I got the chance to chat with Archos Chief Operating Officer Brad Wallace about the AV400, Archos and their future plans.
Portable Entertainment Guide: Tell me a little about Archos.
Brad Wallace: Archos, founded in 1988, starting off making computer peripherals. In 1998, we focused on portable media, starting with portable hard drives. We expanded in 2000 to become the first hard drive player manufacturer in the market. We became the first portable video recorder player developer in 2002.
PEG: Who does Archos see as being its main competitors and why?
BW: From a MP3 standpoint, we’ve seen the market mature greatly. Everybody seems to be a competitor these days – Creative, iRiver, Apple. In the video market, we were the first one out there. The only other one out there right now is the RCA Lyra. We are also aware of the Portable Media Centers. The main difference between us and the PMCs is that not only we will be fully compatible with Windows Media Player 10, but the AV400 will also be able to record directly from the source, which is not something PMCs can do.
PEG: How long has the PVP market been around?
BW: Since 2002, when we first came out with our first product.
PEG: What makes PVPs popular?
BW: For me, I call it my home theater in my pocket. It allows you to take all your media with you. I can also store my data from work. What it’s allowing me to do is take several devices and combine what they can do into one. Now I can take my data with me without taking my laptop. I can take my movies with me without the DVDs or portable DVD player.
PEG: Tell me a little about the AV400. How does it break ground in the PVP market?
BW: It does so by allowing you to take everything with you. It starts off in the living room where you can record your media. Nobody else has the TV recording and scheduling feature. Also the battery – nobody has the external battery.
PEG: Tell me about the TV Cradle and what makes it unique among PVPs. Would you consider this to be like a Tivo?
BW: What the cradle does is allow you to hook it up to your home theater and leave it hooked up at all times. There’s one cable connection for connecting to your home theater as well as recharging the battery. What you can do is download your TV schedule from Yahoo. You create your schedule and what you want to record. It will speak with your set top box (cable, satellite) through an IR blaster. It will turn the box on, off and change channels, as well as recording with out you being there. It will even name your video programs.
As for being like a Tivo, it performs the same functionality without the subscription and it’s portable.
PEG: How does the AV400 plan to support Windows Media Digital Rights Management?
BW: We’ve been working with Microsoft over the last year. The AV400 will be compatible with Media Player 10, which guarantees content owners the security of their content. Once available, it will be a hardware and software solution. What DRM itself will allow for is the content providers to stream content down to the users. It gives the content owners the security that the content is only usable at the one source it’s downloaded to.
PEG: Any special DRM content deals in the works you can comment on?
BW: I can comment that we are in the works with one of the largest content dealers out there.
PEG: Tell me about the retro-recording system for the FM Radio accessory.
BW: It’s a pretty neat feature. If you are like me, you are already into the song before you want to record it. It has a 30 second buffer, so if you decide you want to record something, you press a button and can capture the first 30 seconds and the rest of the song as well.
PEG: What are some other interesting features of the AV400?
BW: We redid the layout the buttons on this for much more ease of use for customers. We added an internal speaker. We also added an icon (resume) on the device so you can bookmark a spot on the media you are playing, shut off the device, turn it back on and go back to where you were.
PEG: Why so many features? Do you worry people will get overwhelmed?
BW: I think there are features on there for everyone. If it’s a casual user, it’s very easy to record video and take it with you. For those who really want to manage their content to a much deeper level, those capabilities are there as well. For example, we have on device video editing for those that want it. Yes, it‘s a very full features product, but you use the features that interest you the most.