User manual ARCHOS GMINI 500

1 ARCHOSTM MOBILE VIDEO RECORDER GminiTM 500 SERIES Video Player / Music Player & Recorder / Photo Wallet & Viewer / USB 2.0 Hard Drive English Language User Manual User Manual for ARCHOSTM GminiTM 500 series Version 1.3 Please visit our website to download the most recent manual and software for this product 1 2 Dear Customer, ARCHOSTM thanks you for your choice of this exciting GminiTM 500 product. The GminiTM 500 is designed to be the companion to your home entertainment system. You can connect the GminiTM 500 to your TV 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 from the Internet. Since it is a PlaysForSureTM device, you have a wide choice of music and video content available on the Internet. For more information about the PlaysForSureTM 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 GminiTM 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 PlaysForSureTM downloaded music files · Synchronize your Windows® Media Player music and video library to your GminiTM 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! 2 3 We wish you many years of enjoyment from your GminiTM 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 ARCHOSTM 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. 3 4 Table of contents 1 2 INTRO ­ Buttons and Connections INTRO ­ First Time Usage 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 2.7 3 Charging the battery Turning on the GminiTM 500 Shutting off the GminiTM 500 and Battery saving features Changing the Interface Language Foreign Character Sets Caring for the GminiTM 500 Hardware Reset 10 10 10 11 11 11 12 13 14 15 16 16 16 18 19 23 24 24 26 27 27 28 29 7 10 VIDEO ­ Playing Video Files 3.1 3.2 Video Playback Action Icons Resume Function 4 VIDEO ­ Playing Video Files from the Internet 4.1 4.2 Protected Internet Video content Non Protected Internet Video Content 5 VIDEO ­ Creating MPEG-4 Video Files with your Computer 5.1 Installing the PC Software 6 MUSIC ­ Playing Music Files 6.1 6.2 6.3 6.4 6.5 6.6 Button Control Play Screen Icons Browsing through your Music Library Playing Through your Stereo System Setting a Bookmark The Resume Function 7 4 MUSIC ­ Putting Music onto your GminiTM 500 5 7.1 7.2 7.3 7.4 7.5 8 Synchronizing Music from Windows Media® Player (WMP) to the GminiTM 500 Comparison of Windows Media Player 10 to Windows Media Player 9 Transferring your CD collection to the GminiTM 500 Installing Windows Media® Player 9 (WMP9) Installing Windows Media® Player 10 (WMP10) 29 30 31 31 31 32 32 32 33 34 35 35 36 38 38 40 41 41 42 43 45 46 47 50 51 51 51 53 55 5 MUSIC ­ Playlists 8.1 8.2 8.3 8.4 Playing a Playlist Creating a Playlist Saving a Playlist Adding songs to a Playlist while listening to Music 9 MUSIC ­ Recording Music 9.1 9.2 9.3 9.4 Cable connections for audio recording Recording Procedure Where is the Recording Saved? Audio Editing 10 MUSIC ­ Using iTunesTM with your GminiTM 500 11 PHOTO ­ Viewing Photos 11.1 11.2 11.3 Viewing Photos Viewing a slideshow Transferring photos to your GminiTM 500 12 BROWSER ­ Using the Browser 12.1 12.2 12.3 Navigating the Directory Structure File and Folder Operations Using the Virtual Keyboard 13 Connecting/Disconnecting* the GminiTM 500 to/from your PC 13.1 13.2 13.3 USB Connection Type (`Hard Drive' or `Windows Device') Connecting the GminiTM 500 Disconnecting the GminiTM 500 from your Computer 14 Connecting Devices to the USB Host Port 6 15 SETTINGS 15.1 15.2 15.3 15.4 15.5 15.6 15.7 Sound Settings Play Mode Settings Clock Settings Display Settings Appearance settings Power Settings System Settings 56 57 58 59 60 60 61 63 65 65 66 67 70 70 71 71 71 74 76 80 56 16 Updating the GminiTM 500 Firmware Operating System (OS) 17 Replacing the battery 17.1 17.2 "Thin" version Standard version 18 Technical Support 19 Troubleshooting 19.1 19.2 19.3 19.4 USB Connection issues Charging and Power issues GminiTM 500 locks up (freezes operation) or Stops File issues, corrupted data, formatting, and partitioning 20 Technical Specifications 21 Legal 22 Index 6 7 1 INTRO ­ Buttons and Connections 7 8 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 m UP 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) 8 9 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 ARCHOSTM web site - www.archos.com. 9 10 2 2.1 INTRO ­ First Time Usage Charging the battery · Use only the included ARCHOSTM charger/adapter. · You can charge the internal battery of the GminiTM 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 GminiTM 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 GminiTM 500 · Hold the PLAY/ON button o for 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 the ARCHOSTM adapter/charger to make sure the battery gets charged. 2.3 Shutting off the GminiTM 500 and Battery saving features To shut off the unit, press and hold the STOP/ESC/OFF button x for 3 seconds. In the Power menu [Display setup screen Power: Battery Operation] there is a Power Off parameter. Thus, if your GminiTM 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 GminiTM 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. 10 11 2.4 Changing the Interface Language The GminiTM 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 You have the option of displaying file names, folder names, and music tags in various character sets (ex: Korean, Japanese, Simplified Chinese, etc.). You can find the language files CodePage_name.4FZ in the font folder under /Data/Asian Fonts on the GminiTM 500 hard drive or on the ARCHOSTM 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 GminiTM 500 and shut down and restart the GminiTM 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 GminiTM 500 The ARCHOSTM Video GminiTM 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 GminiTM 500 away from water and excessively humid areas. 11 12 · Keep the GminiTM 500 away from high electromagnetic fields. · Keep any connected cords to the GminiTM 500 neatly arranged. This light product could fall if a cord is accidentally pulled by a child. · Do not open up the GminiTM 500. There are no user serviceable parts inside. Opening will void your warranty. 2.7 Hardware Reset In the event that your GminiTM 500 freezes operation (due to electrostatic phenomena for example), you can reset the GminiTM 500 by holding down on the STOP/ESC button x for 15 seconds. In normal operation, the STOP/ESC button x will shut down the GminiTM 500 after being held down for 3 seconds. 12 13 3 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 GminiTM 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 GminiTM 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 + Vol Rew. FF HSR HSA O X Increase volume Decrease volume Fast Forward Fast forward High speed reverse High speed advance Play/Pause Stop 13 14 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 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. 14 15 Auto Format Maximized Image Full Picture Format 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 Ignore Clear Save as Thumbnail Save the current image on the screen as the video file's thumbnail in the Video browser view. Start playing from the book-marked position. Keep the bookmark but start playing from the very beginning. Clear the bookmark from this file and start playing from the very beginning. Default mode. Adjusts the video size to best adapt to the built-in screen or television. Enlarge the image to fill the screen (LCD or TV). Sides may get slightly cut in this mode. The entire picture will always be seen on the television and the built-in screen. No cutting. 