Archos GMINI 200 User Manual

Full User Manual

ARCHOS Gmini™ 200 series

MP3 & WMA Player / Audio Recorder / Photo Wallet / USB 2.0 Hard Disk

Please see our web site for the most recent manual and software updates for your Gmini™200.

Full User Manual Version 1.2

Table of Contents

1 Ports, Buttons and Connections 4

2 First Time Usage 7

2.1 Plugging in the AC Adapter 7

2.2 Turning on the Gmini 7

2.3 Changing the user interface language 7

2.4 Shutting off the Gmini and Battery saving features 8

2.5 Caring for the Gmini 8

3 User Interface Overview 9

3.1 Main Menu 9

3.2 Familiarizing yourself with the interface 9

3.2.1 Main menu 9

3.2.2 Browser 9

3.2.3 Settings screen 10

3.2.4 Contextual Menus 10

3.2.5 Message boxes 11

3.2.6 Using the Virtual Keyboard 11

3.2.7 Locking the Gmini Buttons 11

4 Using the Gmini 200 12

4.1 Playing music 12

4.1.1 Selecting a song 12

4.1.2 Playing a song 12

4.1.3 Using Playlists 14

4.1.4 What is an .m3u file? 15

4.2 Changing the Gmini Settings 16

4.2.1 Changing the Sound Settings 16

4.2.2 Changing the PlayMode Settings 17

4.2.3 Setting the Clock 18

4.2.4 Changing the Power Settings 19

4.2.5 Changing the Recording Settings 20

4.2.6 Changing the System Settings 21

4.3 Using the Browser 22

4.3.1 Inside the MUSIC Folder 22

4.3.2 Navigating the Directory Structure 22

4.3.3 File and Folder Operations in Browser Mode 23

4.4 Recording MP3 Music 25

4.4.1 Microphone Recording 26

4.4.2 Line-In Recording 26

4.5 Using the photo wallet 27

4.5.1 Using the photo browser 27

4.5.2 Copying Files from a CompactFlash™ Card 27

4.5.3 Displaying Photos on the Gmini 27

5 Connecting the Gmini to your Computer 29

5.1 Making the USB Connection 29

5.1.1 Windows® ME/2000/XP and Macintosh® 9.2 or 10.2.4 and better 29

5.1.2 Windows

5.2 Using the Gmini as an external drive 31

5.3 Disconnecting the Gmini from your Computer 31

5.3.1 Windows® 31

Table of Contents

5.3.2 Macintosh

98SE 29

6 Using MusicMatch™ 33

6.1 Installing MusicMatch™ 33

6.2 Creating MP3 files from your Audio CDs 34

6.3 Getting purchased MP3 files to your Gmini 35

6.4 The ARCLibrary and MusicMatch™ Playlists 35

6.4.1 ARCLibrary Updating 35

6.4.2 Creating and Using Playlists with MusicMatch™ 36

7 Using iTunes® 4 with your Gmini 37

8 Updating your Gmini Operating System (OS) software 38

8.1.1 Downloading the .AOS file 38

8.1.2 Read the History Text File 38

8.1.3 Copy to Gmini Root Directory 38

9 Troubleshooting 39

9.1 USB Connection issues 39

9.2 File issues, corrupted data, formatting, and partitioning 41

9.2.1 Windows® 98SE & ME Running Scan-Disk (Error Checking) 42

9.2.2 Windows

XP & 2000 Running Check Disk Utility (ChkDsk) 42

10 Technical Specifications 43

11 Technical Support 44

Table of Contents

Ports, Buttons and Connections

A Power button - Hold down for a few seconds and the Gmini will start up.

B Contextual Menu - When the menu icon appears in top left of screen, a menu is

available.

C Move Left - also decreases recording gain

D Move Up - also, increases playing volume

E Move Right - also increases recording gain

F Play/Pause/Enter - Play current item, pause, play again. Enter value.

G Stop/Esc button - Stop playing current ﬁ le or escape from current screen.

H Move Down - also decreases playing volume

Ports, Buttons and Connections

A Built-in microphone

B Multi-connect Adapter Plug - allows for Line-In and Line-Out connections

C Headphone Multi-connect jack - To connect headphones, FM remote control, or

adapter plug.

