No no, that's good. I want to know about these things. I'm not going to be suprised at all if this turns out to be par for this device. Most of the reviews rave about it, but I take all my research with a grain of salt, whether it be good or bad reviews.

For one, I don't think I'll be doing much conversion of files already on my computer. Actually, I probably won't do any at all. Considering the length of time, the frustration, and the general low sucess rate of MPEG4 conversion in the first place, it would be much easier and quicker to simply record straight to the device its self.

And in case anyone is wondering, I have looked into the competing products, of which there only appears to be one: the RCA Lyra RD2780. That product has some serious selling points over the Archos, including a built-in CF reader and video-in jack. On the other hand, the CNet review points out a large amount of missing functionality that has yet to be enabled, which concerns me because, at the moment, I can find absolutely no official site for this device. This stuns me. RCA's website doesn't even mention it aside from a press release. The device appears to have been produced by a company called Thompson, but there's nothing about their physical products on their website.

So, that and the much shorter battery life turned me off the Lyra, but I may end up with that device if anyone here has it and can speak highly of it.

*edit*
Another knock for the Lyra: it blocks copy-protected media recording. So I won't always be able to record DVDs and such.