Archos Gmini 220 20 GB MP3 Jukebox / Recorder / Photo Wallet-Viewer with Compact Flash Reader

Rating:
Summary: Archos Products and Support Is Horrible
Review: 1. No 800 number for support.
2. Hard drive failed.
3. Error messages display without completely loading the Archos OS; so impossibe to run WinScanDisk or reformat the hard drive and reload the Archos OS.
3. This is my second Archos product to fail after 1 year of moderate use. (approx 12 hours a week)

Rating:
Summary: Fatal flaw when recording
Review: In some ways this is the best mp3 recorder I've used. It's extremely quiet. It's compact. Its controls are intuitive. The rubberized portions of the case help prevent slipping. The internal microphone does a great job. It has two major flaws, however, and one is fatal.

The non-fatal flaw is that an external microphone requires a preamp. Preamps are not cheap.

The FATAL flaw, which gave me no choice but to return it, is that IT HAS NO SHUTDOWN PROTCOL. If the battery runs out while you're recording, YOU'VE LOST EVERYTHING!!! (Guess who lost an entire evening of wonderful music made with friends.)

If Archos would bring out a Gmini with a mic input and a shutdown protocol, you'd find my iRiver ihp-120 and my Sony high density Mini Disc recorder listed on eBay, half.com, or over here at amazon.

Rating:
Summary: Nice Form for the Price
Review: I bought the GMini 220 because the of the features for the price (I wanted the compact flash interface to transfer pictures). I have had it a week. The unit is compact and sturdy. The user interface is usable but not fantastic. It plays well and I like it. Transferring files is easy (although I don't like the Musicmatch Jukebox software very much, I just copy the files on).

One Small annoyance is that to use headphones other than the ones which came with it, you need a small external adapter (which comes with it).

I haven't tried to transfer pictures to it yet.

Overall, I am very happy with the purchase.

Rating:
Summary: Just what I wanted - Works Great!
Review: I spent weeks researching mp3 players and ended up with the GMini 220. I wanted both the music and Photo wallet features. I travel for extensive time without a laptop and needed something to down load pictures to. The sound quality is great and the photo wallet works great. I've had the unit for 5 months now and it has worked perfectly. I would buy another one (or maybe the GMini 400 series when that comes out)

Rating:
Summary: supa dupa!!!
Review: This gear is perfect!!! Huge screen, tons of info on the screen, and it looks tight. Plus you get AV cords to plug it right into a stereo receiver, so I can get a thousand watts behind my Gmini on my surround sound. YOWZA, couldn't ask fo' a betta unit. I've had mine fer 'bout 6 months, no complaints. Buy it, love it, nevva leave wit out it! Holla at cha girl.

Rating:
Summary: Had it a week, love it.
Review: So I took the posts here and cnet to heart that I was taking a chance ordering the Gmini 120. However, at less than $200 with a 20GB harddrive and a compact flash card reader I could not find an affordable alternative.

I wanted to be able to take MP3s with me while traveling, but the main use is tranferring pictures from my SandDisk Extreme 512 MB compact flash card. I have a D-70 and plan to take a lot of picture in Prague. This was a cheaper alternative than buying multiple CF cards or a laptop.

I have transferred the CF card multiple times without any problems.

The only problem I noted was in a 6hr playlist it was crashing. I did some diagnosing and found that it was due to a wma filename with a period followed by and underscore. Changed the filename on the harddrive as well as the playlist and it works great.

Pros:
20GB Harddrive
Compact Flash
<200$ (bhphotovideo)
Plays mp3 and wma
CF Reader and Recording plugins were preloaded and free.
Fast USB 2.0 Connection
No software required for connection to Win xp

Cons:
Playlists:
The playlist is in m3u format which is just a text file that contains the location of each file in the order you wish to listen to them. To create one for the gmini you have to do it on the device since the directory structure is not the same as your computer.

Since I am a progammer, I wrote a small software program to take playlists developed on you PC (in Windows Media Player or the supplied Music Match) and convert it in to one that works on the Gmini. So I have fixed this problem, however, not everyone may have that luxury. I loaded six hours worth of music in a playlist, ran the simple conversion program which saved the new playlist to the archos (even randomizes the songs for you) and the Archos worked flawlessly.

I would recommend this, will update if anything changes.