Archos 504 80GB Portable Digital Media Player and Recorder (500870)

• Lightweight and portable digital video, movie
• Photo viewer with easy-to-use
• Compatible with MP3, WAV, WMA and protected WMA music files
• Uses high-speed USB 2.0 for both file transfers and charging
• Lets you play music through a stereo or videos over your TV via an optional docking station

Received my Archos 504 a couple days ago and I've been putting it through it's paces. The player is very solid and well made. The rocker buttons are easy to push with a tactile feel, but navigating the archos is anything but intuitive. Having to use 3 rocker buttons to navigate up, down, left, and right does not work nearly as well as a directional pad. The screen is very bright and crisp. Unfortunately, out of the box, the Archos doesn't play certain video codecs. MPG4 with AC3 and H264 with AAC both require codec plugins which are going to cost $15 per plug-in. So if you want full video support, add $30 to the price of the 504. The kicker, though, is that these codecs are not yet available and tech support has no idea when they will be available. Also the internal speaker volume is not very loud. Even at full volume, you have to listen closely to video dialog in a quiet room. If there is background noise, forget about it, plug in the headphones.

I really want to like the 504. The price is good for an 80 gig player, but be aware that Archos will nickel and dime you for accessories like an AC adapter (which is only available with the dock or dvr adapter), and the codecs.

If Amazon begins shipping the Zen Vision W 60 GB model soon, I may return the 504.

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I've had the good fortune of owning 3 generations of this device. Starting w/the AV320, then the AV500, now the 504.

In my opinnion, this device is not a 100 out of 100, but pretty darn close.

I got the 80g version from Amazon for the great price of $359.00 a real bargain.

I've converted a bunch of DVD's on my computer using iriverter, and just dragged and dropped them onto the player. Done the same with my music and photo files. All transfers were speedy and easy.

The device works great for all 3 functions. The video is bright, sharp and seamless on the 4.3 in screen. Audio sharp and clear. Pictures brilliant. You can watch a slide show w/effects while palying tunes.

Only minor drawbacks: Totally worthless carrying sack, lack of video codecs native to machine.

Navigational buttons take a little getting used to, but not bad at all once you get the hang of it.

I can't wait till the dock becomes available and I personally am not bothered by having to spend a few extra bucks to get it.

$359.00 for a player of this caliber is more than worth it.

I could go on and on, but I'll just say I love this player.

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I love the Archos 504 player for many reasons, and the removable battery is certainly one of them. Unlike iPod, Zune, etc., the Archos has a truly removable battery that can be quickly and easily replaced with a charged one. Not only does this extend the life of the product -it doesn't need to be shipped to Archos, Inc. once the battery has died -but also extends your viewing time as much as you want! Transcontinental flight? No problem! Just buy a couple of extra batteries to swap out on the plane. Removal takes literally 2 seconds!

Ok, so now that you know the value of the interchangeable batteries, let's go over the actually battery itself. I believe that Archos claims a 5 hour charge for these products, and while that's a bit generous, I regularly get at least 4 hours of continuous video playback. And let's face it -we bought the Archos 504 to watch video, not listen to MP3's.

That's my cue to talk about this unit's video playback. The only thing keeping me from giving this player 5 stars is the lack of supported video codecs. Sure, it'll play .h264 or .vob (MPEG 2) files if you buy the extra software plug-ins from Archos, but come on! Why nickel and dime us for these plug-in's when we're already forking over a chunk of change for the player?!?! Clearly, you've already developed the software, just include it for cripes sake! And what about Real Media? I realize that it's not the greatest of formats, but I have a TON of South Park episodes in RM that I had to convert to AVI's. It'd just be nice if there were more supported video codecs. That's my lone diatribe regarding the video codecs, I promise. It does play MPEG 4 .avi files encoded with DivX and XviD as long as you encode the audio with WMA v2 or MP3. Basically, any movies that you've downloaded should play fine.

And the screen is pretty fantastic. Not only is it bigger than any other portable player on the market, except for the Archos 700 series, but it also looks crisper than most. I don't recall the resolution, but movies look great on it. Obviously, you have to give it a good file to get a good picture, and I haven't viewed any MPEG 2 material on it, but AVI's look great -good resolution and color.

