Archos 404 Media Player Offers Camcorder

The new Archos 404 is both a 30 GB personal media player, but also an MPEG-4 camcorder which can store up to 80 hours of video.

Media electronics maker Archos has announced its new Archos 404 Camcorder, combining the company’s big-screen personal media player design with an MPEG-4, VGA resolution camcorder which can shoot and store up to 80 hours of video.

“Our goal with the 404 Camcorder was to provide consumers first and foremost with a great portable media player where they could access and enjoy all of their movies, video content, music and photos,” said Larry Smith, Archos’s North American COO, in a statement. “With the added camcorder functionality, the device becomes the ultimate take-along digital media center where capturing and playback are all in one, super-slim handheld package.”

The Archos 404 offers a 30 GB hard drive, a 3.5-inch, 320 by 240 pixel LCD screen, and can record video at up to VGA resolution (640 by 480 pixels) at either 30 or 25 fps, shoots 1.3 megapixel still images. For media playback, the Archos 404 supports a MPEG-4 and Windows Media Video (with possible codec support for H.264 and MPEG-2), a slew of audio formats (MP3, WMA, protected WMA, and WAV, with AAC and AC3 support via plug-ins), JPEG, BMP, and PNG images, and (get this) can display PDF docs on screen, even though it doesn’t support all PDF features. Users manage media via a USB 2.0 connection, listen to audio from the 2.5mm headphone jack, and revel in up to 8 hours of music playback or 2.5 hours of video playback on a single charge of the lithium polymer battery.

For folks looking to take their TV with them on the go, an optional DVR station enables users to record television or other video direction from their home entertainment system; users can also output stored video to a TV or larger display via a TV output. According to Archos, the 30 GB drive can handle up to 80 hours of personal video, 25 DVD-quality movies, 300,000 photos, or 15,000 songs—more than enough to keep most people distracted. A number of other accessories are available for recording television, transferring images directly from cameras and camcorders, and hands-free video capture.

The Archos 404 Camcorder is Mac and PC compatible, and is available now from Archos and select online retailers for a suggested price of $299.