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Archos Jukebox Multimedia 20 GB Handheld Entertainment Center

Archos Jukebox Multimedia 20 GB Handheld Entertainment Center

List Price: $379.99
Your Price: $304.88
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Good Audio Bad Video
Review: This device is a great Audio device But Bad Video.If you are getting this only for the video do not get this.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Nice features but poorly built
Review: Featurewise this is a nce machine and lcd screen although very small but you can view video very well. But it is poorly built and equally bad is Archos customer service.One of the buon my juke box dislodged after a month of use and it is not workig now and I can not access features controled by this button(F2) n.If I have to do this again I won't spend money on this piee of junk.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Good, but could be so much better
Review: Face it, if you ended up at this product you've already seen every variation of the MP3 player/recorder concept. What Archos has here is a nice little machine that does everything you'll want it to reasonably well. It doesn't have the sophistication or elegance of an iPod, but frankly it does a whole lot more for a WHOLE lot less money. The video feature is surprisingly usable, and definitely a good addition.

You should consider the Archos Multimedia if you:
o Need more storage space than flash-based or built-in memory devices provide. If you honestly start archiving your CD collection, you WILL quickly use up 20gigs. Yes you can always archive on your computer and fill up your MP3 player before you leave, but that's a hassle even with good synchronization software.
o Want to watch a movie every now and then. Perfect for a 3 hour flight, or a TV episode on that 30 minute bus or tube ride, or for avoiding pay-per-view movies in hotels. If you want more of a movie experience, or have bad eyes, or don't want to deal with having to convert videos into Archos (smaller) format then just buy a portable DVD player. That gets the job done.
o Don't want/need the big screen and bigger prices of the newer AV series. Nice as they are, I simply wouldn't use it, and I like how portably this one is.
o Want a good storage place for digital pictures. This device can act as a regular hard-drive just by plugging it in to your computer. It also has an optional memory-card reader which makes it GREAT for dumping your camera memory cards when on a long trip (there are seperate $400 devices for this purpose). You can display pictures (and the video actually) on a normal TV using the included RCA cables... very nice!
o Don't mind quirky firmware or spotty tech support. Archos is famous for releasing buggy firmware, and their tech support is kind of a hit or miss thing. The build quality is not excellent, but it is a pretty robust machine. Hopefully the Rockbox folks will have an open-source firmware for this model soon.

Some gotchas:
o The camera module is not that great, but the memory-card readers are excellent!
o The DVR module (to record video using an analog input) I've heard is basically useless. I don't have it, I just convert already digital video files into Archos' format.
o USB2.0 or Firewire connection is done by an extra cable that may or may not be included, and they're expensive purchased seperately.
o Battery life is reasonable, but not great. I get honestly about 2-3 hours playing video (one movie) and 5-6 playing MP3s. If I need more, I bring the AC adapter or car DC adapter (not included).
o Included case doesn't really hold much. It's OK, and does a decent job of protecting the device, but it won't hold the included headphones or any of the cables and the charger. Just another expense to consider.

In conclusion, I really like my AJBMM, but it could be so much better than it is just by fixing a few little things. For the price you really can't go wrong.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Archos puts the bleeding back into the bleeding edge
Review: The Archos JBM 20 has an impressive list of features, but suffers seriously in the quality department. The battery level meter is seriously flawed, and the many firmware updates aimed at fixing it have failed. It jumps around like break dancer on crack. Often, even after fully discharging and charging it, it will show the battery as empty, and will shut itself down repeatedly as you're listening to music. Then, magically, you turn it on and the battery is full. The earphone jack is cheap, and after a few months of use, the inner contact bends inward, and the audio starts cutting out. I now have to hold my thumb over the jack and press down to hear the audio. Either the camera or the the still/video firmware are also of very poor quality. Both still and video are riddled with color artifacts. And the video, contrary to what their website says, is not MPEG, but AVI, and the picture size is limited to somthing like 320 X 240 pixels. Archos advertises this unit as a pocket VCR to be used for playback on a TV, but they don't mention that it can only play back video that is AVI/320X240/Simple compression and at a certain frame rate, so count on most of your video files being useless on this machine. My JBM 20 also has a big skipping problem, jumping back and forth between several tracks. The rechargable batteries cannot be removed or replaced without opening the case, and thus voiding the warrantee. Don't worry about the warrantee though. You have to have the serial number printed on the back to make a warrantee claim, and mine rubbed off after three days of normal use. And even if I had the number, it would'nt do any good, since Archos never responds to any support request by phone or by email. Personally, I would never buy another Archos product. Look for similar multifunction portable devices forthcoming from Panasonic and other brands. An impressive list of features is great, but features that actually work are better.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: The Best Value For The Money
Review: I bought the very first "IPOD" ever made, and it was not made by Apple, but by Archos. Archos was literally years ahead of the competition. Now, it has been outpaced by the competition and so has been branching out into video. I have owned this particular model, the Jukebox Multimedia 20 GB, for about a year. I have had only very minor problems. This is a machine for a person who loves to tinker with electronic devices. It's not for novices. Buy an IPOD instead. Maybe, in a few years, Aplle will produce an IPOD that can store movies too! A revolutionary concept! Watch Apple take the credit too!

