Archos 604 user reviews (30GB)

Pros Records tv, plays mp3's and displays photos

Cons Must buy DVR station to record tv

Summary This product can totally destroy the iPod. You have to pay 2.99 per show on itunes but with this, you could record all the tv shows u want to for free. if only it came with the DVR station.

Pros Great picture, great MP3 player

Cons Tech support for repair is non-existant

Summary I purchased my Archos 604 on eBay, since I had a direct order from Archos and the ship date kept changing from week, to week, to week, to week. I found someone on eBay already had one, so I purchased it. It was great. The screen
was big, the video was sharp, the audio is fantastic and the software only locked up every now and again. ( It did seem to always lock up if I resumed a song after pausing it and then replayed that song again )

Then that fateful day came.

I was always careful not to drop it or have it in a situation where, if it did drop, it would not drop far.
What I never envisioned was I would be dropping along with it.

On October 9th:
I somehow managed to slip on a wet section of the driveway and fell right on the side of the Archos. It was in a pouch on my hip. I would like to add, Archos does not sell ( to my knowledge ) a case that would protect the unit in ANY fall. The case that ships with the product is a paper thin cloth, mostly to protect from light scratches I imagine. I had purchased a case from Electronic Boutique to hold the unit, but never found a hard case the size that would hold it and I could carry it on my belt.

Well... I contacted Archos and they gave me an RMA to return it for repair. I shipped it to them on October 10th via UPS and they received it at the mailing location on October 16th. Great! I miss it already...

Ok... I call and inquire about the repair after the 16th and the tech support suggests I call back after 10 days.

Archos claims to have a 10 day turnaround time. Well.. What I found out was it is 10 days from when the item gets logged into the books at the repair area, not 10 days from when UPS says Archos received it AND it is for items covered by the warranty ONLY. It ( for some reason ) takes longer to repair it if it is not in warranty.

I waited the 10 days they say I should to call back on. I call to see if it has been repaired, since I am to pay for this. I did break it. I have no qualms about that. I did break it and now I am waiting for someone to tell me how much it will cost to repair it.

I call them and get put on hold while they check the RMA. She cannot find a reason it has not been repaired, other than they are waiting for a price on the LCD. Okay.. I realize this thing is new, but if ANY piece on this unit will break easily, it is the LCD. That should be the most readily available repair part. The tech person says she will call me back. It's been almost 30 days since I sent this to them UPS and I still have not heard a word.

I am not a happy camper.

Bottom line is.. Archos makes a great product, but their repair facility is severely lacking. I sent a Sony laptop for repair to California a year ago and it was back in my house in exactly one week.

I have no idea when I will get this back, nor how much it will cost. So I wait.......

Update..

I have since sent another email asking about why it is taking so long and not one email I received offered any sympathy for my wait. I was told it could take up to 4 weeks to validate my credit card, which I find to be pretty ridiculous. From what I can gather from all my calls and discussions, is Archos is basically stalling to repair it because it is new and they just don't have the parts and repair cost information in their system to repair it. They won't just come out and tell me that. That is my opinion. Most companies I have dealt with would go out of there way to make sure I was happy, for repeat business. Customer service after the sale doesn't seem to be a priority to this company. If they prove me wrong, I will update this post.

Some more information...

I have since found out by scouring their website, that they
offer an extended warranty ( up to 3 years ) on the 604, but
not in the USA ( according to their website )

http://www.archos.com/support/extension/presentation.html?country=us&lang=en


Update: 11/15/06

I called to check on my RMA on Nov. 15th and a supervisor was to call me back in 30 mins. He never did. I called back in a few hours and talked to someone else. They quoted me a price for repairing my unit and I gave them my credit card number to charge the repair costs, about $140.00 to repair the screen. The person said I would have the unit in 14 days.

Update: 12/01/06

I called yet again to check the RMA status. They told me, yet again, it was in the repair process and I would have it on my door in two weeks. If I do not, I will then ask for a refund of the amount I paid for repair and my 604 back. I will sell it to someone on eBay for parts.

Update 12/12/06

Another call to ask about the status of my repair. All I was
told was that it is still in the status of repair. The rep. did tell me she was going to send an email to the warehouse asking them what the holdup was sending me the unit and I could call her back in 3 days. So Friday is D-Day and if they have not repaired it, I will demand to speak to a supervisor, demand they refund my repair money, send me the unit back unrepaired and they will get an earful of what I think of their customer service.

Pros best screen, low price, modular strategy

Cons The 504 160GB Wifi Archos is better for me

Summary I haven't tested the actual unit, but commenting on Cnet's review. I find it quite dubious the audio quality would be bad on this. Did you use some good headphones? Sure the included cheap headphones are not as good as buying separate Sennheiser or Koss headphones.

You can find yahoo schedulers on the Internet like http://www.rtintegrator.com/ - It automatically takes schedule out of Yahoo, so you can pick the programs you want your Archos to record and simply click a button while the Archos is connected to your PC, and it will be setup to record all the shows, it even changes the channels on your cable/satellite/vhs tuner.

Advantage of Archos is that it is DRM compatible (means you could subscribe to an unlimited music and video service for low monthly subscription price) and it is TV centric, means with the DVR adaptor, and with compatibillity with Dish Network and Canal Plus DVR you can automatically record or transfer digitally recordings from your DVR.

350$ is only the official maximum price for the 30GB 604, I am sure online resellers will go considerably under the 300$ price. While the 30GB 404 will probably be quite less than 250$. This makes the Archos the definite cheapest PMP available.

Though for my geek use, I am waiting until September to get the Wifi device. Hopefully the 160GB 504 device will also have Wifi. and touch-screen. This leaves tons of possibillities for direct-VOD over Wifi, a Browser, instant messaging, ftp access and amazing possibillities over the Wifi. 3.5G and WiMax is also in Archos's roadmap, so definately I prefer the 2.5inch harddrive with up to 160GB and I prefer the touch-screen and Wifi built-in. Also, the 504 can probably have removable battery life of over 12 hours. But 604 and 404 definately are the way for Archos to lead the cheap PMP and PMP newbie segment of the market.

Pros FANTASTIC that they are moving to actual dvd not mpeg4, battery life, price

Cons potential battery problems of the past!

Summary I own the first of this kind of item that they introduced onto the market (the av140) and i had one HUGE problem with it, the battery, i have had it replaced 3 times and now i think its officially dead and i want the files off of it! dont get me wrong though, i wouldnt have brought it back to life 3 times if i didnt think this was a great product and easily beating out any ipod, just i pray and hope and wonder if they fixed this ever-so-present flaw in the battery, how is it supposed to be portable if it cant handle a little weather (temp change not rain, lol) looks great, that dock station blew me away when kim turned it around, the cheaper model (404) is in full screen, and at 300 bux, i think the only thing ipod has now is marketing and fan base.