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Any advice? I have yet to be able to play any H264 files. Either I get the file to big message are it acts like it is going to play the video and instead all I get is a black screen. I've tried different software and settings and no luck. They play great on my itouch...

Check to make sure the width isn't greater than 720 pixels. You'll need to resize it if it is.

Thank you for the reply. I have experimented with different widths and still no luck. I've given up. I have been using handbrake for my video conversions, but have been experimenting with other software and still no luck. I knew what I was getting into when I bought the 705i as far as the negative reviews, but there really are no other digital video players out there with the storage, screen sizes, and video outputs that Archos offers so went with it. I've never been able to get the wireless video streaming function to work as windows media player has never been able to find my unit and I'm lucky to get 45 minutes of video time from the battery...and the audio from my VOB files is very difficult to hear without some third party amplification device when using headphones or plugged into a television. Unfortunately, I won't be buying any of the new units as I need composite out. In hindsight I should have bought the 7IMT for the better video screen, but you can't find them new anymore or they are ridiculously overpriced. My unit is usable and workable, but it seems like there would be more of a market for this type of item and I'm really surprised no one has stepped up to the plate to offer a quality solid product like this. That's it for my rant. Thank you.

I've used Akme FFmpeg Transcoder to change the size of the files, or Pocket DivX Encoder. Both have created files that can be viewed on my 705. I change the video size to 720x408 or 720x304 with an output format of .avi so that it doesn't use h264, etc. Picture quality is fine, but I agree that volume can be low at times.

When you say that your Windows Media Player hasn't been able to find the device? Are you referring to the streaming ability of the new versions of WMP? I initially had the same issue where WMP couldn't find my device until I realized that some permissions had to be set in WMP:

http://www.ehow.com/how_5216357_stream- ... layer.html

In step #3 on the page above, I set to allow all devices on my local network to read my library and from then on things worked fine.

Hope this helps a little.

Thank you for the reply. I will try some of your suggestions. I can get mpegs to play just fine, but bought the plug in so my itouch h264 video files would play on my 705i so that I can get the same video format to play on both the itouch and the archos. Has anyone had success playing the h264 video format on anything archos? Many thanks