Archos 605 Wi-Fi Portable Media Player (80 GB) | 
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| Brand: Archos
Category: CE
List Price: $349.99
Buy New: $245.00
You Save: $104.99 (30%)
New (50) Used (4)
Avg. Customer Rating:  249 reviews
Sales Rank: 2113
Color: grey
Media: Electronics
Autographed: No
Memorabilia: No
Batteries Included: Yes
Hard Drive Size: 80
Native Resolution: 4.3
Display Size: 4.3
Size: 80GB
Shipping Weight (lbs): 4
Dimensions (in): 5 x 1 x 3
Legal Disclaimer: Warranty does not cover misuse of product.
MPN: 500963
Model: 500963
UPC: 690590509634
EAN: 0690590509634
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Condition: ~ NEW condition. EXCESS Store Inventory. CLEAN Unit! ALL Accessories INCLUDED. Open unit. Box shows shelf wear. As-Is-As-Listed. No Implied Guarantees. No Exchange.
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| Features:
| • | The 80 GB Archos 605 Wi-Fi bridges the gap between the PC and the TV; for the first time, you can stream content from the PC or the Internet to the TV or PMP--all through a wireless home network, the Archos 605, and the DVR Station | | • | Play all your digital entertainment: movies, TV shows, photos and music | | • | Record your favorite TV shows | | • | Stream and watch videos from your PC | | • | Download movies and music directly on your PMP using the Archos Content Portal |
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| Accessories:
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| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
Featuring the highest quality screen resolution, highest quality video, touch screen, WiFi capabilities for streaming content to the device or a TV, the ARCHOS 605 WiFi is the top product in the line-up for flexibility, portability, features and price.
Amazon.com Product Description
The Archos 605 generation 5 portable media player comes with a convenient WiFi feature, an attribute that offers the fastest and easiest way to access digital entertainment. You can use the built-in Wi-Fi capabilities of the Archos to download online media content from the Archos content portal: All you need is a usable Wi-Fi connection, and you're good to start downloading (fees may apply). With the Archos in hand, for the first time you can download favorite movies, TV shows, and music wherever you are, without being tied to the PC or Mac. Other great features include a full-color 4.3-inch touchscreen that crams in an amazing 800 x 480 picture resolution for superior picture quality and 80 GB of built-in memory. 
The Archos 605 features a touch screen, high quality screen resolution, and WiFi capabilities. View larger View bottom - View side. | 
Download your favorite movies, TV shows, and music, and bring it with you. |
With full Internet access, the player's Opera browser plug-in offers Adobe Flash support, which lets you access and enjoy YouTube and other Web video sites on your Archos device. By using the player, you can view and post YouTube videos wherever you are with an active wireless connection. In addition to downloading media straight from the Archos content portal, you can stream and watch videos from your home PC or laptop. For added video playback versatility, the player is compatible with MPEG4, AVI, and WMV video files. The player features robust music playback features, too. On-board music file playback capabilities support MP3, CBR, VBR, WMA, protected WMA, and WAV files. To help round out the player's multimedia superiority, the Archos even comes with photo viewing capabilities. JPEG, BMP, and PNG files are 100 percent compatible with the player, and the player can pull up PDFs for portable review -- an ideal means to take bigger documents or e-books in PDF format on the road with you. Because of the Archos's USB 2.0 compatibility, files can be quickly transferred to the device in the absence of a Wi-Fi network connection. Charging the device can also be accomplished with an active USB connection. An AC adapter is sold separately for additional charging options. Other great features include mass storage capabilities, automatic firmware downloads, and a 3.5-millimeter headphone jack. With an advanced Li-Poly battery, the player supports up to 17 hours of continuous music playback and 5.5 hours of continuous video playback. Weighing in at a scant 9.17 ounces, the Archos generation 5 605 measures 4.8 by 3.2 by 0.6 inches.
 New widgets for the Archos 605 include a calculator, currency converter, unit converter, news, and weather (above) as well as a note writer and data vault (below). |  |
New Free Widget Pack
Archos has launched a new widget pack that is free for the 605. A widget is a piece of software that adds new features to your player. It gives you fun, quick, and easy access to hundreds of tools, right on the device. The package contains seven widgets, including a calculator, a currency converter, a unit converter, news, weather, a note writer, and a data vault. To be able to use the widgets, you need to purchase the Web Browser plug-in (about $30). Then, you can download the free widget pack via Archos.com.
 New Dish Network plug-in for the Archos 605. |
New Dish Network Plug-in
With a new plug-in, you can transfer recorded movies and TV shows from your Dish Network set-top box directly to your Archos 605. Play back Dish Network-recorded movies and TV shows on the go or on TV--in DVD quality. Multi-language is supported. The plug-in is compatible only with Dish Network STB models 622 and 722.
