Rating: 
Summary: BUYERS BEWARE
Review: Do not buy this, it was a waste of money and time, it sounds like a good deal with how much memory it can store, but it is one of the worst purchases i have made, i payed 200 for it and it has yet to work right, the first thing that happened was that the usb would not sink up with the computer, as soon as it started to do that the screen went (meaning that it was a blank screen and you couldn't tell what you were doing), it would still play, then it started to no sink up with the usb, so all the songs that i had on it are lost and all the software on it. now the thing won't even play. this was one of the worst purchases i have ever made, i will neaver buy another product from archos!
Rating:
Summary: Be wary of the archos
Review: I would like to say that be wary before you buy this product, this is a harddisk, so things start spinning. instead of flash which is less volatile (IPOD) so, the thing is, there are lots of problems with these hard disk, you cant go totting it around just in case you scratch the internal spinning harddisk, and also, even w/o doing that, I still have lots of problems with it! music freezes up, there are lots of hard disk errors, you can't scan or back up stuff more than 4 gbs in size, and now, its completely dead, why? because when I plugged it out from my computer, it suddenly registered a (final) hdd error, and this is suppose to be plug and play!! I have had it with this junk, and I am getting a separate hard disk and a separate mp3/cd player, im sorry but IPOD is too expensive too, even though it is better. Think and review before buying archos, thats my advice, even better, try it out for a while. This is one of the products you'd wish you did, trust me.
Rating: 
Summary: Sweet! (With Upgrades)
Review: I travel a lot for business, so I love to take music with me. The best features of this device are: (1) huge battery life and (2) simple file system interface.I have upgraded my jukebox with a new 60GB hard drive which went in without issues, 2100Mah batteries, and the "Rockbox" downloadable third party firmware. With these enhancements, the device is unbeatable. Downsides: The base firmware isn't that great, the most annoying thing is the lack of a "resume" feature that will pick up a song where you left off when you powered down. The optional "remote control" unit just plain doesn't work The headphones are weak, throw them out No volume knob -- adjusting the volume is a two-button operation Inadequate "line out". The line out jack is too quiet for most stereo equipment, you have to use the headphone jack and crank it up. No "whole jukebox" random play -- random only works within a folder. That being said, the fact that the device can be hacked and upgraded is a huge plus (like TIVO). The new hard drive was cheap and went in without a hitch, and the Rockbox software adds lots of great features. Sound quality is very good, and if the hard drive fails you can replace it yourself. Try doing that with your iPod!
Rating:
Summary: A bad purchase......
Review: I bought the Archos Jukebox 20 about a year ago and have had many problems with it since.....At first I learned to live with the many and constant "HDD Error" messages, which also stop the player mid-song. Eventually I bought new batteries and installed them, which by the way will void your warranty, and this solved the problems. Within 6 months of getting new batteries, the player stopped working altogether!! All I could get from the online technical support, which was sub-par, was to scandisk the player which had no result.
I lost a LOT of music because of the player...was it backed up you say? The Archos Jukebox WAS supposed to be my backup.....Thanks Archos for this 200 dollar piece of junk, I'm buying an iPod.
Rating:
Summary: Wait for the Technology To Improve
Review: I'm not very computer savy but I do love my music. This was my first experience with MP3 players. I bought this to use while jogging and for hooking up to my indoor/outdoor audio system at home. I've had nothing but problems with this thing since I bought it. I believe it's completely broken now and I don't even know why! I certainly wouldn't buy another Archos product and am very skeptical about MP3 players in general. The USB port and having the computer recognizing as an external hard drive w/drag and drop capabilities is great. So is the external jack that allows you to connect to other audio sources. But the batteries are quite expensive, drain quite quickly and don't have a long shelf life. This unit froze every time you looked at it. For now, until I see an MP3 player with a five star rating (which I haven't seen yet), I'll stick with MusicMatch on my computer, which is the most reliable MP3 player I'm aware of and my trustworthy Marantz/Bose 901 stereo system. Bring back the record album!!!
