204 MP3 & WMA Digital Music Player / Photo Viewer / USB 2.0 Hard Drive English user manual Version 1 - Please visit www.archos.com/manuals to download the latest version for this manual. 1 2 An introductory note from ARCHOS Dear Customer, Thank you for choosing this Archos™ product. We hope that you will enjoy using it and that it will give you satisfaction for many years to come. Please do register your product on our website (www.archos.
3 Table of Contents 1 2 3 4 5 6 Ports, Buttons, and Connections First Time Usage 2.1 Charging the Battery 2.2 Turning the Archos™ 204 ON and OFF 2.3 Changing the Interface language 2.4 Caring for the Archos™ 204 2.5 Foreign Character Sets Playing Music 3.1 Playing a Music File 3.3 Playback Menu Items 3.4 ARCLibrary Specifics 3.5 ARCLibrary Updating 3.6 Setting a Bookmark 3.7 The Resume Function 3.8 Locking the Archos™ 204 Buttons Putting Music onto your Archos™ 204 4.
5 1 Ports, Buttons, and Connections A (A) Headphone Jack 2 (B) USB 2.0 port – To connect your Archos device to a computer, to transfer files and/or charge the battery.
7 2.2 Turning the Archos™ 204 ON and OFF • Press and hold the ON/Menu button until the screen comes on. • The Archos™ 204 will automatically shut off after a given amount of time if no buttons are pressed. To conserve battery energy, the backlight will automatically shut off. You can change these parameters in Setup > Power. • Press and hold the Stop/off button until the Archos™ 204 shuts off. 2.
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11 3.3 Playback Menu Items When the menu icon appears, you have certain options. During song playback, press the MENU button for the following options. • Setup: Enters the Setup screen (same as selecting the Setup icon in the main menu) which allows you access to parameters such as bass and treble. C • Info: Show file information such as the file name, number of kilobytes of hard drive space used, date created, file format, etc.
13 3.8 Locking the Archos™ 204 Buttons You can prevent the Archos™ 204 from executing unintended functions by locking the buttons. To lock the buttons, hold down on the MENU button until the “lock” icon appears in the top-left corner of the screen. Now the buttons are disabled, but you can still use the navigation joystick to change the volume. To unlock the buttons hold down again on the Menu button until the “lock” icon disappears.
15 4.2 Comparison of Windows Media Player 10 and 11 to Windows Media Player 9 Windows® Media Player 10 /11 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 10/11. The list below shows the advantages.
17 5 Playlists A Playlist is a list of songs that the Archos™ 204 will automatically play one after the other. The Archos™ 204 can handle one Playlist at a time. You can create new Playlists, add or delete songs from a Playlist, or Save a Playlist as a file (file type.m3u) to be used another time. There is no limit to the number of Playlists you can save on the Archos™ 204 hard drive. A Playlist can have a maximum of 1000 songs in it. 5.
19 • Move: Allows you to change the order of songs in the Playlist by moving them up or down using the navigation joystick. • Delete: Removes the highlighted track from the playlist. Note: To delete a Playlist, navigate to Browser > Playlists. Highlight the Playlist, the menu button, highlight Delete and press ENTER. (Moving a music track) Important: Once you save a Playlist it is important that you do not move the actual files as the Playlist searches in the original file location.
21 Parameter Description Volume Range: 0 to 99 Controls the current volume. Balance Range: -10 to +10 (left to right) Sound effect Custom, Flat, Rock, Techno, Jazz, Classic or Live Change this parameter to select an equalizer setting to the style of music you are listening to. Select Custom to set your own equalizer levels. [Set Equalizer] To customize the equalizer. See below. [Reset] Sets all your sound parameters with default or flat values.
23 ARCLibrary Off, On. Automatic (default) The ARCLibrary feature enables you to see your music organised by Artist, Album, Title, Genre and Year. Select Off to disable the feature or On to enable it. On Automatic, the library will update itself when disconnected from the computer. ARCLibrary Update Scans through all music and playlists in the folders Music and Playlists and indexes these into the ARCLibrary. You need to do this only when you have copied new music to your Archos™ 204.