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 When you turn on your GminiTM 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 GminiTM 500 can resume the last played audio or video file. 15 16 4 4.1 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 PlaysForSureTM symbol on a web site for Windows® Portable Media Center (PMC)*, then these protected downloads will be playable on your GminiTM 500. Protected Internet Video content If you check the PlaysForSureTM website (www.playsforsure.com) you will find web retailers who offer rental, subscription, or purchasable video content. Remember, web sites must carry the PlaysForSureTM symbol in order for their videos to play on the GminiTM 500. 4.2 Non Protected Internet Video Content The GminiTM 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 GminiTM 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-frames AVI 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. 16 17 If you have some video files that do not play directly on your GminiTM 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 GminiTM 500. It will display a little message `converting'. You can also use the software MPEG-4 Translator included on the GminiTM 500 hard drive to reencode your video files into the proper MPEG-4 SP format that the GminiTM 500 can play. See the chapter Video ­ creating MPEG-4 video files with your computer for more details. 17 18 5 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 GminiTM 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 GminiTM 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 GminiTM 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 GminiTM 500. See the web site www.mpegmobile.com for a list of a few of them. PC Tools The GminiTM 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 DubTM. 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. 18 19 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 GminiTM 500, you will need to create an AVI 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 GminiTM 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 DubTM 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 DubTM see the website - http://www.virtualdub.org. MPEG-4 Translator This program, developed by Archos, 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 GminiTM 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. 19 20 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 required AVI 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 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 DubTM program has not been installed, you will also be notified, and you should install it. If you have placed the Virtual DubTM program in a folder other than the installer default folder, it will ask you to locate the file. 20 21 Select Source & Destination Files In this example, a source file 24 hours of Lemans.avi has been selected as the source video. You can see on the bottom of the window its original characteristics (width 720, height 576, frame rate 24). Next, you must then tell the program where to place (Set Destination file) the newly recoded version of the file (don't worry, it will not erase the original). You should give it a new descriptive name. Make sure you add the .avi extension. Change Settings Next, you can change the parameters (Change Settings) of the encoder to adjust the level of quality of the final image. Like MP3 music, the higher the bit rate setting is made, the higher the quality of the music, or video in this case, that you will get. However, this will also take up more space on your hard drive. A setting of 900 kbps will give you a nice looking image for viewing on a television. For near DVD quality, you can set it up to 1200 kbps. 21 22 Target & Priority If the GminiTM 500 device is not listed, select "ARCHOS Default". You will see a Priority box appear. This control is to allow you to select which feature of the video to be guarded. If for example you are reencoding a video file that is 800x600 in resolution and 30 frames per second, this is beyond the maximum resolution that the GminiTM 500 can play. Thus, the MPEG-4 Translator program will have to decrease the resolution. Choosing LCD optimizes the final video format for viewing on the built in LCD screen. Choosing the TV option will optimize the movie to keep the highest possible frame rate. You can see what the size and frame rate will be by looking at the Video Image Size : Destination parameters. When choosing TV, it is understood that the output will be optimized for a television, and not the built-in screen. Start Click on Start and the program will call Virtual DubTM to start processing the video. Depending on the power and speed of your computer, this could take real time (a 60 minute long video re-encoded in about 60 minutes) or much longer. As shown to the left, you will see the progress as it processes the video file. If the Start button is grayed out, it would be for one of two reasons. 1) The source file is not a true AVI file. Even if the file name ends with .avi, the internal file data determines if it is truly an AVI file. 2) The Virtual Dub program was not located when MPEG-4 Translator was started up. Close the program, restart it, and make sure you locate the Virtual Dub program. 22 23 6 MUSIC ­ Playing Music Files When you click on the music icon in the main screen, you will be sent directly to the ARCLibrary. From here you can choose to either browse your music by the file system (Browse hard drive) or by music characteristics (Album, Artist, title, Genre, Year). Use the LEFT, RIGHT, UP, and DOWN buttons to locate one of the factory installed music samples and then click on PLAY. If you hear nothing at first, make sure you have adjusted the volume control on the headphone cord. Display during music playback 1. Current Directory 2. Play Mode: One Directory 3. Status: Playing 4. Battery level 5. Volume (maximum:99) 6. Song title* or file name 7. Artist* or parent folder 8. Album* or current folder 9. Next track to be played 10. Relative location in the track 11. Elapsed, remaining, and total song time 12. Time of Day 13. Album picture* 14. File format and rec info 15. Volume level meters *If the file contains these tag data 1 23 4 5 12 6 7 8 13 14 9 10 11 15 23 24 6.1 Vol + HSA FF Rew Button Control Increase the Volume High speed advance Click once: Play the next song in the folder or playlist. Hold: Fast forward through the song. Click once: Play the previous song in the folder or playlist (during first 10 seconds of song) otherwise go to the beginning of the song. Hold: Fast reverse through the song. High speed reverse Decrease the Volume Play/pause/resume Stop Song To lock the GminiTM 500 buttons, select the Lock action icon on the main screen and press the Select button. The GminiTM 500 will display the "locked" icon in the top left corner of the screen. Press the Select button again to unlock the buttons. You can still use the UP and DOWN buttons to change the volume. HSR Vol. o X 6.2 Play Screen Icons Status Stopped Blinks while Playing a track Current track is paused Recording a track 24 25 Play Order (no icon) Play once Repeat playing Shuffle (Random) track selection Play Mode GminiTM 500 is currently playing from a Playlist Folder: Play all tracks in the current directory All: Play all tracks on GminiTM 500 Single: Play a single track then stop Queue: User can queue the next track to be played * Scan: Plays first 10 ­ 90 seconds of each track* * See the PlayMode section in the Settings chapter of this manual for details. 25 26 6.3 Browsing through your Music Library The ARClibrary is your GminiTM 500's music library. It is a system for indexing your music by album, artist, song title, etc. When you synchronize music files from your PC using Windows Media® Player to the GminiTM 500, the ARCLibrary will get updated to include the new songs you have added. As shown in this screen capture, you can select your music by Artist, Album, Song Title, Genre, or Year. All music files that you purchase have internal `tags' which identify the artist, the album, and the song title. If your music files do not have internal tags (ex: WAV file format or untagged WMA or MP3 files) then the ARCLibrary will put them under the category (Unknown). Audio files created with the GminiTM 500 from analog sources are indexed as Artist = (ARCHOS) and Album = (Audio Recordings). You can reach the PlayMode settings screen from the Setup action icon > PlayMode. The play mode determines how your music is played (just the current folder of music, all music, one file, etc.). See Playmode in the section Settings for a description of how each one works. 