens of the following models:

AV700
AV500
AV400
PMA400
Gmini500
Gmini402

And here is what I figured out (the enlarged picture shows the actual size of the screens): Like mentioned above, I think it's very surprising, that the AV700 does have a 7" screen, but has just about the same resolution like the AV500. So, if I'm not mistaken, playing the same movie on both devices would make it look less "sharp" on the AV700? I mean like playing one of those funny little movies on Windows-Media-Player and set the view to 200%...

Is the Gmini500 a stealth AV500?

2006-02-18T18:28:00.000+01:00

VS.

Ever since Archos released the Gmini500 I was wondering what the difference between those two is. I took a look archos.com and compared the tech. specs of both models. So here's the difference: Advantage AV500:

More AV-connections due to its recording ability
Video-recording

Advantage Gmini500:

Builtin microphone (dunno if that's just a mistake in Archos' tech. spec. sheet)

I think it would be very interesting to open up the Gmini500 and see if Archos is using the same board for both models --> BUT cover the present AV-connections on the board with a different case for the Gmini500. So that there is a small chance to buy a Gmini500 and actually get a AV500. Of course there's still the chance that Archos disabled the recording feature through the Gmini500 firmware. If both models have the same board, the AV500 firmware might be working as well. Well, we'll finally find out if someone dares to take his Gmini500 apart and check out the board. Here's something to confirm my suspicion: The silver one is the AV500, black Gmini500. And as you can see, they are almost 100% identical. BUT the additional AV-connections of the AV500 are covered by the different Gmini500 case. Wait a minute you may say... the Gmini500 is "fatter" than the AV500... Well, that's because the Gmini shown here is the 40GB version, which has a 2.5" drive. The 30GB AV500 uses a 1.8" drive. But for now, this definetly is a cheap and "smart" solution to sell 2 different models while the 30Gb Gmini is 399€ and the AV500 is 489€ on amazon.de.

Hello World

2006-02-18T11:31:00.000+01:00

Hello everybody, You're all heartly invited to place a comment below every topic. I hope you'll find some help and intersting reading on this blog. Fury