I've decided to buy either an Archos AV500 or AV700...but can't decide which will give me the best bang for my buck. I realize the biggest difference between the two is the screen size. I would like to buy the AV700 but have heard people complain about video quality. I've read reviews but none seem very helpful. So, when in doubt, ask the consumers, right? Any Thoughts? Anybody out there have one of these two impressive (yet pricey) machines? Please let me know what you've heard and/or what you think...
i think im about a month late in replying but if youre still thinking, or ever see this..
i have had the archos av500 for about 3 months. it is an awesome machine. i bought the smaller one because after reading the reviews, i realized i wanted something i could easily carry around.. plus the av500 was supposed to have better video quality.
but now i realize that even the av500 is a little big to carry around. i just use it to hook up to the tv or in my car. id buy the av700 is i could switch.
this thing is durable. ive dropped it like 10 times and its dented up but works perfect. it records tv with ok quality, not as good as if you download an AVI and put it on the archos.
the archos can be switched over to hard drive mode wich is nice. you can use it as an extrnal flash drive.
it is picky about media though. you can only use AVI videos, with mp3 audio. no AC3 audio and certain avi's wont even work.
but still../ its awesome. and holds 100's of hours of video. battery is pretty decent too.
i used to carry it in my pocket and use it as my mp3 player, but i dont anymore. i wish i got the av700 so i could actually watch the screen. this smaller one is almost pointless. its definately cool, but a 7 inch screen would help a lot.
you do need to buy a travel cable though which is like 30 bucks, so you can easily hook it up to any tv that is around. screen seems like it is easily scratchable, but ive had it in my pocketfor like 10 hours with no scratch on it. and i havent babied it one bit. highly recommended if you know how and where to download AVI videos.
