Archos GMINI XS 202 User Manual

Gmini™ XS202

MP3 & WMA Digital Music Player & USB 2.0 Hard Drive

English user manual

V ersion 1.6 - Please see the Archos web site (WWW.ARCHOS.COM) for the most recent manual and software updates for your Gmini™.

An introductory note from ARCHOS

Dear Customer,

Archos thanks you for choosing our new ultra-small Gmini™ XS202. Check out our web site www.archos.com to ﬁ nd the available accessories for this product (car adapter, carrying cases, power adapter). Also, while at our web site, check for free downloads of updated and improved software for your device.

The principal function of the Gmini™ is, of course, to play music. Because it has a real hard disk inside of it, you can store thousands of songs. Using a standard audio cable, you can also play your music through a home entertainment system. You can bring your entire CD collection with you anywhere and play it over anyone’s sound system.

Putting music onto your Gmini™ is as easy as ‘drag and drop’ for your unprotected music ﬁ les. And for protected purchased music from PlaysForSure web sites, it is as easy as clicking the Sync button in Windows Media Player 10. Plus, with its USB 2.0 high speed port, transfers are ﬁ nished before you know it. The Gmini™ is also ID3 compatible. This means that the ARCLibrary will sort your music so that you can listen to it by artist, album, title, year, or genre. Click on Shufﬂ e, and listen to your music at random.

Finally, you can use the Gmini™ as a portable hard drive to store your important ﬁ les. You can even use the Archos double-browser to rename, create, copy, move, and delete ﬁ les and folders.

This manual gives you all the information you need to know on using your Gmini™. Read through it carefully, you just may ﬁ nd out the Gmini™ includes some additional functionality that you didn’t expect. If you require extra assistance, you can always call our help line or e-mail support to get a friendly Archos agent to give you a hand.

Wishing you the best music listening experience,

The Archos T eam

ontents

1 Ports, Buttons, and Connections 5 2 First Time Usage 6

2.1 Charging the Battery 6

2.2 Turning the Gmini™ XS202 ON and OFF 7

2.3 Changing the Interface language 7

2.4 Caring for the Gmini™ 7

2.5 Foreign Character Sets 7

3 Playing Music 8

3.1 Playing a Music File 8

3.2 Play Screen and Button Control 9

3.3 Playback Menu Items 11

3.4 ARCLibrary Speciﬁ cs 11

3.5 ARCLibrary Updating 12

3.6 Setting a Bookmark 12

3.7 The Resume Function 12

3.8 Locking the Gmini™ Buttons 13

4 Putting Music onto your Gmini™ XS202 14

4.1 Synchronizing Music from Windows Media® Player (WMP) to the Gmini™ XS202 14

4.2 Transferring your CD collection to the Gmini™ XS202 15

4.3 Installing Windows Media

4.4 Installing Windows Media

5 Playlists 17

5.1 Creating a new Playlist 17

5.2 Loading a Playlist 18

5.3 Playing a Playlist 18

5.4 Playlist Menu Options 18

6 Settings 20

6.1 Changing the Sound Settings 20

6.2 Changing the PlayMode Settings 22

4.1.1 Synchronizing Music from Windows Media® Player (WMP) 9 to the Gmini™ XS202 14

4.1.2 Synchronizing Music from Windows Media

Player (WMP) 9 16

Player (WMP) 10 16

Player (WMP) 10 to the Gmini™ XS202 15

6.3 Changing the time & date settings 23

6.4 Changing the Display Settings 24

6.5 Changing the Power Settings 25

6.6 Changing the System Settings 26

7 Using the Browser 27

7.1 Inside the MUSIC Folder 27

7.2 Navigating the Directory Structure 28

7.3 File and Folder Operations in Browser Mode 29

7.3.1 Contextual Menu on a File 29

7.3.2 Contextual Menu on a Folder 29

7.3.3 Contextual Menu while in the Double Browser 30

7.4 Using the Virtual Keyboard 30

8 Connecting the Gmini™ XS202 to a Stereo system 32 9 Connecting the Gmini™ to your Computer 33

9.1 Making the USB Connection 33

9.2 Using the Gmini™ as an External Drive 34

9.3 Disconnecting the Gmini™ from your Computer 34

9.3.1 Windows® 34

9.3.2 Macintosh

10 Using iTunes™ with your Gmini™ XS202 36 11 Updating the Gmini™ XS202 Firmware 37

11.1 Download the Update_GminiXS202.AOS ﬁ le 37

11.2 Copy to Gmini™ root and Update 37

12 Troubleshooting 39

12.1 USB Connection issues 39

12.2 File issues, corrupted data, formatting, and partitioning. 41

12.2.1 Windows® ME Running Scan-Disk (Error Checking) 41

12.2.2 Windows

13 Technical Speciﬁ cations 43 14 Technical Support 44 15 Legal and Safety Notices 47

XP & 2000 Running Check Disk Utility (ChkDsk) 42

Ports, Buttons, and Connections

First Time Usage

2.1 Charging the Battery

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)

First Time Usage

2.1 Charging the Battery

Before using your Gmini XS202 for the ﬁ rst time, completely charge the battery for three hours.