26 27 6.4 Playing Through your Stereo System To play your music through your stereo system, you can connect your AV cable as shown. Playing through a Stereo system with an AV Cable 6.5 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. Simply select the Set Bookmark action icon. 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 yellow check 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 an audio file which contains a bookmark, you will be presented with three options: Resume: Start playing from the bookmarked position. Ignore: Clear: Keep the bookmark but start playing from the very beginning. Clear the bookmark from this file and start playing from the very beginning. 27 28 6.6 The Resume Function When you turn on your GminiTM 500 you may 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 GminiTM 500 can resume the last played audio or video file. 28 29 7 MUSIC ­ Putting Music onto your GminiTM 500 Your ArchosTM product is a certified PlaysForSureTM digital device which means that wherever you find music for sale on the Internet with this symbol, you can be certain that it will `Play for sure' on your GminiTM 500*. The GminiTM 500 is designed to work seamlessly with Windows Media® Player (WMP) versions 9 and 10. The Windows Media® Player software is used to download digital media content from the Internet to your computer and organize it. You will also use it to synchronize (copy) the contents of your Windows Media® Player media library to your ArchosTM device. See the comparison chart below for an explanation of the different features available when running Windows Media Player 9 and 10 or check out the web site www.playsforsure.com. *Subscription services require you to be running Windows Media® Player 10. 7.1 Synchronizing Music from Windows Media® Player (WMP) to the GminiTM 500 The Synchronize button in Windows Media® Player (WMP) is a one way `sync' button. That is, it will add music, video, and photo files to your GminiTM 500 so that you have the same digital media on your GminiTM 500 as you have in your Windows Media® Player media library. Of course, you can choose to sync only certain songs, videos, or photos, or sync your entire library. On WMP10, you can click the button Set up Sync in the Sync tab and then check the box labeled Synchronize Device Automatically. This is the auto-sync advantage of WMP10. If this box is checked, then each time you connect your GminiTM 500 to your PC, Windows Media® Player will automatically start up and check to see if there are any new music, videos, or photos in your media library, and if so, will then copy them to your GminiTM 500. You also have the possibility to decide what types of media automatically sync when you connect your GminiTM 500. For example, you may only want music files to be synchronized. On the other hand, with Windows Media® Player 9, you have to tell it what you want to sync, WMP9 cannot synchronize automatically when you connect your GminiTM 500 to your computer. 29 30 Note for WMP10 users: Files added to your GminiTM 500 from another computer or files which are recorded from an analog source cannot be added to the Windows Media® Player Library when you connect your GminiTM 500 to the computer. Songs which have been added, will however, be listed in the device's ARCLibrary. 7.2 Comparison of Windows Media Player 10 to Windows Media Player 9 Windows® Media Player 10 is only available for Windows® XP (service Pack 1) and newer operating systems. It is worth your while to upgrade to Windows® XP (home or professional) and to Windows® Media Player 10. The list below shows the advantages. Functionality Auto-synchronize the WMP library to ARCHOSTM GminiTM 500 on connecting to PC Can synchronize subscription music (`to go' services) to your GminiTM 500 Carefree USB disconnection (no special green arrow unmount procedure) Will convert video files** to play on your GminiTM 500 if not in correct format Supports protected Internet video downloads PlaysForSureTM audio content WMP9 no* no no no no yes (download) WMP10 yes yes yes yes yes yes * Must use WMP9 manual sync function to copy purchased music to the GminiTM 500. **Microsoft reserves the right to limit which video file formats it will convert with WMP10 30 31 7.3 Transferring your CD collection to the GminiTM 500 The process of transferring music from a CD into music files for your GminiTM 500 is known as `ripping'. It is actually a re-encoding process, taking the CDA (CD Audio) format and converting it to WMA or MP3 format which the GminiTM 500 can read. There are many music ripping programs on the market, but ARCHOSTM recommends that you use Windows Media® Player to do it. 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 GminiTM 500 to your computer with the supplied USB cable. Now, you go to the Sync tab and tell Windows Media® Player to synchronize that album to your GminiTM 500. It will then transfer that album to your GminiTM 500. Note: Some music CDs have a special copy protection system that will not allow Windows Media® Player to make music files from them. 7.4 Installing Windows Media® Player 9 (WMP9) If you have Windows® ME or Windows® 2000, you should use Windows Media® Player 9. You can visit the Microsoft® Website to download the very latest version, or install the version found on the GminiTM 500 itself in the folder /Data/PC Installation. 7.5 Installing Windows Media® Player 10 (WMP10) You must be running Windows® XP (Service Pack 1 or higher) in order to install Windows Media® Player 10. Please visit the Microsoft® Website www.playsforsure.com to download and install the very latest version. 31 32 8 MUSIC ­ Playlists A Playlist is a list of songs that the GminiTM 500 will automatically play one after the other. The GminiTM 500 can load one Playlist at a time into its internal memory. You can create new Playlists, add or delete songs from a Playlist, or Save a Playlist to be used another time. There is no limit to the number of Playlists you can save on the GminiTM 500 hard drive. Playlists are indicated by a special list icon (circled icon to the left). 8.1 Playing a Playlist To play a Playlist, you simply scroll to the Playlist, such as `Sample Playlist' shown to the left, and click on PLAY o. The list of songs will be loaded into the internal memory of the GminiTM 500 and then be displayed in a separate panel. Click on PLAY and the songs will be played in the order shown. To shuffle the music entries in a random order, you can click on the Manage Playlist action icon, then choose Shuffle. If you delete a Playlist from your GminiTM 500, you are only deleting the list and not the music itself. 8.2 Creating a Playlist To create a Playlist, select the Open Playlist panel action icon while you are in the Music browser. A second panel will open on the right side to display the Playlist contents. You can now start adding songs to the current Playlist. In the left panel, locate the songs you would like to add to your Playlist. Once the song is highlighted, click on the RIGHT or ENTER button or select the Add to Playlist action icon to add it to the Playlist. The song will be added to the Playlist and a small mark next to the music icon will be made to indicate that it is in the Playlist. Continue searching and adding songs in this manner until you are satisfied. You can select the Add or Insert action buttons 32 33 when highlighting a folder, artist, or album. All the contents of the folder, artist, or album will be added (that is, appended) or inserted before the selected song in the current Playlist. You can jump back and forth between the browser and the Playlist by selecting the Focus buttons. A Playlist can have a maximum of 5000 songs. We recommend that you save your Playlists. 