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More details on Archos' x04 lineup
comment: 27 | Sunday, July 30 (2006) 01:31PM | Posted by Lone
The folks at GenMP3 dug up some detailed specs from Archos upcoming 404, 504, and 604 PMPs, courtesy of a Swiss webshop. Obviously this info isn't straight from the horse's mouth, but generally random foreign online stores seem to have the accurate goods (see the ol' Zen Vision scoop)

Archos 404:

  • 30 GB capacity
  • 3.5" display (320 x 240 px, 16 million colors)
  • MTP/UMS capable
  • Format support: MP3, WMA, WAV, JPEG, BMP, PNG, MPEG4 ASP (Level 5), XviD, DivX 4, DivX 5, WMV9 (max resolution of 704x 480 @ 30fps, 720 X 576 @ 25fps)
  • Voice recorder
  • PDF viewer
  • Built-in speaker
  • 15 hours of battery life playing audio, 4 with video

As touched on in this newspost, Archos will be offering a DVR station to record video from external sources, that should be compatible with the 404, 504, and 604. In addition, this webshop mentions other potential addons, including a line-in recorder, USB host module, and camera.

Archos 604:

  • 4.3" display (480 x 272 px, 16 million colors)
  • Same capacity and codec support as the 404

It may also be worth checking out Archos' first semester (Q1 & Q2) sales results, posted on their main site here (PDF). It's mentioned that the new line of players will be officially announced at the IFA trade show starting on the 1st of September. Of course by then we'll probably have reported on full spec sheets and previews for these things

LINK (translated)

Thanks, Greg
Comments

bloodycape

Comments: 705
 		Jul 30 (2006) 02:12PM  

Is it me or does the battery life seem kinda weak when seeing the specs for the video. Would this not be a step down since this has a 3.5' screen when the AV500 30gig gets similar or even slightly better battery life out of 4' screen( I dunno if aduo is the same thought).



Roger767

Comments: 206
 		Jul 30 (2006) 02:33PM  

Is ac3 supported this time around?



sdsdv10

Comments: 243
 		Jul 30 (2006) 02:36PM  

bloodycape,

The 3.5" screen on the 404 is an update of the 402, which also had only 4 hours runtime for video on a 2.2" screen. In addition, both resolution and color depth increased, original 402 @ 220x176 pixels, 262 000 colors to the 404 @ 320 x 240 px, 16 million colors. So this is a pretty decent upgrade.

The 4.3" on the 504 is a bit more of a mixed bag. The screen sized increase from the 4.0" on the AV500, but runtime dropped from 4.5 hours (according to Archos' website for the AV500) to only 4 hours for the newer model. Screen specs did go up some, from 262 000 colours to 16 million, but resolution stayed the same at 480x272 pixels. This one is tougher to call a significant hardware upgrade.



Allen
Location: Dub Vee Ooo
Comments: 1511
 		Jul 30 (2006) 02:51PM  

Wow for a second gen, (or whichever generation archos is at) those are pretty weak specs... encode support wise and in terms of battery life... Maybe the price and design are the selling points of this line...



bloodycape

Comments: 705
 		Jul 30 (2006) 03:19PM  

5th 0r 6th maybe? I know there was the av200, av300, av400, and the current av500 and now the 602.



jbhitter24

Comments: 351
 		Jul 30 (2006) 03:20PM  

correct me if im wrong, but i believe this is the first portable pdf viewer ive seen.



sdsdv10

Comments: 243
 		Jul 30 (2006) 03:35PM  

Allen,

According to Archos, this is their 4th generation. Here is a quote from the first half sales results (PDF link in article).

