Home > Consumer Reviews > Archos AV400 20GB MP3/MP4 Player/Recorder with Video Cradle

This is a great gadget and well worth the extra over a similar capacity Ipod. Yes its bigger, but its still very portable. It's solidly built and comes with a good protective case. The LCD screen is very good in comparison to the competitors and is more than watchable while travelling. The output to TV is also good (Hi-res is fine on a 28" widescreen). It isn't DVD quality but then it doesn't claim to be. Sound quality is great through headphones and OK through the buit in speaker.

The only issues I've had with it are (and they are only niggles - I would buy one again without question):
1 - You need to be confident with computers and have some spare time to learn to record your DVDs & other video files so that they play properly with no sound delay.
2 - I had a few problems with ID3 Tags on Mp3 files that I know are OK.
3 - The cradle has so many wires that it makes it a bit less portable
4 - Spare battery would be useful but is quite expensive

Overall the video capabilities make it more than a match for any MP3 player and it is simply the best PVP (apart from the 80GB version of course).

This is an unbelievably cool piece of kit.
You can basically use this as a video recorder (i.e. to tape TV programs) so you can throw your VCR out for starters.
You can also tape videos and DVD onto it, and watch full length films on the bus, tube, train etc.
The 20GB capacity is perfectly adequate for my uses, allowing you to store several films, plenty of music and photos at any one time. And if you want to free up some space you can just download the files onto a computer - after all, do you really need 50 films on it at once?
This is great because it acts as:
An mp3 player
A video recorder
A portable DVD player
A picture viewer
An extra hard disk

This is particularly impressive as an iPod may cost £230, and a 1GB USB pen drive is about £65, so its really not worth bothering with them - just get this.
I'm very surprised there arent more people with these. Maybe theyre about to catch on.
Get one now.

After looking around at many different media players and audio devices I found this one to be much the others out apart from one main difference, that you can directly record from your TV. At first I wasn't too sure what would files would be compatible with the ARchos AV400 but after owning it for a few months they introduced new 'firmware' which is play for sure which means it is now compatible with media player on the windows platform.

To be honest I love this litle thing now and use at every available option. I store recorded DVD's from my collection on it at about 1.3gig each and when I run out of space the USB 2.0 connection comes in handy when storing them on my Laptop. Also the audio player on it is great.

I would recommend it instead of an Ipod Photo any day as it has so many more functions for only a small amount more.

Only one problem however, I have 1 dead pixel :( What a pain!

Thumbs up from me!

I've just purchased this through a German company selling through Amazon for quite a bit less than what Amazon sell it for. For the price it is brilliant, I paid less than an I pod and it does so much more. One of the best features for me is that it plays divx movies which are practically dvd quality at a fraction of the file size (you can buy software that rips dvds to divx). It can record direct from your digi or satalite box and also comes with it's own romote control which operate the archos when it is attatched to it's cradle. You can play back movies or recordings on your tv instead of watching them on the imbuilt lcd screen, even when viewing on a large screen the movies look brilliant. The only problem that I have seen as yet is that when viewing photos on the archos they don't look as good as a computer or digi cam screen, but this was less noticeable once zoomed in. The hard drive could be larger (20gb) but for the price I paid I'm not complaining.

Archos AV400
This is an incredible piece of kit to have for so many resons. First the Pro's.
1.It acts as an mp3 player
2.It plays videos and other mpeg4 files
3.It can record from your television! which is very handy as it has a scheduler
4.Many people are concerned with the portability i don't find this an issue an it's the same size if not a bit bigger than a normal ipod.
5.The screen is of a good size and the exterior speaker is handy, it's not the best sound quality the speaker but it's a good last resort if you don't have headfones at hand.

the dreaded cons:
1.You have to be aware of what your doing when using the AV400 with your computer as i had trouble installing the mp4 conversion software and still couldnt get it to work properly.
2.The battery life is satisfactory but is not the best
3.Some of the instructions in the manual arent that clear(but i am being picky now)

All in all a terrific product i couldnt imagine a better present than this for someone who listens to music or watches DVD's on a regualr basis.:)