The K-Zone: PMA430, Gmini500, AV500 side-by-side comparison

Overview

At the time of writing, Archos has five major multimedia products on the market: the PMA430 multimedia PDA; the new AV700, AV500, and Gmini500 multimedia player/recorder units; and the earlier Gmini (200-400) units. The main selling point of the AV700 is its large physical screen, which comes in a correspondingly large case. At the other end of the size range, the Gmini 200-400 units are among the smallest hard-disk-based multimedia units currently available. Making a purchasing decision between the AV700, the earlier Gminis, and the other three products taken as a group is largely straightforward -- it's just a question of size. Choosing between the PMA430, the AV500, and the Gmini500 is much less straightforward; these units are almost exactly the same size, and have quite similar paper specifications. In this article I compare these three units in detail, with a prospective puchaser in mind.
      The first thing to bear in mind is that, in essence, the Gmini500 offers the features of the Gmini range (in particular, it has no video recording capabilities), but with AV500 hardware! It has little technically in common with the earlier Gmini units, and is considerably larger. I'm not sure why Archos decided to use the Gmini brand name on this unit -- perhaps something like `AV500 light' might have made things clearer for the buyer. The Gmini is only about £30 cheaper than the AV500, and if the lack of recording facilites were the only difference, I would suggest that the Gmini would not have a real market at all -- you'd have to be really sure that you'd never need to record video to choose the Gmini over the AV500 for a meagre saving of £30. However, Archos has shrewdly fitted the Gmini with a 40Gb hard disk, rather than the 30Gb unit in the basic AV500 model. So by buying the Gmini you save thirty quid and get 25% more disk capacity. A 100Gb AV500 has been announced, but I imagine it will be much more expensive than the 30Gb version -- Archos won't want to take the Gmini's market away, I would think.
      Be that as it may, if you ignore the lack of recording capabilities and the 25% bigger disk, the AV500 and the Gmini500 are essentially the same unit, and I will just use the name AV500 to refer to them both in this article. If something I say about the AV500 does not apply to the Gmini500, I'll say so.

If the AV500 and the Gmini500 are quite similar, the PMA430 is technically very different from either of them. On paper it looks as if the PMA is an AV500 with added PDA/PIM features, and superficially that is the case. Nevertheless, there is no doubt that the PMA is a portable computer, rather than just a media player. It runs Linux, rather than a proprietary operating system and, because Linux is fully open and software development tools are available, the PMA is extensible with third-party software. The PMA's user interface is a variant of Qtopia from Trolltech, and there is already considerable expertise in the open source community in Linux/Qtopia development. When third-party applications are taken into account, the PMA offers a massively larger feature set than the AV500. As well as all the AV500's features, the PMA can read eBooks, play chess, handle a wider range of audio (and possibly video) formats, manage databases, log into remote systems, play network audio streams, etc., etc., etc. These features come at a price, of course: the PMA430 is about £200 more expensive than the AV500. So the purchasing decision between the PMA430 and either the Gmini500 or AV500 comes down larger to whether the buyer wants the extra features of the PMA enough to pay the premium. But there's a bit more to it than that, as we shall see.

Physical characteristics

The PMA430 and the AV500 (and Gmini500) are as near the same physical size as makes no difference. All three will fit into the stand-up leather case marketed for the PMA430 by New MP3 Technology (although the Gmini is a squeeze). However the units do look rather different. The PMA case has a smooth, rounded look with rounded buttons -- a look I happen to prefer to the AV's all-rectangular layout. In addition, the PMA has a protective flap that closes over the screen, which means that it can be used without an additional case. Because the PMA screen is touch-sensitive (and therefore extremely expensive), the fact that you can't put the PMA in your pocket without the screen flap in place (unless you physically remove it) is comforting.
      For all that, a buyer is very unlikely to decide between these units on the basis of their physical shape and size, and most people will use a third-party case anyway, rendering the difference irrelevant.

