Hiya... just been given a link to this thread from a friend.. i've never been here before.

I had the old 6GB Archos unit aaages ago, then got the 20GB Multimedia version.

I then got the AV one... the lovely big screen, nice GUI.... *drool*

Actually... what a bag of pants! I never thought i'd say this about an Archos player.

Many mp3s failed to play, as well as wma files (I tried downloading the latest firmware, which apparently corrects such issues - it didn't), I had to buy a new Video attachment as they cleverly modified the design to render the old one useless... hardly any video would play, definitely none of the advertised formats would play other than a silly demo file which came with the unit.

In short, I was wholely upset at the purchase - I gave it 14 days in case I changed my opinion, but no... hated it.

Good Points:
Large Storage Capacity

Bad Points:
- Still weighs a lot (like the old ones)
- Very buggy with mp3, and doesn't work with wma with the latest firmware.
- video is dubious - doesn't fare well with divX, xVID, avi...
- Screen is not recessed and therefore VERY susceptible to scratching
- Doesn't really offer any additional features since the multimedia unit - just looks to be a prettier GUI and a larger screen.
- Crashes a lot.
- Batteries don't last long enough to watch a film... the idea is supposedly to be able to watch, for instance, Last Samurai whilst on a train from Manchester to London.... the batteries would be flat by the time you reach Stafford, and you wouldn't even be at the end of the film.. (yes, I tried it).

Like I said, I hate to say this about an Archos unit, but it really is atrocious...

Cheers,
Stringy