D Photo Wallet Port (CompactFlash™ type I & II)

Ports, Buttons and Connections

First Time Usage

Please understand that this device has a CPU, hard drive, and Operating System (OS) and thus it is more like a computer than a CD player, cassette player, or radio. If you are not familiar with using a computer, it would be particularly useful to read through this detailed User Manual.

2.1 Plugging in the AC Adapter

Before using your Gmini 200 for the ﬁ rst time, completely charge the internal batteries.

• Use ONLY the included ARCHOS charger/adapter. The ARCHOS charger/ adapter has a special USB tip which you will plug into the USB port. Charging will start automatically when it is plugged in.

• The batteries are fully charged when the full battery icon appears.

A Mini USB 2.0 port (USB 1.1 compatible)

B USB Power Adapter

C Power – To power the unit and charge the internal batteries with the AC adapter.

Ports, Buttons and Connections

Empty battery: The battery

is uncharged. It must be

charged.

• After the ﬁ rst initial full charge, you may use the Gmini while the AC adapter is plugged in.

Animated battery: The

battery is currently being

charged.

Full battery: The battery is completely charged and

the AC adapter can by

unplugged.

2.2 Turning on the Gmini

• Hold down the POWER button until the screen comes on, then let off.

• If your Gmini is charging, click the PLAY button to turn it on.

• If the Gmini shows an empty battery icon or if the Gmini displays nothing at all, you will have to plug in the Archos adapter/charger to make sure the batteries get charged.

2.3 Changing the user interface language

English is selected as the default language for your Gmini user interface. You can choose another language as explained in chapter 4.2.6.

First Time Usage

2.4 Shutting off the Gmini and Battery saving features

• To shut off the unit, press and hold the POWER button for 3 seconds.

• If left idle, the screen’s blue backlight will shut off after 20 seconds in order to save battery power. After 30 seconds, the screen display will shut off, also to save energy. Finally, the Gmini will shut itself off completely after 3 minutes if left idle and no music is playing. You can change these settings under [Setup  Power].

2.5 Caring for the Gmini

The Gmini is an electronic product that needs to be treated with care.

• Do not subject it to shock. You may however go jogging with it or do sports.

• Do not subject it to heat. Keep it ventilated. Be careful that the surface it is on, is a ﬂ at clear surface. Placing the Gmini on a pillow, blanket, carpet, or wrapped up to protect it will restrict the necessary ventilation that it needs. This increase in operating temperature may cause damage to the device.

• Keep the Gmini away from water and excessively humid areas.

• Keep the Gmini away from high electromagnetic ﬁ elds.

• Keep it plugged into the Archos AC adapter/charger when it is connected to your computer.

User Interface Overview

3.1 Main Menu

Once the Gmini has been turned on, the following screen is displayed. This is the main menu screen from which you can select the main functions.

• Music: browse through your music ﬁ les or use the ARCLibrary music selection system.

• Browser: browse through and manage all the ﬁ les on your Gmini.

• Photo: display photos (JPEG) and view photo information.

• Recorder: record from any music source (Stereo, portable players, etc.) or from the built-in microphone.

• Setup: set the parameters of your Gmini to your personal taste.

3.2 Familiarizing yourself with the interface

3.2.1 Main menu

Each icon corresponds to a mode. Use the LEFT, RIGHT, UP and DOWN buttons to navigate from one icon to another. Press OK to select the icon and start the action. Press Esc to exit.

First Time Usage

3.2.2 Browser

Use the UP and DOWN keys to highlight the item of your choice. If you keep pressing UP or DOWN, the list will scroll for you to see the other items. The vertical black indicator on the right shows your relative position in the entire list.

Press OK to start the action corresponding to the highlighted item.

User Interface Overview

3.2.3 Settings screen

3.2.5 Message boxes

Selectable items: use the LEFT and RIGHT keys to change the parameter value. The new value is immediately taken into account so there is no need to press OK. Click on ESC when done.

Check boxes: each checkbox corresponds to a different parameter value but only one parameter can be selected at a time. Use the UP and DOWN keys to highlight an item and then press OK to validate it. Click on ESC when done.

