Archos Gmini 400 20GB

...a couple of calls to Archos customer service and some trial and error with a free progam called Music Match to achieve the desired results.

Playback is very simple. The Gmini's buttons are similar to a Gameboy. You navigate the onscreen icon-based interface and choose Music. Then you can select a track by Artist, Title, Genre or Year. Of course this information is only available if you have captured it in the tag of each file, but ...
...that the whole preamble that Archos went through was aimed more at people wanting to watch home video on the Gmini. I'm still not sure what that all means, but given that I don't have a camcorder and I do download a lot of TV, everything is just dandy.

To give you some idea, the screen on the Gmini is not something you would choose to put on a desk and watch with friends. But I travel for business a fair bit and I find that sitting ... more

When I decided to get an mp3 player, the one thing I knew for sure was that I didn't want an iPod. I know they look sexy, but there is something just too generic about them. They're almost too perfect. Plus I had had a look at iTunes and I didn't like the way I was being forced to work with Apple's software if I wanted to own their hardware. Also I download the vast majority of tracks illegally and I didn't want some globally linked program keeping records of what's in my library.

I first looked at the Gmini 400 in a shop. It seemed incredibly compact with a nice clear full colour screen. I was immediately attracted to the idea of listening to a song with the album artwork on display and I started researching the device further on the Internet.

Capacity

The Gmini 400 has 20 GB of space on its hard drive. I hate it when they tell you that it's enough for 5000 or 25000 songs. Of course it's possible to fill one of these things up if you want a load of rubbish on your player, but I reckon anybody with a CD collection of 100 discs and a bunch more mp3s on their computer would have no problem copying the whole lot over to the Gmini. I choose the songs I transfer to the player very carefully, for example, I'm a big fan of The Beatles but I don't need to carry She Loves You with me everywhere I go. Even if you're less selective, space shouldn't be an issue. Format-wise, I keep all my songs as .mp3s although I understand that the Gmini can also handle .wma and .wav files.

Audio

I said earlier that one of the things I was looking forward to was seeing the album artwork displayed when I listen to a song. In reality this was a lot more effort that I had anticipated. First of all I had to find pictures of all the albums on the Internet and save them to my PC. Then attaching each picture to a song wasn't a simple procedure. Using Windows Media Player didn't help as saving a picture to a music file saves it with the album title and not with the individual track and therefore the Gmini wasn't reading it. It took a couple of calls to Archos customer service and some trial and error with a free progam called Music Match to achieve the desired results.

Playback is very simple. The Gmini's buttons are similar to a Gameboy. You navigate the onscreen icon-based interface and choose Music. Then you can select a track by Artist, Title, Genre or Year. Of course this information is only available if you have captured it in the tag of each file, but if you're anal enough to have done so, it's easy to get going. The Gmini also works with playlists which you can set up on your PC or directly on the Gmini itself. I prefer to have all my songs (around 3000 at the moment) playing at random so that I never know what's coming up.

I find the sound quality to be more than adequate. The Gmini comes with a decent set of earbuds with a volume control on the wires. I soon switched to a hardier pair of earphones with no discernible difference.

Photos

Long before the iPod Photo became available, the Gmini was already offering to store all the .jpg and .bmp files in your collection. I enjoy knowing that I am carrying around pictures of my kids but I'm not sure how much more use I'm really going to make of this feature. The Gmini also has a built in CompactFlash™ slot for use with the right kind of memory cards, but I have never used it.

Video

I decided when I bought the Gmini that I was doing so because I wanted a device to listen to music. The video playback would only ever be a 'nice' extra as the chances are it wouldn't provide a very enjoyable viewing experience. In fact the literature about the Gmini went into considerable detail about the specific format a video would have to be in in order for it to work on the Gmini. It made it very clear the most files would need to be converted and that although the software was provided with the device, it was not a simple process. It was almost as if they were trying to put me off. So it was with some trepidation that I started playing around with the video capabilities of the Gmini. First I installed the video transfer software onto my PC. Then I identified the .avi file that I wished to convert in order to later transfer it to the Gmini.

I started with a 22 minute sitcom episode that I had downloaded. The conversion seemed to take place almost in real time taking about 20 minutes to run through the 200 MB file and tying up my computer's CPU in the process. I was not terribly impressed. When I transferred the converted file to the Gmini and tried to watch, I found that the sound and picture were intermittently out of synch. Not terrible for a sitcom but it would make watching a movie pretty unpleasant. Just to confirm I converted an entire 600+ MB movie .avi file and found the same synch problems as before.

