Scott Hanselman's ComputerZen.com

Nah.. Forget the iRiver Clix or Video IPod, The Archos AV500 just kicks.
http://www.archos.com/products/tv_centric/av_500/index.html?country=global&lang=en

It comes with up to 100G HD and 4" screen which means it holds tens of HOURS of movies and music and all this fits in your shirt pocket. No FM or alarm clock though but these features don't matter to me. The Archos is also a full DVR system with a scheduler (can be used with Yahoo TV) and plays video to a TV. This means when I travel I can watch movies during the flight AND in the hotel room. Forget about the bulky Slingbox, which is in my opinion, inconvenient. Just save everything you want to watch or listen to in the AV500. (I have no need to watch a show in real time).

With puny video players like the Video IPod, I ran out of movie watching before I land if the flight is more than 3 hours long (guestimating a 2G device can't hold more than two movies (2 x 1.5 hours avg) in Divx/Xvid formats.)

Archos has been doing portable video players for years so you're getting experience and reliability.

Abdu

I love my Philips GoGear but am looking to upgrade to a video something this fall...I'll have to look into this. Keep us posted if you get one or, importantly, find a reason not to.

The iRiver Clix is nice, but the Archos one just drools...

Abdu, you own that one right now? You gotta tell me your user experience. I am truly stoked. But why settle for 4" screen when you can have the 7" one for about $50 more?

http://www.shoparchos.com/product.aspx?sku=2690790&culture=en-US

I was thinking of using an old PC/Hauppuage/MythTV to do TV recording, but why bother when this thing does that and so much more? Sure I am paying more but imho it is well worth it (if it does as advertised, of course)

In my limited experience, Windows Media devices don't *totally* suck. I've got a Sandisk Sansa m140 (http://tinyurl.com/qqjk3) . It's only an audio player, but it's really not bad. The only complaints I have are a limit on the length of playlists (270 items) and lousy documentation. Other than that, I like it. It's got a decent interface, a built-in FM tuner, and good battery life.

I just wish someone at Microsoft would build podcast support into WMP. Right now, if you want to make podcasts part of your automatic sync profile in WMP, you've got to use a separate podcast client that wires the content into your WMP playlists behind the scenes. Microsoft has put together this whole new robust RSS platform, they've proven that they're buying into RSS, but they're still going to let iTunes have this advantage?

Scott, if Mo caves in and lets you buy the Clix, you're going to have to let us know how it turns out.

Eric: The AV500 is my 4th player and third generation Archos. I had an AV320, AV420 which I broke, another AV420 which I still have and now the AV500. The AV500 has beautiful clear LCD and it's wide. i think the 2.5" screen of the other devices is not big enough.

The AV700 is just too big for me to carry around everywhere. If the device doesn't fit in my shirt pocket, it's too big. If size is not a factor, a 7" screen should be cool. Remember... you might be holding the device with your hand(s) while watching.

I just have one annoyance with the AV500. My DVR, a Plextor XConvert, saves shows straight into Divx format but the audio in them is in MP2 format which the AV500 can't handle. I have to convert the shows to Divx/MP3 audio.
While the AV500 is a true DVR, most of the time it's not hooked to my TV.

I lost the GoGear, and my wife hated it... I got a Nano and am hooked on it. Can't switch now I have all these accessories.

I got a 40Gig iRiver H-340 European verion. With a recent flash I can play videos. The screen is small but I don't have to deal with DRM issues.
Once the Flash Memory devices get up to 40+ Gig range they may be worthwhile. I just don't see why I wouldn't jsut have my entire media library on one device. Having to deal with a computer is a nuisance especially if you can't have the library it on more than one. At least here all I have to do is plug in through USB and I get it all as a drive on the system.
But these new devices with big, sharp looking screens are just SO tempting. And not having an HD gives you faster start-up etc that are aslo attractive.

my $.02

AK