Rating: 
Summary: Jukebox + Rockbox = great results!
Review: I got this mp3 player a couple days ago, and i've been using it for long hours since then. I used the regular firmware for a while, and then upgraded to RockBox, and i'm in love.
Music is easy to find, provide it you organize it correctly. I have my mp3 ripper set to do:
Artist/Album/01 - Track Nameso you find the artist you want, then pick the album, and off you go. The thing is providing hours of entertainment.
I'm keeping my eye on it, cuz of the negative reviews i've seen here, and rest assured, if this thing screws up, you'll get a SCALDING review on here. but until then, this thing is a gem!
Rating: 
Summary: AVOID AT ALL COSTS!!!
Review: Absolutely do NOT buy one of these things!!! I had mine for about 18 months and had no problems at all. Yesterday, I turned the unit on as usual and got an error message. I phoned Archos technical support (if you can call it that) and they told me that I had a defective hard drive on the unit itself. 20GB's of music lost just like that. Archos will attempt to repair the thing for $65 and shipping costs, but won't take responsibility for any data on the unit. Apparently, this 'just happens' sometimes...
Rating:
Summary: Archos Jukebox 20 GB Digital Audio
Review: Watch out! Big problems with new units. Mine was only three weeks old when it cooked it's batteries. I have owned two of the units. The first one failed and I returned it. The store, Best Buy said it was having problems with the new units. I should have demanded my money back at that time. The new one worked great for three weeks until it somehow cooked the batteries. I now have been waiting for over two weeks for their "support" to call me back. I have sent several e mails and have been ignored. They have a support line but it is NEVER answered. After two hours I just gave up. Anyway do not buy the new unit. It has a problem with the batteries and the offer NO SUPPORT. Maybe because it's a FRENCH Company they have shipped the defective units to the USA. I don't know or care at this point. So my advice to you is DO NOT buy this product!!!!
Rating:
Summary: Durable, inexpensive, fast and standard.
Review: The Archos is durable, a person would have to try and break this player to get it to fail. It's about 2/3 the price of the other popular MP3 player. With Rockbox, it boots up in 3 seconds. The batteries are standard and easy to replace. The hard-drive is standard and replaceable/upgradeable. The standard 2.0 USB port allows you to access Archos from your PC/Laptop as if it's just another hard drive. If you are going to buy this product, make sure you do some research on Rockbox. The standard firmware isn't all that great.
Rating:
Summary: Great idea, poorly executed
Review: For about 5 months, I thought this was a great product. I didn't have any problems with the user interface, as some have. However, 2 months after the end of the very short 90-day warantee, the LCD display failed. Forget trying to get out-of-warantee help from Archos. They never even answered my mail. Digging into the box (I don't have anything to lose at this point) I found that the unit was not made to be repairable. If you are lucky and get one that holds up, you have a real winner. If you are a victim of poor quality control and a lousy warantee, like me, you are the owner of an expensive piece of junk. At least it won't take up much space in the landfill.
Rating: 
Summary: Great Player, but recording is mediocre at best
Review: Has a ton of features and doubles as a portable hard drive. Its also really easy to use. I bought the recorder to record live music for band practice. I soon found that the internal mic is almost unusable. I then purchased an external mic hoping that would solve the problem, but I could still pick up the hard drive spinning. Even recording directly from another source like a CD player didn't help. The recordings were way too distorted and the HD artifacts were the only thing that was recorded clearly. Its a great idea, but not usable for anything other than voice or really rough recordings for personal use.
Rating:
Summary: Works great for me
Review: Works great for me. No real problems. It did hang once in a while if I chose another song while one was playing. So, I downloaded and installed the open source interface called RockBox. It is faster and I've had no crashes since installing it. It is incredibly easy to install and you can switch back and forth if you want to use the mfg.'s interface. I've also been getting great battery life. Probaby up to 12 hours if I am just listening and not using it as a hard drive. No problems with skips or noise Also, it works great under Linux, at least with RedHat, contrary to what another reviewer said. You do have to be careful to connect it *before* you boot up a RedHat 8 machine or it may freeze the machine. No problems at all under RedHat 9. I just wish you could somehow directly download from a compact flash card like with the AJ Multimedia model. Then I could use it to offload digital camera images, too.