Screen

For a pocket video player, the size, shape, and quality of the screen is likely to be a determining factor for many buyers. So I should point out that the AV500 screen is superior to the PMA's in all respects, except that it is not touch-sensitive. It is physically larger, brighter, has 70% greater pixel resolution, much better contrast, and is much less reflective. Placed side by side, the difference between the screens in these units is striking. That's not to say that the PMA has a bad screen -- far from it; it's simply that the AV500 has what I am sure is the best screen of this size that is currently available. The only other thing that can touch it, in my opinion, is the Sony PSP. Of course, larger screens are available, but it would be very hard to fit a larger screen in an enclosure the size of the AV500's -- the screen occupies almost the whole of the enclosure (and the hard disk occupies the rest).

Another striking difference between the PMA and AV screens is that the AV screen has a 16:9 aspect ratio, compared to the PMA's more usual 4:3. Since most movies are now filmed with a wider aspect ratio that 4:3, the AV's wide screen is a better match to the source material when watching movies. However, if you mostly watch television material, the additional screen area of the AV doesn't help you all that much. The unit can scale a 4:3 programme to fit its 16:9 screen but, in the end, you can't fit a square peg in a round whole, and the consequence of the scaling is that you lose the top and bottom of the picture. The unit can alternatively display the whole image, but this means leaving blank areas at the sides of the screen.
      In short, the AV500 screen performs best with widescreen source material, but even with 4:3 source material, where the larger screen isn't much of an adantage, the AV500 still outperforms the PMA in terms of brightness and contrast. If your main requirement is for a pocket video player, the AV500 (or Gmini500) is a much better buy than the PMA430 -- it will work better in this application and cost less.

Audio and video playback format support

All the units support playback of MP3 audio, Microsoft WMA audio, Microsft WAV audio (both compressed and uncompressed) and some AVI audio/video files. The Gmini500 and AV500 also support some Microsoft WMV audio/video formats.
      It is important to understand that the AVI file format specificies only how audio and video streams are interleaved within the same file -- it has nothing to say about how either the audio or video is encoded. The fact that you have an `AVI file' tells you nothing on its own about whether any of the Archos units will be able to play it. These units support AVI files containing some variants of MPEG4 video, and either MP3 or ADPCM audio. The same issue -- that file type and encoding format are independent -- affects WMV support as well, but to a lesser extent because WMV files are usually encoded using Microsoft's proprietary encoding format WMV9. The Gmini500 and AV500 support WMV files containing video encoded as WMV9-SP streams, and MP3 or ADPCM audio.
      In short, not all AVI files you encounter will play on any of these units. For example, if I had a free choice in the matter, I would convert most of my DVDs to have MPEG4 video encoding and AC3 audio, because the MP3 format cannot support more than two simultaneous channels of sound, and most DVDs are now encoded with 5, 6, or even 7 channels. However, none of the Archos units support AC3 audio within AVI or WMV files.
      All the units are rather fussy about the MPEG4 variants they support. All are limited to Simple Profile, but all now support B-frames and the combination of variable bitrate audio with variable bitrate video -- both of which choked earlier Archos models. In particular, both the DIVX and Xvid MPEG4 encoders produce video that plays well on all the Archos units. Other MPEG4 variants might work as well, but I haven't tested any. None of the units allow run-time adjustment of A/V sync when playing video, and this also limits your choice of source material a bit (because most PC-based players do allow this adjustment, so people are less fastidious about getting the A/V sync right when encoding than they ought to be).
      In my experience, the AV500 is somewhat less fussy about its video files than the PMA430; however, I haven't kept up with the latest firmware releases on my PMA, so perhaps this doesn't mean all that much.
      If you encode material yourself (by ripping DVDs, for example), the vagaries of the Archos units' MPEG4 support are absolutely irrelevant -- you just fiddle with the encoder until you get a combination of settings that work, and then stick with it. It's more of a problem when viewing material encoded for PC playback (either legally available or otherwise).
      In any event, all three units considered here support essentially the same video and audio formats, so format support is unlikely to influence a purchasing dececsion all that much. Or is it? The complication is that we don't know which audio and video formats might eventually be supportable by the PMA430 using third-party software. Because the PMA430 runs Linux, there is already the option of trying to port Linux-based audio/video players to the PMA, or writing new ones. This option is absolutely, unequivocably not available on the AV500 or Gmini500. There is already software available for the PMA to play audio formats that the built-in software doesn't support, such as Ogg/Vorbis and AC3. This does not mean, however, that it is possible to play AVI video files containing Ogg or AC3 audio streams -- the built-in media player application cannot be extended with codecs to support different audio and video decoders independently. Moreover, efforts so far to play different video encoding formats on the PMA have not been particularly successful, and it is possible that this situation will not improve. Although there are quite a number of developers interested in Linux/Qtopia devices in general (e.g., the Sharp Zaurus range), it is very likely that video playback software for the PMA will require development specifically for the PMA hardware, and there are not that many developers targeting the PMA in particular.
      At present, therefore, although the PMA does allow a wider range of audio-only formats to be played, at present the video formats supported by the PMA430, AV500, and Gmini500 are essentially identical.

