The ARCHOS 605 160GB, WiFi bridges the gap between the PC and the TV. For the first time, you can stream content from the PC or the Internet to the TV or PMP--all through a wireless home network and the ARCHOS 605 WiFi and DVR Station.
Play all your digital entertainment: movies, TV shows, photos and music
Record your favorite TV shows
Stream and watch videos from your PC
Download movies and music directly on your PMP using the ARCHOS Content Portal
Rating: - Don't Buy it.
I owned my Archos 605 WIFI for 5 weeks when some of the functions stopped working while using it. When I attempted to re-boot the system, it would not restart. After some quick research, I found that this is a very common problem with these units. They don't last long. Because I bought it from Amazon and not directly from Archos, Archos doesn't want it back. This was a very expensive toy for little more than one month of use.
Rating: - Great Concept, Awful Package
I did a lot of research to figure out what player to buy and finally purchased the Archos because of its capabilities. I was fully aware of the additional expenses for the plug-ins and accessories but decided that they would be well worth it to expand the capabilities.
The Archos was a fun player and, with the plug-ins, the video quality is incredible. The browser was a bit slow and the image quality of recorded TV programs was not spectacular but the capabilities of the player were incredible.
Within 1 month of purchase, my first player's backlight went out. Nothing showed up on the screen. After navigating through customer service (which I had expected to be bad based on reviews), I was told to send the player in for repairs. Instead, I returned it to Amazon since it was within their warranty.
Amazon sent me a replacement. Within two months this second unit had completely failed. The software stopped working, the battery wouldn't charge, nothing worked. It was complete junk.
To their credit, Amazon completely refunded the price for the second unit as well as all of the accessories that I had purchased. Since I am now an Amazon customer for life, I promptly turned around and purchased an i-pod touch.
The screen on the i-pod is smaller and the video quality is slightly less, but it is indestructible and has given me no problem. This is well worth it after my ordeal with the Archos 605.
The 605 has some really cool features and the image quality is incredible but I have found it to be absolutely unreliable. The fact that the package is a piece of junk overshadows the capabilities.
Rating: - BEWARE you will need extra $ needed to get this running
I purchased the 605 and the DVR station. I didn't realise that you had to purchase a whole bunch of "plug ins" to get it working - I feel totally duped. One to get the Wifi web browser running, another to get the TV recorder to work, another to play MPEG2 at $20.00 - $30.00 each....
Rating: - Best PMP on the market
A great product. I have had mine for about a year now. Sure there's the intial cost to get over when you include the add-ons. But being able to put just about any file format on it pays off in the long run. At 30 Gig, I usually carry about 40 1hr tv shows, about 10-12 movies and at least 100 mp3's. While the speaker isn't always as loud as I would like, that can be remedied with either headphones or increasing the volume when converting the file.
I would very much like to upgrade to the newer Archos 5, but I couldn't be happier with this product. It did have some locking up issues in the beginning, but I learned how to avoid them. Lock-ups are easily fixed by hitting the reset button on the bottom of the unit. Actually started carrying around a paperclip for this purpose. Lock-up's usually occured when first turning on the unit. If you remember to hold the power button for at least 5 seconds, this usually does not happen. Also, power the unit on before plugging it in to charge. With the two tips alone, I have gone many months without a single lock-up.
As for quality, the picture is top-notch. There are different display setting you can use. There's also the parental options available. You can effectively protect all your content from being viewed by anyone else with access to your Archos.
If you have the means and want a great portable media player, this is the one.
Archos 605 Wi-Fi Portable Media Player (160 GB) Reviews
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