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These things keeps coming out, yet I don’t know if people are actually buying them. If anyone out there has a portable media player, please post a comment and let me know what you think of it and how it’s used. Even the new Archos AV480 doesn’t playback fullscreen MPEG2 video, so once again you’ll need to transcode your videos to a format it likes, this case MPEG4 @ 512×382 and 30fps. Now, I’m not going to punk the AV480 because it does have some very cool features. Not only can it be used as a 80GB storage device for audio, video and still photography, but it can also record MPEG4 video via its inputs. What’s very cool is that the AV480’s cradle can control a set-top box’s tuner (maybe a TiVo?) and also has a timer that can be setup to start recording of the input. The timer functionality can also be used to record audio from the FM tuner… think of it like a Audio TiVo… so you don’t ever have to miss you favorite radio programs like NPR, LoveLine, Kim Komando, Tom Leykis, etc ever again. It also acts like a TiVo, it buffers everything, so even if you forget to press record, you can still capture the whole show or song. The AV480 will be available soon for about $700 and the 20GB version will cost you about $500. A bit pricey for my tastes, you can drop a few more hundred and get a laptop… but so far, I think this PMP is the PIMP of Portable Media Players.