The Gmini is a series of portable audio and video players released by

Archos Archos (, stylized as ARCHOS) is a French Multinational corporation, multinational consumer electronics, electronics company that was established in 1988 by Henri Crohas. Archos manufactures tablet computers, tablets, smartphones, portable media ...

in 2004 and 2005.

Portable Video

Gmini 400

The first audio device to hold a color

LCD screen A liquid-crystal display (LCD) is a flat-panel display or other electronically modulated optical device that uses the light-modulating properties of liquid crystals combined with polarizers to display information. Liquid crystals do not emi ...

as well as

photo A photograph (also known as a photo, or more generically referred to as an ''image'' or ''picture'') is an image created by light falling on a photosensitive surface, usually photographic film or an electronic image sensor. The process and pra ...

, audio and video playback capacities, the Gmini 400 was introduced October 2004. The player featured MP3, WMA and WAV playback facilities and also loaded user-placed, APIC album covers on the display while the appropriate song was playing. The device was

ID3 ID3 is a metadata container most often used in conjunction with the MP3 audio file format. It allows information such as the title, artist, album, track number, and other information about the file to be stored in the file itself. ID3 is a '' ...

Tag compatible, and organized users music collection by reading this meta-data. This feature, called ARCLibrary, was intended to provide non-tech savvy users of the device a simple means of organizing audio collection. The device contained an

MPEG-4 MPEG-4 is a group of international standards for the compression of digital audio and visual data, multimedia systems, and file storage formats. It was originally introduced in late 1998 as a group of audio and video coding formats and related ...

player, enabling users to watch MPEG-4 encoded video files in

DivX DIVX (Digital Video Express) is a discontinued digital video format. Created in part by Circuit City, it was an unsuccessful attempt to create an alternative to video rental in the United States. The format's poor reception from consumers resu ...

AVI Avi is a given name, usually masculine, often a diminutive of Avram (given name), Avram, Avraham, etc. It is sometimes feminine and a diminutive of the Hebrew spelling of Abigail (name), Abigail. People with the given name include: * Avi (author ...

format. The Gmini 400 also had an image viewer compatible with PNG, BMP and

JPEG JPEG ( , short for Joint Photographic Experts Group and sometimes retroactively referred to as JPEG 1) is a commonly used method of lossy compression for digital images, particularly for those images produced by digital photography. The degr ...

image file formates. There is also functionality built in within the device to play games available from the manufacturer's website. In addition to these other features, the Archos Gmini 400 contained a

CompactFlash CompactFlash (CF) is a flash memory mass storage device used mainly in portable electronic devices. The format was specified and the devices were first manufactured by SanDisk in 1994. CompactFlash became one of the most successful of the e ...

reader enabling the user to slot in a

memory card A memory card is an electronic data storage device used for storing digital information, typically using flash memory. These are commonly used in digital portable electronic devices, such as digital cameras as well as in many early games conso ...

, increasing the unit's capacity, play files stored within the card, and transfer files from the card to the unit. It was not possible to transfer files from the Gmini 400 to the CompactFlash card, presumably to discourage sharing of media files amongst Gmini users. This device was first released Tuesday, August 31, 2004, and weighs 160 g.

Gmini 402

The Gmini 402 is the next model up from the Gmini 400. Featuring

PlaysForSure Microsoft PlaysForSure was a certification given by Microsoft to portable devices and content services that had been tested against several hundred compatibility and performance requirements. These requirements include codec support, digital rig ...

compatibility, the owners of this model can download purchased, protected music, in WMA format, and play them back on the device. This player supports

DRM DRM may refer to: Government, military and politics * Defense reform movement, U.S. campaign inspired by Col. John Boyd * Democratic Republic of Madagascar, a former socialist state (1975–1992) on Madagascar * Direction du renseignement militair ...

-protected

WMV Windows Media Video (WMV) is a series of video codecs and their corresponding video coding formats developed by Microsoft. It is part of the Windows Media framework. WMV consists of three distinct codecs: the original video compression technolog ...

video files, as well as MP3, WMA, AVI, JPG, PNG, and BMP. As with the Gmini 400, the unit also displays images with its built-in

image viewer An image viewer or image browser is a computer program that can display stored graphical images; it can often handle various graphics file formats. Such software usually renders the image according to properties of the display such as color depth ...

. The Gmini 402 also connects to an external audio source for out-aloud listening, and also connects to external video sources too, for watching videos from the device on televisions, etc. The player includes a built-in

game engine A game engine is a software framework primarily designed for the development of video games which generally includes relevant libraries and support programs such as a level editor. The "engine" terminology is akin to the term " software engine" u ...