• Connect the Gmini™ XS202 to the provided charger/adapter and a wall outlet. The blue CHG indicator lights up to indicate that the external adapter is connected. The battery will charge automatically when it is plugged in. The battery is fully charged when the full battery icon appears.

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

Animated battery: Full battery: The battery is currently being charged. The battery is fully charged.

2.2 Turning the Gmini™ XS202 ON and OFF

2.3 Changing the Interface language

2.4 Caring for the Gmini™

2.5 Foreign Character Sets

Playing Music

3.1 Playing a Music File

2.2 Turning the Gmini™ XS202 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 backlight will automatically shut of f. 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 > Display .

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. Y ou 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 ﬁ elds.

2.5 Foreign Character Sets

You have the possibility to display your ﬁ le names, folder names, and MP3 ID3 tags in various character sets (ex: Korean, Japanese, Simpliﬁ ed Chinese, etc.). You can ﬁ nd the language ﬁ les CodePage_name.4fz in the font folder under /Data on the Gmini XS202 hard disk or on the Archos website under the heading Software.

If, for example, you would like to have the Japanese language display, you would copy the ﬁ le Cp932.4fz into the folder /system on the Gmini XS202. Shut down and restart the Gmini XS202. File names, folder names, and ID3 tags written using the Microsoft Only one.4fz ﬁ le can be used at a time, thus you should only put one.4fz ﬁ le into the /system folder. When an.4fz language ﬁ le is used, the interface language will be set to English.

codepage for the language will now be displayed in that character set.

Playing Music

3.1 Playing a Music File

To select a music ﬁ le, push the navigation joystick to move upwards or downwards and press it down 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.

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 ﬁ les on your Gmini.

• Resume : Resume playing from the last place you stopped.

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

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 ﬁ ltered 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 ﬁ les and the folders on your Gmini’s hard drive as if you were browsing ﬁ les in a computer. The other way is to browse your music by tag information, artist, album, song name, year, or genre. The Unknown category indicates that the ﬁ le has no tag data.

3.2 Play Screen and Button Control

Play Status Play Order

3.2 Play Screen and Button Control

(1) Menu available (2) Artist* or parent folder (3) Song title* or ﬁ le name (4) Album* or current folder (5) File format and recording information (6) Status: playing (7) Play Mode: Folder (8) Play Order: Repeat (9) Volume (0-99) (10) Battery level (11) Real time clock (12) Song elapsed time (13) Song time remaining (14) Song length

*If the ﬁ le contains these tag data

A Play/pause/resume song B Increase the volume C Click once: Play the next song in the folder or playlist. Hold: Fast forward through the song. D Decrease the Volume E Click once: Play the previous song in the folder or playlist

(during ﬁ rst 5 seconds of song) otherwise go to the beginning of

the song. Hold: Fast reverse through the song. F Stop Song

Play Status Play Order

Stopped (no icon) Play once Playing a track Shufﬂ e (Random) track selection Current track is paused Repeat playing

The top status bar indicates the status and play settings that you have given. See the Settings chapter for a description of the Playmode options.

3.3 Playback Menu Items

3.4 ARCLibrary Speciﬁ cs

3.5 ARCLibrary Updating

3.6 Setting a Bookmark

3.7 The Resume Function

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.

3.4 ARCLibrary Speciﬁ cs

• 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.

• Info: Show ﬁ le information such as the ﬁ le name, number of kilobytes of hard drive space used, date created, ﬁ le format, etc.

• ARCLibrary: Allows you to browse through your ARCLibrary while listening to the current song.

• Edit Playlist: Enters the playlist editor (see below how to use Playlists).

• Set Bookmark: Set a bookmark at the current position within the audio ﬁ le. See the Bookmark section below.

The ARCLibrary is a system for choosing your music by its characteristics. It can be turned On or Off in the settings from Setup > Playmode . As shown in this screen capture here, you can select your music by Artist, Album, Song Title, Genre, or Year. MP3 and WMA music ﬁ les have internal data tags to hold information about the song. For MP3 ﬁ les, these are known as ID3 tags. Not all MP3 ﬁ les have all this information ﬁ lled in. If you purchase a song from a music download service, the song will have this information. If you have an MP3 or WMA ﬁ le without this tag information, then you can add or change it by going to the properties of the ﬁ le 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 ﬁ nds 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> .

3.5 ARCLibrary Updating

If you paste unprotected audio ﬁ les from your computer to the Gmini, they go directly to the Gmini hard disk without the ARCLibrary knowing about the new song. This is why the ARCLibrary is updated when you disconnect your Gmini from the computer. Alternatively, you can set up the ARCLibrary to update only when you choose, by setting it to “On”, not “automatic”. You can ﬁ nd the information on how to do this in the section Playmode in the Settings chapter. You will then have to go to the Setup > Playmode screen, highlight [Update ARCLibrary] and press ENTER. 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 ﬁ le at the current position. You can only set one bookmark per ﬁ le. When you look at the ﬁ le in your browser, it will have a small mark on its icon indicating that this ﬁ le has a bookmark set within it. You can have a maximum of 16 ﬁ les bookmarked. Setting more bookmarks will erase existing bookmarks, starting with the oldest. The next time you play the audio ﬁ le, 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 ﬁ le, highlight the ﬁ le and use the MENU button, then 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 XS202

can resume the last played audio ﬁ le.

