Archos Gmini 500 Series User manual

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ARCHOS
ARCHOS
™
™
MOBILE VIDEO RECORDER
MOBILE VIDEO RECORDER
Gmini
Gmini
™
™
500 SERIES
500 SERIES
Video Player / Music Player & Recorder / Photo Wallet & Viewer / USB 2.0 Hard Drive
English Language User Manual
User Manual for ARCHOS™Gmini™500 series
Version 1.3
Please visit our website to download the most recent manual and software for this product
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Dear Customer,
ARCHOS™thanks you for your choice of this exciting Gmini™500 product. The Gmini™500 is designed to be the
companion to your home entertainment system. You can connect the Gmini™500 to yourTV system to play back
photos or videos as well as connect it to your PC to transfer over your favorite photos, videos, and music onto
it. By connecting to a computer, you get the advantage of being able to download legal music and video content
fromtheInternet.Since itis aPlaysForSure™device, you have a wide choiceof music andvideo content available
on the Internet. For more information about the PlaysForSure™program, see www.playsforsure.com.
This manual will explain, in detail, the functionality of your device. We have packed this product with many
functions and capabilities. The better you know how to use it, the more enjoyment you will get from it. Remember,
with the Gmini™500, you can…
• Play MPEG-4 SP & WMV video files* on the built-in screen, a television or video projector
• Listen to MP3, WMA, or WAV music files* or PlaysForSure™downloaded music files
• Synchronize your Windows®Media Player music and video library to your Gmini™500
• View JPEG and BMP digital photos and create slide shows
• Copy Pictures directly from your digital camera via the built in host USB port
• Store .DOC, .PDF, or any type of data file – it’s a portable hard drive too!

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We wish you many years of enjoyment from your Gmini™500 product. Please do register your product at our
website www.archos.com to ensure that you get have access to our help line and to be informed of technical
support and free software updates for your product.
Wishing you the best Video, Music, and Photo experience,
The ARCHOS™TEAM
*For full information on compatible file formats, see the technical specifications.
Please take the time to read though this manual. There are many things that this device can do that you may not be
aware of.
As our engineers are always updating and improving the software, your device’s software may have a slightly
different appearance or modified functionality than presented in this manual.
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able of contents
able of contents
1 INTRO – Buttons and Connections 7
2 INTRO – First Time Usage 10
2.1 Charging the battery 10
2.2 Turning on the Gmini™500 10
2.3 Shutting off the Gmini™500 and Battery saving features 10
2.4 Changing the Interface Language 11
2.5 Foreign Character Sets 11
2.6 Caring for the Gmini™500 11
2.7 Hardware Reset 12
3 VIDEO – Playing Video Files 13
3.1 Video PlaybackAction Icons 14
3.2 Resume Function 15
4 VIDEO – Playing Video Files from the Internet 16
4.1 Protected Internet Video content 16
4.2 Non Protected Internet Video Content 16
5 VIDEO – Creating MPEG-4 Video Files with your Computer 18
5.1 Installing the PC Software 19
6 MUSIC – Playing Music Files 23
6.1 Button Control 24
6.2 Play Screen Icons 24
6.3 Browsing through your Music Library 26
6.4 Playing Through your Stereo System 27
6.5 Setting a Bookmark 27
6.6 The Resume Function 28
7 MUSIC – Putting Music onto your Gmini
™
500 29

