I am currently looking into purchasing the Archos AV320 (or AV340). I am a bit anxious about this purchase, more so than most I've made, and I'll explain why.

I currently own an Archos Jukebox Recorder (the first one, the 6GB one), and had definite problems using it. The bugs and crashes and such left me with a device I now rarely use. Since then, I've considered buying an iPod like everyone else, but it's pretty expensive and I don't have much use for an MP3 player. You see, I bought the Archos over the iPod specifically because it could record. I had a lot of use for this, but was disappointed, in the end, that getting an amplified input was not very feasible without a couple hundred dollar mic or line from a camcorder. Even then, the hard drive noise was terrible on the finished recording. This was a major factor in why I no longer use the device. The last is that the build quality was not the greatest in the world.

Despite this, the AV320 device fascinates me. *edit* I meant to add that every fault I found with the current Archos device I have appears to be fixed in this product *edit* I could really go for this sort of thing, and was wondering if I could get a personal/insider opinion on it from someone who has used/seen/owned one. I've read about 15 reviews, looked at dozens of online stores, and read up as much as I can on the device (the extremetech.com review is the best I've run across so far in terms of in-depth reviewing). I've even read through the entire downloadable user manual. I'd really appreciate hearing straight from the source, if one exists here.

Among my questions would be:
1) how stable is the device? any crashes? any chance of data becoming corrupted or deleted accidentally?
2) how is the build quality?
3) how bad, really, is the offset viewing of videos on the screen? I've read one view that praises it, and another that only leaves the possibility for direct-on viewing.
4) I can't seem to find out whether you can simply watch a video input, without recording. I'd love to use this as a small TV monitor while sitting at my computer desk. I looked through the online manual, and what I've seen of the recording process, I'm not sure if you can remove the display data in the pre-recording process.
5) how long does it take to fully charge the batteries?
6) does anyone know how upgradeable the hard drive is? I'd love to go fr the 20GB version now, then upgrade in the future. I know it's a standard laptop drive (Hitachi, I think), but I'm not sure if there's anything tough about the process.

That's all. I'd REALLY appreciate any help you can give. If I get a favorable "vibe" about it all, I may be ordering one as soon as tomorrow. I know it's quick, but depending on when I get off to Europe, I want to have this for plenty of time in order to get used to it or return it if need be and get something else.

The major impetus for the purchase comes from the fact that I will need a digital wallet for my trip. With my girlfriend and I both taking pictures every day for almost four weeks, my 256MB and her 64MB cards won't cut it. For this use alone, at least a portion of this product is justifiable. My concerns are mainly with the above points.

Thanks so much if any help can be offered.