Well, just the other day I reported on ARCHOS adding place-shifting to their 605 WiFi, 705WiFi, and TV+ systems with their ‘TVportation’ plug-in. And now comes news via TWICE that ARCHOS also intends to turn the 605 WiFi into an automotive GPS navigation device.

They’ll accomplish this via the release of a car cradle which will hold the 605 against the windshield while incorporating the GPS antenna and receiver as well as TeleAtlas maps of the US and Canada, an RDS receiver for live traffic updates, and an FM transmitted to deliver turn-by-turn directions via the car’s speakers. (They can also come via the 605’s speaker.) It seems like ARCHOS is really trying to make their PMPs into all-purpose gadgets.

ARCHOS has long been a leader in the PMP market with devices like their model 605 and 705 PMPs. And they’ve added some innovative features to their products, such as the ability to copy shows from DISH Network ViP622/722 DVRs. Lesser known is their TV+ DVR. The TV+ is a Ethernet/WiFi media player and DVR in one box, and the software seems to be based on their PMP software.

Now Archos is adding place-shifting to the TV+. Called ‘TVportation’ it will be a $49.99 software plug-in for the TV+, or free if the TV+ is registered on the ARCHOS web site. ARCHOS claims it will allow streaming of content from the TV+ to the ARCHOS 605 WiFi and ARCHOS 705 WiFi PMPs, as well as PCs, laptops and smartphones. You can also use an ARCHOS 605 WiFi or ARCHOS 705 WiFi as the streaming source, but you need to leave it docked in its base station. (So if you have two you can have one at home as the source and one as the client.) Details on the smartphone support is thin, saying only “compatible with Symbian later this spring”. Though the demo video on the website shows it running on a Windows Mobile Palm Treo.

A little exploring shows they have downloads for Windows Mobile 5 & 6 both Professional and Smartphone as well as Symbian Series60. But most curious is that all of the links are right to Monsoon Multimedia’s HAVA clients - on Monsoon’s servers! At first glance it looks like they’re leeching the clients, but perhaps Monsoon and ARCHOS did some kind of deal. Still, it looks sketchy.

There’s a lengthy demo video up on YouTube:

From the video it is clear that one client at a time is supported, so you can’t have multiple devices streaming from one TV+.

Spotted in EngadgetHD.

Disclaimer: I’m currently employed by Sling Media, which produces the Slingbox series of place-shifting products. And I suppose TVportation is ostensibly a competitor to Sling.

This was something out of CES that I forgot to comment on at the time, but I was reminded today by an article I stumbled over in Multichannel News. Comcast commissioned Panasonic to develop the AnyPlay Portable DVR TZ-LC100 for them. It has a folding, clamshell design that contains an 8.5″ LCD, stereo speakers, and a 60GB drive. It resembles a portable DVD player - which makes sense since it also plays CDs and DVDs. It is supposed to be available in early 2009. And I think this is just a poor idea, doomed to fail.

To be clear, I don’t think being able to take you recordings with you is a bad idea. I think systems like TiVo’s TiVoToGo and DISH Networks partnership with Archos (and the former PocketDISH players) to sync content from their DVRs to PMPs is a fine idea. No, my problem is with this implementation.

You’re taking the DVR with you. The whole DVR.

Think about that for a minute. If you’re on the road, and you have your DVR with you to watch your recordings, what’s at home recording the shows that air while you’re not there? Right, nothing. Unless you have another DVR - but then why have two? To me it doesn’t make any sense to take the DVR away with you. This player has some saving graces, in that it is basically a portable DVD player that put on some weight (for the drive), but that’s about it.

As PMPs get slicker, smaller, and more capable - see the newest offerings from Archos, not to mention the iPod Touch and iPhone - this unit is positively massive by comparison. And you know physically smaller players, which increased storage capacities, will be out by early 2009. By then we’ll probably have an iPod Touch with 32GB, or even 64GB, of flash.

In the past I’ve argued that media center PCs aren’t catching on for similar reasons. The market is moving toward laptops en masse. But if your main PC is a laptop, and it travels with you, then it doesn’t work very well as your media center DVR. So you’d need to buy another MCE PC just to be the stay-at-home DVR - which is costly if you don’t need the PC since you have the laptop.

I think Comcast would’ve been much better off working with Panasonic on something more like DISH Network’s Archos arrangement. A PMP that could be plugged into Comcast’s DVR STBs to sync content over for playback, not a unit that is a DVR itself. Either over USB, or the FireWire ports their STBs are required to have anyway. Leave the DVR at home.

Archos has released an update for their 605 WiFi and 705 WiFi Portable Media Players that will allow them to sync content from the Dish Network VIP622 and VIP722 DVRs. This continues a long term working relationship between Archos and Dish Network, which started back in 2005 when they Dish Network released their ‘PocketDISH’ PMPs, which were produced by Archos. They dropped a press release (PDF) about the update, and plans to show it off at CES. The press release says this plug-in is available today - but I don’t see it on the Archos website. Via EngadgetHD.