What's in the Box
Archos 605 Wi-Fi portable media player, headphones, USB cable, DVR Station Gen 5 adapter, protective pouch, quick start guide, and legal/safety notice.
The device comes with photo viewing capabilities, supporting JPEG, BMP, and PNG files. | 
Play any content that resides in the Windows Media Player library of your home PC or laptop. |
Most Advanced PMP
Featuring the highest quality screen resolution, highest quality video, touch screen, Wi-Fi capabilities for streaming content to the device or a TV, the Archos 605 Wi-Fi is the top product in the line-up for flexibility, portability, features and price. | |
|  | Touch screen The Archos 605 Wi-Fi features the highest resolution screen (800 X 480) and highest quality screen in a PMP. Use the touch screen to easily operate the device with your finger or stylus. | | |
|  | Personalize your Archos Make it yours: personalize your Archos 605 Wi-Fi to fit your unique lifestyle. Abundant plug-ins and accessories are available to customize your device to work the way you do: Go online for full Web surfing, video your friends and family in action, record your favorite TV shows and movies, and share your photos. | | |
|  | Wi-Fi - Download content wirelessly and directly to your Archos 605 WiFi via the Archos Content Portal and our partners' online stores.
- You can also stream movies, TV shows and music that are stored on your computer.
- Your device is Internet ready! With the optional Web browser plug-in, you can surf the Web and enjoy videos from online videos sites like DailyMotion and YouTube. | | |
|  | Your movies, your videos - Store and play up to 40 movies1
- Play the most popular video formats: MPEG-4, WMV, protected WMV, MPEG-2*, VOB*, and H.264* (*with optional plug-ins).
- Play the movies you shot on your camcorder. | | |
|  | Your photos - Transfer your photos from a PC or most mass storage devices via the USB 2.0 high speed interface.
- Store and view up to 300,000 photos1 (JPEG, PNG and BMP formats).
- Display slideshows with music and transition effects.
- Manage your files and folders directly on the device for a better mobility. | | |
|  | Your TV - Record your favorite TV shows or series directly on your Archos 605 Wi-Fi with the optional DVR Station Gen 5.
-Easy programming with the TV Program Guide.
-Record the most video sources such as satellite/cable box, VCR, DVD player in MPEG-4 format. | | |
|  | Your music - Store and listen up to 15,000 songs1
- Play the most popular music files such as MP3, WAV, WMA and protected WMA.
- Easily organize songs with the enhanced ARCLibrary.
- Customize your view by artist, album, type of music, and title, and create your playlist on the go. | | |
|  | Easy navigation Through the home WiFi connection, you can enjoy the entire shared digital media library of your home PC in your living room, not just in your office. | | |
(1)On average; based on 3.5 mins/song & 64 kbits/s WMA, on 1000 kbits/s MPEG-4 audio/video encoding and 1h30/movie (for near DVD Quality), on JPEG, VGA
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| Customer Reviews: Read 244 more reviews...
 The Bar Is Raised on Mobile Video September 4, 2007
122 out of 127 found this review helpful
While I'll probably never use this as an MP3 player (I have smaller devices for that), it makes one nice video player. I've been playing with one for a little while and here are my impressions thus far:
Positives:
1) The video. Wow!!! I doubt there is anything this clean and crisp out there that is this small and portable. The video looks fantastic and I've yet to have any hardware lag while viewing it.
2) 160GB. That is massive and just the right size for carrying around video.
3) Intuitive user interface. I've got a Zune for my mp3's and I often find that complicated (and irritating) to navigate around but this is quite easy to figure out. You don't need to be a rocket scientist to get this to work the way you want it to. Navigating around a movie is fantastic as well because it is so easy to pause, fast forward, or do anything else you would want to do on a video player.
4) Responsive Touch-Screen. Using the touch screen was quite easy... I don't think I even touched the buttons on the side much. I had no problem even though I've got some thick fingers.
5) Sound quality. This thing sounds great some with nice earphones. I can see why some might use it as an mp3 player as well. It sounds awesome!
Negatives:
1) No standard USB Connection on the device? Come on, if you are going to be this large then give us a standard USB interface, please. For one, it is smaller than this ending. Also, if we are near a computer we can use the USB to charge it without having to carry the proprietary cable around. USB is just sooooo... universal... I'm flabbergasted anytime somebody doesn't include a USB connection.
2) Battery. First, this isn't removable so you can't carry a spare pack around. But it doesn't last that long when playing video. This wouldn't be too much of a concern if it had a USB connection because there is always a way to charge it that way. But if the battery doesn't last as long as a laptop... there isn't much point.
3) Browser is not good. You can download video from Youtube and a few other sites but you can't just get out on the web and grab stuff. I've read you can buy a browser to do this, but something decent should have come with the device. If you are going to have Wi-Fi, why not make it as functional as possible?
