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Review: Well, I have to say, this Archos AV400 20GB MP3 player was a bit of an impulsive purchase. I was looking for an MP3 player to while away my recently aquired commuting hours. Since I have wanted to get a portable DVD player as well, this seemed to be the perfect mix. Best of both worlds, and I don't have to carry lots of DVDs around with me! As a music player I have to say the quality is very good. I was very dissapointed with the headphones that come with this unit, the sound quality isn't great and the piece of wire that goes round your neck from the left ear to the right ear is just a bit too short. I found that the right headphone was constantly being tugged out of my ear. After purchasing some quality sony headphones, this problem is gone. And not really a complaint of the unit. Video quality is very good... it's own recording off the TV (I have it set to record sky directly) is simply billiant, the quality, whilst not DVD quality, is much better than I had hoped it would be. Recording from the output of a DVD player gives an outstanding picture (saying more for the quality of sky than the archos!) I just wish it supported WMV for video, which is suprising that it doesn't since it supports WMA for audio. Then again, DivX is fine. I just have to re-encode all my DVDs. Copying music and video from the computer is super fast, thanks to USB 2. The unit is just small enough to fit in a pocket (when in the nice leather protective case that comes with it), which is a bonus. Now.. my one big, big complaint with this unit. The only thing that is a real annoyance and one that hopefully will be sovled in a future software release, as far as I can see there is no way of locking the control buttons on the unit. So, if you accidentally nudge it (and i often accidentally press the buttons as I try to put the unit in my pocket) it tracks forward, or back, or pauses.. whatever button you hit! It would be great if there was a way of locking the buttons like all mobile phones and CD players have. Now that the Radio and Remote accessory has been released, this would be even more useful, so the whole thing can be controlled from there and the unit completely locked. Also, battery life could be a little better, but what do you expect when watching movies!! A spare battery gives more than enough juice. Other than that one problem I have not come across any problems at all. This unit is simply fantastic. Don't wait for a Creative PMC as it cannot record direct like this little baby. But be warned, you will fill the 20Gig Hard Drive pretty quickly. If you can afford it, go for the 40 or even 80Gig versions. Enjoy!! | 
Audio HiFi
