Archos AV4100 100 GB Pocket Video Recorder
- Record up to 400 hours of TV programs and video content from a TV, VCR, cable, or satellite receiver using the TV cradle
- Program recordings using the Recording Scheduler, which directly controls the VCR or set-top box tuner
- Store and watch between up to 200 full-length movies
- Enjoy up to 4.5 hours of video playback on the color LCD while on the go
- Play MP3, WMA (including protected files) and WAV music files
Product Description
The ARCHOS Pocket Video Recorder AV4000 Series is the ultimate handheld digital video recorder that offers TV recording and a portable home entertainment center in one pocket-sized device.The AV4000 series experience starts in the living room where you can record TV shows and movies directly from a TV, VCR, or cable / satellite receiver with a convenient one-time set-up TV Cradle.But entertainment enjoyment goes far beyond the living room. When on the go, you can watch videos and view photos on the large color LCD screen, listen to and record music, transfer photos from your digital camera and data files from your PC.
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Archos AV4100 100 GB Pocket Video Recorder
- Electronics: 0 pages
- Publisher: Archos
- Label: Archos
- Studio: Archos
- Average Customer Review:
 based on 9 reviews
- Sales Rank in Electronics: #37069
Click on Product Listings for Details!
Avg. Customer Review:
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
Customer Rating: 
Summary: Best buddy to have with you 24/7! 2006-01-16
Comment: I don't know how i've managed to live so long without it! never again will i ever be bored standing in line or waiting somewhere. it's truely the best thing you can have with you no matter where you go! load it full of your favorite videos/songs and you won't ever have to worry about "nothing to do" while away from home. definitely the best investment i've made in a LOOOOONG time :-D
the product works great, haven't had ANY problems with it whatsoever (aside from getting the right video formats but once u figure out what works for it, you'll be on a roll!). The screen is big enough to watch stuff without sticking right in front of your face, but small enough to fit in a pocket or my purse, the built in speaker is pretty lame though so you'll most certainly need a set of headphones. the case that comes along with it is good for only protective purposes, it's a pain sliding it in and out of that thing as it's quite tight fitting, so i'd suggest getting the other case with the built in stand and all.
27 of 30 people found the following review helpful:
Customer Rating:
Summary: my pride and joy 2005-08-25
Comment: For many years I've been oogling at various different mp3 players but I never had the nerve to buy one, until I found the Archos AV4100... I had been dealing with CD's for all of high school and I finally gave up and asked for this for my graduation. The Archos is everything I wanted in an mp3 player and more.
I'm a big anime fan and I wanted to have something that could play my anime fansubs anywhere...in addition to my entire music collection. And the archos has the biggest harddrive of any player out there so I knew i didn't have to worry about filling up the hard drive and having to erase stuff from it all the time.
Also, I like to beable to watch my anime on TV but a lot of the shows I watch do not come on american television.. The ARCHOS has a nice feature that allows you to play the video on the archos, on the television screen. most of my anime files are around 100 to 200 mb... not DVD quality by a long shot but when my dad walked into the room and saw my anime playing on the TV, he was very very very surprised to see that it was in fact, coming from the archos...The quality was amazing, and looked even better than when I played it on my computer. No quality whatsoever was lost by expanding the picture to a 36 inch television.
I was worried, before it came, that the screen would be too small to read the subtitles or that the resolution wouldn't be good enough, but neither of those turned out to be a problem. Not only are the subtitles just the perfect size to read, but the resolution is AMAZING for such a small device.
I was also worried, that it would be pretty big and klunky, for having a 100 gig drive and a 3 and a half inch screen and whatnot but the size and weight don't bother me at all. Sure, the ipod looks sleek and is very light, but the ipod screen is NOTHING compared to the archos. Whenever I take it out for someone that hasn't seen it before, they are always amazed... "WHAT is THAT?! That's AWESOME" is the general reaction. The Archos also comes with a carrying case that, if it doesn't fit into your pocket, can be slipped onto your belt and it feels very secure.
Pros:
-HUGE hard drive
-GREAT screen resolution
-customizable interface (you can change the color scheme and background)
-so many features (music, video, recording)
-allows you to make play lists on the go. no need to pre fabricate play lists
-not too heavy or big, for what you get
-allows you to play your downloaded videos on the tv, without having to burn them onto VCDs or DVDs, without losing quality
-good battery life, for its size and functions (5 hours for video/10-12 for music)
-ultra bright screen, customizable setup (LCD brightness, power options, sound equalizer, bass boost)
-built in speaker for when you just happened to forget your headphones (not very loud, but it does the job when you just want to play video or a song for someone)
Cons:
-delicate - when I first recieved my archos, it worked fine but after two days of having it (and a mild bit of abuse) the off button stopped working. I'm not sure if it was because of me, or because it was just defunctional, but its a bit bothersome when you can't turn your mp3 player off. so I sent it in as defective and got a new one. The new one has worked beautifully and I have no complaints.
-screen is delicate too - my first archos had a broken pixel. Just one though, so it was not a big enough problem to return it, but horribly irritating. luckily enough the thing broke anyway so I just got a new one that had a perfect screen
-freezes sometimes - again, the first one i got froze several times and gave me problems when I updated the firmware... but the second one hasn't frozen at all and hasn't given me any problems.
I'm starting to think that it was not the design of the product but just that particular one (the first one i got) that was problematic, since I have had not a single problem with my second one. so don't let my cons discourage you
this is really an excellent product if you're looking for something for all the reasons that i did, and you don't want to follow the ipod trend.
funny story for all you ipod lovers, as well: I have a friend that never let go of her ipod for more than a minute. She would be in the car with her boyfriend and listen to her ipod. She came on vacation with me and had her ipod in her pocket at every second... and then I showed her my archos and we watched some video on it and she went out and bought one. so that goes out to all of you ipod freaks that swore loyalty to Apple: there is a better mp3 player out there and I've got it.
