Product Review:
Archos Internet Media Tablet

4.5 out of 5 Popstars

Summary: I give the Archos Internet Media Tablet 4.5 out of 5 Popstars for an innovative, unique and feature-rich approach to portable media players that approach the capabilities of a full-blown laptop.

Faced with increased travel and a desire to consolidate my media needs such as Digital Video Recording, MP3 libraries and my movie and television show libraries into a more singular and portable device, I began researching mobile travel companions. I was looking for a device smaller than a laptop but still convenient enough to use on a regular basis. My wife has an 8 GB iTouch so I decided to research other options. I came across the Internet Media Tablet by Archos. This is a portable media player (PMP) that’s very similar in capabilities to the iTouch or Cowon.

Like all things I research, I read the standard marketing bull to get an idea of what the device was supposed to do, then hit the user forums to discover what works well and what doesn’t, how well the drivers are maintained, what new features were delivered upon and which have been withheld, etc. I’ve found this generally a good practice with anything you buy – nobody will be as honest and direct as the product’s current user base. The forum I frequented when checking up on Archos’ Internet Media Tablet is at the following address: http://forum.archosfans.com.

I chose the Archos 250 GB Internet Media Tablet (IMT) sporting a 4.8” screen and built-in Wifi with web TV/Radio plug-ins included. I was drawn to this unit because of its screen size, storage capabilities as well as capabilities that differentiated it from most other devices out there, such as streaming media over local network as well as flash lite compatibility. I also opted to purchase the DVR add-on, which turns the Archos into a portable Digital Video Recorder.

In part I of this review, I’ll cover general capabilities and features of the device. Part II will cover some of the add-ons and plug-ins available, specifically the DVR add-on and H.264 plug-in. Part III will explore the widgets, flash capabilities and streaming capabilities as well as a complete list of pros and cons I’ve gathered for this device.

Storage

The size is probably the most obvious feature to start on. It sports an internal laptop hard drive versus flash memory the iTouch works off of. As a result, it’s thicker and heavier than the touch and you can feel it spinning up and down while it’s working (not enough to be bothersome). It does have a small kickstand built in so you don’t have to hold it – nice if you’re on a plane or anywhere else with a flat surface to help you out.

I have just over 100 movies currently stored on my device, along with just over 8000 songs. For a 250 GB hard drive you have about 232 GB of that space to call your own. With the movies and songs and recorded TV episodes I’ve put onto the Archos, it’s just over halfway full. Clearly space will not be an issue for you.

Note: All movies are encoded at around 700 MB a piece. This means around 75 GB is taken up for movies, around 36 GB or so for music and another 11 GB or so for various asundries (TV Shows, data files transferred to my computer, etc).

Because the hard drive is large it’s significant to note that you can transfer files to and from your IMT through the operating system’s file explorer as well as through media players (and not just through one piece of software such as iTunes for the iTouch and iPod). This allows you to use different encoding software packages to prepare video, audio and other types of files your archos will play. This also allows you to hold regular data files as well as other types of files you may want to keep on your device, such as zip archive files that are too large to fit on a regular thumb drive. This might also free you a bit in the syncronization issues some users experience with other devices when connecting to different computers. In essence, you have a 250 GB portable drive at your disposal. In my case I have the capability of placing large, high-definition video files slated to play on a client’s signage product or Kiosk. I can even play those files directly from the Archos through a LCD screen or projector for client review before installation (this is done through the DVR add-on discussed in Part II of this review).

The archos does sport a proprietary USB cable, which was an unnecessary hitch in making it a completely portable hard drive device. If you can remember to take that special cable with you, you can hook into any USB-enabled PC and transfer files (under 4 GB in size) with the normal operating system’s file explorer.

Screen

The screen itself presents smooth video, decent blacks, great picture quality and an overall great-to-stellar rating in quality and performance.

The physical screen is responsive and resembles a pda in the screen type. My wife found the navigation clunky and poorly designed versus the iTouch. She felt she had to tap harder than the touch makes her, and more often. After some investigation and a little getting used to, I’ve identified most of its touch screen problems as just being software-related – poorly designed touch regions. Many of Popstar’s products involve touch screen navigation and I’ve come to appreciate how much of a difference a well-designed touch interface can make towards the perception of your product. Some think of clunky design as more “nerdy”, not as sophisticated, less friendly towards the “average” user. I wouldn’t categorize Archos’ touch design in this way, but I would suggest they design their interface so it requires fewer clicks and touches to get where you want to go. I would also add that this sort of screen lends itself better to a stylus at times, especially when browsing the internet or choosing menu options that are smaller than a pinky-sized fingerprint size. You’ll probably find yourself tapping with your fingernail to fine-tune your target region.

