Archos Jukebox Recorder (20 GB) (PJB100-6GB-VIOLET)

Pros: With Rockbox, the JBR is flexible.
Sound is decent.
Uses notebook hard drive.
Cons: Without Rockbox, the JBR is garbage.
Top door can pop loose, which causes abrupt shutdowns.

I picked up the Archos Jukebox Recorder (JBR) at a local thrift nearly two months ago for $3.50 (half-price day), of course passed up by the usual shoppers, heh. Least to say, I was very impressed. The JBR I have is actually the FM version, as some of ...

Pros: Great Software features, PRICE, huge 20gb HD, Data storage, volume, and lots more in review
Cons: Weight (not too bad though), thats it.

Before you even touch the unit, DOWNLOAD ROCKBOX! Very, very important. What is RockBox? You download it from theyre website and copy it to the Archos unit by USB and it changes the Operating System for the player. It changes it totally. Tons of ...

Pros: Could use the unit as a mobile hard drive as well as a MP3 player
Cons: Faulty unit not backed up by company. Internal operating system has MANY bugs.

I purchased an Archos 20 GB MP3 player on 1/30/04. By November, the unit would no longer be recognized by either my desktop or my laptop when I tried to connect the unit, and so I got a hold of Archos' Technical Support. They had me send the unit in ...

Pros: I don't know.
Cons: Archos customer support is a joke.

I've had several Archos products over the years and been very happy with all of them. Never had a need to contact customer service which is a good sign. However, I purchased this unit in early December. It worked beautifully for about a half hour then ...

Pros: Cost, speed of downloads, replaceable batteries, ease of use (read the manual) and size.
Cons: That I didn't buy two when they were $125 on amazon.

UPDATED 4/21/04: Okay, now for some words on actually using this for a couple of months. I have downloaded almost 12 Gig of MP3's and this thing has worked flawlessly. It takes about 1-2 minutes to copy a complete CD to MP3 format and then less than ...

Pros: hard drive, replaceable batteries
Cons: NOT reliable

i bought this item based on a couple of key features. one, windows recognizes it as a hard drive and it doesn't require any software. two, it doesn't have a proprietary battery. you can use rechargeable batteries; although, the ones that come w/it are ...

Pros: Good sound, Great Battery life, 20 GIGS!!!!!
Cons: Pretty bulky, some freez.....FILE CORRUPTION()very fixable & rare)

I think I got mine 4 like 250ish and its been great. Sure its freezes a little but only 4 like 10sec. The sound is compition to the ipod. The included headphones are nice, the neck raparound knd that hold up which is nice. So basiclly DONT BUY THE IPOD! It cost like 150 more and unless u hav a money tree in ur backyard, the ipod just looks a little better and is smaller.

UPDATE: After a few days after I wrote that generous review, MY FILES GOT CORRUPTED! It just did it by itself and now I cant use it. Call me a hipocrite but im gonna buy a Ipod off of ebay, u can find a 40 gig ipod 4 about 300!!! HAPPY BIDDING

UPDATE: After i called customer service, they helped me get the thing working. I apoligize for going overboard but it realy annoynded me, STAY WITH ARCHOS!!!!

Pros: Has a lot of features for the price
Cons: Where do you get replacement batteries when the rechargeables die?

Well I bought this slightly used recorder off someone at work for $120.00 about 6 months ago. She got a new fancy IPOD.The 20 Gigabyte hard drive has plenty of room for whatever you can think of. One day though I was viewing the player and it died for some reason now I am back in business and its working once more.

As of my writing this I have changed my mind on this unit. At first I thought it was something wrong but now I realize it was my operation of the item that was creating problems. Since then I have used this quite a bit. It may not be as sexy as the IPOD but it has a built in FM Radio which is pretty neat. Like with all hard drives you need to be sensitive to droping it and such but I find it great for backing up all my files and good for music and video too. I use it at work quite a bit and find it pretty indespensable now. So I am now changing my rating since it has been working fine for over a year now.