Audio video recording support

The PMA430 and the AV500 both support real-time recording from an analogue AV source. Both are supplied with a cradle which the unit plugs into, and which is expected to form a permanent connection to a home TV/AV set-up. The cradle has six RCA phono cables and one s-video cable coming out of the back, so it's unlikely that you'll want to connect and disconnect it very often. The cradle also enables the infra-red remote control handset that comes with the PMA and AV units.
      The Gmini does not support live video recording, and is supplied with neither a cradle on a remote control. Instead it has a simple cable that plugs into the 3.5mm jack on top of the unit, and which provides the usual composite video and left/right audio through RCA phono plugs. It is also supplied with an RCA-SCART adapter for those monitors or televisions that have only SCART connections. This cable is available as an optional extra for the AV and PMA, and you'll need it if you ever want to use these units away from the place you've installed the cradle -- the cradle is just to big and complicated to wire up to carry around with you.
      The AV500 records video in MPEG4 format, and audio in ADPCM format. It does not support recording in MP3 format (so far as I can tell) either along with video, on on its own. I suspect that this is because the AV500 does not have a hardware MP3 encoder built in, and encoding MP3 in software while encoding MPEG4 at the same time would just overwhelm its processing capabilities. The PMA430 supports MP3 recording, both with video and without.
      It should be noted that all three units, rather sadly, support MacroVision -- the Devil's own copy-protection system. If an analogue source presents the MacroVision signal, the units encrypt the recorded AVI files, and refuses to play them through the external video output. The decision to support MacroVision is a conscious design choice by Archos -- it requires additional work and can't happen by accident -- and it is not obvious why they decided that way. In any event, no way has so far been found by users to disable MacroVision support on these units.

All three units support audio recording, both from a line-level source and from a built-in microphone. Only the PMA430 can generate MP3 files directly -- the others generate WAV files containing PCM or ADPCM data.

Networking support

The PMA430 has fairly extensive networking capabilities; the other units have none. The PMA supports wireless ethernet and wired ethernet (via an optional USB-ethernet adapter). You can also set up a point-to-point connection between the PMA and another computer over USB, or connect to the Internet using an infrared connection to a mobile phone. The unit has a decent Web browser, Opera 6.0, and a great deal of third-party networking software is already available (mostly Sharp Zaurus software that works without modification or has been ported to the PMA). For example, you can run an FTP server on the PMA, and transfer files to and from it over the wireless ethernet adapter. Software is available (including some written by me) to play Shoutcast/Icecast Internet radio broadcasts (these formats are essentially slightly modified versions of MP3 carried over HTTP). Streaming video is theoretically possible, but doesn't seem to be much interest among developers in writing the requisite software so far.