Actions: in the settings screens you sometimes need to perform some actions. Actions are shown enclosed with [ ]. Press OK to start the action.

From time to time a message box is displayed on the screen. This may be a warning or an error message, or a question to conﬁ rm an action.

Message boxes may have up to 3 buttons (for instance yes, no and cancel). If there is more than one button use the left and right keys to highlight the button you want. In all cases press OK to validate your choice which will then exit the message box.

3.2.6 Using the Virtual Keyboard

It is recommended that you create folders and rename ﬁ les or folders from your computer when it is connected to the Gmini. The computer keyboard is easier to use. Often times, however, you are not near your computer and you would like to enter the text directly with the Gmini. For this, you will use the virtual keyboard. You will be taken to this screen when you rename a ﬁ le or folder or when you name a recording.

Contextual Menu

Current text being typed

Cursor

Back Space*

3.2.4 Contextual Menus

User Interface Overview

When the menu icon is present on the top-left corner of the screen you can press the MENU button to display a popup menu with actions related to the current mode. Pressing MENU again or ESC closes it.

Use the UP and DOWN keys to highlight the action you want to start and then press OK to validate it.

Toggle between uppercase and

lowercase characters*

* these items can also be found in the contextual menu

You will use the LEFT, RIGHT, UP and DOWN buttons to move around the keyboard. Click on OK/PLAY to enter the character that is highlighted. Once satisﬁ ed with your text entry, click on the MENU button and select Enter.

Clear the entire line*

Enter*

Tip: use the ESC key to cancel any changes you made and exit the virtual keyboard.

3.2.7 Locking the Gmini Buttons

You can prevent the Gmini from executing unintended functions by locking the buttons. To lock the buttons, hold down on the MENU key until the “lock” icon appears in the top-left corner of the screen. Now all buttons except the MENU key are disabled. To unlock the buttons hold down again on the Menu key until the “lock” icon disappears.

User Interface Overview

Using the Gmini 200

4.1 Playing music

4.1.1 Selecting a song

There are two ways to access your music. You can either access your songs by browsing through the folders, where you keep your music ﬁ les, or you can choose from Artist, Album, Genre, or Song.

Browsing through the folders

Click the OK/PLAY button on the highlighted “Browse hard drive”. You will be sent directly to the Music folder of your Gmini. This is a ﬁ ltered access to browse the hard disk. Here you can look at all your music ﬁ les and the folders on your Gmini’s hard drive as if you were browsing ﬁ les with a computer. You will only see audio ﬁ les types that are playable on the Gmini (MP3, WMA, WAV). To select a ﬁ le you can use the UP and DOWN keys to move upwards or downwards and OK to enter a highlighted subfolder. See chapter 4.3 for more information about using the Browser.

Using the ARCLibrary System

You can search your music by artist, album, song name, genre. Use the UP/DOWN buttons to scroll to your selection and then click on OK. Once one of these is chosen, you will see an alphabetical list. You can now choose the Album, Artist, or song Title (depending which search type you started) that you desire. If you add music to your Gmini, you will need to use MusicMatch™ to update the ARCLibrary in order for it to take into account the newly acquired music. See section 6.4.1 for details.

4.1.2 Playing a song

When you get to your desired song, click on PLAY/OK. If you hear nothing at ﬁ rst, make sure you have adjusted the volume control on the headphone cord.

Menu available Status: Paused Play Mode: One Directory Play Order Volume

Time of Day

Artist* or parent folder Song title* or file name Album* or current folder File format and recording information

Song elapsed time Song time remaining Song Length

*If the MP3 ﬁ le contains these ID3 tag data

Battery level

Right and Left VU Meters

Play Status Play Order

Stopped

Playing a track

Current track is paused

Recording a track

(no

icon)

Play once

Shufﬂ e (Random) track selection

Repeat playing

Play Mode

Playlist: Gmini is currently playing from a Playlist

Folder: Play all tracks in the current directory

All: Play all tracks on Gmini

Single: Play a single track then stop

Queue: User can queue the next track to be played

Scan: Gmini plays ﬁ rst 15 seconds of each track

Playback contextual menu

• Setup: displays the setup screen (same as selecting the Setup icon in the main menu)

• Edit Playlist: enters the playlist editor (see below for how to use playlists).