8.3 Saving a Playlist It is recommended that each time you create a Playlist, you save it to a separate folder called Playlists. These lists take very little space on your hard drive and if well named, give you easy access to your favorite songs. Go to the Playlist by selecting Music from the main menu and then select the Open Playlist panel action icon. You will then see the list of songs in the current Playlist. Use the action button to focus on the right panel, then select the Manage Playlists action icon, and select Save. ATTENTION: Make sure that your left panel is the Playlists folder because the open panel on the left is the location the GminiTM 500 will be saving your Playlist to. Save Close Rename Clear Shuffle Saves the current playlist to Playlists or the folder open in the left panel. The * after the Playlist name indicates that this playlist has not been saved. Clears the Playlist and closes the Playlist panel. Renames the current playlist. Clears the contents of the current playlist. Randomly shuffles the order of the songs in the current playlist. The following Playlist action icons are also available Icon: Remove Track Icon: Move track Will delete the highlighted song from the Playlist. It will not delete the actual song itself from your hard drive, just from the current Playlist. Allows you to change the place in the list of the highlighted song. Click on Move and then click on UP or DOWN to move the song up or down the list. Click OK when finished. 33 34 Important: Once you save a Playlist it is important that you do not move or rename the actual music files since the Playlist searches in the original file location. If you need to move your music files to a different folder, you'll have to recreate your Playlist. 8.4 Adding songs to a Playlist while listening to Music This can only be done if you have entered your Music folder via the Music icon and not by the general browser. To add the song you are listening to or any other song to the current Playlist, do the following: · While playing a song, choose the action icon Playlist Editor. A new window will open with two panels, the hard drive contents on the left, and the Playlist on the right. · Select the Focus on the left panel action icon to go to the hard drive browser panel. · Select the song or folder of songs to add, then click PLAY or the action icon Add to Playlist. · Click ESC to return to the playing screen. Remember to save your changes before closing the Playlist. 34 35 9 9.1 MUSIC ­ Recording Music With the GminiTM 500 series, you do not need a computer to create digital music files. Using the optional multiconnect adapter (AV Travel cable kit P/N 500671, available at www.archos.com), it is possible to record from any standard analog line source (ex: HiFi system, Boombox, CD Player, etc) into a standard Windows® .WAV format, either PCM (uncompressed) or ADPCM (compressed). Cable connections for audio recording Plug the AV cable into the AV In side of the adapter, and then plug the adapter into the GminiTM 500. 35 36 9.2 Recording Procedure Before the actual audio recording begins, there is a pre-recording screen which will allow you to adjust your recording settings. 1. On the main screen, select AudioCorder then click on ENTER. 2. In the pre-recording screen, adjust the recording level* by clicking on the LEFT and RIGHT buttons (only Analog Line-In). Click on the record action icon (or Enter button) to start recording. Attention, the first time recording you should adjust your Settings. * You should try some test recordings before deciding on which recording level gives the best sound quality. Don't be tricked by the volume of the headphones which can be adjusted independently with the UP and DOWN buttons. 36 37 3. Click on the Settings action icon to reveal the recording parameters screen as shown. 4. Once you have clicked on the Record action icon (or Enter button), you can pause the recording by clicking the Pause action icon (or Enter button) and then stop the recording by clicking on the STOP button. You can record from any line-level audio source to the GminiTM 500. Be careful that the source audio is supplying a line level and not an amplified signal (turning down the volume on the player will work if you are using the headphone out signal of your audio device). A signal that is amplified too much will make for a terribly distorted recording. Microphone The built-in microphone is located on the top of the GminiTM 500. Make sure that you have selected Microphone as the input source in the pre-recording Settings screen. The microphone level is preset. 37 38 Incremental Recording While recording, you will notice the incremental recording action icon. This allows you to create incremental recordings. This means that the current recording stops and a new recording instantly begins. The next recording has an additional number appended to its name. Thus if you create multiple incremental recordings, you might, for example, have files names of REC0000_01, REC0000_02, etc. This is good for recording old cassettes and old vinyl records. You can click on this icon during the blank space between each song. That way, each song of the vinyl disk or audio cassette will be one single music file. 9.3 Where is the Recording Saved? The default location for audio recordings is the folder called Music. This can be changed though. For example, you click on the Music icon in the main menu and then you choose Browse Hard Drive. Notice that there is the Launch Audiocorder action icon. Each time you use this button to start the Audiocorder application instead of the AudioCorder button on the main menu, you set the recording default location to the current folder. For example, let's say you have a folder called /Music/Vinyls/Soul. If you go to this folder and then make a recording using the action icon, you will set the default record location to this folder. Now, all your recordings you make with the Audiocorder icon will be saved in the folder /Music/Vinyls/Soul. 9.4 Audio Editing Audio files (only recordings that were made from the AudioCorder icon) can be modified by deleting the sections you do not wish included. If you would like to edit an audio recording, you have the possibility to cut the file down to the specific part you want to keep. In the example below, you have recorded a lecture of 33 minutes and 22 seconds in length. You would like to cut out and save just one particular important section from 12 minutes and 15 seconds to 21 minutes and 5 seconds. The diagram below illustrates the situation. 