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 | Mp3 Player Report?
entry by Avatar-X
1/26/2005 6:53 PM
| So as an update on a topic started by my recent article regarding iPods, I recently had the opportunity to look into Flash-based MP3 players.
My sister was interested in buying a low-cost MP3 player to replace her CD player. At first I was looking for one that offered SD-memory expansion, but the store I was at didn't have any of my selections in stock. Running out of options, so we chose the Rio Sport 128mb with SD expansion slot. Rio was not my first choice, but whatever. It was $134.99.
So we took it home. The first thing we did was insert the included Energizer battery and listen to some of the songs that were pre-packaged on the Rio (they sucked). However, the Rio kept shutting off. Turns out the battery they included in the vacuum-sealed package was dead. We inserted a new Duracell.
Then, we attempted to get it to work on my sister's aging P3, running Windows 98. First, we stuck in the CD and selected "Install" from the menu. After about 5 minutes of a progress bar stuck at 0%, an error came up from Symantec Anti-Virus, informing us it had blocked a script. At this point, the install failed.
I attempted to disable the Anti-Virus, with no luck. So I uninstalled the anti-virus and restarted the computer, and tried the install again. This time it didn't warn about the script error, but the install failed at a different point. I decided to give up with the packaged install routine, and instead opened the CD directly. I located RioMM.exe and ran it -- this took about 3 minutes but in the end successfully installed the Rio Music Manager.
Then I ran the RioUpdate utility. It informed me that an update was available, and that it was 1.2mb. I clicked "yes" to download the update, which took a long time on my sister's dial-up connection. When it was finished, the Update Manager deleted the current install of Rio Music Manager, and then gave an error code, failing to install the new one.
So, once again, I installed the version on the CD by running RioMM.exe. At this point, I was getting extremely frustrated. Once the program was finally installed, I connected the Rio to the computer via it's USB cable. The "Found New Hardware" window appeared, and I followed Rio's instructions and directed the wizard to examine the CD to find a driver. It failed to find a driver. After 5-10 more minutes of wrangling, I managed to manually install the driver, and the Rio Music Manager software could "See" the MP3 player.
Now, we attempted to copy some of my sister's music to the Rio. I selected some MP3 files, and clicked "transfer". It transferred (slowly) to about 90% of one file, and then failed, with no useful information as to why.
At this point, I was sick of dealing with this. So I pulled out my Windows XP laptop. I installed the Rio Music Manager from the CD onto it, this time it installed without any problems. The Rio Driver also installed automatically when I connected the MP3 player, and my attempts to copy the music onto the Rio from my laptop were successful.
So I copied "Smash Mouth - All Star", as a test song. The MP3 file plays fine on the laptop, but when I hit play on the Rio, it was distorted to the point where you couldn't even recognize it. I tried other MP3's, and the same thing happened to each -- the audio was totally fucked. I downloaded the files back from the player to see if they were broken, but they played fine on the PC.
At this point, I had had enough. I unplugged the piece of junk, and told my sister we'd return it the next day. She agreed.
The next day, after returning the crappy Rio (thankfully the return was no problem), we went to a computer store in a local mall. There, after some deciding, we purchased the Sorell SF-2000 with 256MB of memory.
This player has a built-in USB port, a beautiful Organic LED (OLED) display in two colours, a built-in microphone, a line-in port, an FM-tuner, and much more. It was $149, only $15 more expensive than the Rio.
We took it to our car in the parking lot, and I quickly pulled out my laptop. I wanted to test it before we even left the mall. I inserted the MP3 player into my computer's USB port, and it went "duh-duh!" and pop, a window appeared, letting me choose if I wanted to play or open the player. I selected Open, and a window appeared with the contents of the MP3 player.
At this point, I simply opened my Music folder and dragged a series of MP3 files directly into the player's folder. They copied very quickly, and as soon as the copy completed, I could begin playing the files on the MP3 player. I was impressed. Storing other data files onto the player was also just as easy, and copying the MP3's back to the computer from the player was also easy.
We took it home, and once again fired up my sister's P3. Since it's running Windows 98, we needed to use the provided installation CD. The install proceeded in literally 10 seconds. After that, I connected the player via USB, and it was immediatly available in My Computer. I was able to copy files and music on and off the player as easily as I would move files around the computer itself.
The installer had also installed a Lyrics manager program. This utility allows you to automatically download and insert lyrics into your music files, which are then displayed on the screen of the SF2000 player, in time to the song. I thought this was really cool.