During the second quarter ARCHOS has concentrated on its R&D efforts in the preparation of the 4th generation portable audio/video devices, which will be launched everywhere this summer.


nocomp

Comments: 78
 		Jul 30 (2006) 04:28PM  

Customers will be able to buy Software-plugins for their ARCHOS 404/504/604:

Audiocodecs (Software-Plugins)
AAC
AC3
Videocodecs (Software-Plugins)
MPEG-2 (VOB @ 10mbps put AC3-Stereoton)
H.264 with AAC-Sound

Optional accessory:
--> DVR-station will be able to:
- Record @ MPEG4-SP (DivX 5.0) ADPCM-Tone (stereo), maximum 640 X 480 @ 30fps.
- TV-Out

--> USB 2.0 Host (Picture Transfer Protocol (PTP) & Mass Storage Class (MSC)/Unified Mass Storage (UMS))

--> Audio-Recording: Line-in (WAV, Stereo PCM & Stereo ADPCM)

--> 220V Wall-Charger

--> VGA Helmet-camera (640x480)

Source:
http://www.k55.ch/oxid.php/sid/2e5ba598cf17bcddf891f2be3a40419c/cl/details/cnid/-/anid/1f744cb4da66eacf7.26008826/Archos/


That's the only reason why the new ARCHOS PMP's will be that cheap. Most interesting features will cost extra money!

WHAT A RIP OFF!!!!



Allen
Location: Dub Vee Ooo
Comments: 1511
 		Jul 30 (2006) 05:39PM  

Ahhhh thanks sdsdv10... So its their fourth generation... and still players like Cowon's first gen pmp the A2 surpass Archos's players in encode support and battery life. -1 Archos.
Granted these aren't confirmed specs, so my statements might be retracted later



bloodycape

Comments: 705
 		Jul 30 (2006) 06:16PM  

Yeah I would have to agree with you there Allen I was thinking the same thing how cowon on their first effort does a job just as good as Archos on their 3rd and even 4th effort. Can't wait to see what the A3(or what ever it is going to be called) brings.



pableu
Location: Zurich, Switzerland
Comments: 19
 		Jul 30 (2006) 08:22PM  


Source:
[Linky]


Uh, neat, someone linking to us (I work there ^^). We got the specsheets from archos on friday by email, but I forgot to forward them to myself (was running off for a movie). I'll see if I can get them on monday and upload it somewhere, if you're interested in the complete specs and some text.



egloskerry

Comments: 410
 		Jul 30 (2006) 09:21PM  

16 bit screen? Finally!



Shike

Comments: 34
 		Jul 30 (2006) 10:01PM  

Erm, is WiFi still to be expected >_>?



estat

Comments: 67
 		Jul 30 (2006) 11:36PM  

You have to purchase the H.264 codec support?!?!?

What a rip. I wish h.264 could be standard on this next generation of PMPs. As much as I like xvid, its compression can't hold a candle to h.264.

I use h.264 a lot for the Sony PSP and let just say, it's awesome.



dustin24
Location: AZ
Comments: 39
 		Jul 31 (2006) 01:39AM  

I'm looking forward to this, but I really hope they still offer a 100gig version. To me that was their strongest point. I also hope they have kept the wifi and opera browser. It is really time for companies to break this 30 and 60 gig barrier and go for the sky. Toshiba has efficient 100 and 200gig notebook hardrives available, I say use em. If not offered for the mainstream, at least offer a high capacity as an factory add on. I would gladly pay the higher price and deal with the added weight of a 200 gig.



rumos

Comments: 74
 		Jul 31 (2006) 03:19AM  

what? u have to pay EXTRA money for some codecs? and still no divx3.11 support, ah, my simpsons and south park stuff is encided that way.



vlada

Comments: 15
 		Jul 31 (2006) 03:56AM  

what? u have to pay EXTRA money for some codecs? and still no divx3.11 support, ah, my simpsons and south park stuff is encided that way.

I already wrote this here a couple times, but it seems to me I need to do it again. A player CAN'T support a codec. Codec is a program used to compress video to a certain format. DivX 3 and DivX 4 produce MPEG-4 SP which is backward compatible with MPEG-4 ASP produced by DivX 5, DivX 6 and XviD.
MPEG-4 ASP @ L5 should mean support for more consecutive B-frames, Q-PEL and 3-warp-point GMC. I seriously doubt the player will be able to play such video. I think the spec's are lying again.

But back to DivX 3.xx. The problem with this codec is that it is a hack of MS' MPEG-4 v3 codec. Have you ever seen anything from MS which would be standard compliant? I never did. So MS MPEG-4 and DivX 3.xx don't create standard compliant MPEG-4 videos. But they can be losslessly converted to a standard MPEG-4 SP, so there is no problem with DivX 3. Every player with MPEG-4 (A)SP support will play them.