25 6.5 Changing the Power Settings To help you get the most battery life out of your Archos™ 204 before having to recharge it, you can adjust the power settings. Go to Setup > Power. Parameter Description Power Off Range: 1 to 9 minutes or Never. Number of minutes of user inactivity before the Archos™ 204 automatically shuts off. The Archos™ 204 will not shut off during the playback of music files. Never (on DC Power) indicates that the Archos™ 204 will not do an automatic shut down.
27 7 Using the Browser The browser is used to navigate the file system on the Archos™ 204. The file system is the same type of file system that is found on Windows® based computers. This way, transferring files from your computer to your Archos™ 204 is as easy as ‘drag and drop’. The file system is a hierarchical system which includes folders and subfolders. Because you will be putting hundreds of files onto your Archos™ 204, it is STRONGLY ADVISED that you keep a neat and orderly file structure.
29 7.3 File and Folder Operations in Browser Mode While browsing the directory structure, you will have the option to manipulate files and folders. When you use the Browser mode, you will be browsing through the Archos™ 204’s hard drive as if browsing via a computer. In Browser mode, you can create folders, delete files or folders, rename files or folders, and copy or move files from one place to another. 7.3.
31 1 3 2 1 Contextual Menu 2 Text being typed 3 Cursor 4 Upper/Lower case* 5 Delete character* 6 Clear entire line* 7 Enter* * These items can also be found in the contextual menu 4 5 6 Tip: use the STOP/ESCAPE button to cancel any changes you made and exit the virtual keyboard. 7 31 32 8 Viewing Photos with your Archos™ 204 With your Archos™ 204, you can view pictures in the JPEG format* on the built-in LCD screen.
33 8.2 Photo Browser Contextual Menu Just like in the browser mode, you can rename files and folders and delete them if needed, and you can create folders to sort your picture files. You simply need to press the MENU button to display the contextual menu. See the instructions given in chapter 7 on using the browser. Info Another feature of the photo browser is the possibility to view picture information such as the size of the picture file, the date and time it was created, and the image’s resolution.
35 9 Connecting the Archos™ 204 to a Stereo system Connecting your Archos™ 204 to a stereo system allows you to listen to your Archos™ 204’s music on it without a headset. You will need a standard (mini headphone to RCA) audio cable for this which is not supplied with the Archos™ 204. The diagram below illustrates the setup. Plug the audio cable into the headphone jack and into the auxiliary jacks on your stereo. Note that this is only a schematic representation of a stereo.
37 When connected to your computer, the Archos™ 204 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. You can now use the hard drive called Archos™ 204 like any other external hard drive. Simply access it using Windows™ Explorer to drag and drop files to and from the Archos™ 204’s hard drive.
39 Hard Drive Mode & Macintosh™ First, close all programs that are using files from your Archos™ 204. Drag the Archos™ 204 hard drive icon towards the trash can, and the trash can will become a big arrow as shown in the screen image. 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 Archos™ 204 and/or your computer.
41 11.3 ‘Hard Drive’ or ‘Windows Device’? If your Archos™ 204 is seen as a hard drive, then you simply need to drag the A204.AOS file onto this icon, and Windows® will place the file into the top most directory (root) of the Archos™ 204. It should not be placed inside any folder within your Archos™ 204. Once this file is copied, safely disconnect (refer to the chapter on Connecting/Disconnecting) the Archos™ 204 from the computer.
43 Problem: (Hard Drive Mode) What do I do if I try to disconnect via the green arrow but keep getting “The device ‘Generic Volume’ cannot be stopped now. Try stopping the device again later.” Solution: Use the green arrow a second time. Sometimes Windows® does not update its status. Shut off any program that might be accessing data on the Archos™ 204, including Windows® Explorer. If this does not work, shut down all programs, wait 20 seconds, then try the green arrow again.
45 12.2.1 Windows® ME Running Scan-Disk (Error Checking) - Hard Drive Mode only • Quit all running applications. • Properly connect the Archos™ 204 to your computer as explained in chapter 9. • Right click on the Archos™ 204 hard drive in Windows® Explorer and select Properties. • Select the Tools option and run the Error checking program. • Make sure you check the box to automatically fix errors. • Be patient, this may take a while.
47 14 1 4 Technical Support Need Help? You can find the information you need: • on our Website: see the frequently asked questions section on www.archos.com/faq • by asking our technical support team: visit www.archos.com/support for e-mail support. • U.S. & Canada: Call 877-300-8879 (toll free). All brands and product names are registered trademarks and the property of their respective owners.