• Browser: allows to browse through your ﬁ les while playing.

Using the Gmini 200

4.1.3 Using Playlists

A Playlist is a list of songs that the Gmini will automatically play one after the other. The Gmini can handle one Playlist at a time. You can create new Playlists, add or delete songs from a Playlist, or Save a Playlist as a ﬁ le (ﬁ le type .m3u) to be used another time. There is no limit to the number of Playlists you can save on the Gmini hard drive.

Creating a new Playlist

To create a Playlist, press the RIGHT button while you are in the Music browser. A second panel is opened on the right side to display the Playlist contents (shown empty in the picture). You can now start adding songs to the current Playlist. In the left window, search for the songs you would like to add to your Playlist. Once the song is highlighted, click on the OK/PLAY

button to add it to the Playlist. The song will be added to the Playlist and a small mark is placed next to the music note icon to indicate that it is now in the Playlist. Continue searching and adding songs in this manner until you are satisﬁ ed. You can jump back and forth anytime between the two windows by clicking the LEFT/RIGHT buttons. A Playlist can have a maximum of 1000 songs in it. We recommend that you save your Playlists to the Gmini hard drive (see below) to be used again later. You can also add all the music ﬁ les of a complete folder in one operation by highlighting the desired folder, pressing MENU to display the contextual menu, and then selecting either ADD TO PLAYLIST or INSERT TO PLAYLIST. Watch which window you are in since the left window menu has different options than the right window menu.

Loading a Playlist

You can load a previously saved Playlist or add the ﬁ les it contains to the current Playlist. Use the music browser to select the Playlist of your choice (Playlists are indicated by a special list icon) and then press OK. If there were already some items in the Gmini Playlist, then the songs of the loaded Playlist will be added to the end of it. You can then check or modify the Playlist as usual in the Playlist window.

Using the Gmini 200

Playing a Playlist

There are two ways to play a Playlist.

1) Press the RIGHT key to go into the Playlist edition window. Then use the UP and DOWN keys to select which song you want to start with.

2) In the Playlist window press MENU to display the contextual menu and select START PLAYLIST. The Gmini starts playing from the ﬁ rst track of the playlist.

Playlist contextual menu description

• Start Playlist: starts playing the ﬁ rst track of the playlist.

• Save Playlist: saves the current Playlist onto the hard drive so that it can be reloaded later. It will be saved into the directory which is open in the left window. You should navigate in the left window to your Playlist folder before saving.

• Rename Playlist: changes the name of the current Playlist with the virtual keyboard.

• Shufﬂ e Playlist: randomly changes the order of the items in the current Playlist .

• Clear Playlist: remove all tracks from the current Playlist.

• Move Track: changes the position of the current track within the Playlist. The current track is then displayed with a double arrow icon. Use the UP and DOWN keys to move the selected track and press OK to validate the new position.

• Delete Track: removes the highlighted track from the playlist.

Important: Once you save a Playlist it is important that you do not move the actual MP3 ﬁ les as the Playlist searches in the original ﬁ le location. If you need to move your MP3 ﬁ les to a different folder, you’ll have to recreate your Playlists.

4.1.4 What is an .m3u ﬁ le?

You can open a Playlist ﬁ le (Playlistname.m3u) on your computer with a text editor such as Notepad or SimpleText (Macintosh merely a list of ﬁ les to be played along with the hard disk path to ﬁ nd them. If you delete a Playlist from

Example of the contents of the .m3u Playlist ﬁ le ‘Jazz Music’

your Gmini, you are only deleting the list and not the

music itself. Because a Playlist includes the path to the music ﬁ le (as shown in the example Playlist ﬁ le above), you have to remember that if you change the location of a music ﬁ le, then the path to it in the Playlist will be incorrect, and the Gmini will not play the song (because it can’t ﬁ nd it). Thus it is important to create a clean directory structure and not change where your ﬁ les are located. Either that or just delete your Playlist and create a new one.

), and you will see that it is

Using the Gmini 200

+ 16 hidden pages