Archos AV340 Video Recorder

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Archos AV340 Video Recorder - front Archos AV340 Video Recorder - back Archos AV340 Video Recorder - sides Archos AV340 Video Recorder - top bottom
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  • Archos AV340 Video Recorder - front
  • Archos AV340 Video Recorder - back
  • Archos AV340 Video Recorder - sides
  • Archos AV340 Video Recorder - top bottom

CNET Editors' Review

  • Reviewed by: Nancy Feldman
  • Reviewed on:
  • Updated on:
CNET Editors' ChoiceDec 03

The good: Plays and records audio and video; nice image quality; excellent user interface; wireless remote; interfaces with standard TVs and audio equipment; stores and displays digital photos; 40GB storage capacity.

The bad: Heavier and bulkier than hard drive-based MP3 players; no carrying case; you must convert most downloaded video to play it.

The bottom line: This fine portable entertainment device proves that you can take it all with you.

Review: Archos's AV340 Video Recorder has an astounding number of features. The AV340 is an excellent MP3 player, displays downloaded or recorded video on its own screen or any television, and can hold more than 740 hours of music or 80 hours of video on its 40GB hard drive. And although this PVP has the same processor and features as its predecessor, the ... Expand full review
Archos's AV340 Video Recorder has an astounding number of features. The AV340 is an excellent MP3 player, displays downloaded or recorded video on its own screen or any television, and can hold more than 740 hours of music or 80 hours of video on its 40GB hard drive. And although this PVP has the same processor and features as its predecessor, the Jukebox Multimedia 120, a vastly improved design and a Palm-like GUI make the AV340 so easy to use that it won't invoke any nightmares. However, the device's steep price reflects its encyclopedic option set.

The AV340's 3.8-inch, 65,536-color screen takes up almost the entire front panel--a boon to travelers who had difficulty with the Jukebox Multimedia 120's minuscule display. At 4.5 by 3.75 by 1.25 inches, the silver, plastic unit is about the size of a large hard drive-based MP3 player, but at 12.6 ounces, it's much heavier.

Archos Jukebox powered mike (available separately). Entering album, song, and artist information is painstaking on the unit's virtual keyboard but easy from a computer. When you're recording old 45s or cassettes, pressing the Next button between songs creates a separate MP3 file for each track--a nice touch. You can also make slide shows of digital images with MP3 soundtracks.

The AVCam 300 module expands this already extraordinary feature by adding high-quality photo and video capture with flash photos and a 3X optical zoom. It turns the AV340 into a decent camera and camcorder, on top of everything else. An FM tuner/recorder module adds FM reception, a recorder, and an in-line remote control. You can also pick up a FireWire interface cable, as well as flash-memory adapters for CompactFlash, SmartMedia, and SD/MMC, that pull images from your digicam media to make the AV340 a digital wallet.

In addition to standard MP3 playback, the AV340 offers some rare features. A two-panel interface that wouldn't fit on a typical MP3 player's screen lets you queue songs and folders on the fly and save them as playlists. The number of allowed playlists is unlimited, and each can contain up to 5,000 tunes as long as you have enough storage space. The Resume bookmark function lets you pick up where you left off listening, and tweakable sound parameters include bass, treble, loudness, balance, bass boost, and pitch.

With a signal-to-noise ratio of more than 90dB, the AV340 sounded great through our Sony MDR-V600 headphones, and even through the bundled set, results were decent if not superb. This player blows away other portable devices with a tremendous output of 50mW per channel, enough to deafen even fans of high-volume playback.

Features section). On the video front, material recorded and played back on the AV340 looked surprisingly good considering that the LCD is 3.8 inches and the screen resolution is 640x304 pixels at 30 frames per second. Colors were rich and full, and the frame rate was smooth. The picture wasn't up to the level of some of the better DVD rips we've seen, but it impressed all our viewers.

As with the AV120, however, we encountered difficulties when transcoding downloaded video files into MPEG-4. Among other things, you'll need the DivX codec (the free version is adware) and the open-source VirtualDub video-capture processing utility. You can also transcode using Nero CD/DVD-burning software.

To test battery life, we simulated typical usage: we played audio or video in one-hour intervals, between which we completely powered down. When we listened to songs, we set the screen to go dark after a minute, about the time it takes to navigate to the Music folder and pick a track. The cell held out for roughly 7.5 hours of audio and 3.5 hours of video. The latter number is crucial because it means you can watch a movie and still have playback time left. When you connect the AV340 to your PC, TV, or stereo, the battery will drain quickly, so be sure to use an AC outlet instead.

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