Archos Media Players

archos media players

By Anne Ahira

Remember when a portable media player was a boom box and a bag of D batteries? Thos were the days, when a you had to use two hands to carry your music around with you.

Today though you can carry more music in your pocket than ten people could have carried back then, can you imagine trying to lug around a 100 cassette tapes?

Now you have things like the Archos media players, capable of toting hundreds if not thousands of songs and it will all fit in the palm of your hand! Amazing how far music players have come in 20 years.

Features

Archos media players come in many sizes, from as small as 2 GB to the massive 160 GB players there is a media player for just about anyone. For the purposes here let’s look at the granddaddy of them the 160 GB.

Technical:

• 160 GB hard drive
• Wifi for sharing
• 7 inch full color screen
• Compatible with Dish Network satellite, with optional plug in you can transfer movies or shows you have recorded on DVR
• Free widget pack
• USB 2.0 compatible
• Storage- 200 movies, 1.6 million images or 95,000 songs (is this insane or what?)

Pros

Archos media players have the memory down pat, does anyone even own 95,000 songs or 1.6 million photographs? With this, much memory no one on the planet should be able to complain that there is not enough room for their media!

A seven-inch LCD display blows the competition away. No other media player has come close to this size screen.

The free widgets pack that comes with this model Archos media player includes such applications as a calculator, currency converter, weather updates and news. These are free downloads that you receive after you register the product.

Dish Network now has a plug in that is compatible with Archos media players. With it, you can download the movies or television shows to your portable and take them anywhere you go. Never miss an important episode of Greys Anatomy again!

Cons

Not so much a con as time consuming Archos media players come with a preloaded 81 page instruction manual that by all accounts you will need to read. It will give you systematic instructions on how to set the unit up and all the extras that come with it. It is a pro that the unit comes with so much detail, but reading it all is a bit of a drag.

Without purchasing an add on you may find that audio is quite low. Using the unit in your car on long journeys, you will want to purchase the docking station with audio outputs. This will give you the volume you need through your car speakers. Really and oversight on the part of manufacturing on this point.

Overall

Nice media player with more storage than you will ever need. Archos media players have a fine reputation on the internet and off. Carefully examine the instructions when you buy this device, the unit lists for $ 359 on Amazon and similar sites, so you will want to operate it properly.

You may want to check out my other guide on Sansa MP3 and Creative MP3 Player.

Here's Archos Media Players Selections:

Archos 604 30 GB Portable Media Player - Refurbish...	Customer Review: I bought this because I was on a bit of a financial shoestring. Though I must admit I was a bit afraid of buying a refurbished product. Amazon has always done right by me so that helped eased my tension. When my creative zen vision 30 froze and I ... Read More	(4)
Archos 605 Wi-Fi Portable Media Player (30 GB)...	Customer Review: I wish I had taken heed of the negative reviews...but being stubborn and stupid might I add, I ignored them all the went ahead and poured my money down the drain buying this piece of electronic junk! It is the MOST temperamental gadget I have EVER ha... Read More
Archos 605 Wifi Sync / Charge USB Cable...	Customer Review: Click Here for More Info
Archos 5 250 GB Internet Media Tablet...	Customer Review: I'm not one of these people that goes out and buys whatever's new. I listen to a lot of music, so I like mp3 players but, prior to this was given to me as a Christmas gift this past year, I had a 20gb Dell that had a two color screen, was around ten ... Read More
Archos 605 Wi-Fi Portable Media Player (160 GB)...	Customer Review: I wish I had taken heed of the negative reviews...but being stubborn and stupid might I add, I ignored them all the went ahead and poured my money down the drain buying this piece of electronic junk! It is the MOST temperamental gadget I have EVER ha... Read More