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Archos Jukebox 10 GB MP3 Player/Recorder/Hard Drive 500297

Archos Jukebox 10 GB MP3 Player/Recorder/Hard Drive 500297

List Price: $219.99
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Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Great and Not So Great
Review: As an mp3 player, it is great, as long as you do not run with it or speed walk. When I used it while speed walking, there were hard drive errors after 30 minutes and 36 minutes the two times I used it. When I used it while running, there was a hard drive error after two minutes. At that point, I returned it.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Continuation of my review: Playlist
Review: For people having trouble with the playlists: I did mine like this and it works perfectly
1)Get music. Ripped CDs in Music Match get put in My Music, in My Documents

2)Put your music on the Jukebox. I did mine like this:
Root(main screen)
Artist
Album (or song if you only have 1 or 2 songs)
Music Tracks(contains all tracks) and Playlist
This way if you want only 1 song, you can get it from Music Tracks, but if you want the album in order, you can use the playlist. It removes visible clutter.

3)Then go to the Playlist feature on Music Match. Select open, and go to My Computer, to the Jukebox Drive(D:) Select the songs you want to playlist-ify and click open. Put them in order and save it.

4)Then explore the Jukebox Drive from My Computer(so you can see all of what's in it) Do the same thing with your hard drive(C: or whatever), and have them both open. In C:, go to Program Files, then to Music Match, Playlist, Default, and you will see your playlist(s). Drag and drop these where you want on the Jukebox and you're all set to go.

****)However, if you change the names of the files or their folders after you make a playlist, wou will have to do it over again. It's not as hard as it sounds. Hope it helps!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Very good product
Review: This machine takes a little understanding of MP3 file conversion, but a wonderful product. I put all my audio books on, total of 62, and still have a lot of room for music, and even computer data. Works as a removable hard drive for photos and data. Good product.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Great All Around
Review: I cant thing of one bad thing to say about this product, i bought mine about a month ago, it works great. The only one thing that could be improved is the USB it takes a little while longer, they would have been better off using firewire

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: call the help line
Review: the installation guide book is a nightmare for the novice computer person. i struggled, enlisted the aid of two computer literate folks who also struggled, and was about to give up whjen i called the help line. they helped me get my jukebox up and running in less than five minutes.

so, install you cd, convert your mp3 files, plug in the usb and call for help. it will save you countless hours.

once running, it does what it promises....but

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Programmer Mediocrity
Review: Think about it: 10 Gigs of wonderful music. When you turn the thing off, it forgets where you were! Next: navigate to the playlists (which you have to create using MusicMatch and then hand-move it to the Player), try and remember which one you were listening to, and then find the song you left-off at. How WONDERFUL!

You get the MusicMatch player, and it comes with an Archos plugin. Which doesn't work!!! Contacted Archos Technically-challanged Support. Their response: "Just hand-copy the files to the drive, it'll work just fine!" Yeah, normal Programmer mediocrity of today. "So what if it don't work... you own it. Wait til ya see our NEXT player!"

If you buy it, plan on doing a lot of your own work by hand. If it doesn't work right, plan on finding your own work-around. Hey, other than that... it's an average product, really!

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Almost there !!!
Review: Out-of-the box experience
--------------------------
Very satisfactory...has everything to get u started in a jiffy...After charging the unit for the first time for about an hour, connected it to my laptop and within moments was listening to the first few tunes..NOT a single glitch in the first attempt :)

Portability
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Wow!! 10GB (approx 10,000 mins of data encoded at 128 kbps)... in one helluva compact body...initially felt a touch heavy but should get used to it easily

File Management/Transfer
-------------------------
When connected to ur desktop/laptop thru the USB interface, the device will appear as an additional drive..u can simply drag and drop ur files to the device..and at USB transfer rates upto 1Mbps, be assured that moving files around is really fast..

Sound
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this is easily the BEST attribute of this jukebox... Archos folks deserve a grammy for this one..(but don't expect great sound with the included headphones)

Batteries

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As promised, the 4-AA delivered enough juice for approx 9-9.5 hrs..darn good..A complete re-charge takes 4.5 hrs

Unit Design / Ergonomics
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"Button" system needs to be re-designed
Battery cover - a touch difficult to remove, but again, just a matter of getting used to it..
LCD display - 8 line display (definitely satisfactory)

Other Features
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Voice recording
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fairly good although a touch extra sensitive, tends to pick up the minor whining noise of the hard drive; voice-activated recording feature could be a nice-to-have here...

Portable Hard drive
--------------------
is useful except that you will need to install the usb driver software on any machine that you need to connect your jukebox to..

Miscellaneous
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HeadPhones - thy belong to the nearest trashbin. Use your Sony headphones pls

Instruction Manual - the least said, the better. Illustrations are totally messed up...surely, a 10 yr old can create a better manual..

MusicMatch software - did not install and don't plan to...

Memory buffer - expect this to be increased in future (currently 2Mb); this will improve the voice recording feature since the disk will spin less frequently, thereby reducing the noise content in the recorded messages...

Competition - the only competitor worth mentioning is the iPod, but a much lower price tag and some neat features like voice recording gives the archos jukebox an edge over the iPod (but i think its only a matter of time before Apple provides similar features)

Firmware - upgradeable from the archos site (definitely a nice thing)

THE Verdict
------------
If you want a jukebox now, get this one...but if you can wait, say, until the holiday season, i think the iPod will be the one to go for, since i expect a significant price drop then and the addition of comparable value features

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Perfect for desktop MP3 and backup
Review: I didn't want my music to be on my company pc and I wanted a reliable backup device. Tried NOMAD jukebox, didn't work, won't act like a drive. Tried IOMEGA Predator cdrw - what a piece of junk!!!!!. This is perfect... 10 gigs soaks up all my cds with no problem and have plenty of room for my backup system to write multiple revisions of documents. Easy install, Windows recognized it as an external disk drive right after I plugged it into USB. Probably not great for jogging or rough handling but perfect for me.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Great product.
Review: I love mine and haven't got sick of it yet. The batteries last a long time and having it double as a charger is great. The only thing I am waiting for is the travel kit.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: SUPER RAD!
Review: I think this device is great and this is why.
GOOD THINGS:
1. You don't have to be a computer genius to work the jukebox. I took it out of the box and was listening to music on it in less than a half hour.
2. It comes with alot of useful equipment.
3. If anybody is in a band or into recording live concerts the jukebox 10 is a great thing to have. You can hook a better mic up to the jukebox and record an entire concert in mp3 format. Than just put the recorded music back on your computer, split up the songs, and you have a live concert CD of your band! It's great!
4. Can rip records easily without special software.
5. Easy to navigate and organize.
6. I can store my memory eating movies on it too, along with any other kind of file.

BAD THINGS:
1. I dislike MusicMatch, but its not that bad.
2. It takes a little more time than a CD player to load songs.
3. No hold or safety button to prevent accidental button pushings.
That's about it! I think the jukebox 10 is really great and you get what you pay for.


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