electronics Archos Pocket Video Recorder AV420 opinions and reviews

Archos Pocket Video Recorder AV420

The Archos AV420 Pocket Video Recorder is an all-inclusive portable media player with an in-built colour display. While at the end of the day it is a Media Player, it has additional useful capabilities as well like storing photos and recording videos.

Sleek and more refined compared to its predecessor AV320, the media player cum Digital Video Recorder comes with dimensions of 1.1 x 5.0 x 3.1-inch (H x W x D) which means it can easily rest into your jacket pocket. Elegantly styled in shades of grey, it encompasses a 3.5-inch, quarter-VGA (320-by-240 pixel) active matrix display, and also a 1.8-inch 20GB drive.

The size of this device is only slightly bigger than a music-only player like an iPod but it is lot heavier at 9 ounces. Using the transformer and docking cradle makes it even heftier.

Important accessories include a Compact Flash slot, an internal microphone for voice recording, and a mono speaker which can be utilized when not using a headphone.

Courtesy the USB 2 connection or CF card, you can copy the playlists of MP3, WMA, JPG, or BMP files (for music and photos). Music can be recorded as WAV files. And finally, for TV recording, you can make use of the DVR feature by setting the date, time, and channel information using the player buttons or the remote.

Display features are top class. You will be able to view all track and title essentials, subsequent song in the playlist, so also the album cover design. Icing on the cake is the colour screen which makes the experience all the more enjoyable.

When listening to music, the battery lasts for 12 hours and when playing videos, it can run for a shade over 4 hours.

Even as there are some great innovations, things are still not hunky-dory. The best viewing quality is observed only when you hold the device at an angle of 45 degrees. Connections to external recording applications are quite tedious as you have to make use of three cables with seven jacks to get things in order. The help manual does not provide enough guidance. Some control functions aren’t clear. Storage capacity of 20GB is also bit of a letdown.

It may not be devoid of glitches. However the exceptional features of this appliance overshadows the shortcomings to a big extent making the Archos AV420 a one of a kind device worth owning.