G Mini 120 20 GB MP3 Player & Recorder

by Archos

Product Details

Product Manual [2.98mb PDF]

• Item Weight: 8.6 ounces
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds
• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B0000E6FY7
• Item model number: 500449
• Average Customer Review: 3.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (65 customer reviews)
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes

Product Description

From the Manufacturer

ARCHOS announces Gmini, the first MP3 player & recorder, photo wallet and hard disk... an affordable, portable solution for photos, music and personal data. It features an entirely redesigned Graphic User Interface (GUI), which clearly displays icons for easier navigation and usability, and improved music file organization and synchronization on the device through the ARCLibrary. It has never been easier to quickly access the function you want by clicking on the specific icon.

Check out these features:

More details:

• Double Browser
  The Double Browser is an easy-to-use music file management system. Enjoy the ARCHOS Double Browser to easily organize your music files. This unique music management functionality allows you to delete, rename, copy, move files and even create folders directly on the Gmini without using a computer.
• MusicMatch
  Using the included MUSICMATCH Jukebox Plus Software, you can convert your entire CD collection into MP3 format and transfer it to your Gmini through an ultra-fast USB 2 interface. Songs are automatically tagged and arranged according to album, artist, title, etc.
• ARCLibrary
  After synchronizing with MusicMatch, you can easily organize your music files on the Gmini by album, artist or title without using a computer. However, you still have the possibility to organize content on the Gmini through the Disk Brower, such as with Windows Explorer.
• Audio & Voice Recorder
  This upgrade adds full recording functionality to the Gmini. Record up to 500 albums from an audio source - that's over 300 hours of music! The upgrade also includes voice recording capabilities.
• Photo Wallet
  Storage capacity in today’s digital cameras is becoming more and more limited. The Gmini is a unique solution because it combines not only an MP3 player, but also a photo wallet that allows you to store up to 200,000 photos (or any data files from a Compact Flash). No need to have multiple memory cards for your camera. Using the Compact Flash IO port on the top, you can quickly and easily transfer your memory card into the Gmini. Thanks to the unique Double Browser, you can organize and store images into any desired folder. And make instant transfers to and from your PC, with no special software required.

Product Description

The ARCHOS Gmini 120 is a small, handheld MP3, WMA and WAV 20GB HD player / recorder. It is the industry’s first MP3 player offering a modular solution that allows you to upgrade its functionalities by downloading plug-ins directly from the ARCHOS web-site. This means you can create your own personalized Gmini 120 with exactly the options you want. Options include: Audio & Voice Recorder, Photo Wallet, MadWaves Interactive Music Composer, and FM Remote Control. Gmini 120 boasts an entirely redesigned GUI (Graphic User Interface) with icons and a unique ARCLibrary system to organize and synchronize music files with your computer. You can either browse according to genre, album, artist, and composer… or you can browse by folder. And you can delete, rename, copy and move files and even create folders directly in the Gmini without using a computer. The MusicMatch Plus version software is included to convert your entire CD collection into MP3 format using the ultra-fast USB 2 interface and the massive 20 GB hard drive. Store up to 300 hours of MP3 music - that’s 500 CDs in the palm of your hand! You can also listen to your MP3 tracks by connecting the Gmini directly to your stereo.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

41 of 43 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Swiss Army Knife of Audio, January 31, 2004

By 

George (United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Archos Gmini 220 20 GB MP3 Jukebox / Recorder / Photo Wallet-Viewer with Compact Flash Reader (Electronics)

I won't buy an iPod. Why? Because they won't support WMA. Because the interface means you don't move the music files directly, you have to use the software. I just want to move music over and play it. The idea of encryption is silly. There is free music everywhere. It comes down off satellites. Any idiot can record it. The industry needs another model.

Thanks to USB2, getting music on this device is easy. I used to move music with USB 1.1, and filling anything took hours. This thing takes minutes. You just treat it like File Explorer. If you organize music by album, move albums, or the whole collection. From here, the player will break down artists, songs, and albums. Of course, 20 gigs is a lot of music, so doing this is cumbersome. The interface has 11 lines of display. You see a lot of information. It still seems a little cumbersome, so I tried to get a mininum number of folder in the parent directory. None of this matters as long as you know what you want to do.

This unit is small, high capacity, and efficient. You can move files from a digital camera to this unit. It's easy, but a little slow. If you don't use CF cards, you have to buy an adapter on the 'bay or from Archos. This is great because these dumb memory cards are expensive, and every year they make the old ones obsolete. Buy one with enough capacity, and carry something like this.

This unit has a recorder. I expected nothing from this feature, but it actually works very well. I set it up to record MP3 at 192 kbps, the highest. I then plugged the funky two pronged adapter into the unit, and the miniplug output from my XM into that adapter. The music sounded very good. I can't say if it is as good as a PC based recorder, but there was nothing obviously wrong. So you could lug this along and make recordings of cassettes or LP, or record live broadcasts, etc. It's very painless. This may be the strongest feature, but I haven't played with it enough.

So, play music, record music, manipulate files, transfer pictures on a long trip. This is not as elegant as iPod, but this is utility taken to a high order of perfection. I hope it holds up. I have one of the original Archos Jukes, and it still works.

