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Portable Video player - Recommendations please!


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Old 27-10-2008, 19:12
SweetCheater
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Hi All

My lovely and much loved Archos 700AV has just 'died' (the battery won't take a charge). tried it with replacement packs but not the same so...

Money not an issue - what can anyone recommend as a replacement?

few must haves and don't cares;

Don't care - plays music; radio; needs additional software; make (not wedded to Archos!)

Must have - viewable screen (I don't want to have to use binoculars to view the screen as i already wear glasses!); ability to play range of video types (but happy if it will only play the usual MP4 etc); must be portable (e.g. not going to use a laptop for viewing on the bus & train) !!

Many thanks in advance!
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Old 27-10-2008, 23:30
Matt-08
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iPod Touch or Archos 5.

Both great devices, just depends whether you are tied down to iTunes purchases/AAC files.

Personally, I've wished for the Touch for Christmas, as I already have an Archos 604.
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Old 28-10-2008, 00:06
Kargo
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iPod Touch

Screen is gorgeous, videos look amazing on it.
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Old 28-10-2008, 00:31
SweetCheater
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Thanks for those. Are there any file restrictions with the iTouch - I'm reading comments on Amazon about not being able to play back WMA files without taking aeons to convert them?

I'm not really interested in all the TV programmes and movies on iTunes as I've either already seen them or got them on DVD! I'm interested in transferring stuff I've shifted from my Sky+ boxes to DVD (I know - why not get a decent portable DVD player? Too big!) then to my PC to the handheld...
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Old 28-10-2008, 09:14
CBers
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Have a visit to the UN OF GADGETS forum, as they have lots of devices being discussed.
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Old 28-10-2008, 11:19
christocar
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Try an iAudio device. They have an amazing screen, and playback a ton of formats right out of the box. A friend of mine has one of these http://www.amazon.co.uk/Cowon-IAudio...5192712&sr=8-1

It has great battery life, and can playback some high-def content!
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Old 28-10-2008, 11:47
TheBigM
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TBH, I think you've got to for another Archos device - they are just totally geared towards being PVPs.
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Old 28-10-2008, 14:14
Kargo
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Thanks for those. Are there any file restrictions with the iTouch - I'm reading comments on Amazon about not being able to play back WMA files without taking aeons to convert them?

I'm not really interested in all the TV programmes and movies on iTunes as I've either already seen them or got them on DVD! I'm interested in transferring stuff I've shifted from my Sky+ boxes to DVD (I know - why not get a decent portable DVD player? Too big!) then to my PC to the handheld...

When you first get an iPod Touch brand new.. it will be able to play .MP4 for video, .mp3, .aac, .wav and itunes files as well as the usual image files.

Don't forget that you can also use it to directly watch videos from YouTube. =)

My iPod Touch can play these files:

Video: .mp4, .avi, .wmv, .rm, .mpg, .mov, .flv .3gp
Audio: .mp3, .wma, .ogg, .acc, .wav, .aac, itunes


How I got it to play all those.. I pwned the device (basically modified it so it could run third party apps)
then I downloaded MPlayer which is sort of like VLC Media Player and im now able to play all those types of files.
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Old 28-10-2008, 15:40
christocar
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When you first get an iPod Touch brand new.. it will be able to play .MP4 for video, .mp3, .aac, .wav and itunes files as well as the usual image files.

Don't forget that you can also use it to directly watch videos from YouTube. =)

My iPod Touch can play these files:

Video: .mp4, .avi, .wmv, .rm, .mpg, .mov, .flv .3gp
Audio: .mp3, .wma, .ogg, .acc, .wav, .aac, itunes


How I got it to play all those.. I pwned the device (basically modified it so it could run third party apps)
then I downloaded MPlayer which is sort of like VLC Media Player and im now able to play all those types of files.
Once you have pwned it, will it play Divx files? How do you put them onto the device? Is it just drag n drop, and does that work with MP3 files as well? This is something I might be interested in! Did Mplayer cost you anything?
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Old 28-10-2008, 23:01
SweetCheater
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Hmm...some more interesting choices. Thanks for those.

I'm thinking the newer Archos devices are riddled with software glitches from what I'm reading all over the web. When i do manage to find someone who likes the latest model, it turns out that they're on their 4th or 5th physical device!!

I like the look of the iTouch and I have 12 iPods already (yes, all different and they all still work!) but am slightly put off by the small screen. The Archos that died on me was a glorious 7 inches !!

I'll visit the sites you suggest though and see what I come up with.

Thanks again!
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Old 29-10-2008, 10:28
sancheeez
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If you liked the bigger screen of the Archos 7 series, have a look at the Cowon Q5.

Seriously nice piece of kit. 5" hi-res screen and more features than you could shake a stick at.

I use the older gen Cowon A2 and am very happy with it.
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Old 29-10-2008, 21:28
frasera
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mp4/mp3 etc all play on the touch just fine.
just use a transcoder for video.. like mediacoder handbrake or whatever.

on a modern multicore system...trasncoding doesn't take that long. the more cores, the faster it goes.


for battery life extension there are external batteries for ipods
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Old 29-10-2008, 22:42
sancheeez
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Or just buy a player that will play the formats you want out of the box and has decent battery life to start with?

(Although the 7 hours the Q5 gets for video still isn't up there with the 10 hours I get from my older A2 .... but they're both better than the touch ..... double it in the case of the A2 )

Stuff re-encoding video. I sickened myself to death of doing that in the days before DivX compliant DVD players appeared. I don't care how much faster it can be done nowadays, I still wouldn't go back to it .....
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