Are any widgets preloaded on the system?

You need to buy the Opera Widget Plugin ($20).
I think once you purchase that plugin, you will automatically recieve at least 15 Widgets.

The widgets are not available yet

When you click on the widgets icon on the 605 it says fall 2007 before they are available

what does it do with local plain simple small text files

displays them, same with saved html-files.
haven't seen a way to edit the textfiles though

so it will display webpages stored on the local drive?

It will be cool if it does. Means Archos does listen sometimes!

I have the 704 and I think you do to nkarnold. How's is the responsiveness of the touchscreen and brightness levels on the 605 versus the 704?

I can confirm that it does indeed display webpages stored on the local drive.

For those that have the 605 along with the new DVR station, how efficient is the new remote keyboard for websurfing and controlling the 605 while having it connected to your TV?

Also, can you multitask with the unit. In other words if the TV guide is recording something from your cable box and you want to surf the web at the same time, can you?

How well does your 605 / DVR station control your cable box / satellite box with the TV guide for recordings?

Thanks for any info!

The responsiveness is slightly better on the 605 than on the 704, I always found the 704 needed a good hard touch before anything happened.

The brightness and crispness of the 605 screen, is superior to the 704. But it's not as I've said before a WOW factor improvement. (imho)

nkarnold,

On a side note. I noticed you had talked about converting your DVD's to DivX. Do you find the quality of DivX better than Mpeg4 or M4V (H.264)?

Currently I have been using my PSP converted movies since it's resolution is encoded at 720x480... since that is almost identical the the 704's resolution.

Just curious.

Interesting question.

I found that XViD encoded avi's are better than DivX for quality, but do take a little longer to encode.

Saying that, H.264 (.MP4 or .AVI) then better quality than XViD, but you do need patience to encode using H.264 as it is a CPU intensive codec at 720x resolutions and bitrates around 1.5 to 2MB. Obviously to play h.264 on any 04 / 05 Archos you need to purchase the plugin.

I suppose it also comes down to what tools you use, I've probably used em all, and settled with Jesterware DVD Ripper Professional - http://www.jesterware.co.uk/dvd_to_avi.htm.

Interesting that you use PSP .MP4 files, as I've never actually tried those, as I know they have their ATOM's hacked around with so the PSP can play them properly

Hi nkarnold

What are the major settings you're using to convert your movies for playback on the 605?

I usually use DivX or XViD as the video codec
I use MP3 as the audio codec at 128 k/bits

I set the video bitrate to somewhere around 1400 k/bits usually and
have the video size to 720x(maintain aspect ratio) type settings ie
720x404.

If I have the time, and its a HDTV video file say encoded at 1280x720, i usually encode these at h.264 with the same settings above for bitrate, but it is very slow downsizing 1280x720 to 720x404 using h.264, but the end result is very worth it. (I did all of Season 3 of Lost and Season 2 of Prison break using this)

Hope this helps

N

hey just first gonna say i read the whole topic to avois answering the same question twice,

now for my question, what types of wmv are supported? are 7 & 8? it was only wmv 9 supported on gen4.

And is the speaker any better on the gen 5? I suspect not but worth a question. Could you post some pics of the audio player too.
and it in browser mode too.

also I saw a pic while reading this thread showing video options while playing,
There was contrst/Brightness support! Could you just tell me to, to confirm it please that you can change picture contrast/Brightness please. Are they're any other ones (i.e sharpness or saturation) that you can change?

and the question that came up twice but remains unanswered, is the gen 4 dvr station compatible with the 605?

To answer the Does the Gen4 Docking station record. Yes it does

Wow - you get the full Sky planner - wasn't expecting that somehow - how are you conecting to the Sky box?

Just tried a WMV8 file. Not supported!

No!.

Thats just video out on my Sky box, plugged into the Video in on the 04 series DVR.

In other words, whatever the sky box is outputting, I'm seeing. I could have gone to chnl 501 and started recording Sky News.

So the summary is
The DVR 04 station appears to work fine with the 605
But the 04 series Helmet Cam doesn't!