38 39 To keep just this section (cropping it), you will: · Locate this file via Browse hard drive in the Music application. · From the action icons, select the File Management action icon and then select Edit. · In the edit mode, set the Cut In point (12:15 in our example). This will remove the part of the file BEFORE the desired segment. · Now set a Cut Out point (21:05 in our example. Please note: As you have cut part of the file, this position will actually be earlier in the file now). · Validate and Save the edit. The file will be saved with the word "edit" appended to the file name in the same folder as the original. · If you do not want to save your modifications, click the STOP/ESC button and select OK. Highlight the file to edit and select the File Management action icon. Choose Edit. Only files which have been created with the GminiTM 500 recording function will show Edit in the file menu. Files created from CDs or downloaded cannot be edited. Once you enter the edit mode, the audio file will play in a continuous loop so that you will be able to hear the changes to the edit as you make them. Use the fast-reverse and fast-forward buttons (LEFT/RIGHT buttons) to locate the points you want the new file to start and end. These are the Cut In and Cut Out points. Once you have set these points, you can save the edit. In this example, a new file REC0001_Edit will be made. Your original file is left untouched. You will notice that your Cut In and Cut Out times are marked just below the file name. 39 40 10 10 MUSIC ­ Using iTunesTM with your GminiTM 500 The easiest way to transfer music files between a Macintosh® computer and your GminiTM 500 is to use the Macintosh FinderTM to drag and drop the files to and from your Macintosh®. However, for Macintosh® users who do want to use the GminiTM 500 with iTunes®, ARCHOSTM has developed a special i-Tunes® plug-in. You will find it in the folder /Data/i-Tunes Plug-in on the GminiTM 500 hard drive or at the ARCHOSTM website. In this folder you will find a plug-in for Mac OS 9.x and another folder for Mac OS 10.x. You will also find a JPEG image illustrating where you need to copy the plug-in to. Once this is done, iTunesTM will recognize the GminiTM 500 as a `Device'. Attention Your GminiTM 500 needs to be set to "Hard drive" mode (see the section System Settings in the Settings chapter or the chapter Connecting/Disconnecting the GminiTM 500 to/from your PC on how to do this.) Please keep in mind the following: 1) Music purchased at Apple's on-line music store are copy protected with a proprietary encryption system. The ARCHOSTM device will not be able to play this purchased music or files in ACC format which you might have created. It will happily play MP3 format files without problem. 2) When you create your Playlists with iTunes® (you can only create Playlists from songs that have been copied to your GminiTM 500), your Macintosh® will save these Playlists to the root directory of your GminiTM 500. It will not save them to the GminiTM 500 Playlists directory. It would be best to use the GminiTM 500 itself to make Playlists and then save these Playlists in your Playlists folder. (See section Creating a Playlist in chapter Music ­Playlists) 3) When you drag and drop MP3 files from your iTunes® library to your GminiTM 500, the i-Tunes® program will look at the ID3 tag information of the MP3 file, and create a folder on the root of your GminiTM 500 using the name of the Artist as the folder name. Then it will take the Album name ID3 tag, and create a subfolder with that album as its name. Finally, it will take the MP3 song itself and place it into that album subfolder. Thus, although it is a clean structure of artists and albums, i-Tunes® does not follow the GminiTM 500 convention of placing the music into the Music folder first. 40 41 11 11 11.1 PHOTO ­ Viewing Photos The GminiTM 500 series support the viewing of JPEG (.jpg) and Bitmap (.bmp) image formats. Progressive JPEG images or certain camera formats such as NEF or RAW are not supported. The GminiTM 500 will resize the image to fit on the built-in screen or on a television screen if you choose the television output. When you are in the Photo mode, it means that only files of type JPEG or BMP will be visible in the directory. Other file types will not be visible. The three images on the right are thumbnail sized pictures of the highlighted file (center) and the picture just before and just after the highlighted file. Select the Photo icon, then click Enter o in order to go to the Photo directory. Viewing Photos When you click Enter o on a highlighted image file, the GminiTM 500 will display the image in full screen mode. Displayed as a full screen image, you can rotate it, magnify it, or set it as the GminiTM 500 screen background with the Save as Wallpaper function in the File Management action icon. 1 x 1 image 2 x 2 images (Zoom out 1x) 3 x 3 images (Zoom out 2x) 41 42 Rotate picture 90° left View previous/next photo Rotate picture 90° right · Move up the action icon menu to select a picture option. · Select the Zoom in/out action icon to change the number of photos in the carrousel view. Magnifying Photos Once the picture is displayed in full screen, selecting the Zoom in action icon will magnify the image up to two levels. Each successive click will magnify the picture one more level. You can use your direction buttons to move the picture around in order to see the desired magnified area. The small + signs on the bottom left of the screen indicate the level of magnification, either + or ++. Click on STOP/ESC to go back to an unmagnified view. 11.2 Viewing a slideshow By clicking on the action icon Play a Slideshow, the GminiTM 500 will present each picture in the current folder for a set amount of time and then go on to the next picture. You can set the amount of time that each picture stays on the screen under the action icon Photo Browser Settings > Picture Pause. This parameter is the number of seconds each picture displays on the screen. 42 43 11.3 Transferring photos to your GminiTM 500 The GminiTM 500 is equipped with a USB host port. This port, along with the USB Host adapter cable will allow you to connect USB Mass Storage Class (MSC) devices to your GminiTM 500 and transfer files from that device to your GminiTM 500. Many cameras produced today are MSC type devices. Thus you can often plug your camera directly into the GminiTM 500's USB Host port and copy your photos with the ARCHOSTM browser. If you do not have an MSC type camera, you can use a USB card reader and plug this into GminiTM 500's USB host port (via the USB host adapter cable). Finally if neither of these solutions is available to you, you can always copy the photos to your computer and then copy them from your computer to the connected GminiTM 500 (via USB 2). 3 methods to copy photos to your GminiTM 500 1) Connect your Mass Storage Class camera to USB Host port (via USB host adapter cable). 2) Use a stand alone USB card reader with the USB host adapter cable. 3) Copy photos to your computer and then copy (or Sync with Windows Media® Player 10) to the GminiTM 500 (via USB 2). Once you plug an MSC type device into the USB host port (via the host adapter cable), the browser's left panel will show the contents of your external USB device, and the right panel will show the contents of your GminiTM 500's hard drive. Navigate to the panel which contains your photos (in this example /DCIM/113CANON). Move to the right panel (action) and navigate to the folder you would like to save your photos to (you can create a new folder if you need to by selecting the corresponding action icon). See the screen images on the next page. Method 1 43 44 Photos from camera are shown on the left, and your GminiTM 500 hard drive on the right. By using the Select right pane action icon, move to the right pane and choose the destination folder. Now return to the left pane and choose the Copy all files action icon. Your files will be copied to your GminiTM, into the folder in the right pane. You can now unplug the camera from the GminiTM 500. 44 45 12 12 BROWSER ­ Using the Browser The browser is used to navigate the file system on the GminiTM 500. The file system is FAT32, the same type of file system that is found on Windows® based computers. That is, it is a hierarchical system which includes folders and subfolders. Because you will be putting hundreds of files on your GminiTM 500, it is STRONGLY ADVISED that you keep a neat and orderly file structure. Otherwise, you will be spending time searching for files and not listening or watching them. ARCHOSTM recommends that you keep the factory created folders: Data, Music, Playlists, Video, and Pictures. The folders Music, Pictures, and Video are special folders in that the icons on the main screen lead to these folders and then places you directly in that folder. If these folders are deleted or renamed, you will be taken to the root level (highest level) of the directory hierarchy. 