September 18th, 2006
Mini-Review: Pocket Dish Tries to be iPod Video
By Chief Gizmateer
Contributing Writer, RealTechNews
Reviewed by Shawn Conaway, Gizmos for Geeks
Who says you can’t take it with you? The Archos AV700E PocketDISH lets you take your favorite movies and TV shows anywhere at anytime. The PocketDISH is a portable DVR designed for recording content from the DISH Network like a regular VCR. However, it is not limited to just recording from the DISH Network. When in the TV docking pod, the AV700E is able to capture video or audio from any standard video or audio source, capturing audio as WAV and video as MPEG-47 video or AVI. You can even use it to capture audio from your old audio cassettes. Content can be moved the PocketDISH from your Mac, PC, digital camera, external hard drive, or camcorder using the enclosed USB cable.
The twist is that the PocketDISH thinks it is actually an iPod video . Like the iPod video, the AV700E can carry hoards of music and video, but with a much bigger seven-inch, 480×234 pixel screen. The 40GB drive on the AV700E is able to hold up to 20,000 MP3s, WMAs, or WAVs and up to 400,000 JPEG or BMP photos. It can capture forty hours of DISH network satellite TV programming or 120 hours of video from other sources at a lower resolution.
The AV700E has two built-in stereo speakers, is roughly 4.2″ x 8.2″ x 0.8″ in size, and weighs a little over a pound. The internal rechargeable Lithium-ion battery lasts for about 4 hours when watching video or 12 hours when listening to music. You’ll have to cough-up a few bucks to get it since it has an MSRP of $399.
Source: DVR Playground
Mike says:
Nice machine, but the cons as I see them..
1. WAAAYYY too much - why is everyone so damn greedy now a days?
2. THey did not open the USB port up to allow a simple digital transfer from the internal hard drive of the dish PVR to the pocketdish.
#2 is the killer for me - why shoudl I have to re-encode video in real time jsut to take it with me, when I should be able to jsut copy a file already recorded to the unit and be on my merry little way. I get 100 hours of recording on a 100gb hard drive, so it would still allow for 40 hours ( or close to it ) with no compression. If it needs compression to play back without stuttering, then do it automatically when I transfer a file over and tell me it will take an hour till I can watch it or something.
Mike
Did I say these things are expensive?
September 19th, 2006 at 3:19 am
Dan says:
The Archos AV700 product was release in May of 2005. Why is this “news”?
September 19th, 2006 at 6:13 am
Dave C. says:
I have to agree, the cost difference for the regular AV series vs. the DISH compatible units are way too much. The units are identical in every way except for the extra DISH compatible formatting.
As for copying an already recorded file, where are you having trouble? Perhaps it is the model of DVR you are using, because mine works fine. I just go to my Media Devices screen, choose my pocketDISH (when connected of course) and select the recordings I want to copy down to it. As long as they aren’t HiDef - the pD doesn’t support that - they come down fairly quickly. Then I just connect the pD to my computer, browse to the recordings folder, and copy the file to a separate HD.
The nasty catch is that the format is proprietary to DISH so it can’t be viewed on a PC.It also that it cannot be uploaded back onto the DVR, nor it can’t be played on anyone else’s pD unit; it’s only good on the unit you downloaded the file to. I think we all know why they did that
September 21st, 2006 at 6:39 am
Dave C. says:
Forgot to add: The AV500/700 series was released back in May of 2005, but the actual DISH compatible versions weren’t available until late 2005 to early 2006. I know because when they first announced the pocketDISH version, I was calling DISH nearly every week to see when I could get my hands on one.
September 21st, 2006 at 6:42 am