[Request] Hard-Disk Graphical Mp3 Player

[nicK]

I was on the verge of buying a iRiverihp40 a couple of days ago but stalled because i want to find out more about the hard-disk based mp3 players with other features such as colour screen, view mpeg4's etc..

Anybody know much about these mp3 players?

I was looking at archos ( www.archos.com) who seem to be best in the market, although their customer service is appauling.

Are there any other companies and any 'bargains' going for this type of mp3 player?..

eg1: http://www.archos.com/products/overview/gmini_400.html

eg2: Gemini Sp 20gig

sceptre

Teh iRiver H340 has a colour screen and supports photo viewing and so on but no mpeg4 viewing there. Give that that's the top of the iRiver range AFAIK you can probably eliminate iRiver from your search.

AB03

Check this thing out. Dont know if you know about it already or not.
Doesnt play mpeg4 but it comes with converter software. Its not ideal, but it wouldnt be the worst with considering the 20gig harddrive you have to play with.
Screen quality looks good, but that picture isnt a real unit so I could be wrong altogether.

Theres a flash picture of it on front page of the creative website:

http://ie.europe.creative.com/

I think you may have meant this?

http://ie.europe.creative.com/products/product.asp?category=210&subcategory=211&product=9882

AB03

Indeed I did, apologies

callmescratch

my gmini 400 is en route from Neutron Express at the moment.

got it for €324 including delivery, which is a pretty damn good price, about €100 less than the archos site.

MP3 player, video player, hard drive, game console.

no drivers necessary (as far as i know) and pretty much the same size as an ipod.

chump

there's a chance you'll get snared at customs tho!

that could b expensive... let us know how you get on

it got an excellent review too
http://reviews.cnet.com/Archos_Gmini400/4505-6499_7-31000735-2.html?tag=tab

[nicK]

my gmini 400 is en route from Neutron Express at the moment.

€324 inc. delivery? that's class. let me know how ya get on..

i think i'll choose between this.. or the iriverihp40 (new price-drop to 350euros from mx2.net)

_sheep

Cabaal here on boards just got one of these, nicest little device ive seen in a while, its smaller than my 7610. I went looking for this thread so i could find the neutronexpress site. Time to order

callmescratch

hang on there sheep, before you order i have a few words of warning:

firstly, GLS is the company that handle all united states post office trans-atlantic parcels. im sure that name sets off alarm bells for anyone who buys stuff from komplett.

also, on the GLS website it claims that the customs duty is 13.5%, which should have come in at €43.74 including delivery, not the €65.58 they are billing me.

another claim on the GLS site is that the handling charge for getting your stuff out of customs is €9.50, not the €11.50 i'm being charged.

and take a look at this:

Status No. Date Time Remark Status Text Depot
2010 21/10/2004 8:11 Van scan on del. vehicle 6500
2001 21/10/2004 7:04 Delivery Depot IB scan 6500
2001 21/10/2004 7:02 Delivery Depot IB scan 6500
2005 20/10/2004 17:15 Parcel in warehouse 6500
2005 20/10/2004 9:24 Parcel in warehouse 6500
2001 20/10/2004 6:29 Delivery Depot IB scan 6500
2005 19/10/2004 8:56 Parcel in warehouse 6500
2001 19/10/2004 7:02 Delivery Depot IB scan 6500
2005 18/10/2004 8:58 Parcel in warehouse 6500
2001 18/10/2004 7:05 Delivery Depot IB scan 6500
2001 18/10/2004 6:50 Delivery Depot IB scan 6500
2804 15/10/2004 16:56 Customs parcel released 2100
2804 14/10/2004 18:20 Customs parcel released 9007
1020 07/10/2004 16:24 NIF InBound scan 9007
2801 07/10/2004 16:21 Pcl in treatment process 2100
1020 06/10/2004 23:22 NIF InBound scan 9826
1023 06/10/2004 23:22 NIF OutBound scan 9826
1001 05/10/2004 20:49 HUB-Flow STANDARD 1
1020 05/10/2004 20:49 NIF InBound scan 9004
1023 05/10/2004 20:48 NIF OutBound scan 9004
1023 05/10/2004 20:45 NIF OutBound scan 9004
2 04/10/2004 16:21 Parcel Data Entry I-Point 9704


basically, it arrived in ireland on the 7th. GLS waited until the 13th to tell me it was in customs. i agreed to the customs charges straight away, and it went in and out of customs by the 18th.