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7.1 Synchronizing Music from Windows Media®Player (WMP) to the Gmini™500 29
7.2 Comparison of Windows Media Player 10 to Windows Media Player 9 30
7.3 Transferring your CD collection to the Gmini™500 31
7.4 Installing Windows Media®Player 9 (WMP9) 31
7.5 Installing Windows Media®Player 10 (WMP10) 31
8 MUSIC – Playlists 32
8.1 Playing a Playlist 32
8.2 Creating a Playlist 32
8.3 Saving a Playlist 33
8.4 Adding songs to a Playlist while listening to Music 34
9 MUSIC – Recording Music 35
9.1 Cable connections for audio recording 35
9.2 Recording Procedure 36
9.3 Where is the Recording Saved? 38
9.4 Audio Editing 38
10 MUSIC – Using iTunes
™
with your Gmini
™
500 40
11 PHOTO – Viewing Photos 41
11.1 Viewing Photos 41
11.2 Viewing a slideshow 42
11.3 Transferring photos to your Gmini™500 43
12 BROWSER – Using the Browser 45
12.1 Navigating the Directory Structure 46
12.2 File and Folder Operations 47
12.3 Using the Virtual Keyboard 50
13 Connecting/Disconnecting* the Gmini
™
500 to/from your PC 51
13.1 USB Connection Type (‘Hard Drive’ or ‘Windows Device’) 51
13.2 Connecting the Gmini™500 51
13.3 Disconnecting the Gmini™500 from your Computer 53
14 Connecting Devices to the USB Host Port 55
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15 SETTINGS 56
15.1 Sound Settings 56
15.2 Play Mode Settings 57
15.3 Clock Settings 58
15.4 Display Settings 59
15.5 Appearance settings 60
15.6 Power Settings 60
15.7 System Settings 61
16 Updating the Gmini
™
500 Firmware Operating System (OS) 63
17 Replacing the battery 65
17.1 “Thin” version 65
17.2 Standard version 66
18 Technical Support 67
19 Troubleshooting 70
19.1 USB Connection issues 70
19.2 Charging and Power issues 71
19.3 Gmini™500 locks up (freezes operation) or Stops 71
19.4 File issues, corrupted data, formatting, and partitioning 71
20 Technical Specifications 74
21 Legal 76
22 Index 80

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INTRO – Buttons and Connections
INTRO – Buttons and Connections
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a On indicator
b Hard drive activity indicator (read/write)
c Battery charger indicator (blinks when battery is charged)
d Loud speaker
e Move UP (also increases volume during media playback)
f Move DOWN (also decreases volume during media playback)
g Move LEFT (also plays previous song or fast reverse through song or video)
h Move RIGHT (also plays next song or fast forward through song or video)
i Accelerate UP – go up the list of items at high speed
j Accelerate Down – go down the list of items at high speed
k Play/Enter/On o– Hold for 3 seconds to switch on the device
l Stop/Escape/Off x- Hold for 3 seconds to switch off the device
mUP action button (move up on the list of action icons; in the Settings menus: move UP)
n SELECT action button (select the highlighted action icon)
o DOWN action button (move down on the list of action icons; in the Settings menus: move DOWN)

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a LCD/TV button – Hold down to switch between the LCD and an external TV display
b USB Host port – to connect compatible USB devices
c Microphone
d USB 2.0 High speed device port (USB 1.1 compatible) to connect to your computer
e Power Connector (Use only the supplied Archos power charger/adapter)
f Multi-connect jack* – for headphones, TV docking pod, FM Remote and AV in/out connections
* Optional accessories such as TV docking pod and FM Remote are available for purchase from the ARCHOS™web site - www.archos.com.
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INTRO – First Time Usage
INTRO – First Time Usage
2.1 Charging the battery
2.1 Charging the battery
• Use only the included ARCHOS™charger/adapter.
• You can charge the internal battery of the Gmini™500 by plugging the included adapter/charger directly into the
device, or you can charge it by plugging the adapter/charger into the optional TV docking pod and connecting
your Gmini™500 to the Pod.
• Before using for the first time, charge the battery completely. The charge indicator (CHG) light will start to blink
when the battery is charged.
2.2 Turning on the Gmini
2.2 Turning on the Gmini
™
™
500
500
• Hold the PLAY/ON button ofor 3 seconds. The green “On” indicator light will turn on. Be patient, it will take
a few seconds for the operating system to boot up.
• If the unit shuts off after holding the ON button for several seconds, plug in theARCHOS™adapter/charger to
make sure the battery gets charged.
2.3 Shutting off the Gmini
2.3 Shutting off the Gmini
™
™
500 and Battery saving features
500 and Battery saving features
To shut off the unit, press and hold the STOP/ESC/OFF button xfor 3 seconds.
In the Power menu [Display setup screen Power: Battery Operation] there is a
Power Off parameter. Thus, if your Gmini™500 is idle for a couple of minutes, it will
shut itself off. This setting can be changed from one to nine minutes or to never.
In the Power menu [Display setup screen Power: Battery Operation] there is a
Backlight Off parameter to save battery power (the lighting of the screen consumes
a lot of the battery power). That is, if the Gmini™500 is not being used, the screen will
shut off in order to save battery life. To turn the screen back on, just click once on any
button. See the section Power in the Settings chapter for a complete explanation.

