Topic: Archos AV320

[bogus51501]

Hi all,

What do you think of the "camcorder" video recording capability of this:

http://www.archos.com/products/prw_500542_specs.html

I realize it isn't as good as DV or even MPEG2, but would the tradeoff of not having to do tape changes be "good enough" to override that?

Also, would it be possible to sync 44 or 48 audio with it instead of using the MP3 audio?

So the end result would be a DVD-R sourced from an MPEG4 visual with a 44/48 audio.

Would that be possible and watchable or would it not be worth the effort/cost?

Obviously you can tell I know very little about recording this new fangled digital video.
 
Thanks!

Mike

[Chad817]

well, you would still need a signal going into it to record...so you would need a camcorder as well.  Why add an extra, lossy step?

[bogus51501]

It actually has some kind of Camcorder piece that attaches to it, but I believe that is an add-on you have to buy.

Yeah, I don't like the lossiness of it - at least on paper (like I said I really don't know visually the difference between DV/MPEG2/MPEG4 - most taper DVDs I've seen are old shows that are sourced from VHS, I haven't really got into recent shows). If it was MPEG2 it might be better since the eventual destination would probably be DVD.

Also, reading reviews it doesn't sound like it has enough battery life on it's own to go for multiple hours... I suppose that could be worked around, but it sounds like it dies after about four hours just playing video so recording would probably be worse.

It seemed like a good option to do long shows, without the potential of missing songs/tape flip and additional media... but if the battery is going to die in an hour or two anyway.

I suppose I'm trying to find the video equivalent of the NJB3/PDAudio model of recording but the technology isn't quite there yet. So I'll probably just go MiniDV if I do anything at all.

[Chad817]

I'd be willing to bet the add-on camera, if there is one, is pretty bare bones (ie no zoom, or maybe 2 or 3x digital zoom, which is worthless anyway).  I wouldn't think it would be worth it.  Go miniDV.  Prices are falling and the cameras are quite small.