PMP my ride

When the walkman era began, during the period of permed hair and leg warmers, no one would have predicted how the war for our eyes and ears would develop. Now some two decades later, there are few commuters left listening to cassette tapes. Travel by public transport these days and it is difficult to strike up a conversation because practically everyone, including the driver, has a set of earphones hanging from their lugholes. To the uninitiated, the winner of the modern day walkman war is the “IPod,” the distinctive white earphones a giveaway that the user has bought into Apple’s domination of the Personal Media Player (PMP) market. However, it is an older incarnation that wins the war for me.

The Archos AV series is the original PMP with audio capability and the killer application, video on the move. The current top of the pile is the AV 500, stainless steel casing and the ability to store thousands of music tracks and up to 80 hours of video. So what does it have over the IPod, after all, Apple have caught on to the notion of video on the move with the Video IPod. Well it does everything the IPod does only on a larger scale and, for my money, easier. Add to these qualities a list of accessories that allows full FM radio with buffer recording on hard disk, direct recording from TV, video, DVD or satellite box and a battery life that knocks most PMPs well into second place, and you have the top PMP on the market.

On the down side, the price of this piece of gadgetry is somewhere around €500, dearer than the IPod. But for serious video connoisseurs or lovers of huge volumes of music, it is money well spent. The 80GB hard drive will store enough data to make even the longest commute more pleasurable. Another key feature of the Archos range is the USB master. The AV500 can connect with any USB device and download, photos, video or music. Just think: your digital camera is full and you need more memory space in a hurry. Connect to your Archos, download the pictures, view them in 5cm glory and you have cleared your camera’s memory for more shooting.

Did I mention the Archos features one of the largest screens available on a PMP? Despite this size, it will fit in most pockets without an embarrassing bulge. So forget about the Apple generation and enjoy full multimedia glory with the Archos range. One word of warning: prepare yourself for the staring over your shoulder as you watch the latest movie on the bus or train. You will probably get fed up explaining that it is not live, but recorded off the telly the previous night. http://www.achos.com/