, Mophun, for 3D style games. Playback

autonomy In developmental psychology and moral, political, and bioethical philosophy, autonomy is the capacity to make an informed, uncoerced decision. Autonomous organizations or institutions are independent or self-governing. Autonomy can also be ...

on the device is stated at 4 hours, when viewing videos, and up to 10 hours when listening to music. This depends on the usage of the device, such as reading/writing/copying or deleting files. The unit connects to a personal computer as a "USB Mass Storage Device" for

drag and drop In computer graphical user interfaces, drag and drop is a pointing device gesture in which the user (computing), user selects a virtual object by "grabbing" it and dragging it to a different location or onto another virtual object. In general, i ...

mobility. This player was released on Tuesday, July 12, 2005, and weighs 160 g. This player, along with a couple AV series players, were sold by Dish Networks under the PocketDish brand as the AV402E.

Gmini 402 Camcorder

The camera is 1.2MP (

Megapixel In digital imaging, a pixel (abbreviated px), pel, or picture element is the smallest addressable element in a Raster graphics, raster image, or the smallest addressable element in a dot matrix display device. In most digital display devices, p ...

), and has video recording capabilities, with up to a 2x digital zoom. The player also holds 3 resolution modes, which enables users to choose size over quality, as well as recording directly into

MPEG4 MPEG-4 is a group of international standards for the compression of digital audio and visual data, multimedia systems, and file storage formats. It was originally introduced in late 1998 as a group of audio and video coding formats and related te ...

in VGA resolution. The Gmini 402 Camcorder is Microsoft Windows and Apple Macintosh compatible, and is recognized instantly as a "Mass Storage Device". This unit plays AVI, WMV, MP3, WMA, DRM WMV, WAV, JPG, BMP and PNG. This unit was first released Friday, November 11, 2005, and weighs 160 g.

Gmini 500

Just after the release of the AV500, the Archos Gmini 500 was born. This device, along with a lot of Archos' latest devices, has full support for

Windows Media Windows Media is a discontinued multimedia framework for media creation and distribution for Microsoft Windows. It consists of a software development kit (SDK) with several application programming interfaces (API) and a number of prebuilt technol ...

system which allows users play DRM restricted music. This unit is classed more as an "entertainment centre" than an MP3 player, and includes a built in speaker for listening out aloud. Even though the speaker may not be the best quality, there is also functionality to be able to connect the device up to an existing external Hi-Fi system and listen outward that way. The player supports all the standard formats, and also contains a photo viewer - images and videos can be viewed on the 4" colour screen within the unit. The Gmini 500 is fully USB 2.0 compliant. This device was released Tuesday 20 December 2005, and weighs 320 g.

Homebrew

A firmware exploit discovered by user GliGli provided the possibility for product enhancement by the community of Gmini 400 enthusiasts. The Gmini 400 has become a haven for emulator gaming, with emulators for the

Master System The is an 8-bit Third generation of video game consoles, third-generation home video game console manufactured and developed by Sega. It was originally a remodeled export version of the Sega Mark III, the third iteration of the SG-1000 series ...

Game Gear The is an 8-bit Fourth generation of video game consoles, fourth-generation handheld game console released by Sega on October 6, 1990 in Japan, in April 1991 throughout North America and Europe, and in 1992 in Australia. The Game Gear primarily ...

Game Boy The is a handheld game console developed by Nintendo, launched in the Japanese home market on April 21, 1989, followed by North America later that year and other territories from 1990 onwards. Following the success of the Game & Watch single-ga ...

Game Boy Color The (GBC or CGB) is an 8-bit handheld game console developed by Nintendo. It was released in Japan on October 21, 1998, and to international markets that November. Compared to the original Game Boy, the Game Boy Color features a color TFT scre ...

, and

Nintendo Entertainment System The Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) is an 8-bit home video game console developed and marketed by Nintendo. It was first released in Japan on 15 July 1983 as the and was later released as the redesigned NES in several test markets in the ...

. There is also a

Sega Genesis The Sega Genesis, known as the outside North America, is a 16-bit Fourth generation of video game consoles, fourth generation home video game console developed and sold by Sega. It was Sega's third console and the successor to the Master Sys ...

emulator for the Gmini 402 named "pico", possibly a port of PicoDrive which has also been ported to other portable devices. Since then GliGli has ported the applications to the Gmini 402 and 402 Camcorder. They, along with other homebrew applications including ''

Doom Doom is another name for damnation. Doom may also refer to: People * Doom (professional wrestling), the tag team of Ron Simmons and Butch Reed * Daniel Doom (1934–2020), Belgian cyclist * Debbie Doom (born 1963), American softball pitche ...