So, if you are willing to shell out the cash this is an excellent device for video. I'd have other preferences for music but this is quite capable of handling that as well.
Worthy new entry in the Archos lineup October 10, 2007
83 out of 86 found this review helpful
Like many others, I gave up on my Amazon order and got it directly from Archos. I've been happily playing with it for the last couple days and really quite happy. To be fair, I am upgrading from the Archos 604 Wifi so I am already pretty well familiar with Archos' little quirks and such. I also have a brand new iPod Touch which is a great product in its own way. Overall I think this product is worthy of a 5 star rating because it offers the most bang for the buck as it were, amazing features at a moderate price.
As is my wont, I start with the things I love:
1) 160 GB, whats not to love about that? My brand new laptop has only 80GB, crazy to think that this little handheld PMP has more storage than my laptop or my desktop either for that matter!
2) Awesome screen resolution: Wow thats a lot of pixels for such a small screen.
3) Touch screen interface, very sensitive, and quite usable with or without a stylus (unlike the Touch which is not so sensitive).
4) If you purchase the Video Podcast and Cinema plugins from Archos ($40) you can watch just about any video on this baby without any tedious conversions (unlike the iPods).
5) Beautiful and colorful user interface, nice improvement on 604. I especially like being able to see what the next and previous songs on the playlist are, the Now Playing screen is nicely laid out.
6) Wifi is amazing, you can play videos off of your desktop computer or copy files from other computers. In fact, I was even able to automatically upgrade the Archos firmware just by connecting to Wifi.
7) Opera browser ($30 plugin) is very nice browser, works well with touch screen and supports YouTube and some other streaming video interfaces.
8) Fantastic DVR dock allows you to output to pretty much any kind of cable and watch at nice resolution on the monitor of your choice. This also includes a great remote control with a Blackberryish keyboard; again this is something I don't see available for iPods.
9) Dedicated volume button (not available on Touch or 604).
10) You can actually edit, rename, delete, etc music, videos, playlists etc. on the 605 itself, you don't have to hook it up to a PC every time you want to make the slightest change or delete something you don't need anymore. This is perhaps one of my biggest gripes about iPods in general.
11) Built-in viewing stand, how clever is that?
12) Indicator lights: I like the fact that you can see when the battery is charged, when the hard drive is running, if the TV-Out is on or the power is on without flipping through menus or turning the device on.
13) Playlist editing/saving etc seems to work a lot better than it did on the 604. Just the fact that you can do this on the unit itself is a nice feature in comparison to iPods!
14) I can use the drive as a data backup and it doesn't messup my music or cause undue delays like it did on my 604.
15) The Archos seems to have the most knowledgeable and helpful user communities I have ever seen, you can get lots of help from sites like Archosfans.com for example.
Of course, for me anyway, 5 stars doesn't mean perfection because there is no such thing in the world of technology. 5 stars means top of its class in my mind. So with that disclaimer in hand, here are things about the Archos 605 that could use improvement:
1) Hidden expenses: To really get the full experience you should expect to spend an additional $100 to $150 for plugins and DVR dock etc. Archos, like Apple, just gives you the bare minimum accessories with the product; not really enough to set you up in style. To be fair, its the same deal with an iPod Touch! In fact, apple has taken to charging for their new software features too :O For myself, I still think this is a good deal but its good to know what you're in for ahead of time.
2) Accessories: don't expect to be able to walk into any electronics store and buy accessories for this baby. I have had to order just about everything online -- btw I highly recommend the Noreve case for this player which can be bought on Amazon.
3) Size: with a screen this big and a 160GB disk don't be thinking this is just going to slide unobtrusively into your pocket like a Touch does. It will fit in your pocket but you'll know its there.
4) No built-in USB port, you have to use the special cable provided or a dock to connect USB (this is a gripe I have about iPods too)!
5) Volume is a bit on the quiet side, I just run all my songs through "mp3gain" and set volume to 95dB and is plenty loud enough for me. Or you can use the battery dock which removes volume limiting restrictions.
6) Battery is not removable like the 604 was, its the price we pay for a slimmer profile I guess. To be fair, this just makes Archos like Apple but I do miss being able to swap batteries. Fortunately, you can use the battery dock to good effect or other external battery packs such as ones made by Tekkeon to extend the battery life of the unit.
In summary, this is not the most user-friendly player in the world. But the features are spectacular and cutting edge. This is not a player for the faint of heart but it is a very rewarding experience if you are willing to take the time to play with it. Feature by feature it really blows the iPod Touch away. If you are aware of the quirks of buying an Archos ahead of time, I guarantee you will be quite happy with this product.
Update after 4 months of ownership: still very happy with this product. I've removed a few negative points because I feel that they weren't really relevant anymore, I get carried away with negative points sometimes! I have had zero problems with this (making it more reliable than my Touch!) and it continues to be a great product. In addition, firmware updates have added widgets and seem to have improved the sound as well as fixing bugs relating to ID tags and such.
