While Apple's iPod and Creative's Zen Vision M have slim profiles, the new Archos AV500 Mobile DVR brings to the table a larger LCD screen and -- the piece de resistance -- the ability to record video from any analog source, even television.

Encased in sleek, brushed aluminum, the AV500 is dressed to impress. Weighing only 9 ounces and measuring 3 x 4.9 x 0.7 inches, it's a bit bulky to be comfortable in a pocket, but will have no problems fitting in a purse or a backpack.

Moreover, the AV500's bright and crisp 4-inch LCD, about the size of the much-touted Sony PlayStation Portable display, offers widescreen support, perfect for viewing movies.

While the device's boot-up time and interface responses are quick, the unintuitive controls do take some getting used to, especially because Archos omits any useful button labels to help you out, and there are far too many buttons and submenus to keep track of.

Features

The AV500 does it all with a plethora of features, including audio playback, video playback, and all sorts of recording options. In addition, the player has photo-viewing capabilities and even can serve as a portable hard drive. The AV500 is compatible with both PCs and Macs, and boasts an impressive 30 GB of storage that can accommodate up to 130 hours of video, 15,000 songs, or 300,000 photos.

With high-speed USB 2.0 and Microsoft 's PlaysForSure support, you can quickly synchronize your music and video content with Windows Media Player 10. Mac users need not worry. The AV500 also works with iTunes.

Although it has robust video-recording capabilities, actually recording video on the device can be a daunting task if you start mucking around with the advanced settings, which include controls for resolution, bit rate, aspect ratio, and sample rate. The easiest way to record TV shows or movies from your DVD collection is to connect the AV500 to the video source with the included docking pod and push the record button. You can record via either S-Video or composite connections.

The AV500 is more of a digital VCR than a TiVo, but Archos does include support for Yahoo's TV Calendar, so you can queue up recordings of your favorite shows in advance. (continued...)

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