45 46 12.1 Navigating the Directory Structure To navigate the directory structure you will use: ENTER: Open the highlighted folder (directory) or Play the highlighted file. ESC/STOP x : Go back to the main menu. Move the cursor up and down to the previous or next file or folder. RIGHT: Open the currently highlighted folder. LEFT: Go back up one level in the folder hierarchy. Example: Go from folder Gmini500/Music/ Wes Burden/ to Gmini500/Music. 46 47 12.2 File and Folder Operations Depending on where you are in the folder system, you will have the option to manipulate files and folders. From the main menu, click on Browser. Files that the GminiTM 500 cannot play will be preceded by the unknown file type icon. Folder Operations Info Create Delete File Operations Show file information such as song length, video length, photo size, number of kilobytes used of hard drive space, date file was made, etc. Create a new folder inside the current folder. Delete the file permanently from the GminiTM 500. (Before it is deleted, the GminiTM 500 will ask "Delete file: xxxxx ?". Use the action buttons to reply Yes or No. For folder, it will delete the entire contents of the folder. It will ask "Delete folder: xxxxx and all files therein?" Use the action buttons to reply Yes or No. Change the name of the file or folder to something new. You will be sent to the virtual keyboard (see section Virtual Keyboard in the Browser chapter) to enter the new file or folder name. Create a new folder in the current level of the directory. You will be sent to the virtual keyboard (see section Virtual Keyboard in the Browser chapter) to enter the new folder name. 47 Rename Create 48 Copy/Copy all files Move Make a copy of the selected folder or file(s) and save it to the other pane. Move the selected folder or file to the other pane. The folder will be deleted from its current location. Copying and Moving Files and Folders By using the unique ARCHOSTM double browser system, you can copy or move files from one location in the file structure to another (1000 files per folder maximum). The double browser can be used in: Photo View Music View Browser View The left panel is the connected USB device (ex: digital camera or hard drive) and the right panel the GminiTM 500 hard drive contents. The left browser is the GminiTM 500 hard drive contents and right browser the music Playlist. Two panels to browse two different parts of the GminiTM 500 hard drive. In the Browser mode, you can jump between the two panels using the Focus on the left/right panel action icon. Where the cursor is highlighting a file or folder, that panel is the source for the copy. The destination folder will be the other panel. For example, we want to copy the file Project info.doc from the GminiTM 500/Data/Files from Work folder to the GminiTM 500/Data/Completed projects folder. We must start from the main screen Browser mode. 1) Locate and highlight the file to be copied. Using the action buttons, move to the right pane. 48 49 2) In the right pane, locate the destination folder. Then move back to the left pane. 3) Highlight the file to be copied and select the Copy file action icon. 4) The selected file will now be copied into the destination folder. Please note: You can only copy or move files from one folder to another and not within the same folder. If you select the same folder in both panes, these options are therefore not available. 49 50 12.3 Using the Virtual Keyboard It is recommended that you create folders and rename files or folders from your computer when it is connected to the GminiTM 500. The computer keyboard is much easier to use. However, at times when you are not near your computer and need to enter text directly with the GminiTM 500 (ex: renaming a file or creating a new folder). For this, the virtual keyboard screen will appear. The new text that you are typing Cursor Press ENTER to enter the highlighted key/letter. Change keyboard between upper case and lower case Backspace button Clear the entered text Confirmation to use the entered text. Hold down on the LEFT or RIGHT buttons to move the cursor within the entry line. 50 51 13 13 Connecting/Disconnecting* the GminiTM 500 to/from your PC 13.1 USB Connection Type (`Hard Drive' or `Windows Device') Your device comes configured as a Windows® Device and will be immediately recognized by your computer if you are running Windows® XP (with Service Pack 1 minimum) and Windows Media® Player 10. If you have another version of Windows®, not sure what version of Windows® XP you have, or if you are using a Macintosh®, then you will need to change the USB (Universal Serial Bus) Port setting on the GminiTM 500. You will do this by going to the Settings action icon and then to System and USB Port and change it to `Hard Drive'. 13.2 Connecting the GminiTM 500 Connection order: See the sections below for your particular computer's operating system. 1) Connect the power adapter to the GminiTM 500. 2) With your computer running, plug the USB cable into your computer. 3) With the GminiTM 500 off, plug in the other end of the USB cable to the GminiTM 500 USB Device port. 4) Turn on the GminiTM 500. (If your computer asks to install a new driver for the new hardware, then you must unplug it and change the USB Port to Hard Drive.) * Note that when the GminiTM 500 is connected to a computer, it will use more energy than usual. Your battery power will be consumed at a higher rate than normal. It is normal that the GminiTM 500 will get hot. If the GminiTM 500 looses power while connected to your computer you could damage your directory structure and/or loose data. Thus, you should always use the AC adapter when connected to your computer. Be careful to understand the disconnection procedure also since disconnecting incorrectly can lead to data loss or computer/GminiTM 500 freeze up. The GminiTM 500 is not compatible with Windows® NT, Windows® 95, or Windows® 98. While connected to your computer, the GminiTM 500 buttons are blocked and are no longer functional. 51 52 Windows® XP Please verify** that you have Windows® XP and it is updated it to at least, Service Pack 1. You must also have Windows Media® Player 10 (WMP10) installed on your computer. This way, you can take advantage of connecting it as a `Windows Device'. Connect it to your PC as enumerated above and you can then see the GminiTM 500 in Windows® Explorer and WMP10. Without Windows® XP Service Pack 1 (a free update) or Windows Media Player® 10, you cannot use it as a Windows® recognized `Device' and will have to follow the instructions for Windows® ME & 2000 below. ** Right-click on `My Computer' select `Properties', and then look in the tab labeled `General'. It should say "Service Pack 1" or higher. Windows® ME and 2000 Attention: Before connecting the GminiTM 500 to your computer with the USB cable, go to the setup action icon and then to System and USB Port and change it to `Hard Drive'. When connected to your computer, the GminiTM 500 will be recognized as an external Hard Drive and display automatically within a few seconds of being connected. You will see a new drive letter, such as E: in My Computer called GminiTM 500. You can now use the hard drive called GminiTM 500 like any other external hard drive. Simply access it using Windows® Explorer to drag and drop files to and from the GminiTM 500's hard drive. MacintoshTM OS X If you have OS X, you must update to version 10.2.4 or newer. You must also change the GminiTM 500's USB Port setting to `Hard Drive'. From the main menu, go to the Settings action icon and then to System and USB Port and change it to `Hard Drive'. You will now simply plug the GminiTM 500 into your Macintosh® as enumerated above, and within a few seconds, the GminiTM 500 will be recognized as a mass storage device (Hard Drive) and mount on the desktop. You can now use the hard drive called GminiTM 500 like any other external hard drive. 