One of the other areas that players can frequently turn me off for good is in the file transfer mode. I hate iTunes with a passion, and it's one of many reasons why I'll never own an iPod. I do NOT want to have to load files into a program that'll screw around with them in the process of transferring them to my device. They're my files; leave them alone! Thankfully, Archos provides two methods for file transfer: as an external hard drive or as a Windows Media Player device. Personally, I go with the external hard drive choice because dragging and dropping files is quick, easy, and intuitive. If you're into synching your player and want to use WM, great, but I love the fact that you can just drag and drop files into the folders that you want without using proprietary software. Transfer occurs via USB 2.0, and the connection requires a special dongle that Archos provides with the obvious caveat that you can't go pick up a conventional USB cable to charge this sucker. I don't know exactly why Archos chose this connection except for the obvious financial benefit of specialized equipment (an unappreciated iPod immitation). Charging is very slow using this cable, but Archos claims that the docking bay or DVR station allow for much faster charging.

Like the file transfer system, the menu system is pretty intuitive as well. Directional buttons as well as an OK (select)/back and tab/menu buttons comprise the column of five buttons that reside to the right of the screen. These allow you to navigate through the icons on the home screen. There are 8 icons for video, music, photos, browser, resume, tv scheduler, video recorder, and audio recorder. Obviously, video, music, and photos will take you to their corresponding media. Browser allows you to browse all folders in a file folder format (say that 10 times fast!) while resume takes you back to where you last left off, and the finally three deal with recording media. I have yet to record any media on this player; so, unfortunately I can't review that aspect. But the ergonomics of this player are easily a 4 of 5. It's a little clunky, but for a player with an 80 GB HDD and a 4 inch screen, how can you complain?

The proprietary dongle that connects via USB is a bit disappointing as well as the lack of video codec support straight out of the box, but you are provided with the dongle (don't lose it!), and the AVI support will account for the majority of most viewers' videos. My rating would breakdown like this:

design 5

ergonomics 4

functionality 5

ease of use/format support 3

value 5

This is an awesome player and a great deal. If you're a frequent flyer and are the slightest bit tech savvy, which you are if you're checking this out, I'd highly recommend this unit.

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I purchased the 80GB 504 as an update to the Archos Gmini 400, which was a pretty awesome device itself. The 504 is great. Unlike certain other fine products (Ipod, Toshiba), the 504 is really a dedicated video device, with a huge screen that takes up most of the front real estate on the unit making the most of portable video.

The 504 handles video, audio, and photos wonderfully. The screen is beautiful and vibrant and the interface is simple and effective. I love the ability to customize the desktop appearance with personal photos and color settings. Playback of video is smooth and I've had no problems with sound/video sync or file compatibility. The operating system is pleasingly quick, especially when viewing photos. A nice improvement on the 504 from my Gmini is the ability to view photos while listening to music. The audio quality is very good. It is worth noting that the CNET review mentioned poor audio quality as a downside, but Archos has issued a firmward upgrade that made noticeable improvement of audio quality.

Archos has taken a new approach with their pricing and design of the 504, primarily through requiring additional accessories for full functionality (audio and video recording, USB host functions, etc). While some have complained about this, I like it. The base units are priced very attractively. The previous generation 100GB Archos AV500, for example, records video out of the box but sells for closer to $500. With the 504 I can spend $350 on a wonderful video/mp3 player with a big hard drive and spend another $100 later for the optional DVR station. I think Archos has taken the right step by offering consumers flexibility-a great base unit is now available for much less, but the full range of functionality is available to those who want to spend more.

I have only had the 504 for a few days but I am the kind of guy that likes to put a new electronic item through its paces early. I purchased it to take on our honeymoon to act as entertainment on the plane and to dump my camera and hopefully our camcorder( JVC hard disk based) to for backup.

First impressions are very good. I immediately upgraded the firmware and that went smoothly. I have also added some movies and PDFs and pics in as well. all worked very well.

Video: Looks incredible!!! I converted some DVDs using the Xvid codec and they play perfectly.. no stutter, great sound, GREAT picture and excellent loading times.

PDFs: I converted some docs and some books in .RTF format with cutePDF and they look fine. I suggest that you copy everything you want to PDF into word and do page setup, making the page 5" wide and margins of .5" or less. This gives a nice look when reading. My only small gripe is that you have to zoom in a few times every time you open a PDF to get it to a size that is easy to read. I would prefer it saved my location and setting when I close a PDF

Photos: Like Videos these look great and are easy to view

Only two problem/issues so far are getting the504 to show up on a TV. Although I am not using their archos to TV cable so that may make a difference. I have a few more cables to try at home before I call this broken. And I thought it also had the stand built in like the 604 but it does not and the case is not available to purchase yet so I am trying to jury rig a stand for it.

Over all a great little travel device.

Update: I verified that I can transfer pics from my Canon SD300 and more importantly my JVC Everio-G Camcorder (GZ-MG77US) camcorder. Bumping it up to 5 stars just for that feature alone.