Rating: 
Summary: Don't buy it - it has major battery issues
Review: It has battery issues that will drive you crazy. 1) the user's manual says the unit prevents over-charging, which may be true technically, but the problem is, it is almost always in "Charging" mode. Once in a while when it does displays "Charged", if you disconnect and immediately reconnect the power supply or plugging in the UBS cable, then the unit goes back into "Charging" mode, and it'll take another couple hours to (maybe) get back to "Charged" mode.So what so bad about the unit being in "Charging" mode all the time? Well, I heard that it shortens the life of the batteries, and most of all, the charger makes this noticeable buzzing noise which is really annoying when you are trying to work next to it. I called their tech support, and basically he recommended that I never leave the power connected for more than 4-5 hours - after the battery juice is fully used up. This is very bad for people like me who plug it into a home stereo system simi-permanently and listen to music all the time - I need to worry about charging the batteries every 5-6 hours of listening. Why can't I just leave the power connected and forget about it? Furthermore, wouldn't that be a pain if I'm using it as a hard-drive? Another issue is the housing of the batteries. I wouldn't go into details, but you need to see it yourself to believe how bad it was designed after you opened the lid, and then you'll regret opening it in the first place. Again, don't buy it until they fix its firmware. Also, they have one of the worst user's manual I ever run across (it even failed to mention some of its nice features like resume)! Why spent so much in producing the hardware and then cut major corners in producing the firmware and manual?
Rating: 
Summary: A great product--once you get the right firmware.
Review: I bought one and was pretty dissatisfied with it. Then a little online research brought me to the nice Swedish hackers who've come up with RockBox, an open-source replacement for the buggy firmware that comes with the unit. I highly recommend downloading and installing RockBox. Pretty much all the problems people have had are solved with this update. It makes the interface work the way you expect it to, and no more skipping or freezing. The player itself is great now. The headphones are cruddy, but that's a small problem since most people have their own anyway. I've got well over 100 albums on mine, and a few hundred loose songs, and the thing is still not even half full!
Rating: 
Summary: Better off getting a name brand
Review: 11-22-2002 : I've had my device for about 3 months. I experience random and exceptionally annoying lockups. The system just freezes in the midst of an audio program - requiring that I power down and power on the device. I believe there are better quality devices (name brands) available and I would recommend purchasing one of them rather than this unit. Long term I expect it to be unreliable (based on the increasing lockups that I am experiencing). The documentation on this is awful, but rather than repeat what others have said I'll say that (when it works without freezing) I am really enjoying this unit. It took me about 4 hours of experimenting to figure out how to efficiently record onto the device. The things I like:
1. Able to use the device like another hard disk -- easy to copy, rename tracks right through explorer.
2. Huge capacity to carry lots of recordings
3. Simple drag and drop organization of directories The things that I don't care for:
1. Manual - unusable
2. Software that comes with the unit deserves its own manual - took me three hours to figure out you can adjust options so that you save the track number as part of the file name -- avoiding the creation of playlists for audio recordings. Overall I recommend this if you are technically savvy -- I'd avoid it if you don't like to get your hands dirty exploring the nuances of gadgetry. I also question the long term integrity of the unit.
Rating: 
Summary: Archos Jukebox 20 - 500277
Review: This is a fantastic MP3 Player/Hard Disk. It came to me well packaged and well documented. Others said the documentation was poor, but I found it had all the info I needed. But I can see it being confusing if you don't know how to follow instructions very well.
I love the idea that I can swap out the Hard Disk at a later date, and it takes standard batteries so you're not searching for a propriotory batteries when these die. Batteries, even rechargables, don't last forever.
It's USB 2.0 connector is a huge time saver, and worked right away. (USB 1.1 takes forever to transfer 20 gigs) It looks like others gripped about it's non standard USB cable. But I don't see what's so wrong about that. It comes with a Type-A to Type-A USB cable which a lot of products are coming out with now. It really doesn't make sense these days to have two different types of connectors on USB cables.
I had this player figured out and FULL of mp3's withn' an hour,(after charging) and was playing my MP3's happily. :-) I didn't hear any skips or have problems playing songs.
And yeah, it did come dead. But if you read the manual it says you need to charge it before you use it, not unlike most products. ;-O The only thing I didn't like about it was the cheesy headphones. But I didn't buy it for the headphones nor did I plan on using them, and if I could of opted to get the unit cheaper without the phones, I would.
Rating:
Summary: poor quality control
Review: The Archos Jukebox is a great concept and I was very happy to order one. Unfortunately, mine was dead on arrival. From reading the newsgroups and the Archos Jukebox user groups I think the product has major build/quality problems. I can't recommend this product based on my experience. Also, the one year warranty has been reduced recently to 90 days, so buyer beware.