52 53 13.3 Disconnecting the GminiTM 500 from your Computer Windows Device Mode If the GminiTM 500 is connected to your computer as a Windows Device, verify that no data is being transferred between your GminiTM 500 and your computer (the HDD light on your GminiTM 500 is not flickering). You can now safely unplug the USB cable from your GminiTM 500 and/or computer. Hard Drive Mode If the GminiTM 500 is connected to your computer as a hard drive, DO NOT SIMPLY PULL OUT THE USB CABLE AT ANY TIME! WARNING: You must properly remove (unmount) your GminiTM 500 from the computer before disconnecting the USB cable to avoid loss of data or freezing the computer and/or the GminiTM 500. Hard Drive Mode & Windows® To safely disconnect the GminiTM 500 hard drive, click on the system tray remove icon (green arrow as shown below) and follow the instructions. Wait until you get a message saying that you can safely unplug the device before disconnecting the USB cable. 1. The safe remove icon is in the system tray next to the clock. Windows® XP Windows® 2000 & Windows® ME 2. Click on the icon to eject (unmount) the GminiTM 500 from the computer and select the `Safely remove' message. 53 54 3. There will be a message indicating that it is now safe to disconnect the GminiTM 500. You can now safely unplug the USB cable from your GminiTM 500 and/or computer. Hard Drive Mode & Macintosh® Drag the GminiTM 500 hard drive icon towards the trash can, the trash can will become a big arrow as shown in the screen shot to the left. Drop the hard drive icon onto the arrow. The hard drive icon will disappear from the desktop. You can now safely unplug the USB cable from your GminiTM 500 and/or computer. 54 55 14 14 Connecting Devices to the USB Host Port Thanks to the USB Host port, you can connect USB Mass Storage Class (MSC) devices such as many digital cameras and external hard drives in order to transfer pictures or data to/from your GminiTM 500. Check your manufacturer's information to find out whether your device is an MSC device. Non Mass Storage Class devices such as printers, Ethernet adapters, mice, keyboards, etc. are not supported. To connect an MSC device, use the included short USB host adapter. If your camera follows the Mass Storage Class (MSC) standard for USB connection, then your camera will show up in the file browser as the folder /External USB. In this folder you will see your photos or files. See the chapter on the Browser for instructions on how to copy files. 55 56 15 15 SETTINGS From the main screen, select the Settings action icon to reveal the menu items for various settings. 15.1 Sound Settings If you would like to customize the sound quality, you can adjust the Bass, Treble, and other audio settings to suit your particular taste. Normally you will do this while listening to music so that you can hear the changes you make. Simply click on the Audio Settings action icon while listening to music. · Once in the Settings screen, move over to the Sound icon and click again on ENTER o. Use LEFT and RIGHT buttons to change a parameter's value. You will hear these changes instantly. · Use the UP and DOWN buttons to select different parameters. · Click on STOP/ESC x when finished. You will return to the Setup screen. · Click on STOP/ESC x again and you will return to the music playing screen. 56 57 The Sound Parameters Parameter Volume Bass Treble Balance Bass Boost Reset button Description 0 ­ 99 10 levels. Decreases or Increases the low frequencies. 10 levels. Decreases or Increases the high frequencies. 10 levels. Favors the right or left channel of the Stereo signal. 10 levels. Increases the very low frequencies. Re-adjusts all settings to their default values. 15.2 Play Mode Settings If you would like the GminiTM 500 to play through an entire folder of songs, play songs at random (shuffle), or any of the other playing options, you can set these parameters in the PlayMode settings. Click on the Settings action icon from the main menu or while listening to music and then choose PlayMode. Parameter Playmode options Single Folder All Queue Description Play a single track then stop. Play all tracks in the current directory or current album. Play all tracks on the GminiTM 500. While the current song is playing, select the Show ARCLibrary action button, find the next song you want to play, then click PLAY. This is your queued song. You can only queue one song at a time. See the Playlist section to prepare multiple songs to play. Once the current track is finished playing, your queued track will be played. If you do not queue another track at this time, the GminiTM 500 will play the next song in the directory. 57 58 Scan Each track in the directory is played for the duration selected for the parameter Intro Duration. This allows a quick sample of each song. If you want to play the whole song, click on the Play button during the "intro". The GminiTM 500 will then revert to single directory mode and play the rest of the songs in the directory without scanning. Plays your songs one after the other and then stops after the last song. Continuously plays through the current set of songs (Artist, Album, folder, or Playlist). Randomly play through the current set of songs (Artist, Album, folder, or Playlist). From 10 to 90 seconds. This is the time for which each song will be played when selecting Scan for Playmode settings. Repeat & Shuffle options Normal Repeat Shuffle Intro duration 15.3 Clock Settings The GminiTM 500 has an internal real time clock. The time of day is shown on the top right of the screen in either 24 hour or 12 hour display mode. To set it, select the Settings action icon then select Clock. Choose parameter Choose value for highlighted parameter When finished setting the parameters, move down to the Set button, then click on the ENTER o button. The clock time and date are now set. Click on the STOP/ESC x button to go back to the main settings menu. 58 59 15.4 Display Settings These settings regulate the interface language and the presentation of the screen. Setting Language Action icon notes TV Standard Description The GminiTM 500 can be set to English (default), French, German, Spanish, or Russian. Displays the explanation or name of the action icons when moving up and down through the menu. If set to On, the first click on the SELECT action button will show the names of the icons. The second click will select the icon. NTSC (USA), PAL (Europe). In order to view images or videos on an external television, select one option to send the video signal compatible with your country's television system. Countries other than European or American will use one of these two systems. 4:3 or 13:9 ­ the ratio at which images are displayed on your television set. Internal LCD or External TV. To display via the built-in LCD screen or to view the display via an external television. Holding the LCD/TV button for two seconds will also alternate between these two options. Be sure your television is selecting the correct external input. 