Please advise me on new gadget
by jcf. Average Reading Time: about a minute.
The project I’m working on is coming to an end. I have promised myself, that I’ll buy a portable MP3 player when it’s over. I was in K55 – the MP3 shop yesterday and had a look at the (old) Apple iPod and the Archos AV140.
I have a hard time deciding. The interface of the (old) iPod I looked at beat everything else I touched hands-down. The iPod also looks much nicer. It should work with the Audigy Firewire port on my Home Theater PC (HTPC) and Mediajukebox 9.
The Archos has a certain geekness factor (ability to play and record video / DivX both on the internal “tiny-screen” as well as on TV and it has a 40gb harddisk. I could use it to store pictures from digital camera when I’m on holidays. The cost above the iPod is not the big problem. The size of the Archos is OK. User Interface is so-so. USB 2.0 (which means I need to buy a USB 2.0 card either for my Home Theater PC or my Laptop). Build quality seems to lack, support seems to be pretty bad.
What to buy? Is the video option necessary? Does it matter?
Luckily the iPods don’t arrive until in one or two weeks time, so I have some time to make my decision. What are your thoughts?
Been there, done that. iPod.
I bought the 6GB archos jukebox recorder when it first came out. It’s true that the finish on that one wasn’t good, but I know that the finish on the new recorder is much better. However, my unit still works, works very nicely at that, so I haven’t had problems with it. All my friends now own one, and they’ve never had problems either. Currently, the 20GB Archos jukebox recorder costs (in america) approx $210. The 10 GB iPod costs $300. And trust me, 10 GB difference is a lot, if the 90$ aren’t.
The multimedia AV140 (with 40GB and digital video recorder) costs about the same as an iPod 20GB…
That’s the only reason I never decided to buy the iPod. if the jukebox breaks, at least I didn’t spend that much on it (and it’s about to turn 2 years old, so I’m considering the AV140 too, as soon as the price goes a little lower).
Cheers,
Francesco
Thanks for your comments. I’m looking at the 30GB iPod, knowing well that it’s HD is too small to hold my MP3 collection (24GB, 1/3 of my CD’s ripped)
Also – the only thing that would be usefull with the AV140 in addition to the MP3 playing, is the ability to store the images from my digital camera. I don’t need the video functions.
So I think I’ll go the iPod route (when both the ipods and money is available)