Interface

As suggested above, the interface may be improved by implementing tweaks to how the screen responds to touch. For example, the main menu on the left will allow one-touch reaction to its submenus – you can even drag your finger along the menu and watch as each menu option expands itself. However, while on a sub-menu you will have to touch an item (like a particular video) once to select it, then again to execute the action. Before you’re used to it, you’ll be clicking the item once to see if the action took, then waiting for a reaction. After about 30 seconds the screen will blank out on you, leading you to believe it’s either ignoring you or has crashed. Clicking it again engages the screen out of screen saver / power mode, then clicking the item again initiates the original action you wanted to happen. Because you have to essentially double-click, a lot has happened in the way of confusing the initial user as to what’s going on. This leaves the initial impression that the screen is unintuitive and unresponsive. I suspect Archos requires you to double-click an action item in case you simply want to scroll the entire menu. A better method may be to time how long the initial press took place – if the finger stays where it is, it’s a drag not a touch. If the finger lifts up quickly, it’s a touch and not a drag. Another method may be to draw a region around the text of the item and if pressed once initiates that action. However, if a press happens over to the right or anywhere but the text, a drag action happens, scrolling the entire menu. I found multiple places within the interface that could use this sort of tweaking. If you’re coming from the touch or similar device, you may need to fiddle with the device for a few minutes to get used to how it operates. Improvements in this area would help a user’s initial reaction as well as for users (like previous ipod users) who are trying out the device from a store or through a friend. First impressions are key to sales – Apple appreciates this better than most companies do.

Video Encoding

The Archos supports a wide array of video formats. I’ve been using the h.264 codec wrapping it in an .avi containing file format. Because file encoding is a common process, I have access to multiple tools both on the PC and Mac platforms. But I wanted to check out some freebies & shareware versions out there to see if I could find one I liked. One of the more popular, free encoding tools out there is called “Handbrake” and after finding the correct settings (the trick with any encoding tool) you can save the profile and load those every time you want to encode something new. However it’s difficult to get the settings quite right and given the mixed content you may have (4:3, 16:9, etc.) it may not be the most user-friendly piece of software to auto-detect aspect ratio and regions of letterboxing or pillarboxing. In addition to the standard letterbox and pillarbox issues, those of us in the digital signage realm will appreciate how many different resolutions (both horizontal and vertical) we may deal with, so programs with good auto-detection features built-in are highly appreciated.

I like the auto-detect feature in a piece of software called Fair Use. This is a great little program that supports a lot of juicy features that makes it easy for the novice to get started (as well as the experienced but lazy user). This handles episodic discs correctly and has an excellent auto-crop feature so that it encodes the parts of the screen you want and leaves out what you don’t (switching from 4:3 to 16:9 content is a breeze). It lets you know the bitrate and filesize before you commit to the settings and supports a nice batch feature so you can add many videos and movies and save for later encoding (or overnight / weekend encoding). The free version limits you to 700MB files which is good average standard quality for the archos. Lip sync and indexing (moving to any place in the movie) works flawlessly. I’ll offer my settings below in case you’d like to try it yourself.

The archos comes with several codecs including MPEG-4 (Xvid, up to DVD resolution), WMV (MP@ML, up to DVD resolution) including WMV protected files, M-JPEG (in QVGA resolution), with the option of purchasing plug-ins to extend its capabilities (ie. Mpg-2 for standard def DVDs and h.264, HD 720p content, etc.).

I went ahead and purchased the H.264 plug-in. In part II I’ll offer more in-depth information regarding this plug’s capabilities and downfalls. Archos calls this the “podcast” plug-in, which to me suggests this codec’s main purpose is encoding to small podcasts viewable on a very small and portable screens. However, I use the H.264 codec heavily in my work with Popstar, encoding full-screen, high-profile content viewable on forty and sixty inch plasma and LCD screens, maintaining friendly file sizes for transport over a local network and the Web. At the time of this writing, it’s one of the most efficient and preferred video codecs out there for quality vs. file size ratios. H.264 files are wrapped in what’s called a “container” file, which can be formats like mp4, mpg, avi and mov file formats.