Rating: 
Summary: Great player, once you add replacement firmware
Review: I got this player knowing about all the problems; The bad audio playback, confusing menus, etc, etc... I also knew about *RockBox* : The (free) open source Firmware Upgrade for this, and other Archos players. http://rockbox.haxx.se/ Rockbox does better quality decompression of your MP3s, meaning no more hiss (which is not a preamp problem, it is the firmware), crackle and such, it also boosts the max volume output. According to the documentation it also increases battery life. Not to mention the excellent menus, with way more options than the original OS. Slick options such as fading out when you pause and then fading back in when you un-pause are welcome additions. Once you get RockBox installed you own a hardrive MP3 player comperable to the Ipod, for (less than) half the price! The rechargable batteries ARE user replaceable, and are available cheap. Not the case of the iPod, you have to send that to apple to replace the batteries. A few complaints though... There is no easy way to control the volume on the fly. You have to adjust the volume level in a sub menu (with the original firmware and RockBox). Fortunatly there is a volume knob on the cord of the included headphones (which are quite nice).
It is a bit larger than some of the other newer MP3 players.
Finally the operation still is not quite as good as an iPod, it only has 5 buttons, no jog wheel, etc. All in all, you cant beat the price. If you are willing to live with a slightly clunky interface, the size and the lack of a volume knob, this player is for you.
Rating:
Summary: Broke, they wouldn't fix it
Review: Shortly after I finally got it to work, it broke, with error messages. Archos didn't return emails, and I finally reached someone who said they wouldn't fix it under warranty. It was my fault, they said. I'd recommend you don't buy anything from Archos. What a waste of a lot of money!!!!!
Rating: 
Summary: should have included FM radio and it's recording
Review: looks good !!!
should have included FM radio and it's recording
Rating:
Summary: I want my money back.
Review: First off, I am a technically competent person, and the problems I've been having with this Jukebox is not due to my not reading instructions. That said, I cannot believe Archos gets away with ripping people off like this. I paid [item price] for something that freezes repeatedly, crashes, and now has stopped working after only 2 weeks. (It's been in a protective case, hasn't left the room, very gingerly handled.) I ran Scandisk, took everything off, reformatted, reinstalled, tried Rockbox, nothing will get this thing to work. The first few days when this device somewhat worked (menu would freeze, and i'd have to turn off and back on again), the menu navigation was archaic and problematic. Given all that's possible technologically in this world, I was floored that Archos would charge me that much money for something so backward and un-user friendly. If they had marketed this as simply a portable hard drive, then I'd give it high marks, because it's small, very lightweight, and holds a lot, and it connects very easily to my PC. But as an mp3 player, it is a rip-off. Perhaps I simply got a bad one, which may be a possibility, and all the other good reviewers didn't get malfunctioning ones like I did. I thought I'd give it an extended chance, and missed the 30 day Amazon return period, so now I'm trying to get a refund/exchange under the Archos warranty, but am having no luck so far getting hold of anybody, or getting any responses. Please be careful before you spent this much money.
Rating:
Summary: Best for the money, but not perfect
Review: This system has everything I wanted but two key features: a) Reliability/Stability
b) Ability to continue listening where you last were after turning it back on. Let me explain myself. First off, if you drop this system your in some trouble. Just like you wouldn't toss your laptop through a plate glass window through a second story building, you don't wanna drop the Jukebox. Its got a hard disk, a real physical hard disk. If its in your backpack, purse, or whatever, and you hit something or drop it, you may be having to replace this guy. Other then that the system is mint. Secondly, I like to hook it up in my car, and take it on my commute to work. Unfortunatly if I stop it, and power it off (to get gas, hit a few stores, etc.) then come back and turn it on the sucker starts back at the first Album on the disk (starting with 'A' typically). I hate that. It should start where it left off, and I've not seen any firmware upgrades to fix that just yet. The system is big, yes, but not THAT big. It won't fit in your pocket comfortably, but it has a lot of disk storage! I also use it as my "floppy disk" to transfer files home from work when I work offline. That's kinda neat. Do not leave it in the car in the summer if it gets hot and then attempt to use it. You'll get hard disk read errors every now and again. It doesn't seem to cause harm to the system, but causes songs to pause for overly long periods of time. My biggest suggestion to make this the "almost-perfect" mp3 player is to buy it, and get a service agreement with it. It will cost a little extra, but its worth it. My wife's has broken four times, and each time we got a new one for free (the first one we got sayed "HDD ERROR" when we first turned it on!). Mine is doing fine, and running without issue. For the selection that's out there, this isn't bad for the $$$.
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