Review: Archos 5 portable media player with DVR station

The Archos 5 is the latest in an award-winning series of portable media players that many use as the yardstick against which competing devices are measured.

This time around Archos has ditched the optional tactile controls alongside the display in favour of touchscreen-only operation. This allows for a large 4.8in 800x480 LCD and in fact the only controls around the exterior are an on and off switch and volume.

There's a kick-stand for propping it up but strangely no stylus. This isn't too much of a problem when navigating menus, as the interface is pretty intuitive and makes it easy to browse the various features. When it comes to keyboard-specific functions, such as browsing the internet, this becomes more of a problem and we canít quite understand why there isnít something provided to offer a bit more precision.

The first thing that strikes you about the Archos 5 is the truly excellent quality of the display. This carries through to movie and photo viewing, during which colours are superbly accurate with sharp lines and effective contrast that makes it a joy to view media of this type on a handheld. Audio is also improved over previous versions and is on par with the more impressive MP3 players currently doing the rounds; generally we were impressed by the degree of control available when viewing media, which includes aspect ratio, slideshow creation, playlist creation, thumbnail views for all media and more.

There are also a couple of notable changes from the way Archos has presented the device to consumers over previous versions. Unfortunately the plug-in system still persists, but it has been refined so that many key features are now included by default. Format support is better out of the box, though you'll still need a plug-in for MPEG2/VOB formats with AC3 sound and for H.264 video. Web browsing is also available as standard along with internet radio and Web TV channels.

As well as plug-ins, the Archos 5 can be upgraded with a range of other acc essories such as a helmet camera, Freeview tuner, GPS dock and FM receiver. We weren't lucky enough to get our hands on all of these but couldn't pass up a chance to test the most useful, the DVR station.

This is a pass-through device that sits between a TV and receiver box, most critically enabling its functionality as a PVR. There have been a number of improvements here, such as the ability to download a full programme schedule relevant to your existing setup and an HDMI port for high-definition output.

Unfortunately the device isn't capable of playing HD content yet, though there is an HD plug-in in the works that the official website still lists as 'coming soon'. We were a little disappointed not to see an HDMI in and out here, since you will lose signal quality by passing content through Scart to the DVR station. However, connecting the device to a TV using component or HDMI instead of composite results in far better picture quality. At this point it's possible to record programmes directly to the internal drive and even set up schedules using the programme guide, with options available to adjust recording quality.

In addition to setting the Archos 5 up as a PVR, youíll also be able to make better use of its wireless facilities by browsing the web via your TV or more importantly streaming media from a computer. Unfortunately, it requires use of WMP11's UPnP media sharing which can hog your computer, but we were very impressed by the quality and responsiveness of playback.

The Archos 5 is capable of just about every conceivable function you would expect from portable media player, and many that you wouldn't. However, it has jacked up the price over previous versions and despite the excellent audio and video performance and unrivalled potential, you'll have to get quite a bit of use from the range of features to consider it a worthwhile investment.

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