then they just seemed to scan it every now and again without actually moving it from depot 6500, wherever that is.

eventually, this morning it was scanned into a delivery vehicle at 8:11, so i was in a good mood all day in work thinking i was coming home to my Gmini.
but no. i dont know where the delivery vehicle went, but wherever it is my Gmini is sitting in the back of it.

i didn't object to the customs overcharging because they return your stuff to sender if you do.

on a brighter note, due to their complete incompetence, once their contract with the USPS runs out in december GLS are being dropped by them like a greased up deaf guy drops the soap. DHL are teaming up with USPS after that.

also, neutronexpress is a great site, whose staff are friendly and quick to respond to questions, and its really good value too.

all in all, i'm not as pissed off as i should be. its still probably cheaper or around the same price as it would be over here. just so much ****ing hassle.
....................................................................................................

p.s. i just thought of this today, will i have any trouble charging it etc when i eventually get it. don't the US run on different voltage to us? has anyone any US purchased hardware?

callmescratch

just an update if anyones interested in getting an archos GMINI400.
got mine yesterday. GLS guy charged me €80 for customs.
not much of a bargain getting it from neutronexpress.

the gadget itself is excellent.
great sound, great screen quality. its not the least bit annoying having a 2.2" screen.
games on it too but haven't really looked at them yet tbh.

basically, avoid getting it from the us if you can find it for around €400 over here.

Private Joker

Found it here for £249 about 350euros

http://www.advancedmp3players.co.uk/shop/product_info.php?cPath=3&products_id=363

digitalninja

i've bought the archos 340....for 500 odd euros

I'll let you know how it is when it arrives..

WezzyB

I just purchased the Archos, AV440, from mp3players.co.uk for £350 ~> €500, it is currently out of stock, I need to check when it will be shipped...

Its a 40 Gig mp3 and mpeg 4 video player/recorder, you can record programs/movies out of any video source straight to mpeg 4 video.

links:
http://www.archos.com/products/overview/av400_series.html
http://www.mp3players.co.uk/site/uk/archos_av440.html

I was thinking of getting the Iriver 340, which was mentioned in the IHP140 thread, because of its colour screen and the USB Host thingy its got but I couldn't get any reassurance from iriver that it would work with my Digital Camera which takes CF/Microdrives, The Archos has a built in CF adaptor so I should be able to backup my pictures from my camera on the go, pretty cool 4 when I'm on holidays!

WezzyB

Just realized that the AV440's CF adapter is CFI and not CF+/CFII, does any one know of any adapters for CF -> CF+???

bk

sceptre wrote:

Teh iRiver H340 has a colour screen and supports photo viewing and so on but no mpeg4 viewing there. Give that that's the top of the iRiver range AFAIK you can probably eliminate iRiver from your search.

Actually the iRiver PMP140 is out now.
http://www.mx2.co.uk/acatalog/MX2_co_uk_MP3_Players_50.html

It is a Portable Multimedia Player that has a 3.5" colour screen and can play lots of formats including Mpeg4

bk

WezzyB wrote:

I just purchased the Archos, AV440, from mp3players.co.uk for £350 ~> €500, it is currently out of stock, I need to check when it will be shipped...

Its a 40 Gig mp3 and mpeg 4 video player/recorder, you can record programs/movies out of any video source straight to mpeg 4 video.

links:
http://www.archos.com/products/overview/av400_series.html
http://www.mp3players.co.uk/site/uk/archos_av440.html

I was thinking of getting the Iriver 340, which was mentioned in the IHP140 thread, because of its colour screen and the USB Host thingy its got but I couldn't get any reassurance from iriver that it would work with my Digital Camera which takes CF/Microdrives, The Archos has a built in CF adaptor so I should be able to backup my pictures from my camera on the go, pretty cool 4 when I'm on holidays!

What camera do you have? As long as the camera is a USB Mass Storage device it should work fine. Most cameras are, unfortunately Canon cameras aren't.

However if your camera doesn't work then you could still use the H340 with a USB memory card reader to read the CF cards from the camera. That is what my friend does with his Canon camera.

BTW I have a iHP-120 and I can highly recommend iRiver gear.

WezzyB

I've the Fuji Finepix S602, It does appear on windows as a Mass Storage device, so it would appear that its compatable, the Iriver site says that the S5000 is compatable so that seems to 'confirm' that it 'would' work. From a review, I read that the Iriver Host only transfers @ usb 1.1 speeds.