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
Customer Rating:
Summary: Mine works and I love it! But still a few things... 2005-07-31
Comment: After researching this thing and all the other PMPs out there, I decided this 100GB one was the best for the price. Based on the reviews, I estimated there was about a 1 in 4 or 5 chance that it just wouldn't work--every few reveiws somebody says theirs is borken. Of course, maybe they are just mistreating it--who knwos. Anyways, mine works, and I really love it.
Assuming you are going to travel with it, like you probably are, you really kind of do need the travel AV cables and car adapter which don't come in the package. The little stand that has all the cables perminantly attached is bulky and not for traveling. I tried to be sneaky and get a three prong camcorder AV attachment, but the picture is distorted, so I will end up getting the travel AV cables. Ah well. I also splurged and just got a car lighter-to-AC wall plug thing for my car lighter at Radio Shack (I know, they suck...) so I don't have to buy the car adapter (yet)and that works great, for this thing, and also my laptop and any other small devices.
I kind of wish this thing could do more PDA things, so I could read PDF files and what not but Archos sells a thing like this that's also a PDA for the same price, but it only has 30GB. I decided I really only needed a media player and having the extra capacity was worth more than PDA stuff, but that's just for me.
It works great. For music, pics, and movies and any other media you might want, it's pretty awesome. My small gripes are that you can't zoom in on pics, and it only reads AVI files, and the converter that comes with it requires a codec that comes with another program which is Shareware--so we'll see if I can still convert my files after the trial period for that other program expires. I also had to get a DVD ripper and converter which I didn't have. Oh and I wish it had a built in FM transmitter for my car, but I guess I'll find a way to live.
But I got used to or fixed all those things pretty quickly. And I am not really a media player junkie who knows about all this kind of stuff--so maybe there's easier ways to go about all this. I just wanted to splurge and get this. And I love it. I own about 400 CDs and have more songs on my computer and now I can get rid of it all and just stick them all on this cool thing and have more than plenty of room to spare with some movies, recordings of TV shows, and all my digital camera pics. I can't wait to go traveling just so I can pull this thing out on the plane for the first time. It's pretty damn cool.
Overall, though I wish it had some things it doesn't, I did my research and knew exactly what I was getting, and it works just great. I love the thing!
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
Customer Rating:
Summary: Great product. Perfect for my needs. 2005-07-22
Comment: After 4 months of waiting, my order finally arrived. Good thing the local distributor provided an AV420 service unit to relieve me of my frustrations. This is actually the reason why I already gave it a 5 star rating as my expectations have already adjusted since I already used the AV20.
Based on my observations, the AV4100 actually performs better than the AV420, especially with those freezing incidences. It also has a richer and clearer screen display over the AV420.
The speaker also seems to be louder than the AV420.
Good thing I did not buy this Nite Ize pouch for PDAs as it will only fit the AV420, not the AV4100 nor the AV480 since it is about 1/2 inch thicker.
With 100GB of memory, you are at least more confident that you will not run out of memory space. The pre-loaded files will actually occupy about 4-5GB so that at least leaves you 95-96GB to play with, unlike the AV420 with only 15-16GB left.
The AV4100 does tend to heat up more than the AV420 so I don't think the optional leather case would be ideal as the heat may build up and affect the unit's performance.
If you plan to mount this on a car, you can actually use those big celfone holders that have a clamping style of holding the units but has the option of setting the holder crosswise. Just be sure that it is mounted directly on the dashboard to minimize vibrations that can cause more frequent freezing.
With its many functions, especially as a video recorder, 80-100GB is indeed ideal.
Don't believe what the claims on the no. of movies these Archos units can store. This is probably based on the lowest record settings, thus lower file size, translating to poorer quality. Always record with the highest settings for better viewing and listening.
It would be more ideal if you had a DVD Writer so that you can easily store your video recordings on discs for easy re-loading in case your unit konks out or you decide to remove it for whatever purpose. This is because each complete movie file will be more than 1GB, thus will not fit in your ordinary CD-R.
By the way, recordings done on original DVDs by one Archos unit cannot be played in another Archos unit due to the protection feature. I thought the protection method only disallowed the recorded files from being played by a different player such as those in computers.
If you have a digital camera, instead of buying additional memory cards, just invest on the optional 4-in-1 CF card reader so you can easily dump your picture files in the unit, as well as view the pictures with the much bigger screen. You can rename them too. The accessory is also cool for transfering files from one memory card to another like when transfering big files (e.g. MP3 files, ringtones, pictures, etc.) from one memory card of a celfone to another. No need for a PC with a memory card reader or go thru the problem of the celfone onboard memory.
Even with the release of the AV700 100GB with its big 7 inch screen, I still prefered to push thru with my AV4100 order because of the various reasons with "portability" as the biggest one. I need to have my unit with me. I would also look silly dragging around a VHS size MP3 player at my side.
8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
Customer Rating: 
Summary: Freezing continously 2005-05-18
Comment: Just bought the AV4100 last week and it keeps on freezing. First only when connecting/disconnecting the USB however now also using the cradle to connect to the TV/DVD. Keep on formatting harddisk which does not solve the issue. Downloaded and installed the latest firmware, no result. If Archos doesn;t come up with a proper solution soon I'll return the unit to the store without even bothering further. Lost 100 hours.....
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Archos AV4100 100 GB Pocket Video Recorder
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