Archos PMA430 30GB: Revisiting the Classic Media Player
The French manufacturer Archos has many milestones to its name that have pulled the company to the top of league in the portable media player market. From time to time they come up with something that transcends the expectations of the customers and sets new standards in the market. This is where Archos PMA430 scores and expectedly too.
The Archos PMA430 media player boasts a Hard Drive storage capacity of 30GB which can store as high as 7500 of your favourite songs. For the travellers kind this is an ideal companion, more so because it works on the usual AC/DC adapter and has a battery life of close to 9.5 hours. This means that if you were travelling you can charge it once and use it throughout the day without any problems.
One problem that I usually encounter with the players is the formats they don’t support. Thankfully this one is not short on any account. Coming first to the fans of audio, the Archos PMA430 30GB plays MP3, WAV, and MP3 VBR files without any issues. Add to it the bit-rate of 256 to 320 kbps depending upon whether you were playing WMA or MP3 files and you will have a great experience listening to the songs you like.
It also has a comfortably large 3.5 inch screen that comes handy if you wanted to watch videos. This is where lies the biggest plus point of the player. It not only plays MPEG-4 files but allows you to view DivX and XviD files as well. For a portable media player it can’t go better than this.
With USB 2.0 port and options for voice recording, games, 9.9 oz. weight and ability to record movies from TV, DVD etc. this Archos media player is one you can definitely enjoy.
The PMA430 was the first Archos product I purchased, I now own the 705 wifi also, and eagerly awaiting the new Archos Android.
At the time I purchased the PMA430 I was mostly shopping for a portiable device that acted like a PDA, had decent storage and could play video files.
I enjoy using simple drag and drop to load my mp3s or mpeg video, and avoid using proprietary file managers such as iTunes when ever possible. I specifically searched for a player that lacked DRM encryption.
I knew about Archos, but I also knew how expensive their products were, so at first I browsed other brands, such as Creative Labs, the Microsoft Zune, the COWON players and various other Asian made products I never heard of..
As soon I heard of the PMA430 and what it could do I knew I wanted it. By the time I did buy it, they had already moved on to their next series, and the PMA430’s price had dropped, but also various internet communities had also begun to demand the PMA430’s firmware source code to be released, and began working on reprogramming it.
What makes the PMA430 truly unique from the rest of Archo’s products, is its Linux core. Bringing not only a PDA feel to it, but almost a true mini computer. My gadgetry joy was truly felt once I flashed its bios with the latest OpenPMA release and attached my USB keyboard and started messing around.
I truly feel that the PMA430 was the best product from Archos, simply because it meets all of the requirements I look for in a gadget, I really hope they do the same with the next Archos.