Archos Gmini XS User Manual

Complete User Manual

ARCHOS™ Gmini™ XS series

MP3 & WMA Digital Music Player & USB 2.0 Hard Disk

Please see the Archos web site (www.archos.com) for the most recent manual and software updates for your Gmini™. Version 1.0

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1 Ports, Buttons, and Connections............................................................................................ 3

2 First Time Usage....................................................................................................................... 4

2.1 Charging the Battery 4

2.2 Turning the Gmini ON and OFF 4

2.3 Changing the Interface language 4

2.4 Caring for the Gmini 4

2.5 Foreign Character Sets 4

3 Playing Music............................................................................................................................ 5

3.1 Playing a Music File 5

3.2 Play Screen and Button Control 5

3.3 Playback Menu Items 6

3.4 ARCLibrary Specifics 6

3.5 ARCLibrary Updating 6

3.6 Setting a Bookmark 6

3.7 The Resume Function 6

3.8 Locking the Gmini Buttons 7

4 Playlists ............................................................................................................................... 8

4.1 Creating a new Playlist 8

4.2 Loading a Playlist 8

4.3 Playing a Playlist 8

4.4 Playlist Menu Option 8

4.5 What is an .m3u file? 9

5 Settings ............................................................................................................................. 10

5.1 Changing the Sound Settings 10

5.2 Changing the PlayMode Settings 10

5.3 Changing the Power Settings 11

5.4 Changing the System Settings 11

6 Using the Browser .................................................................................................................. 12

6.1 Inside the MUSIC Folder 12

6.2 Navigating the Directory Structure 12

6.3 File and Folder Operations in Browser Mode 12

6.3.1 Contextual Menu on a File 12

6.3.2 Contextual Menu on a Folder 13

6.3.3 Contextual Menu while in the Double Browser 13

6.4 Using the Virtual Keyboard 13

7 Connecting the Gmini to your Computer ............................................................................. 14

7.1 Making the USB Connection 14

7.2 Using the Gmini as an External Drive 14

7.3 Disconnecting the Gmini from your Computer 14

7.3.1 Windows® 14

7.3.2 Macintosh® 15

7.4 Creating Music files from your Audio CDs 15

7.5 Internet Music files and your Gmini XS 15

7.6 Update ARCLibrary after each PC Transfer 15

8 Using iTunes™ with your Gmini XS...................................................................................... 16

9 Updating the Gmini XS Firmware.......................................................................................... 17

9.1.1 Download the Update_GminiXS.AOS file 17

9.1.2 Read the History.txt File 17

9.1.3 Copy to Gmini root and Update 17

Troubleshooting...................................................................................................................... 18

10.1 USB Connection issues 18

10.2 File issues, corrupted data, formatting, and partitioning. 18

10.2.1 Windows® ME Running Scan-Disk (Error Checking ) 19

10.2.2 Windows® XP & 2000 Running Check Disk Utility (ChkDsk) 19

11 Technical Specifications........................................................................................................ 20

12 Technical Support................................................................................................................... 21

13 Legal and Safety Notices....................................................................................................... 22

1 Ports, Buttons, and Connections

A Headphone jack B Power On indicator C Hard Disk activity indicator D Battery charger indicator E Stop/Escape/Off F Navigation Joystick & Play/Enter button (Press down) G On/Menu H USB 2.0 port (USB 1.1 compatible) to connect to computer I Power Connector (Use only the supplied Archos charger)

2 First Time Usage

2.1 Charging the Battery

Before using your Gmini XS for the first time, completely charge the battery.

 Use ONLY the included ARCHOS charger/adapter. Charging will start automatically when it is plugged in.  The battery is fully charged when the charge (CHG) light to the left of the screen begins to blink.  After the first initial full charge, you may use the Gmini w hile the AC adap ter is plug ged in.

2.2 Turning the Gmini ON and OFF

 Press and hold the ON/Menu button until the screen comes on.  The Gmini will automatically shut off after a given amount of time if no buttons are pressed. To conserve battery energy, the green

backlight will automatically shut off. You can change these parameters in Setup > Power.

 Press and hold the Stop/off button until the Gmini shuts off.

2.3 Changing the Interface language

 English is selected as the default language for your Gmini user interface. You can choose another language by going to Setup >

System > Language.

2.4 Caring for the Gmini

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

 Do not subject it to unnecessary shock or vibration. You may however go jogging with it or do sports.  Do not subject it to heat. Keep it ventilated (especially when connected to a computer).  Keep the Gmini away from water and excessively humid areas.  Keep the Gmini away from high electromagnetic fields.  Keep it plugged into the Archos AC adapter/charger when it is connected to your computer.

2.5 Foreign Character Sets

You have the possibility to display your file names, folder names, and MP3 ID3 tags in various character sets (ex: Korean, Japanese, Simplified Chinese, etc.). You can find the language files CodePage_name.GFZ in the font folder under /Data on the Gmini XS hard disk or on the Archos website under the heading Software.

If, for example, you would like to have the Korean language display, then you would copy the file CP949.GFZ into the folder /system on the Gmini XS and shut down and restart the Gmini XS. File names, folder names, and ID3 tags written using the Microsoft® codepage for the language will now be displayed in that character set. Only one .GFZ can be used at a time, thus you should only put one .GFZ file into the /system folder. When an .GFZ language file is used, the interface language will be set to English.