No, Archos is not perfect, by any means. First of all, although rgeir devices tend to look rugged, you have to treat this player like a baby. Never ever... ever drop it! I dropped the first "IPOD" ever made, and it never worked again. It is very delicate and sensitive! Also be careful not to expose it to too much sun, heat, or cold.

The video, at least with this generation, is just a novelty. If you wanted to, you could watch 20 movies in a row with this device (if only the batteries would last that long). But, needless to say, you wouldn't want to. The screen is too small, and your eyes would start to hurt from squinting too much. At best, it's good for a quick movie on the plane. In my experience, the battery life will allow 2 1/2 - 3 hour of continuous video viewing. In other words, at least in my experience, battery life has never been a problem with Archos products.

The best thing about this device, though, is playing MP3s on it. The sound is great! You can adjust such things as bass boost, treble, loudness, etc. Also, for only a few more bucks, you can buy a camera attachment to allow you to record video and pictures on it. The quality is okay... better than you might expect.

In conclusion, if you're a movie lover and don't mind squinting too much, buy this product. The quality of the video is superb. Part of the reason you squint so much is that you are able to distinguish so much detail on such a small screen. It really is amazing, but hardly practical. Since this came out, Archos has put out a product with a screen about twice as large. The only problem is it costs twice as much. For the price this is a good buy. For less than the price of the IPOD you get the exact same thing and a little more.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: just a con
Review: this is my second review . video transfering from pc to the jukebox is ridiculous anything over 1gb takes 30-45 min . hell it can be watched in half of that time and also a 3.77gb video that lasts 22mins takes 10mins to open up and im still counting as i write this

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: not worth the price you pay
Review: this product has more cons than pros. 1st. the jpegs. it does not let you view all them i saved a jpeg of the aliens dvd (new one ) and put it in the jukebox . it couldnt view it back and there has been a few . so it has a problem with some jpegs.
2nd . the video playback. you can only view AVI files that have been through the virual dub . forget doing MPEGS to AVI it won`t work .also i tried to put a music video into the jukebox . now there was only 385kb in the hard drive and the video i wanted was a 10 gb now it is a 20gb hard drive yet it came up no free disk space .i still had 9gb to use according to the apple properties so you work it out .
also transfering video to the jukebox 75 min for a 22 min video
there is more but just read the above cons .but when it does play back video/audio . it does it well
i`v had it for 3 days and still workinbg out what i will play or wont
the batter well it jumps up and down and i`v had the mains on and of it for 3 days and the battery just dosent seem to last long .
im still working out this thing

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Learn from my mistake....
Review: Let me start off by saying that if this unit breaks (and it will break--more on that in a moment) then simply walk over over to a garbage can and throw it out. Do not attempt to call customer service or any of that because you will be wasting your time. I'm not saying there customer service is just bad, I honestly am not sure it even exists. They don't answer the phone, return messages, or return emails. Some companies take a long time to respond, archos has lowered the bar even further by not responding. And as I mentioned your product will break, I guarantee it. It might be a day, it might be a week, it might even be a year, but it will happen. From my experience (or lack thereof) with the customer service department, I'm guessing that archos is a bit of a mom and pop corporation. This means that they haven't worked out all of the kinks in their products. What they are good at is making something sound really cool paper and then charging less than the big companies. I guess they don't worry too much about what happens once they have your money.

The only good thing about the multimedia player it is cheaper than ipod, but you are ultimately wasting your money, so it may be better to not be penny wise and pound foolish.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Poor Quality
Review: In less than a year, I've had two that have broken. Enough is enough. Quality is extremely poor.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Decent first try Archos multimedia player
Review: Let me first start off by saying that i am basing this review off of the performance of the unit, and not the fact that it broke recently (after a long 9 months) like many other reviewers are doing. A review is rating the performance, NOT whether u think it stinks because you dropped it from a 5-story building and it won't work. OK, now that i've got that said, the unit is a very good deal pricewise. Since u know all the facts (most likely), i will go over the pros and cons and how i came to my decision (3.5 stars).

CONS:
1. Navigating the menus is VERY slow. The unit freezes up for a couple of seconds every so often.
2. The menus on the whole are terrible, especially the music folder. I find it annoying that you cannot sort by the basic categories: artist, genre, songs by alphabetical order, etc.
3. It is too bulky and badly designed. The unit is simply too big for my liking, and there are too many little parts that will get lost easily
4. If you don't know what you are doing, loading video onto the machine (and having it work) can be trying.
5. Customer service is TERRIBLE. i have yet to get a reply.
6. Battery life too short. The battery life indicator seems to mysteriously jump around while you are listening, and the battery is overall too short (mainly with movies, MAYBE 3 hours)

PROS:
1. The storage space is more than ample
2. The add-ons are excellent and cheap. The camera, allthough low quality, is a definant perk, and the video recorder is couch potatoes dream come true
3. The screen is excellent. I don't know what some people are talking about. Although the screen is a little too small, i can still enjoy a full-length movie without straining my eyes too much
4. IT CAN PLAY MOVIES!!!
5. The headphones are actually good (volume control, behind the head, stylish, and foldable)
6. Buttons easy to figure out
7. fast tranfer rate
8. acts as another hard drive on your computer

Thats about it. I hope this helped.


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