8 month update: I'm happy to report that the recent firmware release has finally resolved the playlist issue. Now fully compatible with Windows Media Player playlists and works seamlessly with Media Monkey. Also, it is possible to keep the display on all the time when plugged in! I'm still very happy with my 605, using it as my primary home music player. The battery died but Archos has offered to replace at no charge, still under warranty which is a real positive since it's not easy to replace the battery. I continue to recommend this player highly, especially if you want a nice big screen and a wonderful DVR dock.
Glorious November 26, 2007
18 out of 19 found this review helpful
This is by far the coolest portable video player or MP3 player I've owned, which is saying something because I always want the latest & greatest.
After using an iPod (some version or another) for the past several years, I would worried that I'd have to tinker too much to get this to work. As a busy working professional, I didn't want to have to fiddle too much with the device - just wanted it to be plug and play.
It really couldn't be easier. I own a MacBook Pro, so I attach it like a portable hard drive and just drag and drop files onto the Archos. I don't have to sync to Windows Media Player. I can also easily attach & grab files from my work PC or other Windows PC in the house.
I have 25 GB of music, all my photos, 40 to 60 hours of video (AVI format), data backup, etc. on this baby and there is still 98 GB left! It's insane that so much is packed into such a little device.
Yeah, it's bigger than an iPod touch, but it has 10 TIMES the capacity. It is fast, intuitive, and bright and crystal clear - it's almost like having a laptop to go around with you - a laptop that only has the fun features, and not the work stuff :-) I didn't even have to read the manual, it's very intuitive.
You can watch photo slideshows to music. It doesn't seem to let you listen to music & browse the web at the same time, though. The on-board speakers aren't the best ever, but it's cool they are there in case you are caught without headphones.
Yeah, I had to pay $30 extra for the WiFi, but I knew this going into the purchase. It's not like Archos hides the fact that some plug-ins are extra. The Opera browser on this thing is great. The screen resolution is vastly superior to any portable device I've owned. This makes the tiny text on websites readable even from a distance. The browser does tabbed browsing and loads complicated web pages like ESPN with no problems. Way better than the WiFi on a PDA, for example.
You can read PDF documents. An addition of Widgets is scheduled for release soon, which will add Calendar, Weather, etc. functionality. Can't wait!
I don't really know why some the reviews are so negative. It almost scared me off from buying, but it was just too cool to pass up. This really is the coolest thing out there right now that I have seen. And this is coming from an iPod lover and Mac owner, not a person who likes to trash anything that isn't made by Apple.
Fear not! If you have $400 to drop on this and about $60-$100 for add-ins, you will be "geeking out" as much as I am.
UPDATE: While the widget feature is nice (weather, currency converter, news, etc)... the coolest unexpected feature of the Archos (beyond what's above) is the fact I can store almost 100 movies and several seasons of TV shows and have it docked to my main 55" TV. [Note: Requires DVR Dock - $80 accessory]. I can easily call up any movie or show from my catalog without having to find the DVD. Also, we've used the DVR Dock as a pass-through to a 500 GB hard drive that we can access as well. What is very nice is the Archos serves a place in our home entertainment system all the time, not just when I am traveling. I also really like being about to use the travel DVR dock [about $30 accessory] to connect to the TV in my hotel room (using included AV cables) so that I can watch what I like and not have to rely on what happens to be on that night.
Excellent device, upgraded from the 504 160GB September 1, 2007
51 out of 62 found this review helpful
I upgraded from the Archos 504 160GB to the 605 160GB - massive improvement and I'm glad I upgraded. The screen and resolution are fantastic, the wifi and web browser allows me to view youtube videos in bed when I'm not quite ready to asleep. The buttons don't feel as sturdy as the 504 but with the 605's touch screen, I don't think I'll be using the buttons very often. I have an issue with the case that was included for the device - a piece of garbage considering the case is expected to protect a $400+ device. Get it, you'll love it.
Great Portable Video Player November 14, 2007
10 out of 10 found this review helpful
This is the best portable video player on the market. There are others: the ipod (classic, touch etc), Zune, PSP etc but Archos players generally tend to be better in terms of support for a wider range of video formats, and the Archos 605 is the best device from Archos so far. The interface is improved from previous versions (with the implementation of touch screen), the screen is of good quality and video playback smooth. I use this device to watch TV recorded from my Windows XP Media Centre PC and it works great. Copying video onto the Archos does not require any special software (no iTunes or similar required), and you are less likely to need to transcode your video (a process which can take hours and may result in audio synch problems whatever player you use) as it is more likely to be supported in its original format on this player. If you just want to listen to music, go for an iPod or similar, but if video is what you are after, this is the right device for you.
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