The player itself was amazing. I've never seen an OLED display before, so looking at this one was a real treat. The display was vivid and clean, with no muddy-black background caused by most backlit displays. It was incredible.
The player also supports OGG and WMA files, no conversions needed. It also records from FM Radio directly into high-quality MP3 files. The voice recorder feature was fun, and surprisingly high-quality.
The meny also provided access to dozens of advanced features, such as program-play (play songs in a pre-programmed order), multiple-folder access, speed control (make Barry White sound like a chipmunk!), equalizer settings, and more.
I was very impressed with this MP3 player. I would definitely purchase one for myself, if I needed one!
[last edit 1/26/2005 6:55 PM by Avatar-X - edited 1 times]
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Comments: (use Reply to add a comment) WuffyFluff
      
Location: Large Crossing, Colorado
Gender: Male
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Time is Not to be Wasted, But Used - WuffyFluff
 |  |  |  | Re: Mp3 Player Report?
< Reply # 9 on 9/14/2005 3:06 PM >
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| | | Not 100% sure if its available in Canada, but the RCA Lyra is a good, low priced choice. I got mine for $73USD and change total at Wally World, its 256mb internal and a has a slot for SD cards, so you can expand it to whatever you want.*myself I have a 512mb SD card for that >D* Its Flash-based, runs 20 hours off a single AAA battery, comes with : 1 battery, pair of headphones*and not cheap POS earbuds, I'm talking about full ear, hook behind; and good/decent quality* and one song, thats not entirely that great IMO, but hey, y'all might think different. It also comes with a USB cable, and armband carrying case. luckily for me, the USB cable is the same as the one for my camera... Transfer is simple, no matter what Windows OS you run, assuming you're running 95/98 and up,  but you can install the Lyra, install your choice of program, they suggest MusicMatch JukeBox, which I use and love, which has a "portable device" feature, for transfering straight from your library to your mp3player, as well, you can also goto My Computer and open either drive, Example, E drive being the internal memory, and F drive being the expandable, which is only accesible if you have a card in there when its plugged in. when your Lyra is connected to the USB cable, it does not use any battery power, so don't worry about leaving it ;) As for media files compatible with the Lyra, it accepts MP# and WMA. IMHO, a very good choice of MP3 for lowbudget consumers... Just be careful with the bass equalizer setting, if your hooking it up to an AUX jack on a stereo or something...(must now go and find new speakers....) (EDIT) Added info about music and file transfers
[last edit 9/14/2005 3:16 PM by WuffyFluff - edited 2 times]
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UEinthe253
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| | | Re: Mp3 Player Report?
< Reply # 10 on 4/1/2007 12:50 AM >
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| | | About six months ago I purchased an music player made by Sony, (I believe), from Circuit City for about $80. Upon opening it when I got home, I found that the software used to transfer files was incompatible with my Gentoo linux operating system, (something that the employees had told me would not be an issue, but they lied). So I ran the software in a windows XP environment, via my virtual machine, and discovered that not only was it excessively slow, (probably because VMware eats memory like mind-altering candy), but also converted my MP3s into A-Track files. Whatever the hell those are, they take up a lot of space and are a big inconvenience to me. After wasting a few days of my life trying to make it work, I decided just to see what else they had. I took it back to Circuit City and traded it in for a Creative Zen V. I'm very impressed with this player. It was only about $70, so I got ten bucks back! ^^ Although it does not have a built in FM tuner of transmitter, it does have a gig of memory space, photo capabilities, a beautiful OLED display, line-in and voice recording, AND... it's Linux friendly!! ^^ I re-config'ed my AmaroK player to work with it by simply emerging MTP-lib support, which took only a few minutes, and soon after that I was transferring my MP3s onto the player without any problems, and quite quickly too. I can use Gnome if I want pics, but haven't tried that yet since I'm not interested in pics. The line-in is great, but the mic doesn't really have the best quality. Also, you can purchase an FM transmitter for it if you want, which is nice, but again, not really for me. In the end I would give the Creative Zen V a 4 out of 5. It works for me primarily because it's Linux-friendly. I'm not sure if it'll play DRM files or not, I get my music from bittorrent and radio.blog.club, (Yes, you can do that. Just ask me if you want instructions ^^). If anyone else has a Zen V, let me know if it'll play DRM files for you. I'm curious. ^^ Thanks!!
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