3 Playing Music

Once the Gmini has been turned on, the following screen is displayed. You can select the major functions from this main menu.

 Music: Browse through the folder Music or use the ARCLibrary music selection system.  Browser: Browse through and manage all of the other files on your Gmini.  Resume: Resume playing from the last place you stopped.  Setup: Set the parameters of your Gmini to your personal taste.

3.1 Playing a Music File

By clicking on the Music icon in the main menu screen, you will enter into a ‘music only’ mode. File types other than WMA, WAV, and MP3 that may be in those folders will be filtered from view.

There are two ways to access your music, by selecting Browse hard disk or by searching the songs’ tag information, Artist, Album, title, etc. In the case of Browse hard drive, you will be sent directly to the Music

folder of your Gmini. Here you can look at all your music files and the folders on your Gmini’s hard drive as if you

were browsing files with a computer. Or, you can search your music by tag information, artist, album, song name, year, or genre. The Unknown category indicates that the file has no tag data.

To select a music file, use the joystick UP and DOWN controls to move upwards or downwards and ENTER to enter a highlighted subfolder or tag category. Click ENTER to play the highlighted song. Use LEFT to leave a folder and go back to the previous level.

3.2 Play Screen and Button Control

Menu available (1)

Artist* or parent folder (2)

Song title* or file name (3)

Album* or current folder (4)

File format and recording information (5)

(6) Status: playing

(7) Play Mode: Folder

(8) Play Order: Repeat

(9) Volume (0-99)

(10) Battery level (full) (11) Left and Right VU Meters

(12) Song elapsed time

(13) Song time remaining

(14) Song Length

*If the MP3 file contains these ID3 tag data

Play/pause/resume song

Increase the Volume

Click once: Play the previous song in the folder or playlist (during first 5 seconds of song) otherwise go to the beginning of the song.

Hold: Fast reverse through the song.

Click once: Play the next song in the folder or

playlist. Hold: Fast forward through the song.

Decrease the Volume

Stop Song

10 9 8 7 6

The top status bar indicates the status and play settings that you have given. See section 5.2 for a description of each of the Playmode settings.

Play Status

Play Order

Stopped

(no icon) Play once

Playing a track

Shuffle (Random) track selection

Current track is paused

Repeat playing

3.3 Playback Menu Items

When the menu icon appears, you have certain options. During song playback, press the MENU button for the following options.

 Setup: Enters the Setup screen (same as selecting the Setup icon in the main menu) which allows

you access to parameters such as bass and treble.

 Edit Playlist: Enters the playlist editor (see below for how to use playlists).  ARCLibrary: Allows you to browse through your ARCLibrary while listening to the current song.  Set Bookmark: Set a bookmark at the current position within the audio file. See section 3.7 below.

3.4 ARCLibrary Specifics

The ARCLibrary is a system for choosing your music by its characteristics. It can be turned On or Off in the settings from Setup > Pla ymode. As shown in this screen capture here, you can select your music by Artist, Album, Song Title, Genre, or Year. MP3 and WMA music files have internal data tags to hold information about the song. For MP3 files, these are known as ID3 tags. Not all MP3 files have all this information filled in. If you purchase a song from a music download service, the songs will have this information. If you have an MP3 or WMA file without this tag information, then you can add or change it by going to the properties of the file in Windows® Explorer. Once you update the ARCLibrary, you will have access to all newly copied music via the ARCLibrary. The ARCLibrary indexes all the music and playlists that it finds in the folders Music and Playlists by using the tag information in each song. Thus, you should never delete the folders Music or Playlists. If a song does not have tags, it will be put into the category <unknown>.

ATTENTION: Changing the ARCLibrary ON/OFF parameter will only take effect after the next restart of the Gmini XS.

3.5 ARCLibrary Updating

When you transfer music to your Gmini from your computer, it goes directly to the Gmini hard disk without the ARCLibrary knowing about the new song. Thus, in order for your new songs to be indexed into the ARCLibrary for you to choose from, you must update it with the Update button as in the Setup > Playmode screen. You can do this right after disconnecting your Gmini from your computer.

A message screen will appear indicating that it is updating the ARCLibrary contents.

3.6 Setting a Bookmark

If you are listening to a song, or perhaps a long recording, and would like to place a bookmark in it in order to pick up from this point at another time, you can use the Bookmark function. While listening to the audio recording, simply click on the MENU button, then choose Set Bookmark. This will set a bookmark in the audio file at the current position. You can only set one bookmark per file.

When you look at the file in your browser, it will have a small mark on its icon indicating that this file has a bookmark set within it. You can have a maximum of 16 files bookmarked. Setting more bookmarks will then start to erase the oldest bookmarks. The next time you play the audio file, you will be presented with two options:

Resume: Start playing from the bookmarked position. Ignore: Keep the bookmark but start playing from the very beginning. To clear a bookmark from a file, highlight the file and use the MENU button to choose clear bookmark.

3.7 The Resume Function

When you turn on your Gmini you will sometimes notice that the icon which is highlighted on the main screen is not the Browser

but rather the Resume icon. This icon is highlighted when the Gmini XS can resume the last played audio file.

3.8 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 are disabled. To unlock the buttons hold down again on the Menu button until the “lock” icon disappears.

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