2. A Friend Of Audio And Video

The MobiNote and other large-screen players left a lot of people disillusioned with the picture quality on audio/video players. Forget your fears. The Archos AV700's picture, with its 16:9 cinema format, is nearly perfect. When playing video, the only "major" fault I could find was some pixelation in the screen background when the image was dark. It'll be better to avoid watching spelunking documentaries or movies set in the Parisian Catacombs.

But for most videos, the rendering of details is so fine that the phenomenon won't spoil the experience. As for "minor" problems, the screen lines remained slightly visible regardless of the image displayed (photos, video, or menus). But if the movie is interesting, you'll quickly stop paying that any attention. In video mode, the contrast was fairly well balanced, but in photo browsing mode the colors tended to be a little too saturated. Unfortunately, you won't be able to correct this fault, because only two parameters are adjustable - brightness and screen stability. The faults I mention apply only to the display on the player itself. If you connect it to a TV, the image quality will be just as good as that of your set's display.

And what about sound? Despite its bigger size, the AV700 has the same audio qualities as other players from the manufacturer. On the other hand, audio is clearly not intended to be the main use of this player. The equalizer is reduced to its simplest expression, offering only four functions: Bass Boost, Bass, Treble and Balance. If you can, use the earphones or connect the unit to a television set. The sound of the built-in speakers is very metallic. And if you aren't highly demanding, you can keep the earphones supplied by the vendor. While their reproduction is not as fine as that of our reference earphones (the Sennheiser MX500), they don't deform the sound and are comfortable to wear.