'', have now been embedded into the fan made operating system named "MediOS" for the Gmini's and other Archos players.

Portable Audio

Gmini XS 202

The Gmini XS 202 was a popular model supplied from Archos. This model supported

MP3 MP3 (formally MPEG-1 Audio Layer III or MPEG-2 Audio Layer III) is a coding format for digital audio developed largely by the Fraunhofer Society in Germany under the lead of Karlheinz Brandenburg. It was designed to greatly reduce the amount ...

, WMA, protected WMA, and

WAV Waveform Audio File Format (WAVE, or WAV due to its filename extension; pronounced or ) is an audio file format standard for storing an audio bitstream on personal computers. The format was developed and published for the first time in 1991 ...

files, and also contains what's known as ARCLibrary, a feature that organizes all digital media on Archos devices. The model also supports

gapless playback Gapless playback is the uninterrupted playback of consecutive audio tracks, such that relative time distances in the original audio source are preserved over track boundaries on playback. For this to be useful, other artifacts (than timing-related ...

and

standards, so purchased music can be synchronized with the player. The Gmini XS 202 is Microsoft Windows and Apple Macintosh compatible, and uses the USB 2.0 interface to transfer music to its 20 GB built in hard drive. The player is also

tag compatible. The Archos Gmini XS 202 was released on Friday, October 28, 2005, and weighs 120 g.

Gmini XS 100

The XS 100 group of players features a 1.5" screen, full

capabilities, and supports MP3, WMA, protected WMA, and WAV files. It also features the ARCLibrary for organizing media files within one's media collection. Like the above player, the Gmini XS 100 players boasts functionality with Microsoft Windows and Apple Macintosh, and uses the USB 2.0 interface to transfer music quickly. They come in 4 colours, Ice

Grey Grey (more frequent in British English) or gray (more frequent in American English) is an intermediate color between black and white. It is a neutral or achromatic color, meaning that it has no chroma. It is the color of a cloud-covered s ...

, Volcanic

Black Black is a color that results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without chroma, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness.Eva Heller, ''P ...

, Funky

Pink Pink is a pale tint of red, the color of the Dianthus plumarius, pink flower. It was first used as a color name in the late 17th century. According to surveys in Europe and the United States, pink is the color most often associated with charm, p ...

and Techno

Blue Blue is one of the three primary colours in the RYB color model, RYB colour model (traditional colour theory), as well as in the RGB color model, RGB (additive) colour model. It lies between Violet (color), violet and cyan on the optical spe ...

. The devices are 3 GB or 4 GB. The Archos Gmini XS 101 was released on Friday, November 12, 2004, and weighs 120 g.

Gmini XS 200

Archos' Gmini XS 200 is a previous model to the XS 202, with a

monochrome A monochrome or monochromatic image, object or palette is composed of one color (or values of one color). Images using only shades of grey are called grayscale (typically digital) or black-and-white (typically analog). In physics, mon ...

screen, no

support, and a 20 GB hard drive. The Archos Gmini XS 200 was released on Thursday, October 14, 2004, and weighs 120 g.

Gmini 120

This particular model plays

, WMA and

files. It cannot play DRM-protected WMA files. Its capacity is 20 GB. This model also uses the ARCLibrary to organize music and media on the device. There is also a browser feature within the unit to enable users to copy, move, and rename files, and has a battery life of 10 hours. The Gmini 120 features a built-in microphone and a line-in jack, and can record audio straight to MP3 format (112kbs from microphone, 192kbs from line-in jack. Both constant bit rate). There is a slot in the top of the device that accepts

cards. This allows digital camera images (or any files) to be uploaded to the device, thus reducing the requirement of carrying round many memory cards. The device does not support image viewing, however. This player was released November 1, 2003, and weighs 244 g. There is also an optional

FM radio FM broadcasting is a method of radio broadcasting that uses frequency modulation (FM) of the radio broadcast carrier wave. Invented in 1933 by American engineer Edwin Armstrong, wide-band FM is used worldwide to transmit high fidelity, high-f ...

attachment available for this player so users can play and record directly from FM radio. A version of this player was released as the ''Archos Gmini SP''.

References

External links

Manufacturer's WebsiteOpen Source Firmware for some Gmini players
(link is broken since 02/02/2012, domain name expired) {{DEFAULTSORT:Archos Gmini Series Digital audio players Portable media players