And last comment - no Ogg Vorbis support? Sorry, I'm not interested then...

[ edited Jul 31 (2006) 03:58AM ]



pableu
Location: Zurich, Switzerland
Comments: 19
 		Jul 31 (2006) 04:13AM  

I seriously doubt the player will be able to play such video. I think the spec's are lying again.

I think in the original specs from archos, it says something like "MPEG-4 ASP @L5 without GMC and Qpel. But I am not sure if I remember correctly.. basically, that would mean MPEG-4 SP + B-Frames, and that's exactly the same as the last series (AV500 and so on).



pecker

Comments: 501
 		Jul 31 (2006) 09:43AM  

Archos advertises wifi on there website for there new model(s) so which will this be implamented on?

With the battery info...if its same as the g400 specs they where under the actual proformance....i used to get 12hours audio 5.5hour video which is 2hour more aud n 1.5 vid, most people have said this ova at gmini400.com...so mayb the battery will be better

Though in my eyes its still good 16m colours and increased screen size and still get same as a 262k 2.2" screen is good



Charbax

Comments: 32
 		Jul 31 (2006) 07:12PM  

pableu, yes please send the full specs from Archos to me at charbax@ gmail.com I will forward them to the fans at [Linky] and on my website [Linky]

Interesting if CMG and Qpel is not supported.

But they can be losslessly converted to a standard MPEG-4 SP, so there is no problem with DivX 3. Every player with MPEG-4 (A)SP support will play them.


What do you mean vlada? DivX 3 doesn't playback in Mpeg4-SP device unless the video is re-encoded to Mpeg4-SP eigther DivX4-5-6, XviD or other Mpeg4-SP compliant codec. What do you mean by losslessly converted to Mpeg4-SP?

According to [Linky] the 504 will be probably similar to the 604 but will be available with a 40 up to 160GB 2.5" harddrive. Having a 2.5" harddrive means the device gets to be a few millimeters thicker and weigh about 60 grams more, mostly it is because it probably comes with a larger battery that provides more playback life anyways.

No one knows the price of the codec plugins, I think it is an awesome idea. It permits the player to be sold much cheaper than the competition to people who would not need Mpeg2, H264, AC3 and AAC. For people who need one or the other codec, or all of the codecs, it is awesome that it is available as Plugin. I guess the price for the codec will be approximately the same price as the official licence to Dolby, Mpeg Consortium and the company with the AAC patents. Possibly someplace between 5€ and 20€ per codec I would think. Totally a good idea.

What I am wondering is if the 404, 504 and 604 will have IP centric connectivity through modules. I wonder if Wifi, 3.5G, GPS and DVB-T announced by Archos in their previous roadmap document, if those features are to be added by modules to the 4th generation products, or if those features will only come with some other IP centric versions with touch-screen of the 4th generation to be released later.
[ edited Jul 31 (2006) 07:18PM ]



dustin24
Location: AZ
Comments: 39
 		Jul 31 (2006) 10:57PM  

Wonder how long it will take for the pay codecs to end up hacked on torrent.



stuffmagazine

Comments: 2
 		Aug 01 (2006) 06:23AM  

Hi there,

from what we've heard at Stuff there's a 160GB version of the 504 coming to the UK. Our story's here.

Adam



stuffmagazine

Comments: 2
 		Aug 01 (2006) 06:24AM  

PS. sorry, just read Charbax's post properly - he's already linked to our story!



Dominic
Location: Ireland.
Comments: 2396
 		Aug 01 (2006) 06:55AM  

lol dustin, thats exactley what i was thinking, but i didn't want to say anything!some ppl offend easily esp. when you mention dl'ing



Dominic
Location: Ireland.
Comments: 2396
 		Aug 01 (2006) 07:20AM  

no way, stuffmagazine_UK, man i still have one of your mags (from when you rated the karma), its one of the best issues so i kept it.



vlada

Comments: 15
 		Aug 05 (2006) 12:06PM  

@Charbax> Sorry for my late reply. Look at this thread at Doom9. There is a tool which can convert DivX 3 to ISO MPEG-4 SP without recompression. But I never tried it...



Arms683

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