ARCHOS Jukebox Multimedia 20

[bufferzone]

Was just curious if anyone has any thoughts on this appliance? Fresh Gear gave it a good review ( 3 of 5 stars) and it was a CES 2003 Best of Portable Video & Best of the Show.

Specifications
--------------
Capacity: 20GB Hard Disk
Interface: USB 2.0. Optional interface : FireWire (PC & Mac)
Video playback: MPEG-4 SP with MP3 stereo sound, near-DVD quality. Resolution CIF-352X288 @ 30f/s. AVI file format, reads XviD and DivX™ 4.0 & 5.0
Music playback: Stereo MP3 decoding @ 30-320 Kbits/s. CBR & VBR
Music recording: Stereo MP3 encoding @ 30-160 Kbits/s. VBR
Photo viewer: JPEG or BMP of any size
Display: TV output or built-in color LCD (237x234)
AV Connections: Stereo analog & digital Line In. Composite Video/ Earphone/ Line Out jack. Built-in microphone.
Playback autonomy: Up to 7 hours (MP3)
Scalability: Downloadable firmware updates from www.archos.com.
Power Source: Internal: Rechargeable Li-Ion Batteries. External: AC charger / adapter.
Dimensions & Weight: 110 x 79 x 29 mm (4.3" x 3.1" x 1.1"). 290g (10.23 oz)
System Requirements: PC: Pentium II 266 MHz. Windows 98SE, ME, 2000, XP, 64 MB RAM.
Mac: 9.x or X iMac, G3 or higher.

Package Includes: Jukebox Multimedia 20, USB cable, AC adapter, Li-Ion batteries (already installed), stereo headphones, AV cinch cable (SCART adapter for Europe), carrying pouch. CD with MusicMatch™, drivers and 5-language manual.

[bufferzone]

i see a lot of people of viewed this but no replies yet. does that mean nobody has heard of it?

[idbirch2]

Heard of it but prefer the looks of the new Creative Zen 20GB plus Creative have been around a bit longer than Archos.

http://www.nomadworld.com/products/jukebox_zen/

[bufferzone]

well...i mentioned this appliance because of its ability to play Xvid and DivX videos.

[idbirch2]

:eek: whoa. Yeah sorry, must have overlooked that. Damn - portable DivX player - sweet. The Archos is £60 more at e-buyer but I think video playback makes that a justified price gap.

[bufferzone]

i decided to check it out. got it at circuit city for $375 (with tax). overall, i would give it a 3 out of 5. the only marks i had against it were for the lcd size and for the tv out. the lcd was only 237 x 234, but was viewable, and the tv out wasn't quite vhs quality.

[idbirch2]

I think near VHS quality aint too bad for saying you can store 20GB of video data on it and the device being so portable.

Hows the MP3 storage - the way the player organises them I mean - this seems to be the main thing people moan about with HDD based MP3 players. Does it use folders - what are their limitations? ID3 tags?

Hope you enjoy your new purchase!

[bufferzone]

it uses folders. you can created or delete them. you can create playlists.

[Valky]

But what about raw-data? can I take it with me and copy some image-files to it temporally? If so, it's not very expensive as a portable HD using USB :)

[bufferzone]

as far as i know...it will work like a hard drive. you can copy any file to it.

[bravehib]

hi ,
ive got the junior version ,the mm player 10 and recently bought there dvd ram r-w and ill never look back on onther products out of 10 i give them 15... check out there stuff www.archos.com

[rmatei]

Any of these play oggs? Wake me up when they do. My whole collection is in vorbis.