Apparently they give you the full version of MusicMatch with this unit. I've had the limited version with a computer I bought. The two seem to work well together. The MM goes through and sorts the music and updates a file on the player.

Because of the large screen, it is very easy to make playlists on the Gmini. You bring up an album on one side, and the playlist is on the other. I'm not sure how you do more serious navigation. The thing even has a screen keyboard to title recordings and playlists. It's slow but heck, it really works.

I'm stopping at 4 stars because the unit has hung up. You have to reset it, by holding down the power switch. It's not much worse than my Pocket PC, but I'm not sure what it means.

19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I'd recommend the Gmini 220, May 15, 2004

By 

R. Long "Caveat Emptor" (New York) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Archos Gmini 220 20 GB MP3 Jukebox / Recorder / Photo Wallet-Viewer with Compact Flash Reader (Electronics)

I wasn't even in the market for an MP3 player - I thought MP3 players were a gimmick marketed to "kids" - but I've become a fan after using the Archos Gmini 220 for a full month.

I'm going on vacation halfway around the world and wanted a way to store digital photos without lugging a laptop. Despite the negative reviews on this site, I decided to try the Gmini 220 because it was the only reasobnably priced, small device with 20 GB of storage and a built in CF card reader.

I've tested photo storage using the CF reader and it works great, and I've also come to love the MP3 player. The sound is great (I bought a $15 pair of headphones to replace the earbuds that came with the player). After loading over 200 CD's using the enhanced MP3 format from the MusicMatch software, I still have 15 GB free to store my photos. Now I have entertainment for that long plane ride as well as the photo storage I wanted!

The Gmini is small (easily fits in a shirt pocket) and well designed. The interface is intuitive, and gives you several ways to access music or data on the drive, including a straightforward browser.

After many hours of use, I've only had one problem: When I first got the player, I couldn't get the ArcLibrary to update after loading new music. You can use the browser instead of the ArcLibary, but I wanted everything to work as designed, so I called Archos technical support. They answered promptly, were courteous, and walked me through solving the problem in a few minutes (I had a corrupt ArcLibrary file - they had me delete the file and update the player, and the Gmini automatically recreated a working ArcLibrary file). This problem has not recurred and everything else has worked well.

I wonder if the people who are flaming the player here have read the manual - e.g. - the person whose Gmini froze. The manual's troubleshooting section identifies this as a possible outcome of subjecting the player to electrostatic shock and says to hold the power button down for 15 sections to shut off and reboot the system if this happens. The person complaining here talked about pushing all the buttons and now waiting for the battery to die - he doesn't mention tryintg the solution easily found in the manual (hmm - operator error?)!

Anyway, I'm very pleased with the Gmini 220 - very small size; huge storage capacity; very good sound quality; felxible, intuitive interface; versatile (self powered external hard drive, photo storage direct from CF card); good technical support.

48 of 57 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Another one bites the dust, October 30, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: G Mini 120 20 GB MP3 Player & Recorder (Electronics)

... This new Archos Gmini 120 was my favorite player until recently. Here are my impressions.

Good (and make sure to read the Bad also):

0. Plays both WMA and MP3 files. I have a lot of WMAs and the iPod and older Archos were no good for me.

1. External hard drive for PC and Mac fast USB 2.0, no extra drivers needed! Plug and play, drag and drop whatever you want, it's that simple! Beats the Zen and others in this category. Unlike regular external drives, this one is self-powered because it has a battery - you just need to bring the USB cable to a friend's PC and you're in business.

2. You can browse and play music based on directory structure. Thank you Archos for not thinking users are morons and can't organise their music! This is the only hardware player that has this feature, much like Winamp on the PC. I hate the players that parse your MP3 tags and organize songs by artist etc - because most of the time the tags are missing or wrong, who knows who ripped that MP3... Of course, the Archos can *also* parse the tags and organise your music according to genre, artist, etc, like any other player :)

3. Rich and powerful UI. It is not quite as simple as that of most other players. However, you get clock, equalizer, volume, time remaining, track data, and what not on the same screen. The display itself if big and easy to read.

4. Sound quality is very good, perhaps better than the other players I tried. The default headphones are not bad - they have a volume control, which is nice. Use the equalizer to fine tune the sound. I love the way it pumps out my techno, and it passes the U2 test with flying colors :)

5. Built-in Compact Flash card reader and microphone. You need to load (buy?) extra software to use them. Nice add-ons that other players don't have. I can imagine backing up my camera after it fills up while on vacation, or recording a meeting at work.

6. Looks good :) Price + features + usability is very competitive - beats everything IMHO.

Bad:

0. It just froze on me 1 hr ago and there is nothing I can do. No combination of buttons, USB on/off, power, nothing!!! The screen is completely frozen at the instant when it was playing an MP3. Hopefully the battery will drain itself so I can reboot and salvage my files?

1. Even before the freezing problem, I noticed that the unit sometimes stops playing and displays a dialog File bla is not supported or cannot be played or something like that. I do not recall having such files. Unfortunately, the screen is too small to see the whole name of the file and its extension. I thought of this as a minor annoyance until the unit froze completely.

Bottom line: I've used all major hard disk MP3 players for extended periods, with the exception of the overpriced iPod. Not a single one is ready for prime time - in fact all were disapointments in usability and stability. This will be my last MP3 jukebox.<P...

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