Archos Av 500 30gb Or 60gb

[manuel2]

Initially i couldn't decide between the Cowon iaudio A2 and the Archos Av500.  i have read various forums on both units, and it seems the Cowon A2 crew seem to be pannicking about the possible lifespan of the none replaceable, none detachable built in battery.

Because of this i have decided that i wish to buy the Av500 with the intention of buying a second back up battery.  

Wishing to pay as little as possible, I now need help to decide on which gb memory unit to buy. I can buy the Av500 30 gb from Argos for the price of £299.99 which seems to include an offer of ordering a free second battery.

I am just concerned that i may end up being dissapointed with just 30 gb not being able to record enough programs and films onto the harddrive.

My main use will be to record directly from the Tv / DVD / digi Humax PVR 9200T recording tv programs and films and to then take it on holiday to view the video on flights (to NZ etc..) and during possible delays etc...

It states on the 30gb version that can record upto max of 120 hours, but  i have a feeling that it will end up being alot less because of the length of films and programs using up too much space etc...

As a rough average how many films can you actually record and store onto the 30 gb unit?

Everytime, just before i go away on holiday, i didnt want to be having to quickly delete some and start recording and storing new material at the last minute.

The 60 gb version seems to be priced at £350 (slight more than i want to pay without a secong battery) but it seems that you cannot buy a second battery for this unit as the batteries only seem to be available for the 30 gb unit and 100 gb unit and not the 60 gb unit?

Does anybody know how long the battery truely lasts on the Av500 30gb or Av500 60gb watching video continually?

Your help would be very much appreciated.

[manuel2]

Please could someone also tell me when recording films directly from the tv onto the Av500 do you end up with black lines at the top and bottom of the 4 inch screen making the viewing size even smaller or does the screen automatically adjust itself to fill the 4 inch widesceen format.

Thanks once again.

[tropnevad]

Please could someone also tell me when recording films directly from the tv onto the Av500 do you end up with black lines at the top and bottom of the 4 inch screen making the viewing size even smaller or does the screen automatically adjust itself to fill the 4 inch widesceen format.

Thanks once again.
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Hi,

After purchasing the 30Gb, I decided to send it back and get the 100Gb version.  The battery seems to last about twice as long (no numbers yet), but for me the 30Gb would last for about 3-5 hours with video and 10-15 for audio.  The big energy drain is from the use of the screen "backlight".   I did not even know that there was a 60Gb version.  Perhaps we cannot get it here in North America.  But you'll appreciate as much space as you can get.  I was afraid that I would run out of room before I got all i wanted recorded. 

I love the 100Gb!  I have transfered all my music (ca. 3,500 songs), 5,000+ photos and 12 full-length movies and I still have 70Gb left.  I estimate that I'll have around 35 movies and still have 30-40 Gb. left. 

They say the AV 500 is best suited to "tech-types", but it took me only 15 minutes to transfer my photos and music and another 10 minutes to learn how to transfer movies.

As to your question about the TV recording: you have the option of changing the aspect ratio of the screen, but I have found that the AV 500 does make the TV recording fit the 4" screen.  It seems to cut off a little of the top and bottom (very little), but it does not make people look "wide" like some forced-perspective screens will do.    Also, bear in mind that this is not your finest Plasma screen, but you can take all you movies, music and photos anywhere you want!

Very few problems, love the Archos!  Hope that helps!

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[manuel2]

Thanks that does help.

I didn't know that the battery lasted longer on the 100gb version, but i have decided to go for the 30 gb version as it is the only one i can afford unfortunately.

i have recorded one film directly from the tv which is 2 hours long and it has used 1500mb of memory which seems.  According to my calculation this means that i will only beable to store 40 hours on the hardrive and not 120 hours as advertised.


When downloading films from the internet does it take up alot less memory / space on the hardrive compared to when recording directly from the TV ?

[hgite]

Thanks that does help.

I didn't know that the battery lasted longer on the 100gb version, but i have decided to go for the 30 gb version as it is the only one i can afford unfortunately.

i have recorded one film directly from the tv which is 2 hours long and it has used 1500mb of memory which seems.  According to my calculation this means that i will only beable to store 40 hours on the hardrive and not 120 hours as advertised.


When downloading films from the internet does it take up alot less memory / space on the hardrive compared to when recording directly from the TV ?
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adjust your recording to 500mb--the quality is still good and will triple your capacity

[birdman]

If films take up to much space then just compress them on the computer or sellect a lower bit rate for your movies when recording from TV, select around 580 K-bits in total (including audio) when recording from tv and a 2-hour film shold take up around 600MB and still be good quality   5MB a minute is what I have my movies at.    

[Paris7]

If films take up to much space then just compress them on the computer or sellect a lower bit rate for your movies when recording from TV, select around 580 K-bits in total (including audio) when recording from tv and a 2-hour film shold take up around 600MB and still be good quality   5MB a minute is what I have my movies at.   
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I am very pleased that I decided to buy the 30 Gig version, it's appreciably thinner and lighter. I'm amazed at what you can stock on the 30 Gigs too. I use it for work recording video in large quantities, I always have 5 or 6 full feature films at high quality, a great many music tracks and so on. The battery lasts much longer than expected, is quick to charge and the sound and picture quality are stunning.

The trick is to store long term video files compressed for archos playing on your computer or on a small external hard drive. You can quickly copy these to your Archos as needed.  If you have your AV 500 in "Hard Drive" mode, you can keep it cleaned up and defrag it like any other drive.

The AV 500 30Gig drive's physical size was what made the difference for me, and I'm very glad it did. Even with heavy use I don't need a bigger drive, and it prompts me to file properly and remove clutter.   I have two 30 gigs now for different locations and I can copy from one to the other for safe back-up if needed.  When one 60 Gig drive dies - and it will - you'll be left very vulnerable to file loss.