Any Archos 5 Owners?

[TwystedMonkey]

So yeah just wondering if any HWC alumni own an Archos 5. In couple of months I have this event where I get another year older..... as I approach 30 I am finding myself less inclined celebrate and more inclined to panic..... anyways. I figure I wouldn't mind a pmp for my another step closer to 30-day. Now at first I was trying to decide between the Ipod Touch and the Cowon S9. Now quite a few friends of mine had various colorful things to say about apple in general not to mention there hardware and software.... Though amused I happen to trust them implicitly which all but removed the touch from my equation so I thought my course was clear. Then I found and started reading about the Archos 5.... and wow. It sounds amazing, sure there are some minus's but S9 has those also. The Archos's plus far outweigh its minutia. Thats from what I am reading anyways, and earlier today I actually held it in my hand at FS and though I know being a wee bit bulky is a minus for some I actually thought it was nice. It gave it some substance and the build quality seemed top-notch. I wouldn't mind some input from someone who owns one and who has used it for a while. In my research I have seen there have been quite a few firmware updates allready and I wonder if they have changed the experience for anyone? Anyways this has been a long post so I will cut it off here and thanks in advance to anyone with info.

[Unklmo]

i picked up the 504 (40gb) model 2 years ago primarily for showing off the wedding photos(almost 1000 of them) from differnt ppl. "you want to see them?, here, let me start the slideshow."
a lot simpler than lugging around the album, assorted prints, cd/dvd....
since then, i pretty much store all my pics on it, and a fair amount of music (but any mp3 player will do that) good for road trips.
simple to sync to your pc, but i prefer to use it in "hard drive" mode.
i don't use all the options available for it (ie: tv recorder).
most impressed by the view screen when looking at pics 2.25"x4"

[llama_egg]

It's actually suppose to be pretty good, but it really depends on what you want to do with it.

The Archos 5 is a media tablet, no other way to say it. If I was going to compare it to anything, I would say a iPod touch, as they have simular abilities, with slight differences here and there. I would say the biggest differences is that the Archos hosts a harddrive, while the iPod uses flash memory (the problem with HDD players is that they are more likely to skip and not take as much as a beating, but they do hold more), the use of iTunes compared to drag and drop (I believe, correct me if I'm wrong), screen size (watching movies/browsing internet is much nicer on the large screen of the Archos), app store (both have them, but Apples is much, much supperior), and unless I'm mistaken, the Archos beats the iPod in sound quality.

Saying that though, the iPod Touch is not a bad player, most people who bash it just don't like Apple, hate the idea that it's main steam, and that it tries to force you to use iTunes. The main problem with iPod's though, is the sound quality is only mediocre, IMHO, people who look at it should treat it more like a PDA which plays music instead of a full fledge audio player. And as my friend says, until it has an app called iBeer which will serve him for free, it's deffiently not the best player available.

Now, on the other hand, if your looking for something more for playing music, and possibly a episode of something here and there, the Cowon S9 is the way to go IMHO. The S9 hosts an AMOLED screen, which really does look slick, it's advertised for 55 hours audio and 11 hours video (and if my D2 is any indication, that's actually going to be pretty close to real time use), it pushes out some great audio quality (would say better then the Archos), and the fact that Cowon is known for pushing out firmware to help fix/update/add features is actually quite nice. Another thing is that it actually allows you to make/download themes to change the player, while there are alot of bad ones out there, a few people push out some that look nice enough that someone should hire them. But, sadly, the S9 doesn't host the features the iPod or the Archos do, which is it's biggest downfall, sure, you can add flash apps onto it, which is nice, but when you turn your head and see the ability to use the internet or someone using it to message people, you really see the difference.

But yeah, like I said, it really depends on what you want it for, either a full fledge media player or an audio player with features on the side.

One more thing before I forget, if I'm not mistaken, Archos actually require you to buy extra formats if you with to play them, which can really add up.

...

Wall of text Crits for 40 damage.

[TwystedMonkey]

Thanks for your opinon dude. Before I even knew the Archos 5 exsisted I was trying to decide between the Touch and the S9. Between the two I had pretty much settled on the S9 although its was going to be sacrificing a few key functions the touch had, and I wasn't insanely impressed with the capacity either had memory wise though. Then discovered the 5 and I was a little blown away. It seemed to have everything I was looking for in the touch with some of the more annoying points removed. Itunes reputation proceeds it in a very bad manner. The 5 solves that problem with drag and drop simplicity like the S9. I know its got and LCD screen and not OLED like the S9 but it bein 2 inchs bigger and a way high resolution helps balance thing out a little. I have to admit I didn't realise the HD factor had those issues.... but it seems my OCD about keeping gadgets in pristine condition will work in my favor there. Having the HD though is an awesome thing to me because I can put that amazing screen to good use and watch more vids than I probably would of with the touch or the S9. Being able to access the net is awesome to but it was a function I was willing to forgoe though before I found the 5. And yes I admit the paying for extra formats doesn't strike me as a good thing but what it plays out of the box would be good enough for me I hope.... I just want to talk to someone who owns one because it one thing to read about stuff, I could do that till my eyes bleed. Hearing about it from someone who is holding it in there hands or even writing there reply from it would be something totally different. Thanks for all the info dude I hope some of the backstory behind what I have been trying to figure out helps you kinda see where I am coming from.... Cheers.

[llama_egg]

Understandable, sadly I've only been able to play with both, but people I know who own both of them seem to say good things.

You might want to check out anythingbutipod.com, it's an audio forum and you should be able to get tons of first hand experiences from there, plus quite a few of them know their stuff.