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2.4 Changing the Interface Language
2.4 Changing the Interface Language
The Gmini™500 interface can be set to English (default), French,
Spanish, German, or Russian.
• Using the UP action button, highlight the Settings icon (showing a
wrench) and then click the center SELECT action button.
• Highlight the Display icon and click the PLAY/ENTER button.
• Highlight the Language parameter using the UP/DOWN buttons.
• Click the RIGHT or LEFT button to choose the desired language.
• The language displayed will change immediately.
• Click on the STOP/ESC button to return to the Setup page and
again to return to the main menu screen.
2.5 Foreign Character Sets
2.5 Foreign Character Sets
You have the option of displaying file names, folder names, and music tags in various character sets (ex: Korean,
Japanese,Simplified Chinese, etc.).Youcan findthelanguage filesCodePage_name.4FZin the font folder under
/Data/Asian Fonts on the Gmini™500 hard drive 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 CP949.4FZ into
the folder /system on the Gmini™500 and shut down and restart the Gmini™500. File names, folder names, and
music tags written using the Microsoft®codepage for the language will now be displayed in that character set.
Only one .4FZ can be used at a time, thus you should only put one .4FZ file into the /system folder. When an
.4FZ language file is used, the interface language will be set to English.
2.6 Caring for the Gmini
2.6 Caring for the Gmini
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™
500
500
The ARCHOS™Video Gmini™500 is an electronic product that needs to be treated with more care than typical
consumer electronic products.
• Do not subject it to shock.
• Do not subject it to heat. Keep it well ventilated.
• Keep the Gmini™500 away from water and excessively humid areas.
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• Keep the Gmini™500 away from high electromagnetic fields.
• KeepanyconnectedcordstotheGmini™500neatlyarranged.Thislightproductcouldfallifacordisaccidentally
pulled by a child.
• Do not open up the Gmini™500. There are no user serviceable parts inside. Opening will void your warranty.
2.7 Hardware Reset
2.7 Hardware Reset
In the event that your Gmini™500 freezes operation (due to electrostatic phenomena for example), you can reset
the Gmini™500 by holding down on the STOP/ESC button xfor 15 seconds. In normal operation, the STOP/ESC
button xwill shut down the Gmini™500 after being held down for 3 seconds.

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VIDEO – Playing Video Files
VIDEO – Playing Video Files
Click on the Video icon in the main menu, highlight the desired video file, and then click on PLAY/GO
o. The thumbnail images on the right side will show you a frame from the highlighted video file (center)
as well as a frame from the file above and the file below the highlighted one. By clicking on the Video
icon in the main menu, you will enter into a ‘video only’ mode. Other playable file types, for example
music files, that may be in this folder are only listed if you enter the folder via the Browser.
To watch your videos on a television, you must hold down the LCD/TV
button for two seconds. The Gmini™500 screen will go black and
the video will be sent out to your connected television. Switch your
television to auxiliary video input (often found just below channel 1
– sometimes called L1 or L2). If you don’t see a clear color image,
you may have to set your Gmini™500 to your local television standard
(NTSC-North America or PAL-Europe) in Display (Setup action icon
>Display Icon.
Button controls while playing a video file
Vol + Increase volume
Vol - Decrease volume
Rew. Fast Forward
FF Fast forward
HSR High speed reverse
HSA High speed advance
O Play/Pause
X Stop
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Video Browser Action Icons
Hide the Thumbnails
Reset thumbnails. The thumbnail images on the right side of the screen will be reset to their original
default setting.
3.1 Video Playback Action Icons
3.1 Video Playback Action Icons
While a video file is playing, click on the Select action button. The action icons on the right of the screen allow
you to make video adjustments to your personal taste.
Play & Sound Settings
Use this setting if you would like to have the video files play one after the other, or just play one and
stop. You can also adjust the sound settings and the amount of time the On Screen Display (OSD)
information remains on the screen when you start a video file.
Built-in Speaker
Turn on or off the built-in loud speaker.
Slow Motion
Put the video into slow-motion view. You can cycle through the values Normal , ½ , ¼ , and 1/8 speed.
The sound is muted when in slow motion. While in slow mode and paused, you can step image per
image with the RIGHT button.
Set Screen Format
Video files come in various aspect ratios. That is, they can be TV sized (almost a square image), or
in cinema size (much longer than high). To change the screen to your personal tastes, the following
screen format options are available.

