Rating: 
Summary: better than ipod
Review: i think this is better than the ipod. it's cheaper - the only difference is it's a big bigger and heavier. and that it has much better headphones than ipod.
Rating: 
Summary: It's weighs a ton, but what a cool toy!
Review: I've had one of these for just over a month. It's bigger and heavier than the I-pod, but 1/3rd the price. 20 Gig holds a LOT of music - I have 200 cd's on mine and have used up under 7 gig! The USB 2 is FAST. It takes only seconds to copy songs. The device shows up as an external hard drive called "jukebox" - you just drag and drop your audio files.The quality could be a little better - I have had no problems, but the controls seem a bit flimsy. The volume could also be louder. As with most portable devices, you're well advised to purchase a set of good quality headphones. Don't plan on wearing it on a back support belt or clipping it on pants - it's too bulky or heavy. It had a belt loop on the included neoprene pouch - this will fit a standard belt, but not a belt for the gym. I keep mine in a pocket or carry it around. It's a great buy! Followup (3 months later) - still love this thing! Found a couple of software bugs, but these are addresses in frequent updates.
Rating:
Summary: Good value player
Review: I've had this player for just about a year. Some of the complaints posted are valid such as extremely poor customer service and battery life. Customer service is an issue I can't solve, but if you replace the batteries with NiMH rechargables (Radio Shack has great ones...), the battery life issues and some of the playback issues noted in other reviews will disappear. You do need some computer skills to use the player (the instruction manual is useless), but almost everything can be done through "drag and drop", really quite easy. Overall, good player for the money.
Rating: 
Summary: Should be better.
Review: If I could have a "do-over" I would not buy this JukeBox. Everything needs to setup through MusicMatch. This is not a bad thing but it is not always "friendly". The problems I have are while the player is not plugged into my computer. It will simply shutdown for no reason. (Yes battery is fully charged.) This is their tech supports stardard answer to everything. Navigating a playlist is a simple function. However the player stumbles all the time. If I want to jump 5 songs ahead I should just push ">>" 5 times. This does not happen. I end up 3 or 4 songs ahead according to the display but I am now listening to the 2 or 3 song. To fix this tech support recommended cleaning the hard drive, this did not work. Then they suggested defragmenting the drive, this did not work. Then they suggested formating the drive, this did not work. I sent it in 3 weeks later I recieved a fixed unit. Same flaws. When I use this a the gym I must strap it to the equipment to prevent it from shutting down. Both units act the same way. DO NOT BUY IF YOU WANT TO RUN with it on your belt. Even walking too roughly will cause it to shut down. As a USB harddrive it works great. I can backup my files to it flawlessly. It has been recognized by about 5 different types of computers, no problem. I have connected it to my home stereo and setup a playlist to last 6 hours to act as a virtual DJ. It worked great. Connected it to my car, using a Generic FM transmitter, worked great. Battery lasted 4 hours. Ride was smooth enough that it did not shut down. I know a few people that have iPods. They are more expensive but work well under all conditions. For now I am looking for a 128MB-256MB non-harddrive MP3 player for the gym.
Rating:
Summary: Should be better.
Review: If I could have a "do-over" I would not buy this JukeBox. Everything needs to setup through MusicMatch. This is not a bad thing but it is not always "friendly". The problems I have are while the player is not plugged into my computer. It will simply shutdown for no reason. (Yes battery is fully charged.) This is their tech supports stardard answer to everything. Navigating a playlist is a simple function. However the player stumbles all the time. If I want to jump 5 songs ahead I should just push ">>" 5 times. This does not happen. I end up 3 or 4 songs ahead according to the display but I am now listening to the 2 or 3 song. To fix this tech support recommended cleaning the hard drive, this did not work. Then they suggested defragmenting the drive, this did not work. Then they suggested formating the drive, this did not work. I sent it in 3 weeks later I recieved a fixed unit. Same flaws. When I use this a the gym I must strap it to the equipment to prevent it from shutting down. Both units act the same way. DO NOT BUY IF YOU WANT TO RUN with it on your belt. Even walking too roughly will cause it to shut down. As a USB harddrive it works great. I can backup my files to it flawlessly. It has been recognized by about 5 different types of computers, no problem. I have connected it to my home stereo and setup a playlist to last 6 hours to act as a virtual DJ. It worked great. Connected it to my car, using a Generic FM transmitter, worked great. Battery lasted 4 hours. Ride was smooth enough that it did not shut down. I know a few people that have iPods. They are more expensive but work well under all conditions. For now I am looking for a 128MB-256MB non-harddrive MP3 player for the gym.
Rating:
Summary: Found A Fix to My Problems - Now Love the Product
Review: Initially, I had my share of gripes with this product as when I listened to my mp3's every 27 - 45 seconds, the hard drive would make a metal "sliding" or locking sound which would also make the right & left equalizer bars to lock up for a few seconds (even thought the song did not lock up). I sent the jukebox back to archos for repair/maintenance twice (first time, they replaced the recharable batteries which didn't help at all and the second time they replaced the hard drive). Both times, their help desk reccommended I reformat the hard drive after I received the product back from them. Neither times did it fix the problems. I was ready to sell the thing and purchase an iPod when I came out to AMAZON and read on the reviews the same problems I was expiriencing were corrected if a different software (ROCKBOX) was installed. I went out to their website, downloaded the software, reformatted the hard drive, installed the ROCKBOX software and then reinstalled my songs. Since then, the product has not only been not locking up or making sounds but the software has additional features (fonts, display formats, clock timers on/off, etc.) that are wonderful!!! I would suggest to any person who's been even a little bit discourage with the lack to performance with their ARCHOS to checkout the ROCKBOX website and see if what I have mentioned in my review corrects their problems. I will say that I would give ARCHOS'S help desk a B- grade as they were very friendly, quick response turn around time in getting email/verbal correspondence as well as quick return of my product. The only issue I had was that when I contacted them the second time with my problems, at the time, I had not had the item for more than 6 months and I asked for them to replace the item. They explained to me that their policy is repair 3 times, after this, then they replace. I'm hoping I won't have to do this now.
