The new Archos line of products offers new horizons. In fact, new formats appear. So, which tools to use in order to encode one’s videos for one’s Archos 604/504/404 ? This is the question we will try to answer.
NB : Those formats are not available right after the purchase of the device, they have to be acquired on the Archos website. Refer to this tutorial if you don’t have the Archos plugin.
Re encoding to H264/AAC :
To encode a video to the right format, we are going to use the freeware Super 2006.
To start, download it here and install it as it has to be.
First step :
In the “Select the Output Container” pull-down menu, choose Apple iPod.
In the second pull-down menu, choose H.264/AVC.
Finally, in the third one, select “AAC”.
In the video part, choose a 480*272 definition. Nevertheless, you have to know that the exact definition supported by the Archos 604 is 740*480. You can adjust the video ratio as you like, 4:3 or 16:9.
That’s it ; you can encode your video.
Vob compatibility :
The new range is able to read VOB optionally. But what are VOBs ? To make it simple, those are the raw video formats taken from a DVD ; the non-compressed format. Thus, you’ll have the quality of a DVD. Nevertheless, they are very big files (count some GB).
To extract VOBs from a DVD, we’ll use the freeware DVD Decrypter.
You can download it here. After installing it correctly, you get to the freeware’s home page.
Insert your DVD if you haven’t done it yet.
The software will automatically analyze the structure of the DVD once inserted.
Choose the file you wan to copy your VOBs to and you’ll be able to launch the extraction.
Once it is done, copy your VOB files on your Archos PMP (4G or 5G).
Encode to H264 on a Mac :
That’s simple, since it is the iPod format. The Mac platform is thus very well equipped.
We’ll use the freeware iSquint, downloadable here.
Once the software is installed and launched, go to the “Advanced” section.
Inset the following dimensions :
Width : 740
Height : 480
Then, all you have to do is put your video into the list and launch the encoding.
Extract VOB files from a DVD with a Mac :
You’ll need the freeware MacTheRipper, downloadabel here.
Recall :
PC version : to encode DivX look here (DVD) and here .
Mac version : Encode a DVD for your Archos .