Rating:
Summary: Word to the wise
Review: I've met all kinds of MP3 users over the 1 ½ years I've owned my Archos 20 GB/Recorder, from advanced users to people who use disinfectant when they think their computer has a virus. Both, however, may have made a good, well informed purchase; or blown $$$$ on an expensive paperweight.
How do you know if this device, or any Jukebox for that matter, is good for you? First of all, do you have a computer for your exclusive use? If the answer is no, forget it, you'll never get enough transferring opportunities to make the player worthwhile. Second of all, throw this around, 1250-5000 songs or 82-250 CDs; do you have this amount of music? Do you have it on your computer, can you ever see having this much music. Again if the answer is no, don't let your ego force a bad decision, a cheaper, lighter and more appropriate player is available do yourself a favor and find it.
With that said, welcome to my world stranger, my Archos is my friend, and unlike many devices these days, particularly highly-priced tech toys, she's stood up very well to the test of time nearly 2 years and running of constant use. She carries all the music I listen to, 2500 songs at the moment, and will carry more as I come across it, she can record straight from any kind of output to MP3 with no extra equipment, and if upgraded she can listen to, and record FM radio. As many people have said the manual is pretty confusing, but I never needed it, playlists can be made easily with programs like RealOne and then saved to the player, and the recorder requires some knowledge of sound technology.
In the highest and most elite caliber of music devices; the Archos has the dubious distinction of being the cheapest overall, but I've known iPod users and can honestly say, except for aesthetics, there are no significant differences to justify the 100$+ price divide between a 20G archos and 20G iPod.
Something else you should know, no jukebox is a graceful thing, it is a hard drive in a box with a strapped on interface, regardless of brand. The Archos is big, about the size of a paperback novel take an inch in each dimension, and she's heavy, about as much as 2 paperback novels, not exactly something you can slip into a pocket easily, but you can carry it in a backpack or its included carrying case and from the perspective of security that makes it harder to steal. Finally, if you should lose any of the parts, the Archos is French made with a number of hard-to-find parts, but otherwise take care of her, she'll take care of you.
If you decide this device is right for you, or even if you don't good luck!!
Rating:
Summary: A lot of problems.
Review: If you're thinking about buying this product, forget it. You're better off buying an ipod. Here are the reasons (and there are many) why: 1) The voice recording is dreadful! There's a buzzing sound that makes recording quality awful. What about buying an external mic? Doesn't work. I used various mics but the result was the same. 2) Week battery life. Advertised to be up to 8 hours, you'll get about 2 to 3 if you're lucky. If you turn the player on and off more than 4 times, you're looking at about an hour. 3) Skips. My old Sony Walkman with no skip protection had less skips than the Archos, especially if you have more than 50% of the storage capacity. I repeatedly had to play the music over and over again. 4) When recharging, the Archos makes this annoying buzzing sound that's loud enough to keep you up at night. The LCD light is also on, so you have to charge it in another room. 5) There are many more problems, many yet to be discovered perhaps. Positives: 6) Currently, I think my Archos has a virus and is currently completely worthless. It'll probably make a pretty cool door stop. That's all it's good for now... I can't stand this product! It was a big waste of money! It's a product made by a French Company, which lacks the consistency and proven track record of a Sony, IPod, or any others. I took an ill advised risk to my peril. I just hope my dreaded experience will lead unsuspecting buyers to "greener pastures." BUY AT YOUR OWN RISK!
Rating:
Summary: Amazing
Review: I am 15 years old and got this mp3 player for my birthday and Ilove it. The instruction manuel is junk but if you play with it for a couple of days you will get the hang of it. It is so easy to use and you justdrag and drop and you can create a new file and name playlists and all that good stuff. It has soo much memory and I remember being a little mad at 1st because i wasnt sure how to use it ... .
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