Archos on Tuesday announced its Archos 404 Camcorder portable media player. It comes equipped with a 30GB hard drive, 3.5-inch LCD screen and built-in camcorder. It costs $299.
Like Archos’ other PMPs, the 404 Camcorder is Mac and Windows-compatible. It can display MPEG-4 video, Windows Media Video (WMV) and other formats on its built-in 3.5-inch 320 x 240 pixel display. It communicates with a Mac or PC using USB 2.0.
It also plays back AAC, AC3 and stereo MP3 audio files, and can be used to display JPEG, BMP and PNG-formatted digital image files. It also reads PDF documents, records audio using a built-in microphone and has a built-in stereo headphone jack and TV output.
The 404 Camcorder, as the name implies, sports a built-in camcorder that enables you to record video direct to the 30GB hard drive in MPEG-4 format, up to 640 x 480 resolution at 30 frames per second. AVI format is also supported. Alternately, you can use it to snap digital still pictures at 1.3 megapixel (MP) resolution.
An optional “DVR Station” lets you dump video from your TV or home entertainment system using MPEG-4 SP format, with ADPCM stereo sound.
System requirements call for Mac OS X or later.