I Have Archos 430 In My Hands! Any Questions?

[xjqian]

This file (640x480 24fps 1500Kbit/s 2-pass XviD 44Khz Stereo 128Kbit/s MP3) is played without any problems with great quality that Zaurus currently can only dream of
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How does a 640x480 movie play on the 320x240 screen? Downsampled? If so, what's the advantage of having the movie encoded as 640x480.

Is this just an test w/o user appreciable difference of  the movie's 320x240 counterpart? If so, it only proves the capability of the vedio card doing downsampling (or similar algorithm) without losing the speed of playback? This is the only info I get from it. What's so impressive in terms of the end results (i.e. viewing experience)? I didn't get it or am I missing something?

edit: are you emphasizing on the higher fps instead of the resolution? That may be a fair point.

[maslovsky]

This file (640x480 24fps 1500Kbit/s 2-pass XviD 44Khz Stereo 128Kbit/s MP3) is played without any problems with great quality that Zaurus currently can only dream of
[div align=\"right\"][a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=72085\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a][/div]

How does a 640x480 movie play on the 320x240 screen? Downsampled? If so, what's the advantage of having the movie encoded as 640x480.

Is this just an test w/o user appreciable difference of  the movie's 320x240 counterpart? If so, it only proves the capability of the vedio card doing downsampling (or similar algorithm) without losing the speed of playback? This is the only info I get from it. What's so impressive in terms of the end results (i.e. viewing experience)? I didn't get it or am I missing something?

edit: are you emphasizing on the higher fps instead of the resolution? That may be a fair point.
[div align=\"right\"][a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=72207\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a][/div]

The downsampled 640x480 movies looks much better that 320x240 one. It looks more detailed. Especcialy when there is some text. It could be simply due to the fact that in this particular case 640x480 movie also has mich higher bitrate than 320x240 one (1500 vs 500). Unfortunately Zaurus can only dream on playing video at such a bitrate...

Also, remember that this device can play movies on external TV. In such case you should have a movie with as much resolution as possible. Imagine how 320x240 movies will look on a TV screen...

[richie]

Also, remember that this device can play movies on external TV. In such case you should have a movie with as much resolution as possible. Imagine how 320x240 movies will look on a TV screen...
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Hi Maslovsky

Is Qtopia useable plugged in to a TV screen. Interested to know if using the konsole terminal and other apps like Opera is okay on a TV with 320x240. Thinking it could be used for limited work with a usb keyboard when travelling, using hotel tellys as a bigger screen.

I find Zaurus 5500 apps slow at times, but useable, would you say the Qtopia apps on the PMA430 are slower than a Zaurus?

Cheers
Rich

[maslovsky]

Also, remember that this device can play movies on external TV. In such case you should have a movie with as much resolution as possible. Imagine how 320x240 movies will look on a TV screen...
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Hi Maslovsky

Is Qtopia useable plugged in to a TV screen. Interested to know if using the konsole terminal and other apps like Opera is okay on a TV with 320x240. Thinking it could be used for limited work with a usb keyboard when travelling, using hotel tellys as a bigger screen.

Yes, it's usable, but the problem is that you need stylus for some oprrations...

I find Zaurus 5500 apps slow at times, but useable, would you say the Qtopia apps on the PMA430 are slower than a Zaurus?

Cheers
Rich
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Yes, I feel they are a bit slower thna on 5500. I'm afraid applications like KO/PI will be crowling...

[maslovsky]

Some more impressions:

 - Video payback is very good on TV screen. But it needs to be a high-res video (640x480 at least). 320x240 looks noticably worse.

 - Video recording is also good. The best quality on recording settings is 2500 kb/s. 1500 kb/s is considered a low quality  The video recordig format is MPEG4.

Ultimately, this device is NOT a replacement for Zaurus, especialy after C-series. It's a different kind of device. Its PIM capabilities are poor. The screen is too low res to be used for web surfing or comfortable reading. Built-in WiFi sems to be useless with such a screen. Qtopia apps run slow. Memory is 64 Mb, but 40 Mb are used even when no applications are running.

But, it's an excellent media player. 30 Gb of internal storage, USB 2.0, TV in/out, video recording and playback - all this make it a great portable video player. Audio playback quality is also good - I didn't notice a difference from Zaurus when using good earphones.

[richie]

Is Qtopia useable plugged in to a TV screen. Interested to know if using the konsole terminal and other apps like Opera is okay on a TV with 320x240. Thinking it could be used for limited work with a usb keyboard when travelling, using hotel tellys as a bigger screen.

Yes, it's usable, but the problem is that you need stylus for some oprrations...

Hi

Thanks for the info. I read on one of the French forums that someone has succesfully used a usb mouse with a usb keyboard. However it is a shame it is slow, a wonder if a future firmware upgrade would fix the high memory usage in Qtopia.

Cheers
Rich

[lpotter]

Qtopia apps run slow. Memory is 64 Mb, but 40 Mb are used even when no applications are running.
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I see a total used of ~27 mb.

ps aux tells me that qpe takes 14135, quicklauncher is 12128 and the avplayer is 13055, embeddedkonsole is 10608. So I wouldn't say the memory consumption is very high.

[maslovsky]

Qtopia apps run slow. Memory is 64 Mb, but 40 Mb are used even when no applications are running.
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I see a total used of ~27 mb.

ps aux tells me that qpe takes 14135, quicklauncher is 12128 and the avplayer is 13055, embeddedkonsole is 10608. So I wouldn't say the memory consumption is very high.
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Well maybe memory was used up after playing some video files...