Pros: 20gb, Also a Hard Drive, All types of Open Source replacement firmware
Cons: Not as small as others

A very sturdy multi purpose unit. Not only do I use it for playing my MP3's, but I use it for a portabile hard drive.

If you purchase this player, I advise as others stated to go online and download ROCBOX software for it. It will give you so many capabilities, and the features are constantly being updated.

You can get a auto adapter and cassette adapter to use it in your car. Theres nothing like having absolutely every track you own available to you in your vehicle.

I like being able to have all my music on hand, along with all the pictures I've taken of my family to share with others.

A very good value and very versatile in its uses.

Pros: 20GBs, doubles as an external HD.
Cons: A button broke but Archos fixed it under warranty.

I bought this 2+ years ago and have been very happy with it. I just plug it into my computer and I can use it as an external hard drive. No need to install drivers if you are using Win ME or newer. The battery is still going strong and the unit still works as good as when I first unpacked it.

Pros: very functional, big HD, nice headphones come with it
Cons: somewhat ulgy and heavy.

I got the Archos Jukebox a few years ago and i have had no problems. I don't have to worry about having too many songs or the time it takes to transfer data from PC to the Jukebox. I enjoy being able to put homemade movies on it and sharing them with my friends. It's not the most attractive mp3 player on the market, but I seem to like it. Also, the noise the hard drives makes is recorded whenever using the microphone.

Pros: large storage capacity, easy to use
Cons: bulky unit - bad tech-support and lousy customer service

I bought this MP3 player a few years ago because I wanted to have a lot of music available to me on a compact and "mobile" basis. Now the unit does store a lot of music and/or data. But it is very bulky and the buttons are cheap and seem to stick or get stuck. Furthermore everything else was a disaster from the start. I was constantly getting disk error messages on the screen. I sent the unit back to ARCHOS and they sent me a rebuilt one. That SEEMED to be ok for awhile until one day (just after the warranty expired) it simply stopped working - tech-support at ARCHOS was of NO help at all (change the batteries??!!)and after several emails to ARCHOS regarding the possibility of repairing or replacing the player - I just gave up. I recommend you STAY AWAY from this company - they don't stand behind their products

Pros: Easy transfer of MP3s and other files via USB. Huge storage capacity. Long battery life.
Cons: Hangs once in a while. Boot up time is 15 seconds. My wife steals mine.

I' ve had mine for over 6 months and at first there was some minor problems with freezing up. Then I installed RockBox 2.2 and now I have hardly any problems. The one thing I have noticed is hanging on songs if there are 100 MP3s in 1 directory. But then it just takes a few seconds to resume. Battery life is amazing. I listen to it at work for a solid 8 hours a day and it still has a quarter power left. And there is a little more customization capability if you switch the OS to RockBox... different fonts, tweaking and even a few games. The USB 2.0 link to download is lightning fast and filling up 20 GB with music is hard to do. I have even dropped it off my desk a few times while it was playing and it didn't skip a beat. It's tough! I recommend this player and now I need one for my wife.

Pros: Sound quality, use it through Hi-Fi, battery life, reliable performance, build quality, value for money.
Cons: Smaller units now exist.

I bought the 20Gb Recorder (April 2002 - $350) so that I could take ALL my music with me and use the unit through my hi-fi system. Quality at 128kbps is as good as CD through my amp. and speakers, very impressed. Having ALL music easily found (not looking at 300 CD cases) is big advantage.

Tech support had solved most bugs with version 1.27d of firmware very quickly - DOWNLOAD THIS IMMEDIATELY.

On the move the unit is very robust (no jumping/skipping), even survived a fall while hiking. It occasionally hangs up after an hour or so, and needs a restart, still better than all PCs I've used. Battery life of 8-10 hours v. good, however, I recommend changing the set of NiMH every year (about £6).

The boot-up time and navigation much better that the original Creative JB players (they may have improved since).

At the time of purchase this was the smallest 20Gb drive and I still think it's the best value for money - the Ipods are v. impressive design, but I can put up with the bulk of the Archos.