Home > Consumer Reviews > Archos 404 30GB Portable Digital Media Player with Camcorder (500867)

I hate writing reviews like these.

Why? Because this little guy has so much potential...! And I was so excited to finally get this thing! But, at the end of the day, it's a bit of a mixed bag.

Some back story: I'm a Mac guy who had given up on a widescreen iPod (thanks a Steve!), but stumbled upon this. All the reviews on the Archos 404 from the "in-the-know" sites like Wired and CNet gave it really good reviews: "Great little screen...! fairly spacious hard drive...! decent camera/camcorder...!". Sure, it was a jack-of-all trades they said, but it was a darned good one.

So I bought one. And, well, it's not bad! It wasn't too expensive. It certainly does have a great screen. And the camcorder and camera aren't too shabby either. Even the interface, for a Mac user, wasn't the worst thing in the world.

But then I tried to play a movie.

It's supposed to play .mp4 movies "right out of the box", and it does. Sortof. I had transferred a movie I own (and watch way-too-much: "Office Space") w/ Handbrake (a great program) and saved as an .mp4. But I could only watch the first 20 seconds on the Arcos. Anything after that the sound still played, but the picture froze. And fast-forwarding or rewinding just made it angry. Always kicking me out to the video menu.

So I put some smaller .mp4s on. But not only did it have trouble playing them, when I scrolled down the list, the unit restarted! I thought I was crazy, but it did it over, and over.

So, undaunted, I download the "Podcast Plugin" from Acrhos: $19.99. It allows you to play H.264 video (a better compression) and AAC audio, which is darn good too. I was impressed at the Mac friendliness of the offering to boot.

I then re-ripped my movie in Handbrake using the H.264 setting, and it played. Finally. Without crashing. And it looked, and sounded great. Yay. Whew!

But then I tried the camcorder.

I've got to give Archos a bit of credit here, because for what it is, this is a cool little camcorder. You can even get this optional little "snake cam" (which I bought: $129). Stock, even though it doesn't have a zoom, it makes impressive video.

The only problem is the resulting .mov movies don't play in Quicktime. Or iMovie. Or anything else I can use. While the video looks fine, the sound stutters uncontrollably. And it sortof plays in VLC, but while the sound is good, the video glitches.

Well, it says right on the box that it's a Windows Media Center® device, and I began to wonder if some of the files I was trying to work with were just a little to "Appley".

Hmmmm, I thought. And I did a little "get info" and I found that the sound on the camcorder's .AVI files uses DVI ADPCM compression. Both very Windows®-esque formats. And while Quicktime, etc, does support most AVI files, it doesn't support DVI ADPCM.

I called tech support. And after a looonnnngggg time on hold, a sleepy guy finally answered and curtly answered "sorry, you can return it who you bought it from" to every one of my questions.

So I emailed tech support. And I got the same answers, plus an offer for a "repair" (I think it was the same guy!)... but I kindly explained that it wasn't broken, but simply needed some support and firmware upgrades.... To no avail.

So, bottom line is the Archos 404 is has got a severe case of the yinyangs. On the one hand it's simple, beefy and gorgeous. On the other it's twitchy, finicky and handicapped. Especially for us Mac people. In fact, I'd like to go on the record and say this is an EXTREMELY Windows® friendly device... And for a guy who got this primarily to quench his iPod jones, that's a bit of a heart breaker.

Archos, if you're listening, you need to offer a free plugin for Quicktime so the sound works, pronto. Or, a firmware update that allows for a different on-deck sound compression option. Or better yet, do both.

Until then, this will be a crippled unit. Another could-have-been in the handheld what-have-you category. Another iPod casualty. A frigid lover. Especially for us Mac users.

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I bought this for recording TV programs and making videos without using external device and wires. It works great when connected to my Panasonic HDTV which has a video output on the back. This little device also allows you to make photos at the resolution for e-mails, such as made by a cell phone. The 30GB storage and the USB connector make it a replacement of a needed computer for transferring files from other portable devices or cards. For the price and portability, it is a great buy.

I bought this for my son so i guess I'll let him write the review from here on in. Hell yeah this is better than an over hyped mp3 player(iPod). I've had it for about a day now and to be honest the only complain that I can make is that Archos is cheap. This product deserves the 5 stars it's just that you have to buy simple little things that should've came in the box. My brother's mp3 player came with a/v plug that could connect with the tv to record or play on-screen. Archos wants you to fork up $99.99 for the DVR station, when I buy mines i'm getting it from Walmart for less than $74.00. The camera and camcorder is great and the built-in speaker is superb. The clarity and crispness of the 3.5" screen is eye-orgasmic when watching pictures or videos. Pros: It's a damn good mp3 player/camera/camcorder Cons: Archos wants you to pay for certain things that should be included in the box

Archos can be added to the list of consumer electronics companies that will put faulty products in the market and then refuse to take responsibility for them.

I have experience with three of these units, only one of which is still functional. The first was a friend's whose screen cracked while the unit was in a protective case inside a bag. I realize electronics are more delicate than the average consumer product, but this thing was more sensitive than an iPod nano, which also happened to be in his bag and did not break.

The second unit I received as a gift and it worked well for about a month. I have to say, when it worked I liked it, with the exception of the really poor sound, which I crancked up to be able to hear anything. A few days ago I awoke to find my unit with the back casing distended like it was about to burst. I immediately unscrewed the back to release the pressure and found that the battery was inflated like a balloon. I put the unit in a sealed bag to make sure if it burst it didn't ruin anything else in the apartment. When I called Archos customer service, I was told by the goon on the phone that having unscrewed the back of the unit, despite the fact that leaving it as it was could have been dangerous, nullified the warranty. So now I am stuck with a month old unit whose warranty is useless.

Way to go, Archos. You've guaranteed I will never buy anything from you again.

This little bugger is great. While, like some of the other reviewers, I was torn at first with some of the bugs, I quickly downloaded the firmware updates from the Archos website. It fixed every problem I had and I just love the way this thing does it all pretty well. It's no camera or camcorder replacement, but the picture quality is better than most any cell phone camera.

The controls and UI are easy to understand and figure out with only minor exceptions (adding songs to an existing playlist took me a bit to figure out).

I downloaded the codec that allows you to play podcast and iTunes files for $20. Well worth not having to convert all my music.

Only con is that it doesn't come with a charger. It charges via the USB cable rather slowly, and the docking station/charger is sold seperately.

Considering what all this little thing does and its price, you can't really go wrong.