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Hmm I'd forgotten all about Archos. I was going to get an av300, but held off for the av400 then held off for the av500 and never got anything!

Ha! I know how that is. I got (and still own) an AV340, but I had to get it for a long trip for storing photos. It turned out to be one of the most usefull gadgets I've ever bought.

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Yes though... I could use my old Ipaq for pda stuff and just get myself a pvr.

Or as I was suggesting, just get rid of the Ipaq and get the 604 WiFi. Then you could browse the internet at hotspots (I don't know if your Ipaq has wireless).

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How does the 604/504 differ from the av500 series? It seems to do the same things and theres not much difference in dimensions or battery life. Or am I missing something here?

You know how it is, always slight improvements/changes. I think the main difference is the modular design. Their idea, whether good or bad (it's debateable) was to sell the basic player for a relatively inexpensive price, and depending on your needs you could pick up the various add-ons later. So this one doesn't record out of the box, you have to buy one of two accessories. It also doesn't have USB OTG out of the box - again, you need the appropriate adapter. Obviously, this creates a lot of parts, which I don't really like, but the base 604 now starts out at $350.

Beyond that, the 604 is basically the AV500 30GB version (commonly referred to as the AV530). The 504 is basically the AV500 100GB version (or AV5100/AV560), and comes in [I believe] 40GB, 80GB, and 160GB sizes.

Lastly, the 404 is their reimagining of the GMini 400/402/402cc line, except that instead of the GMini 500 (which was exactly the same size as the AV500 but lacked recording features - this was the stupidest move Archos ever made, IMO), it's like a chopped-off 604, with a 4:3 screen. This doesn't scream "mini" to me, but I guess it's mini-er I do like that they're making a distinction between their 1.8" and 2.5" drive product lines. That always bothered me before.

The one thing that's frustrating me is the pricing on the 504 line. It's disproportionate, IMO. The 40GB is $350, the 80GB is $399, [so far I think both are reasonable] but the 160GB is $599. Lets think about this for a second. I'm assuming that you've got your standard 160GB 2.5" drive in there. I just bought such a drive at retail price for $172. So even at the $200 difference, that's a profit of $28 per player for Archos. But that's $200 over an 80GB drive, so I wouldn't be surprised if they were pricing the drives at somewhere around $300, giving them a $128 profit on each sale. Does that seem reasonable to anyone? And that's assuming the retail price I paid for my drive.

Sorry for the rant. It's just been bugging me lately, because I was quite excited to see the new players come out, and I was all ready to get the 504 until I heard about the price. IMO, it's $100 too high.
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Matt