Domain Name Com's Electronics Archos 504 40GB Portable Digital Media Player and Recorder (500869)

Electronics Archos 504 40GB Portable Digital Media Player and Recorder (500869)

Domain Name Com's - Electronics : Archos 504 40GB Portable Digital Media Player and Recorder (500869)

- Not worth the hassle
The first one that I received did not work out of the box. It would not even accept a firmware upgrade. The second unit required 3 phone calls to technical support and 2 hours to get it to accept a firmware upgrade. After it would finally accept new music, there was a staticky hiss so loud that it drowned out the music on low volumes. The third unit accepted the firmware upgrade immediately so I was hopeful. It also had the hiss that was so loud I couldn't listen to music on it. I'm giving up and will now try another brand.

Rating:

- Archos 504
Purchased this item as a storage solution for digital photos. The item is easy to use, allows easy acces to all photos, and provides a large viewing area for the photos. It is large enough to view the pictures without a magnifying glass, yet small enough for a woman to carry in her purse. It raises the term "Brag Book" to the electronic age.

Rating:

- I really enjoy my Archos
Love my Archos. I'm computer literate, but not really gadjet literate. This gave me some initial frustration when learning how to transfer content. Now I have my music, pictures, movies and tv shows on it, and I really enjoy using the archos. Especially on flights when I don't feel like reading.

Rating:

- Decent Value but Flawed
Decent Value for what you get. Glad I didnt shell out the 300-400 bucks for it when it first came out. Yes, as other reviewers mentioned, to get all of the functionality that is advertised, you'll have to shell out more money. Also, as mentioned by other reviewers, the case that comes with this unit isnt adequate. The design is poor and wont protect the unit if you drop it.

This unit is best used if completely stationary. It freezes when moving, so not great for MP3's when on the move (walking at a fast pace). Obviously, because of its size and weight, AND propensity to freeze, not good for jogging.

Yes, there might be a static issue that some people have claimed causes the unit to shut down- I haven't experienced this. But another reason the unit freezes is that you are carrying around a laptop-hard drive (you can see it when you remove the battery).

These drives are designed to stop working when too much movement occurs. This is done to make sure that your hard-drive doesnt crash and you lose all of your information. If you know anything about hard drives, you know that this was a big problem with early hard-drive designs.

Not sure why they didnt just design these with solid state memory (the kind you see in most mp3 players- maybe cost related). At any rate, just be prepared to remove the battery and snap it back in, if the unit freezes.

The only other issue I've experienced is the unit freezing when I was recording a presentation(obviously the unit was stationary). It froze sometime during the recording. When I reset the unit, the data from the recording was corrupted and therefore lost. Yes, not pleased to learn this the hard way!

BUT, it does well to serve as a great portable media unit to use when in a car, on a plane, or to switch info back and forth from your PC to have on the go. Also, if you get the travel DVR unit and the additional cable to play on your tv, you can both record dvd's, tv programs, AND play stuff on your TV (but again have to shell out additional money). You'll also have to invest more if you want the proper codecs that let you play additional formats. BUT I'm cool with just having .AVI and MP3's for now.

In re to powering this thing up: Not a big deal plugging into my laptop at home or work. It powers up just fine. Not sure how well the "very hard to get ac adater cable" is, but you'll be fine without it. I think you can get a 3rd party one for around 20 bucks, but again you don't really need it in my opinion.

The sound from the speakers aren't great, but most portable units dont have great sound- that is if they even have external speakers at all. Make sure to get your own set of headphones, dont use the ones that come with the unit. The sound that is played from my personal headphones is adequate. Not supurb, but not terrible.

Also, you can buy an additional battery for the unit, which is nice. I havent had to need a replacement, as you would only really need this for really long trips.

Overall, not a bad price for what it does. Definitely some flaws. I would not purchase any of the more expensive models until I was sure these flaws were addressed.

You can get this unit from Walmart with the mini-dvr adapter for the same price you see here. If you want the most from this unit however, for another 80 bucks, you can get the full-sized DVR unit. But, it's not really all that travel friendly. Think I covered everything. Hope this review is helpful!

Rating:

- STATIC SENSITIVE
I bought an Archos 504 from Target a few months back. Right out of the box it was having boot errors. Basically, when hitting the power button, the LCD backlight would turn on, but there would be no actual activity. No boot screen, nothing. Probably because I was wearing shoes and in my car when I opened it? lol. I digged and digged through the manual to find any sort of hard reset. Holding down the power button for 15 seconds works. GREAT! A WAY OUT! ... Not exactly, because regardless of whether you do that when it is on OR off, after 10 seconds of being on, it turns itself back off; defeating the purpose of any sort of reset.

The hard reset worked ONCE, and I had it set up, watching videos on my TV via the docking station for a grand total of about 25 minutes. I go to my girlfriend's house for about an hour, come back and try to watch a video in my bed, holding the screen [no shoes or static conductivity of any kind]. It stays black again. This time, as many hard resets as I make, nothing happens.

So to sum it up, within 25 minutes of actual usage, the unit was toast. How or why, I can only imagine was a micron of static electricity, since I have run into that problem on previous occasions. I had also been previously told that there is no grounding between the entirity of the electronics and the metal casing. Who does that?

In other words, don't buy this item if you have ever static shocked anyone or any THING in your entire life, lol. Oh, and wear a static wrist band while using it or you may regret it.

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