0, 1, 2. The 3 brightness levels for the built-in LCD screen. Setting to a lower value will give you a longer battery autonomy. Time for which the video On Screen Display information will be shown when the video starts playing. TV format Video Output LCD Brightness When accessing the Display settings while playing a video you have an additional display option: Video OSD 59 60 15.5 Appearance settings Setting Wallpaper Picture name Description On, Off. When set to On, the selected picture (next item) will be displayed as the GminiTM 500 screen background. This option will display the names of the JPEG images in the GminiTM 500's System folder that can be used for screen backgrounds (Wallpaper). You can add your own JPEG images to the System folder by dragging and dropping a JPEG file from your computer. You can also set the wallpaper within the Photo mode. If your screen background is a dark color, it will be difficult to see the black text on the screen. Set Outlined font to On to have a more visible white outlined font. Allows you to choose what color you would like to have for the status bar above and the screen buttons. Changes the color of the cursor and its background. Click this button to return to the settings last set. Font Outline Color scheme Cursor color Previous settings 15.6 Power Settings These settings will help you to save battery power thus allowing a longer battery autonomy. You can set the GminiTM 500 to conserve power for both modes of operation (when it is powered from the battery, or when it is connected to the AC charger/adapter (DC-Power operation). 60 61 Parameter Power Off Backlight Off Hard drive Description 1-9 minutes or Never. The number of minutes of user inactivity (no buttons pressed) before the GminiTM 500 shuts off. During the playback of music or video files, this setting takes effect only after the files are finished playing. 10-90 seconds or Never. The time of user inactivity (no buttons pressed) before the GminiTM 500 turns off the screen to conserve power. During the playback of video files, this setting only takes effect once the file is finished playing. 10-90 seconds. The number of seconds from the time of the last file access before the GminiTM 500 tells the internal hard drive to stop spinning. The longer this time is set, the more often the hard drive is turning and the quicker the response time when accessing files. However, as it is set longer, it will quickly consume your battery. Caution: This setting should only be changed by experienced users. 1-9 minutes or Never. The number of minutes of user inactivity (no buttons pressed) before the GminiTM 500 goes into Standby mode. When powered by the AC charger/adapter (or connected to a powered TV docking pod), the GminiTM 500 will not completely shut off. It will go into Standby mode. This way, it can wake up to make a scheduled video recording. Standby A typical use of these settings is to set the power off, screen off, and hard drive to low values when used in battery mode. When the power adapter is plugged in, you do not need to conserve energy and thus keeping the Power on and the Backlight on makes using the GminiTM 500 more agreeable. Increasing the hard drive value beyond the default may actually discharge the battery even when the Charger/adapter is plugged in. Note also that your unit will run hotter when the backlight and hard drive are on for long periods of time. 15.7 System Settings The System settings allow you control over the low level parameters of the GminiTM 500. 61 62 Parameter ARCLibrary Description Off: From the Music icon, you will just browse music files in the folder Music. On: (Only in USB Port mode `Hard drive') Browse music via its tag characteristics but the ARCLibrary must be updated manually. Automatic: ARCLibrary is automatically updated when the USB cable is disconnected from your device. Update ARCLibrary USB Port Windows Device This button lets you update the ARCLibrary if you have set the parameter above to ON. Windows Device (default), Hard drive. When set to , your GminiTM 500 will use the MTP (Media Transport Protocol) whenever it is connected to a Windows XP (SP1 or higher) operating system with Windows Media® Player 10 installed. It will be seen as the GminiTM 500 `Device' in Windows® Explorer. WARNING: This will not work for earlier Windows® operating systems or MacIntosh® computers. When set to Hard Drive, your GminiTM 500 will act as an external hard drive (mass storage device) when connected to a computer. Use this mode for all non-Windows® XP operating systems. Displays the current version of the OS (Operating System) and DRM (Digital Rights Management) system. Used to update the GminiTM 500 to a new version of the Operating System. See the chapter Updating the GminiTM 500 Firmware Operating System. Each GminiTM 500 device has a unique product key number. Displays the amount of free and used space on the GminiTM 500's hard drive. Reported number of megabytes is binary based counting (1kb=1024 bytes). Thus each reported MB represents approximately 1.05 megabytes (decimal). Formatting also takes up space. Hard drive Firmware Version Update Firmware Product Key Hard Drive 62 63 16 16 Updating the GminiTM 500 Firmware Operating System (OS) ARCHOSTM periodically updates the Operating System (OS) and makes it available for free download on the ARCHOSTM website (www.archos.com). Updates to the Operating System include new features, feature improvements, and bug fixes. You should check to make sure that you are running the most recent version of the OS. To check what version you have, click on the Settings action icon and then go to System. You will find the most recent version of the OS and its version number at the ARCHOSTM website (www.archos.com) under the download section. Download the Update_GminiTM 500.AOS file When you click on the link to download the new OS file (the file name is Update_Gmini500.AOS), your browser may warn you that the contents of the download may harm your computer. This is because the Windows® system does not know what a .AOS file is. Be assured that ARCHOSTM has made every effort to ensure that the file does not contain viruses. Click on the option Save to download this file to a convenient place, such as My Documents, in order to later copy this file to your GminiTM 500. If your GminiTM 500 is connected to your PC, you can even save it directly to the GminiTM 500. Read the History.txt File You will also find next to the firmware download, a text file which details the list of changes from the previous version of the OS. Copy to the GminiTM 500 When updating your Operating System, you must keep the AC charger/adapter plugged into the GminiTM 500 so that it will not shut down due to low batteries while you are performing the update. Connect your GminiTM 500 to your computer (refer to the relevant chapter if you are unsure about this), and then copy the Update_Gmini500. AOS file to the GminiTM 500. 63 64 `Hard Drive' or `Windows Device'? If your GminiTM 500 is seen as a hard drive, then you simply need to drag the Update_Gmini500.AOS file onto this icon, and Windows® will place the file into the top most directory (root) of the GminiTM 500. It should not be placed inside any folder within your GminiTM 500. Once this file is copied, safely disconnect (refer to the chapter on Connecting/Disconnecting) the GminiTM 500 from the computer. If your GminiTM 500 is seen as a Windows® Device, then you will have to open the GminiTM 500 Device in Windows® Explorer and drop the Update_Gmini500.AOS into the Data folder (not the Media folder). If there is already an older version of the Update_Gmini500.AOS file on your GminiTM 500, Windows® will ask if you want to overwrite the current file. Click on Yes. Disconnect the GminiTM 500 from your computer. Activate the Update Ensure that your GminiTM 500 is still powered through the AC charger/adapter. Next, on hte GminiTM, go to the System parameters from the Settings action icon and then move down to Update Firmware and click on it. The GminiTM 500 will search for the .AOS file. Follow the on-screen instructions. When completed, the GminiTM 500 will restart and you can go back to this screen to verify that you have updated the firmware to the new version. 64 65 17 Replacing the battery