User interface and useability

The PMA430's built-in applications (the media player, etc) provide a user interface based on drop-down menus and buttons that should be familiar to most desktop PC users. The touch-sensitive screen makes navigation very simple -- the usual point-and-click stuff. You can even connect a USB mouse and keyboard, and use the PMA like a desktop system. The problem with this kind of user interface is that, because it relies on the touch-screen, it can be quite fiddly to do things without using the touch-screen. The AV500, on the other hand, lacking a touch-screen, has to be fully operable using the button pad on the unit. Although this is neither as quick nor as intuitive as the PMA430's menu-based system, it is possible to operate the AV500 using only one thumb. The AV500's user interface is unusual and a little quirky, but works well enough when you get the hang of it. The PMA's user interface is based on Qtopia, but with Archos modifications, and will be very familiar to anyone who has used a Sharp Zaurus, or Opie on an HP IPAQ. It is very different (in a nice way, in my view) from most other PIM/PDA devices.

The PMA430 is a real computer, which means that applications are stored on the hard disk, not in firmware. The approach allows a large number of applications to be installed, but it also means that applications do not launch as quickly on the PMA as on the AV as they have to be loaded into working memory, just as on a desktop computer. The user interface response is rarely as `snappy' as on the AV, and can sometimes be positively sluggish (opening the Web browser while playing music, for example). The computer-like architecture also means that the PMA takes a lot longer to boot from a full shutdown than the AV -- several minutes, in fact. This isn't necessarily a problem, as you wouldn't shut the unit down unless it crashed catastrophically, or the battery remained too flat to operate the unit for about a week.

It is also striking that the PMA supports full preemptive multitasking, like a desktop computer and unlike most PDAs and media players. You can, for example, listen to music while using the Web browser. If one application falls over, it rarely affects the rest of the system. The AV, on the other hand, has no real multitasking at all.
      In a way, it is unhelpful to try to decide which of the units has the `better' user interface, because the user interfaces have to do different jobs on these units. Because the PMA supports general-purpose applications, it requires a more sophisticated user interface than the AV, which is only a media player. The AV cannot be criticised for not having a touch-sensitive screen and a PC-like user interface, because these things would add considerably to the cost for little extra benefit. However, in my view, the full multi-tasking support in the PMA does considerably extend the versatility of this unit over the AV.

PIM/PDA support

The PMA430 has a set of PIM/PDA applications, provided by the Qtopia operating environment. These applications include a contact manager, a diary, a to-do list, and a calculator. There are also general-purpose data management utilities that have been ported from the Zaurus (e.g., Portabase), which allow abitrary types of data to be entered, managed, and queried.
      The built-it PIM/PDA application are, well, OK. They are at least as good as the built-in applications provided on PalmOS (`Palm Pilot') units, but not a patch on the best third-party applications available for the Palm-type units. This is a shame because the very large storage capacity of the PMA means that it should be possible to write some very sophisticated, integrated PIM/PDA applications. The applications provided are, at any rate, perfectly useable, if not very inspiring of efficient.
      You can synchronize PDA data between the PMA and a desktop PC, and manage the data on a PC, using Trolltech's `Qtopia desktop'. I believe it is possible to synchronize with certain Microsoft Windows applications, but I don't use Windows so I can't comment on this.
      The PIM/PDA features of the PMA430 set this unit apart from the AV500 and Gmini500, and may well be a selling point for people who need such features. However, the PIM/PDA features are no more sophisticated than those available on a fifty-quid Palm device. With the money you saved buying an AV500 rather than a PMA430, you could buy a Palm unit and a really soptisticated PIM/PDA application like Agendus Pro. Consequently, my impression is that the PIM/PDA features on the PMA430 don't on their own justify the greatly increased price over the AV500.

Other applications

Where the PMA430 really comes into its own is in its support for general-purpose applications. The unit comes supplied with the following applications, in addition to the PIM/PDA applications discussed above: Third-party applications (many of which are available free of charge) known to work on the PMA provide at least the following facilities (and maybe many more in time): It should be obvious that the PMA is very, very much more than just a media player. What is less obvious is whether these additional capabilities are sufficient to justify the additional cost of the unit over the AV500 -- for me they are, for some people they won't be. It is also not at all obvious whether substantial third-party applications will ever be developed specifically for the PMA.