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Auto Format Default mode.Adjusts the video size to best adapt to the built-in screen or television.
Maximized Image Enlarge the image to fill the screen (LCD orTV). Sides may get slightly cut in this mode.
Full Picture Format The entire picture will always be seen on the television and the built-in screen. No cutting.
Set a Book mark
If you are watching a video and would like to place a bookmark in it in order to continue from this point
at another time, you can use the Bookmark function. Highlight the icon and click on the Select action
button. This will set a bookmark in the video 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 yellow check mark on its icon indicating
that this file has a bookmark set within it. You can have a maximum of 16 files book-marked. Setting
more bookmarks will then start to erase the oldest bookmarks. The next time you play this video file,
you will be presented with three options:
Resume Start playing from the book-marked position.
Ignore Keep the bookmark but start playing from the very beginning.
Clear Clear the bookmark from this file and start playing from the very beginning.
Save as Thumbnail
Save the current image on the screen as the video file’s thumbnail in the Video browser view.
On Screen Display (OSD) off
Select this icon to shut off the On Screen Display (the status bar, action icons, and other overlaid
informational graphics).
3.2 Resume Function
3.2 Resume Function
When you turn on your Gmini™500 you may notice that the icon which is highlighted on the main
screen is not the Video icon but rather the Resume icon. This icon is highlighted when the Gmini™
500 can resume the last played audio or video file.
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VIDEO – Playing Video Files from the Internet
VIDEO – Playing Video Files from the Internet
When using Windows Media®Player 10, you will have the advantage of being able to download protected video
content from the Internet. When you see the PlaysForSure™symbol on a web site for Windows®Portable Media
Center (PMC)*, then these protected downloads will be playable on your Gmini™500.
4.1 Protected Internet Video content
4.1 Protected Internet Video content
If you check the PlaysForSure™website (www.playsforsure.com) you will find web retailers who offer rental,
subscription, or purchasable video content. Remember, web sites must carry the PlaysForSure™symbol in order
for their videos to play on the Gmini™500.
4.2 Non Protected Internet Video Content
4.2 Non Protected Internet Video Content
The Gmini™500 plays .AVI files of MPEG-4 format. It can play such video files at a maximum size of 720 x 576
pixels (25 frames/second). It can also play .WMV files (WMV9 SP) up to a maximum size of 352 x 288**. The
Gmini™500 will not directly play files of type .mov, .mpg, or .mpeg.
The number of encoding and compression schemes currently used to create video files is very extensive and
seems to change on a weekly basis. There are so many standards and formats that it is very possible that the
video file you download from the Internet will not play right away on your device. Due to certain “variations”, even
when video files are formatted in “MPEG-4” they may not play right away.
* MPEG-4: ISOstandard by Moving Picture Experts Group ;AVI: audio/video file container by Microsoft . MPEG-4
SP with B-framesAVI up to 704x480@30f/s NTSC or 720x576@25f/s PAL.
** Microsoft WMV9 SP up to 352x288@30f/s and 800 kb/s ; supports WM DRM.

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If you have some video files that do not play directly on your Gmini™500, they will have to be converted first.
Windows Media®Player 10 (Available only for Windows XP) will convert your video file automatically when you
sync the file that is on your PC to the Gmini™500. It will display a little message ‘converting’.
You can also use the software MPEG-4 Translator included on the Gmini™500 hard drive to re-
encode your video files into the proper MPEG-4 SP format that the Gmini™500 can play. See the chapter
Video – creating MPEG-4 video files with your computer for more details.
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VIDEO – Creating MPEG-4 Video Files with your Computer
VIDEO – Creating MPEG-4 Video Files with your Computer
How to create an MPEG-4 video file
Video files that come from your digital camcorder, sent to you via e-mail, or which are freely available on the
Internet are encoded in many different ways. If not already in the proper MPEG-4 Simple Profile or WMV9 Simple
Profile format, a transformation operation must be done in order that these video files can be played by the
Gmini™500. This transformation process is called re-encoding.
There are basically two ways to do this: 1) Use the Synchronize button in Windows Media®Player 10 or 2) Use
the PC tools which are available on the Gmini™500’s hard drive. The first method is very simple and merely
requires that you synchronize a video file in your Media Player library to your Gmini™500. You do not have much
control in this converting process though and Windows Media®Player determines which video types it will and will
not re-encode. The second method, though it requires some learning, will allow you to have much more control
over the final quality of the re-encoded (converted) video file. It is described below. There are other tools available
on the Internet, some free and some for sale, that can also convert your video files into the appropriate MPEG-4
SP video file format for the Gmini™500. See the web site www.mpegmobile.com for a list of a few of them.
PC Tools
The Gmini™500 is delivered with two Windows®based programs that allow you to create MPEG-4 Simple
Profile .AVI video files. They are the MPEG-4 Translator and Virtual Dub™. The MPEG-4 Translator will call the
Virtual Dub program and give it the correct parameters to encode your video from its original format, .avi or .mpg
(mpeg 1), and then encode it into an MPEG-4 SP .AVI file. The file will be scaled in order to be played back
properly.