Rating:
Summary: Found A Fix to My Problems - Now Love the Product
Review: Initially, I had my share of gripes with this product as when I listened to my mp3's every 27 - 45 seconds, the hard drive would make a metal "sliding" or locking sound which would also make the right & left equalizer bars to lock up for a few seconds (even thought the song did not lock up). I sent the jukebox back to archos for repair/maintenance twice (first time, they replaced the recharable batteries which didn't help at all and the second time they replaced the hard drive). Both times, their help desk reccommended I reformat the hard drive after I received the product back from them. Neither times did it fix the problems. I was ready to sell the thing and purchase an iPod when I came out to AMAZON and read on the reviews the same problems I was expiriencing were corrected if a different software (ROCKBOX) was installed. I went out to their website, downloaded the software, reformatted the hard drive, installed the ROCKBOX software and then reinstalled my songs. Since then, the product has not only been not locking up or making sounds but the software has additional features (fonts, display formats, clock timers on/off, etc.) that are wonderful!!! I would suggest to any person who's been even a little bit discourage with the lack to performance with their ARCHOS to checkout the ROCKBOX website and see if what I have mentioned in my review corrects their problems. I will say that I would give ARCHOS'S help desk a B- grade as they were very friendly, quick response turn around time in getting email/verbal correspondence as well as quick return of my product. The only issue I had was that when I contacted them the second time with my problems, at the time, I had not had the item for more than 6 months and I asked for them to replace the item. They explained to me that their policy is repair 3 times, after this, then they replace. I'm hoping I won't have to do this now.
Rating:
Summary: buy this player
Review: Just bought the archos. Amazing. Buy this now! Although it is about one and a half times as thick as the ipod, it is about the same height and witdth, and it has twice the features for half the price!
If you buy this, upgrade to the rockbox firmware. It is much faster and works a lot smoother. Unlike an ipod, almost every feature is customizeable, and there are plenty of accessories at low prices. Almost all of my songs (about 2,000: 9 gigs worth at average 2hundred something kbps) are recorded off of cd's in variable bit rate, and the archos recognizes all their bit rates perfectly. The sound is awesome and you don't have to scroll through any menus menus to get to the features that you use most. I don't know why people complain about battery life. IT'S A HARD DRIVE! OF COURSE IT IS NOT GOING TO PLAY AS LONG AS A CD PLAYER ON A SINGLE CHARGE! Once I upgraded to the rockbox firmware, it worked for 13.5 hours playing continuously(which is comparable, if not more than the ipod). Just make sure to charge it completely before you use it for the first time. My only gripe about this player is that the fm tuner sometimes is a little more static than a regular cd player and sometimes the player takes about a half a second to access the hard drive. (however this can be changed by adjusting spindown time; you can legnthen it, but it drains battery life.) However, the FM tuner works as well as you would expect it to in a portable device. The hard drive can hold anything. I was in the process of switching to a new computer, and I backed up my entire hard drive onto the archos and it is recognized as a hard drive by any machine, so it is easy to transfer files. Overall, I find the archos to be the best player out there for the money. If I had to do it all over again, given a choice between two of these or one Ipod(the ipod does not have an fm tuner and also has a smaller hard drive for twice the price), I would definitely go archos, wouldn't you?
Rating:
Summary: Trying to Answer Some Questions
Review: Let me first state that my family has two Archos devices the 20 GB Jukebox and the FM Radio/Recorder. These devices work wonderfully well if you understand computers and use the device exactly as told. I will try to describe some of this here. Unfortunately the manual that comes with the machines is not worth the paper it is printed on. First before you ever download music from your computer, charge the batteries on the device for at least six hours. The hard drive is easily corrupted as the battery power runs down during tranfers. Additionally, you should keep the recorder charging while you are transferring music as this will help prevent corruption. NEVER remove the device from your computer without going through the safely remove process for removing peripheral devices from your computer for Windows XP or 2000. This will corrupt the hard drive. Finally a few tips. You can listen to music while you charge the device if you push the start button and hold for five seconds. To put music in a playlist go to the song you wish to safe and hold the play button for three seconds until the cross appears next to the song. Then go to the menu to save this in the playlist. If you wish to move from the radio to the Jukebox, you must turn off the radio by pushing stop on the device. You can change the volume while listening to a song by pushing the up and down buttons on the recorder while the song is playing. Hope some of this helps. If you use this correctly, it is much more cost efficient and as good functionally (not asthetically) as the iPOD.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent piece of hardware.
Review: The thing I love most about the Archos Jukebox FM Recorder that is that immediately when you plug it in, it automatically installs, and appears as another letter hard drive in My Computer. This is especially useful when I rip CDs, because I can just take the songs and encode the mp3s directly onto the Archos without having to take the extra step of transferring them. No complaints. If you buy this, you are making an excellent choice.
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