Battery life

In my experience, the battery life of the AV500 is substantially better than that of the PMA430, with the screens of both units on or off. The AV500 regularly exceeds its advertised battery life of 15 hours with the screen on and 4.5 hours with it off. My PMA430, on the other hand, often fails to reach its advertised 9 hours/4.5 hours. What's more, the very rapid boot-up time of the AV500 means that it can really be switched off when not in use. The PMA takes several minutes to boot, which means that it has to be left in a low-power standby mode, which does gradually drain the battery. Consequently, the PMA430 requires recharging at least every few days, even if you use it only occasionally, while the AV500 can go for weeks between charges if you're not using it that much.
      However, spare batteries and chargers are available for all three units.

Comparison table

To summarise the points discussed above, the following table lists the primary capabilities of the three units side-by-side.
PMA430 AV500 Gmini500
Storage capacity 30 Gb 30 Gb or 100 Gb 40 Gb
Case size 3.1" x 4.9" x 0.8" 3.0" x 4.9" x 0.9" 3.0" x 4.9" x 0.7" (30 Gb model),
3.0" x 4.9" x 0.7" (100 Gb model)
Input devices Button pad; USB keyboard; USB mouse; touch-screen Button pad Button pad
Output devices LCD screen, external audio/video LCD screen, external audio/video LCD screen, external audio/video
Screen size 3.5" diagonal 4" diagonal 4" diagonal
Screen resolution 320x240, 262,000 colours 480x272, 262,000 colours 480x272, 262,000 colours
Physical connections USB host and device port; 3.5mm AV output and compatible RCA phono AV cable; proprietary connection to TV cradle that provides AV input and output as RCA phone and s-video; consumer infrared port for remote control; IrDA infrared port for data communication; optional RCA phono AV input/output cable kit (lightweight alternative to TV cradle) USB host and device port; 3.5mm AV output and compatible RCA phono AV cable; proprietary connection to TV cradle that provides AV input and output as RCA phone and s-video; consumer infrared port for remote control; optional RCA phono AV input/output cable kit (lightweight alternative to TV cradle) USB host and device port; 3.5mm AV output and compatible RCA phono AV cable
Audio playback support MP3, Microsoft WAV (including ADPCM) and WMA built-in; Ogg/Vorbis, AC3, perhaps others with third-party software (e.g., mplayer) MP3, Microsoft WAV (including ADPCM) and WMA MP3, Microsoft WAV (including ADPCM) and WMA
Video playback support MPEG4 video in AVI file format; maybe others with third-party software MPEG4 video in AVI file format; Microsoft WMV MPEG4 video in AVI file format; Microsoft WMV
Audio sources Local file; analogue input; Shoutcast/Icecast over network with third-party software Local file; analogue input Local file
Video sources Local file; analogue input; network theoretically possible but no software yet Local file; analogue input Local file; analogue input
Audio recording support Line input, built-in microphone, MP3 or Microsoft WAV formats Line input, built-in microphone, Microsoft WAV formats Line input, built-in microphone, Microsoft WAV formats
Video recording support Analogue video input, AVI file format containing DIVX video and MP3 audio Analogue video input, AVI file format containing DIVX video and MP3 audio None
Still image support JPEG, PNG, GIF, BMP; others may be possible with third-party software JPEG, BMP JPEG, BMP
Network hardware support Ethernet over USB adapter, IrDA infrared, wireless (IEE802.11b) None None
Network protocol support TCP/IP; HTTP (Opera browser and wget utility); FTP (wget utility); IrDA beaming; PPP; others (e.g., SSH, Telnet) with third-party software None None
eBook/document viewer support Full HTML with Opera browser; plain text; PDF; most non-proprietary eBook formats supported through third-party sofware, e.g., JustReader None :( None :(
PIM/PDA support Contacts, diary, to-do list, calculator None None
Gaming support Mophum game engine with supplied demos, various Qtopia games supplied, others available from third-party developers None None
USB support USB2.0 device and USB1.1 host; mass storage protocol USB2.0 device and USB1.1 host; mass storage protocol and Microsoft proprietary sync format USB2.0 device and USB1.1 host; mass storage protocol and Microsoft proprietary sync format
Operating system Linux/Qtopia, software development tools available Proprietary Proprietary
Battery life Advertised as 9 hours with screen off, 4.5 hours with screen on; my experience is that the unit performs slightly less well than advertised Advertised as 15 hours with screen off, 4.5 hours with screen on; my experience is that the unit performs slightly better than advertised Advertised as 15 hours with screen off, 4.5 hours with screen on; my experience is that the unit performs slightly better than advertised
Multitasking Full, preemptive multitasking None None
Recommended selling price €799 €499 for the 30Gb model; price for 100Gb model not announced at time of writing €449