3.8 Locking the Gmini™ Buttons

Putting Music onto your Gmini™ XS202

4.1 Synchronizing Music from Windows Media

Player (WMP) to the Gmini™ XS202

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 button until the “lock” icon appears in the top-left corner of the screen. Now the buttons are disabled, but you can still use the navigation joystick to change the volume. To unlock the buttons hold down again on the Menu button until the “lock” icon disappears.

Putting Music onto your Gmini™ XS202

The Gmini XS202 is designed to work seamlessly with Windows Media Windows Media and organize it. You will also use it to synchronize (copy) the contents of your Windows Media library to your Archos™ device.

4.1 Synchronizing Music from Windows Media

Windows Media® Player (WMP) allows you to synchronize music between your computer and Gmini XS202: That means, it will add music ﬁ les to your Gmini XS202 so that you have the same digital media on your Gmini as you have in your Windows Media from your computer to your Gmini, but it will not copy ﬁ les from your Gmini to your computer. You can choose to sync only certain songs or to sync your entire library.

4.1.1 Synchronizing Music from Windows Media® Player (WMP) 9 to the Gmini™ XS202

Access the Copy tab in WMP 9. On the left hand side, you should see music ﬁ les from your music library (saved on your computer) and on the right, the ﬁ les and folder on your Gmini XS202. Check the ﬁ les you want to copy to the Gmini. Make sure you have selected the folder on the Gmini into which you want to copy your music. In the top right corner of WMP, you will ﬁ nd the Copy button which starts the synchronization process.

Your Archos™ product is a certiﬁ ed PlaysForSure™ digital device which means that wherever you ﬁ nd music for sale on the Internet with the PlaysForSure™ symbol, you can be certain that they will ‘Play for sure’ on your Gmini XS202. Please note that the Gmini XS202 does not currently support subscription services. Check the Archos website to see if there is update software that will provide for recognition of these services on your device. For additional information on ‘Play for sure’ and download services, check out the web site www.playsforsure.com .

Player software is used to download digital media content from the Internet to your computer

Player library. The synchronization is one way, that is to say, copying music ﬁ les

Player (WMP) versions 9 and 10. The

Player (WMP) to the Gmini™ XS202

Player media

4.2 Transferring your CD collection to the Gmini™ XS202

4.3 Installing Windows Media

Player (WMP) 9

4.4 Installing Windows Media

Player (WMP) 10

4.1.2 Synchronizing Music from Windows Media® Player (WMP) 10 to the Gmini™ XS202

Access the Synchronise tab in WMP 10. If this is the ﬁ rst time you are using this option, WMP will offer to set up automatic synchronisation of your music ﬁ les. If this box is checked, every time you connect your Gmini to your computer, WMP will automatically start up and check to see whether any of the music ﬁ les on the computer have not yet been copied to the Gmini. These ﬁ les will then be copied to your computer. If you choose to manually synchronise your ﬁ les, you can always set up automatic synchronization by clicking the Set up sync button.

On the left hand side, you should see music ﬁ les from your music library (saved on your computer) and on the right, the ﬁ les and folder on your Gmini XS202. Check the ﬁ les you want to copy to the Gmini. Make sure you have selected the folder on the Gmini into which you want to copy your music. On the tool bar, you will ﬁ nd the Start Sync button which starts the synchronization process.

Attention: Files deleted from the WMP music library will also be deleted from the Gmini.

4.2 Transferring your CD collection to the Gmini™ XS202

The process of transferring music from a CD into ﬁ les for your Gmini XS202 is known as ‘ripping’. It is actually a transcoding process, taking the CDA (CD Audio) format and converting it to WMA or MP3 format which the Gmini can read. There are many music ripping programs on the market, but ARCHOS recommends that you use Windows Media® Player to rip your music. In fact, when you place a music CD in your computer, Windows® will ask you if you would like to rip it. Depending on the power of your computer, to rip a 60 minute CD, it will take anywhere from 10 minutes to 60 minutes. Once this is done, the album will become part of your music library. Connect your Gmini to your computer with the supplied USB cable. Now, you go to the Sync tab and tell Windows Media transfer that album to your Gmini.

Note: Some music CDs have a special copy protection system that will not allow Windows Media® Player to make music ﬁ les from them.

Player to synchronize that album to your Gmini. It will then

4.3 Installing Windows Media

If you have Windows software is to visit the Microsoft the Gmini XS202 itself.

4.4 Installing Windows Media

You must be running Windows Please visit Microsoft’s PlaysForSure website ( www.playsForSure.com ) and download the very latest version of Windows Media® Player 10.

, ME, and 2000, you should use Windows Media

Player (WMP) 9

Website and download the very latest version, or install the version found on

Player (WMP) 10

XP (Service Pack 1 or higher) in order to install Windows Media

Player 9. The easiest way to install this

Player 10.

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