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5.1 Installing the PC Software
5.1 Installing the PC Software
If your video file is not an MPEG-4 Simple Profile .avi file of the proper size, you will need to re-encode it using
the following utilities. For the Gmini™500, you will need to create anAVI file that is MPEG-4 Simple Profile with a
resolution up to 720 x 576 (depending on frame rate) and a sound track that is stereo MP3 or WAV. In actuality,
in all cases, a resolution beyond 640x480 does not add any advantage.
MPEG-4 codec (Compression/Decompression)
In order for MPEG4-Translator to compress the video in a file of the format MPEG-4 SP that the Gmini™500 can
read, it requires an MPEG-4 codec to be installed on your computer.If you do not have the approporiate codec
installed, MPEG-4 Translator will tell you on start up which codec it requires. You will be able to download it for
free from the Internet.
Virtual Dub™
A utility for transcoding one video file into another. This is a general purpose transfer and cleanup utility which has
many options allowing for even the most difficult video translations. It will prompt you to save it to C:\Program Files\
VirtualDub.You should use this default directory location. Otherwise you will have to instruct the MPEG-4 Translator
program where to find it. For more information on Virtual Dub™see the website - http://www.virtualdub.org.
MPEG-4 Translator
This program, developed byArchos, is a “Front-end” for the Virtual Dub program. It has a simple interface which
you use and it then tells Virtual Dub how to process the video file. It sets all the parameters for Virtual Dub
specifically to create a video file in the right size and format to be read by the Gmini™500. When you run it for
the first time, the MPEG-4 Translator will need to locate the Virtual Dub program. If you did not install Virtual Dub
in the default location, you will have to show the program where Virtual Dub is. If you forget, Windows®will give
you an error when you try to launch it.
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MP3 Sound Codec
If MPEG-4 Translator detects a suitable MP3 codec on your PC, it
will use it, and your video file sound track will be MP3. Otherwise, it
will use the standard IMA ADPCM codec. There are MP3 encoders
(usually packaged together as an encoder and decoder) available on
the Web for you to download. If you choose to use the LAME codec,
make sure that you have a version built with the ACM front-end. You
can find other MP3 codecs on the web by using the search terms
ACM, MP3 and CODEC in your favorite web search engine. Once
this MP3 codec is installed into your system, MPEG-4 Translator will
be able to create final video files with MP3 sound, even if the source
video file does not have an MP3 sound track.
If you are unsure what codecs (audio and/or video) have been
installed on your computer, you can see the list by going to the
following location.
For Windows XP, click on Start > Settings > Control Panel >
Sounds and Audio Devices Properties > Hardware, choose Audio
Codecs, then click on Properties. You will find a list here of all the
audio codecs that are installed on your computer. Decoding of MPEG
2 video files is currently not supported by MPEG-4 Translator. These
are usually .mpg or .mpeg format files, not the requiredAVI file. There
are other tools found on the Internet (FlaskMPEG, Rippack, etc.) that
may be downloaded in order to help you with these file types. A good
starting place is the website www.mpegmobile.com.
5.2 Using MPEG-4 Translator
5.2 Using MPEG-4 Translator
Here you see the image of the main MPEG-4 Translator program. When you first run the program, if the required
codec has not been installed yet, you will be notified. You should download the codec and install it on your
computer. If the Virtual Dub™program has not been installed, you will also be notified, and you should install it.
If you have placed the Virtual Dub™program in a folder other than the installer default folder, it will ask you to
locate the file.