No, you didn’t just see this on Woot – that was a similar but somewhat inferior Archos player. This one here, the AV700, makes that one look like a View-Master. Sure, at eight inches long, its lanky frame stretches the definition of “portable media player.” But once you get a good look at its luminous 7” screen, you’ll know it’s space well spent.

If you like watching movies in your car but you’re tired of being solicited to buy meth at the drive-in, the Archos AV700 is your new favorite playa. AVI, MPEG-4, and WMV are among the ingredients in its video-format alphabet soup, with a side order of DivX and Xvid codecs. It can also kick out the MP3 jams like it ain’t no thing but a chicken wing on a string from Burger King.

Not only can you load it up with downloaded video and music content from your computer through a USB 2.0 interface, you can also use the AV700 to record video from TV or videotapes. Either way, you’d have to get up pretty early in the morning to come up with enough content to quench its big, thirsty 40GB hard drive.

We should mention that its 16:9 screen’s resolution is a little lower than the AV500’s, but at this size, you’d have to have super powers to tell the difference. Aside from that, the Archos AV700 Personal Media Player is one small step for Archos, one giant leap for people who can’t function unless their eyes are glued to some kind of video screen.

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