Rating:
Summary: I've been waiting for this product
Review: I haven't had it that long, but it works great. I had no trouble with the drivers. I did grab the latest ones from their website, rather than use the ones on the CD. I had read that there was some noise from the microdrive. The acoustic noise is detectable if you hold the thing up to your ear. In some orientations of the headphone plug and cable, I pick up a little RF noise that seems to be from the drive, but I only noticed that once, turned the plug 90 degrees, and it was gone. I like the design of the headphones. Its possible to go to bed with them on, they are that comfortable and unobtrusive. The real selling point for me was that you just mount it to windows via USB2.0 -- backwards compatible to v1 (no reason it wouldn't work for *nix under samba), and it is a 2Gb filesystem. I setup a CVS repository on it, and use it for shuttling files (as well as music) back and forth to work.
Rating:
Summary: This thing is great!
Review: I've owned a Jukebox Recorder 20 for about 3 months now and I love it. I had previously purchased an E-digital MP3 machine but I returned it because the interface was too flaky. The Archos machine works as advertised. I've never measured, but I'm sure you can get a good 8 to 10 hours out of a battery charge. It takes a while to understand how the playlist function works, but once you get that figured out it's fantastic to be able to group your music together in any way that suits you. The Jukebox shows up as a storage device in Windows Explorer so you can just drag and drop files as you see fit. You can even use it as a portable hard drive, and you can record directly to the Jukebox from any audio device. No computer necessary My only complaint is that the machine seems to "hang" occasionally. When it does this the only option is to turn it off and back on (it takes about 10 to 20 seconds to "re-boot"). I sent an email to Archos on this issue but, as expected, they didn't even bother to respond. All if all, this is a great little machine. 400 CD's in the palm of your hand!
Rating:
Summary: good but has serious problem in voice recording
Review: Actually, I bought this product to record and to
store my personal data. I admit that it's fantastic
as a storage tool. But, I was so embarrassed to find
that I could not use it as a voice recorder.
Every one minute, the harddisk turns with noisy sound.
Because it does not have the function of outer mic,
that noise comes into the recording.
I'm sure that you can never want to use it to record
voices.
Rating:
Summary: needs better manual
Review: This is a handy little device, with lots of cables and a bulky manual in many languages. But all I wanted to do was set it up to download from my laptop.... I couldn't find the instructions for this. I took a stab at it (knowing a little about technical matters), and it turned out to be almost plug and play, but I suspect that many would be turned off by the lack of direction. Most electronics producers these days are doing a far better job of preparing manuals for the LCD (Lowest Common Denominator). If you are afraid of taking a leap of faith with your computer, you may wish to avoid htis product until the manual is a bit better designed. Also, I still have figured out how to shuffle the whole juke box, or categories of music. I would like to be able to do this, without setting up a play list. Shuffling within an album is easy. Still, I will keep this. It will be good back up for for when I want no-hassle music. Ideally, it would be packaged with a car kit, so I can take it on the rad.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Product!!
Review: I did quite a bit of research prior to making my MP3 Jukebox purchase. I was looking at the Creative Nomad but did not like it because it was as large as a CD player and could not operate as an external HD. The Archos is about the size (little smaller actually) of a cassette walkman. If you are a technical person who likes messing and tweaking things, this unit will be up you alley. When connected to your PC, the Archos comes up as an external HD. It's very easy. There is no necessary software or interface necessary. There are a couple tricky things to be aware of. Random play only works within one folder. You cannot random play the entire player. The best and easiest way to get music on the Archos is to hook up the unit to a USB 2.0 connection and run MusicMatch. Throw a CD in the drive and set the save file destination as a folder within the Archos. This way the songs will be saved directly to the Archos. Here is where it gets a little tricky. To create a playlist, you have to create one within MusicMatch and then copy it from the program files to a folder say named "playlists" in the Archos. You can then select the playlist in that folder and it will play through the entire album. The unit is easy to use when navigating. It is basically folders, subfolders and files. The unit feels sturdy although the buttons could feel a little more firm. One thing that makes me really angry is that there is not a volume control on the unit. You need to go through a few menus to get to the sound controls. Connections are as follows: 9V DC in, SPDIF in and out (its one 1/8" jack which does both, this is a digital connection), ear (this is for headphones and analog stereo out), USB A connection (This part of the Archos drives me the most insane. For some unknown reason, they used an A connection on the unit. This means that you need a male / male USB cable. Not easily available at the local store. Hopefully, they will use an A B USB cable in the future.) and an analog line in. Battery power comes from 4 NiMH batteries which stay in the unit and are rechargeable through the DC adapter. The display green illumination and kind of reminds me of a Commodore computer. Would have been cooler if they used blue. The Archos has really met and exceeded my expectations. It has made my minidisc player obsolete. It's worth its value as an external HD alone. Enjoy!!!!
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