Conclusion -- which to buy?

If cost were not a consideration -- and none of these units is that expensive for what it does -- it would be tempting to recommend the PMA430 over the other units, because the PMA can do everything that the others can do and much, much more besides. But things aren't quite that simple. First, the PMA is only available with a 30Gb disk; second, the PMA screen is not anywhere near as good for watching video as the AV500 or Gmini screens; third, the PMA's battery life is such that you don't want to be more than a few days away from a battery charger, even if you use it sparingly, while the AV and Gmini can go weeks between charges with the same usage pattern.
      In short, to prefer the PMA over the AV or Gmini, you'd have to be sure that the extra functionality it offers (particularly with third-party applications) offsets the additional cost, and the decreased screen quality, disk capacity (compared to the Gmini), and battery life. It might be tempting to hang on and see if Archos releases a unit that combines the best of the AV500 and the PMA430, but I suspect you'd have a long wait. The reason for this, I think, is that the `limitations' of the PMA430 are an inevitable consequence of its additional features. It needs a touch-sensitive screen, and such screens are not available with the same constrast and resolution as non-touch-sensitive ones; the 30Gb maximum disk capacity is a result of only being able to accomodate a 1.8", 7mm-thick disk in the enclosure; the better battery life of the AV500 comes from it having room to fit a physically larger battery.
      Consequently, even when armed with full information, the decision between the PMA, AV, and Gmini remains a difficult one.

I venture to suggest that if what you want is a pocket video player, and you don't care about recording, or the computer-like features of the PMA, the Gmini is your best bet. It has excellent screen quality, the greatest disk capacity (of the basic models), and is the cheapest (but not by much).
      If you want a unit that will mostly live on top of your TV, and be used for recording TV programmes and playing MPEG4 movies (legally obtained, of course), and only rarely go out on the road, I suggest that the AV500 would serve best.
      Even if you need PIM/PDA features, the price of PMA430 will buy an AV500, a reasonable compact PDA, and some decent software. You might even be able to afford a PDA/cellphone combination if you're buying it with a network service contract. Since I rarely go anywhere without my cellphone, having PIM/PDA functionality in my phone makes more sense than having it in a media player, which I don't always carry with me. In summary, even if you want and need PIM/PDA functionality, this alone isn't a reason to prefer the PMA over the other models, in my opinion.
      Even if you specifically want a PDA that runs Linux (and I do!) you could buy an AV500 and an (unoffocially imported) Sharp C600 or similar; the C600 is a far better Linux computer than the PMA, because it has a real keyboard, a bigger screen, and a faster CPU.

So what features of the PMA430 would I really miss if I had to swap it for an AV500 and a PDA? I offer the following suggestions, in decreasing order of importance:

Other features that I use from time to time, but honestly could live without, include: For my money, the eBook support alone makes it worth spending the extra money on the PMA430; but if I read fewer books and watched more movies, the better screen quality of the AV500 might swing me in that direction.
©1994-2006 Kevin Boone, all rights reserved