Barry_Green
Moderator
Hey all, I just thought you might find this interesting. I'm using an Archos AV500, which you can read about here:
http://www.archos.com/
It's a portable, battery-powered music and video player and 100gb hard disk, about $600. Think "video ipod" but with more features and a much bigger 4" 16:9 screen. They also make an AV700, basically the same unit but with a 7" screen.
Anyway, the Archos has the ability to control the HVX through its USB2 port, and the Archos can actually offload an entire P2 card by itself! Normally you'd use the HVX as the "host" device, and the HVX can only offload to 1394/firewire drives. And, as many of us are finding to our frustration, there are no battery-powered firewire drives.
But the Archos is a battery-powered USB2 drive, and it has the ability to serve as host. So you can plug the Archos into the HVX's USB2 port, and the Archos brings up a file management system on its screen, and allows you to copy over the entire contents of a P2 card, by itself! Seems pretty cool. 100gb of portable field storage, for around $600. The battery lasts about 3-4 hours. The downside is that it takes over an hour to offload a 4gb card! Definitely not practical.
Assuming you still want to plunge ahead... You can't play the files back on the Archos' screen, but you CAN use the Archos as a little remote field monitor, sort of. The Archos is a digital video recorder with an a/v input jack, so if you connect that to the composite video port on the HVX, it'd let you monitor (and even record) the composite output. Can't see much purpose in recording the composite output, unless maybe the script supervisor wanted to use it for note-taking and continuity-checking maybe...
Another thing you could use the Archos-as-a-monitor for would be to use it as a flipped LCD for when you're using a G35 or M2 or Letus adapter. Just hold it upside down and you'll have a proper-angle viewscreen. And since it's a 16:9 monitor, you'll have proper aspect ratio too.
Now, I'm not recommending to anyone to go rush out and get an Archos specifically to use with the HVX (especially in light of the newly-verified 10-minute-per-megabyte copy speed!) But I am saying that if you were going to get a portable entertainment system like a video ipod, the Archos is one you'd definitely want to look at, because not only is it a superb entertainment system, but it also can be used in conjunction with the HVX to some degree. And if you are thinking about using it with an HVX, definitely get the 100gb model. They have 'em in 30gb, which is great for MP3's and MP4's, but for HVX offloading you'll really want the extra 70gb!
One note: it can't offload both card slots, it can only see slot 1. So if you want to offload two cards, you'd have to actually swap them and download each card from slot 1 or, eject from slot 1 -- then it'll see slot 2. Certainly no big drawback, especially since I hadn't expected it to work at all!
Also, make sure to download the latest Archos firmware. When I got my Archos it was version 1.1, which didn't allow for copying complete directory structures over. The version of the OS on their site as of Dec. 14 2005 is version 1.3, which does allow for full directory copying.
http://www.archos.com/
It's a portable, battery-powered music and video player and 100gb hard disk, about $600. Think "video ipod" but with more features and a much bigger 4" 16:9 screen. They also make an AV700, basically the same unit but with a 7" screen.
Anyway, the Archos has the ability to control the HVX through its USB2 port, and the Archos can actually offload an entire P2 card by itself! Normally you'd use the HVX as the "host" device, and the HVX can only offload to 1394/firewire drives. And, as many of us are finding to our frustration, there are no battery-powered firewire drives.
But the Archos is a battery-powered USB2 drive, and it has the ability to serve as host. So you can plug the Archos into the HVX's USB2 port, and the Archos brings up a file management system on its screen, and allows you to copy over the entire contents of a P2 card, by itself! Seems pretty cool. 100gb of portable field storage, for around $600. The battery lasts about 3-4 hours. The downside is that it takes over an hour to offload a 4gb card! Definitely not practical.
Assuming you still want to plunge ahead... You can't play the files back on the Archos' screen, but you CAN use the Archos as a little remote field monitor, sort of. The Archos is a digital video recorder with an a/v input jack, so if you connect that to the composite video port on the HVX, it'd let you monitor (and even record) the composite output. Can't see much purpose in recording the composite output, unless maybe the script supervisor wanted to use it for note-taking and continuity-checking maybe...
Another thing you could use the Archos-as-a-monitor for would be to use it as a flipped LCD for when you're using a G35 or M2 or Letus adapter. Just hold it upside down and you'll have a proper-angle viewscreen. And since it's a 16:9 monitor, you'll have proper aspect ratio too.
Now, I'm not recommending to anyone to go rush out and get an Archos specifically to use with the HVX (especially in light of the newly-verified 10-minute-per-megabyte copy speed!) But I am saying that if you were going to get a portable entertainment system like a video ipod, the Archos is one you'd definitely want to look at, because not only is it a superb entertainment system, but it also can be used in conjunction with the HVX to some degree. And if you are thinking about using it with an HVX, definitely get the 100gb model. They have 'em in 30gb, which is great for MP3's and MP4's, but for HVX offloading you'll really want the extra 70gb!
One note: it can't offload both card slots, it can only see slot 1. So if you want to offload two cards, you'd have to actually swap them and download each card from slot 1 or, eject from slot 1 -- then it'll see slot 2. Certainly no big drawback, especially since I hadn't expected it to work at all!
Also, make sure to download the latest Archos firmware. When I got my Archos it was version 1.1, which didn't allow for copying complete directory structures over. The version of the OS on their site as of Dec. 14 2005 is version 1.3, which does allow for full directory copying.