I was about to give up when I decided to try copying over the original file without running it through the conversion program, just for kicks. Imagine my surprise when I discovered the sound and picture perfectly in synch and the video playing perfectly. Now I am no expert when it comes to video formats. I have a hundred and one different players on my PC for different files and I know how to download a codec although I have no idea what a codec is. Still I find now that the majority of programs I download (ranging from UK TV quiz shows through whole seasons of US sitcoms to one hour dramas and full length movies) play perfectly well on the Gmini. I guess that the stuff I'm downloading has mostly already been encoded with DivX or something and that the whole preamble that Archos went through was aimed more at people wanting to watch home video on the Gmini. I'm still not sure what that all means, but given that I don't have a camcorder and I do download a lot of TV, everything is just dandy.

To give you some idea, the screen on the Gmini is not something you would choose to put on a desk and watch with friends. But I travel for business a fair bit and I find that sitting in Airport lounges watching last week's Never Mind the Buzzcocks is a very satisfying way to wile away dead time. Last month I was stuck on the M25 for over 4 hours when a lorry literally exploded a hundred yards in front of me. I found the time passed very easily thanks to several episodes of Seinfeld I had thoughtfully prepared before my trip.

The Gmini also allows playback through a regular TV using the standard yellow and red input sockets. I took a couple of episodes of Extras with me when I went to visit a friend recuperating from a back operation. Despite never having tried it before, I was able to hook the Gmini up to his television and play the files as normal. Again, it's not something I see myself doing often, but it's a nice little bit of extra functionality.

I still use the Gmini primarily as a music player, but the video playback possibilities add a real dimension that Apple devices are only now coming to grips with at considerably greater expense.

Games

Archos have developed some games using the Morphun engine which you can buy and transfer to the Gmini. I like video games as much as the next man, but I don't fancy ruining the Gmini's delicate buttons with the strenuous pounding that many games require. The Gmini comes with one complete puzzle game and four more demos. I tried them all once and didn't bother again.

File Transfer

Now that I use the Gmini on a daily basis I find this to be one of its most compelling arguments. The device connects to a PC via the USB port. I was cursing when I realized that I didn't have any spare, but then I noticed that the connection on the device is exactly the same as that for my cheapo digital camera. Now I just leave the wire in and connect whichever device I'm using. Once connected, your PC (provided it isn't an antique) will automatically recognize the device as an external drive called "Jukebox". Transferring files is then as easy as dragging and dropping. There are folders already set up on the Gmini for Music and Video and I have added hundred of subfolders for each artist in the music folder just so that I can manage my files better when connected to the PC. As an external drive you can also use the Gmini to store or back up any other files that you wish up to the maximum capacity.

As an example, I download TV programs for the kids on my home PC, but I only have a DVD burner on my work laptop and the two are not networked. It is a simple matter to copy the files to the Gmini and then copy then from the Gmini to the laptop. Transferring over 4 GBs of .avi files took less than 6 minutes. Transferring a single song (3-6 MB) to the Gmini takes less than 10 seconds.

Battery Life

According to Archos I'm supposed to get 10 hours of audio playback and up to five hours of video on a fully charged battery. I've had the audio playing for over six hours on a plane journey (with the screen blank to save battery - so much for the album artwork!) and I've watched about 3 hours of video on the trot and the battery has never entirely worn down. The Gmini comes with a clever charger that includes an adaptor for Europe, UK and the US. From nearly empty to a full charge takes a couple of hours. One useful point is to keep the charger connected when the Gmini is connected to your PC as transferring files uses a lot of battery power.

Already Obsolete

I see that according to their website Archos has already ceased marketing the Gmini 400. They have replaced it with the Gmini 402 which is basically the same device with greater flexibility for file formats, and the Gmini 402 Camcorder which is the same as the Gmini 402, but with a built-in camcorder. Nevertheless I have seen the Gmini 400 still on sale in Dixons and this insignificant upgrade may actually help prices drop on the original. I bought mine at Heathrow Duty Free for under 200 quid. I have seen them in the high street for £240+. Amazon currently have them New and Used only from £194.99, but if you have a way of doing it, your best bet is to pick one up in the States and pay Dollars for it.

Customer Service

To date I have had only used Archos's customer service once as detailed above. I found them genuinely concerned and keen to help. At one point they even called me back with further information despite the fact that I gave them a mobile number a long way outside the UK. Impressive.

Conclusion

I love my Gmini 400 as it does everything I wanted an mp3 player to do with a reasonable amount of efficiency and considerable style. In addition, the opportunity to watch TV on the toilet is too good to miss.

To discover more about the Gmini range you can go to Archos's own site: www.archos.com.

There is also a Gmini owners forum at www.gmini400.com. Clever, eh?
 

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