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Archos 7 Experience and Mac Use

M

mikethemovie

macrumors member
Original poster
Feb 28, 2008
68
0
Dear People,

I own an Imac and an unibody macbook.. Im looking for a good mediaplayer for traveling.. I caught my eye on the archos 7 series.. Does anyone have any experience with it and is it easy to use with OSX?
 
Archos 7 and Mac OS X

I am exactly in the same decision spot as you are - looking at the Archos 7 for use as a good media player for traveling. Apparently, yes, the Archos 7 works with Mac OS X. Check out pages 46-48 of the manual at:
http://www.archos.com/support/download/manuals/en_User_Manual_ARCHOS_5-7_v2.pdf


You'll see mention of Mac OS X along with some screenshots. The short version: the Archos 7 apparently shows up as an external hard drive when you plug the USB cable in to your Mac, and you just copy over files.

I think I'm going to take the plunge, since my previous media player for the kids, a Sony PSP, just died. Guess we'll see what's what soon enough...
 
billin said:
I am exactly in the same decision spot as you are - looking at the Archos 7 for use as a good media player for traveling. Apparently, yes, the Archos 7 works with Mac OS X. Check out pages 46-48 of the manual at:
http://www.archos.com/support/download/manuals/en_User_Manual_ARCHOS_5-7_v2.pdf


You'll see mention of Mac OS X along with some screenshots. The short version: the Archos 7 apparently shows up as an external hard drive when you plug the USB cable in to your Mac, and you just copy over files.

I think I'm going to take the plunge, since my previous media player for the kids, a Sony PSP, just died. Guess we'll see what's what soon enough...
Click to expand...

I just ordered one.. Check out ebay.. El Cheapo.. haha.. 150 euro off retailprice.. Ill post my experiences..
 
DO NOT buy archos... they are french pieces of crap. I am sending my 604 wifi in for the second time in less than a year
 
I had the 604 wifi. i did not like it that much because you had to pay extra for the plugins to play certain video files. So I sold it within 3 months and got the touch.
 
we'll see

Well, I already ordered the Archos 7 from Amazon - should be arriving tomorrow, in time for a trip this weekend. I must admit I'm a little worried about the reliability, given people's past comments about Archos devices, and I already know that their customer support is zilch. But hopefully it'll hold up for a while, or at least until Apple's rumored touch tablet comes around. I already have an iPhone, which is great for just me, but I wanted a 7" screen at least for this device, which is meant to show videos to my three kids. The kids aren't great with sharing the iPhone...

I'll let everyone know how well it works after the weekend.
 
billin said:
Well, I already ordered the Archos 7 from Amazon - should be arriving tomorrow, in time for a trip this weekend. I must admit I'm a little worried about the reliability, given people's past comments about Archos devices, and I already know that their customer support is zilch. But hopefully it'll hold up for a while, or at least until Apple's rumored touch tablet comes around. I already have an iPhone, which is great for just me, but I wanted a 7" screen at least for this device, which is meant to show videos to my three kids. The kids aren't great with sharing the iPhone...

I'll let everyone know how well it works after the weekend.
Click to expand...

An Apple tablet? I would be sold..
Something like the OpenPeak OpenFrame in a multimedia tablet shape would be awesome.. Apple will eventually.. ;)

openpeak-openframe-touch-screen-home-smartphone.jpg
 
Thanks for the link to the video review! Indeed, the device looks nice - screen looks nice and sharp with good colors, and the interface looks decent. I'm not thrilled about having to drop more money for additional codecs after already paying 400+ USD for the device itself, but oh well. The only thing the review wasn't able to test is the durability of the device, which can only be observed over time.

For those interested, here's a more text-based review, by the AMD VP of Advanced Marketing:
http://blogs.amd.com/patmoorhead/archive/2008/12/29/archos-7-review-touch.aspx
 
so far so good

Initial impressions... 7" screen is nice and big, with great color, contrast, and detail. The device is very attractive and feels solidly built. It's definitely hefty, comparable to the weight of an external hard drive. The Archos 7 shows up as a mass storage device when attached via USB to my Mac Pro, and copying over files is fast over the USB 2 connection. I wound up buying the Video Podcast plug-in for h264 video and AAC audio for an extra $20. I couldn't connect to my Airport Base Station Extreme (802.11n) so I had to download the plug-in to my Mac desktop and then copy it over to the Archos 7's root directory, after which the Archos loaded it on the next device powerup with no problems.

Having some difficulties converting video to the correct resolution to use on the device... The specs say the screen is 800x480, but when I convert videos to that size using VisualHub, the device won't play the videos, complaining that the image is too big. When I convert to 720x480, however, the videos play fine and look great, albeit a tiny bit squashed. Still trying to figure that one out...

AVI Videos converted from Handbrake work great on the Archos 7 without modification, though there is no sizing option I'm aware of to make use of the full 800x480 resolution.

Built-in speakers are decent and can be heard over the buzz of the dehumidifier here in my basement, though when converting videos with VisualHub I made sure to boost volume to 125% just to be sure.

Anyway, a big thumbs up so far. We'll see how it handles traveling in the next few days. If anyone has a lead on how to convert video for the Archos 7 to utilize the full 800x480 resolution, I'd be happy to hear it.
 
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