The Archos AV440 that I've ordered doesn't seem to be compatable with the Microdrive either, unless anyone can tell me if I can use CF+ cards on a CF slot (via an adapter). I previously bought a CF PCMCIA adapter for my (CF+) microdrive and it certainly didn't work, I gave it away for free on the For Sale board to some lucky punter.

KeRbDoG

OK, first of all - sorry for digging up a real old post BUT, just wanna echo the whole 'GLS are crap' statement.

rant:
I have delt with so many shipping companies in my life and in my current job where we ship a hell of a lot expensive stuff around everyday, but GLS take the biscuit for being the worst shipping company in Ireland atleast. They suck the things that suck poo

/rant:

thank you for reading :rolleyes:

callmescratch wrote:

hang on there sheep, before you order i have a few words of warning:

firstly, GLS is the company that handle all united states post office trans-atlantic parcels. im sure that name sets off alarm bells for anyone who buys stuff from komplett.

also, on the GLS website it claims that the customs duty is 13.5%, which should have come in at €43.74 including delivery, not the €65.58 they are billing me.

another claim on the GLS site is that the handling charge for getting your stuff out of customs is €9.50, not the €11.50 i'm being charged.

and take a look at this:

Status No. Date Time Remark Status Text Depot
2010 21/10/2004 8:11 Van scan on del. vehicle 6500
2001 21/10/2004 7:04 Delivery Depot IB scan 6500
2001 21/10/2004 7:02 Delivery Depot IB scan 6500
2005 20/10/2004 17:15 Parcel in warehouse 6500
2005 20/10/2004 9:24 Parcel in warehouse 6500
2001 20/10/2004 6:29 Delivery Depot IB scan 6500
2005 19/10/2004 8:56 Parcel in warehouse 6500
2001 19/10/2004 7:02 Delivery Depot IB scan 6500
2005 18/10/2004 8:58 Parcel in warehouse 6500
2001 18/10/2004 7:05 Delivery Depot IB scan 6500
2001 18/10/2004 6:50 Delivery Depot IB scan 6500
2804 15/10/2004 16:56 Customs parcel released 2100
2804 14/10/2004 18:20 Customs parcel released 9007
1020 07/10/2004 16:24 NIF InBound scan 9007
2801 07/10/2004 16:21 Pcl in treatment process 2100
1020 06/10/2004 23:22 NIF InBound scan 9826
1023 06/10/2004 23:22 NIF OutBound scan 9826
1001 05/10/2004 20:49 HUB-Flow STANDARD 1
1020 05/10/2004 20:49 NIF InBound scan 9004
1023 05/10/2004 20:48 NIF OutBound scan 9004
1023 05/10/2004 20:45 NIF OutBound scan 9004
2 04/10/2004 16:21 Parcel Data Entry I-Point 9704


basically, it arrived in ireland on the 7th. GLS waited until the 13th to tell me it was in customs. i agreed to the customs charges straight away, and it went in and out of customs by the 18th.

then they just seemed to scan it every now and again without actually moving it from depot 6500, wherever that is.

eventually, this morning it was scanned into a delivery vehicle at 8:11, so i was in a good mood all day in work thinking i was coming home to my Gmini.
but no. i dont know where the delivery vehicle went, but wherever it is my Gmini is sitting in the back of it.

i didn't object to the customs overcharging because they return your stuff to sender if you do.

on a brighter note, due to their complete incompetence, once their contract with the USPS runs out in december GLS are being dropped by them like a greased up deaf guy drops the soap. DHL are teaming up with USPS after that.

also, neutronexpress is a great site, whose staff are friendly and quick to respond to questions, and its really good value too.

all in all, i'm not as pissed off as i should be. its still probably cheaper or around the same price as it would be over here. just so much ****ing hassle.
....................................................................................................

p.s. i just thought of this today, will i have any trouble charging it etc when i eventually get it. don't the US run on different voltage to us? has anyone any US purchased hardware?

ambro25

WezzyB wrote:

The Archos AV440 that I've ordered doesn't seem to be compatable with the Microdrive either, unless anyone can tell me if I can use CF+ cards on a CF slot (via an adapter).

It should work. I've had an early AV420 (codenamed AV400) myself for quite a while now, and it takes my Canon CFII with no probs. Note that I have had compatibility problem with Sandisk CFII formatted in the camera and taken straight out of the camera into the Archos, but which worked when formatted under XP with PC card reader - weird