Fair Use Wizard Settings

Music / Playlists

Audio formats supported on the Archos include MP3, WMA, Protected WMA, WMA pro 5.1, WAV, Flac, OGG, AC3 stereo audio and 5.1 sound files (via SPDIF output of DVR Station).

This sort of device isn’t something I would run or bike with (some people do), but I do still use it as a portable music library. I can hook it into my computer and play through my computer speakers or dock it with the DVR station and play songs through my stereo, both of which have worked great.

You have several options to choose from when building playlists for the Archos. If you prefer to build playlists using the device itself, Archos has a good built-in playlist builder that will assist you in organizing your content. You may also build your playlists from the PC instead of the device. Among the software choices on the PC, you have Windows Media Player, Media Monkey and WinAmp. Using Windows Media Player may be the most common tool in building a playlist, as most PC users are on the windows platform and WMP is built in. I tried out the capabilities of the windows media player version 11 on Windows XP SP3 platform and Archos firmware version 1.5.08.

In WMP you can click on the library tab, build a playlist, then click the “sync” tab and drag the desired playlist(s) to the right pane. At the bottom you’ll see a “start sync” button that when pressed, copies the playlist and media files to your archos in their appropriate locations. For a detailed set of instructions for using all three software packages to build a playlist, visit this link. For a video tutorial on how to build a playlist within Archos itself, visit this link.

Users have reported a lot of problems with the ArchLib feature in the past, specifically some music tracks not showing up at all in the library, even though the files themselves reside on the tablet’s hard drive. See the user forums for updated information on that problem. As of this writing a new firmware was released which all but alleviates this problem. I haven’t noticed issues such as this myself, but then I haven’t pushed the music library features of the Archos very hard (yet). To my understandings these issues have stemmed from how the files themselves are named. For example, names with an ellipse are not interpreted correctly by the Archos OS and will be ignored when listing your albums.

Internet Browsing

Archos supports wifi featuring the Opera software with built-in flash support. The Opera browser performed well for me and seemed very responsive. The links are difficult to press on at times but this is due to the fact that I’m using a touch screen and not a mouse. I did try browsing with a mouse and it worked great (see Part II for more information on keyboard & mouse support). A small mouse pointer shows up while in motion, then unplugging the mouse makes the cursor vanish, leaving you with just the touch screen input as before. Couple mouse / keyboard capabilities with the ability to place the Archos content on the screen and you have a complete web-browsing capability with large screen and user-friendly controls – a nice user experience.

The flash support is flash-lite. What this means to content developers using flash and users watching a specific piece of content, is that (at the time of this writing) it only supports flash 9 with actionscript 2. Since flash is currently at 10 and is beginning to use the more commonly accepted actionscript 3, this limitation may be a problem depending on how you need to develop and watch your flash. What this means to everyone else is you’ll be able to view most flash content on the web, such as most mainstream sites like youtube, but this is becoming increasingly difficult as more sites and users update their versions of flash. This is a limitation of Flash lite and not of Archos. Hopefully Adobe will get Flash lite up to date soon!

On a related note, Apple has announced its intension to incorporate the Flash lite platform into its own product line. Adobe has encountered more technical hurdles than it originally anticipated and it’s reported that Apple is working with Adobe to solve these issues.

The Geek Factor

Given the possibilities of Archos’ platform and the fact that Apple has already attained a significant headstart in the pmp and mp3 market, it seems logical to me for Archos to open up its platform up to 3rd party developers and present a comprehensive SDK that will benefit this product and its users in the long run. As a company, the behemoth that is Apple simply has the lion’s share of the market and will continue to do so. Many 3rd parties develop plug-ins and add-ons for the iPod & iTouch whereas the choices for the Archos are significantly dwarfed (Archos’ opera-centric widgets and flash apps notwithstanding). It’s pretty clear that if Archos opens up their platform and allows 3rd party vendors (and individuals) to develop their own widgets and plug-ins and hacks for the Archos, their community (and inevitably market presence) will begin to grow exponentially. One of the big criticisms of the Apple product line is that they force their users into a certain way of working and thinking – Archos could use this to their advantage and leverage a completely open, linux-based user-controlled environment.

Stay tuned, in a few weeks I’ll post the next part of this review, where I go into more detail on the available plug-ins and add-ons for the Archos Internet Media Tablet, followed by part III, offering a complete list of pros and cons for this device.

John David Hutton
Sr. Technologist & Evangelist