RCA's new Lyra portable audio/video jukebox with 3.5-inch backlit TFT color LCD monitor lets you watch and listen to your favorite movies, TV shows, music and digital photographs whenever and wherever you want. The built-in 20 GB hard drive holds up to 80 hours of video, 300 hours of music or 100,000 jpeg images. The intuitive graphic-based menu system with multifunction jog control lets you navigate through your table of contents with ease. Advanced music selection and navigation: navigate and browse other files during playback; tag files for inclusion/deletion. The multi-line display lists name of artist, song and elapsed time. Choose from five preset DSP modes: Flat, Bass, Rock, Pop or Jazz. Use the A/V input jack to record movies, TV shows and music directly from your TV, VCR or stereo. The high-speed USB 2.0 connectivity allows for quick transfer of MPEG-4 and MPEG-1 movies, MP3 files, jpegs or any other computer file. Mac and PC compatible. Your purchase includes high-quality X-Phone stereo headphones, music management CD-ROM software, USB and A/V cables, carry case and car-stereo adapter cassette. Measures 5 1/2" x 3 1/4" x 1" and weighs less than 10 oz. Runs up to 4 hours on the rechargeable lithium ion battery (charging cradle and AC/DC adapter included). One-year warranty.
1 A total waste of time
I bought this item to 1- use it to store my music library, 2- watch and record my favorite tv show, 3- store data on the go.
The "thing" failed on all the above!
-The music interface is slow and hard to manage.
-When playing mpeg4 movies, the sound is out of synch with the image.
-the data transfer takes HOURS!!!!
Don't even start me on the battery life.....
Just don't buy it.
2 RCA Support I Abominable
2 Lyras broke at the same time. RCA support required me to send them back at my own expense for replacements promised back to me 10 days from the day RCA received them. After 27 days from the day they received them, I decided to call for the status. They said they were backordered with no delivery date in site. I requested my money back. They said the could not start a request until exactly 30 days have elapsed. They said IF a refund was approved it would take 8 to 10 weeks to process the check.
Now I'm out $280 including tax and shipping without even having the units in hand for paperweights or skeet targets.
Also tech supoprt said it supports 1 gig sd cards but aftger testing many brands and sizes I found it only supports 256k cards.
DONT BUY RCA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
3 Learn it and Love it
Yes, It is bit complicated to learn to use at first- But the time spent learning how to work it is well worth it. I wanted something I could record TV shows "on the fly" without using a computer, as well as my music files and this does it dandy! As for looks, it has a look and feel of quality- real chrome trim sets off an overall classic good looking design making it appear to be something in a far more expensive class. The price is great, and for what you get I would choose this over an Ipod any day. Connecting to my 3 computers went fine on Win98, Win ME, and Win XP Pro.
4 Better than iPOD & Archos - buy this!!
Got this for my son for his teenage birthday. He wanted an ipod, but they're just so antiquated already. He loves this machine, and all the buds are clamoring over it because he can play movies, funny TV clips, all his favorite music, and show photos. It also can play stored movies and music onto a friend's TV or stereo, or do a slideshow from our camera's CF card. Also comes with a tape adapter to play your music on your car's tape player. The size is still pocket-sized and not too heavy (around 12oz.). The video screen is excellent and shows up much better than the Archos models. Comes with nice earbuds and has great sound quality. A HUGE plus is that it comes with all the accessories you need: case, USB cable, two audio/video in/out cables, self-contained battery, tape player adapter, etc. Has 20Gb memory, and if you go to the yahoogroups user site, you'll see that alot of techhies have upgraded their Lyras to 80Gb without much difficulty.
5 O.K . Product for an I.T. Pro not for Me!
I purchased this product from a local Circuit City Store, and was very excited taking it out of the box. I uploaded pictures to it taken with my Nikon Coolpix 3100 with ease, but incountered all kinds of problems finding music formats that this device would take. I also was unable to download DVDs from my collection to view at work. This was my #1 purpose for buying this product, well that and its affordable price tag compared to the Archos and Zen portables. I found out that DVDs can be recorded using a fix provided by another Amazon reviewer. And there are tons of downloads that add functionality and fixs to this product. Unfortunately, these firmware upgrades require many,complicated steps. Visit RCA's Site, and you'll see what I mean! I promptly returned it to the store. I think my pictures are still on it, so if you purchase one and it has pictures of my girlfriend on it; please just erase them for me. Do not post them to a site! While looking for help with this player, I stumbled on a site that actually gives simmiler players away absolutely free. All one has to do is sign up with BlockBuster on Line or U.S.A. Today, and tell 3or 4 other friends to do the same. These subscriptions can then be canceled or kept.Check Out: WWW.pvps4free.com/default.aspx?137362, it's free..... No @%#*! I got mine 2Wks. later. I have since been looking for similar offers on the net.
6 ABSOLOUTLY EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW, please read-informer
I got this for Christmas from Circuit City instead of an ipod. I thought I was being unique and was a shrewd researcher. I didn't want to go with popular opinion of buying an ipod to fit in with the popular opinion. Well I was wrong, this is a difficult to use, frusterating product. THE IPOD WORKS MUCH BETTER. On the Lyra it easily loaded my jpg photos but it took a long time to view them. To rename them it took much time. Also it supposedly supports MP3 format. I mistakingly loaded music from iTunes onto it in MPA4 format which would not work, then I labored for hours converting all my music to MP3 and loaded it onto the lyra. I put in my headphones then turned up the volume but nothing would play. There is also supposed to be something on it that prevents you from recording hollywood made dvds onto it because of absurd copyright infringement, [...] The unit also has A RIDICULOUSLY SHORT BATTERY LIFE OF 4 HOURS which doesn't seem so bad until you are on a car trip or airplane flight or are just sitting in your room to listen to music for a couple of hours. It seems to die almost instantanousely. Oh yeah, I neglected to mention it is bulky and weighs down your belt and resembles a 80's cell phone. Well not quite, but it sure DOES'NT HAVE THE BEAUTY OR EASE OF USE OF AN IPOD. I returned this item to the store the day after I got it.
WHY SHOULD YOU BUY AN IPOD INSTEAD...... I recomend to you that you buy the ipod mini over the regular 20GB model of ipod because the mini has the compactness we all deserve. It holds between 90 and 100cds which for most of us takes about 5-10 years to collect. For the person that buys 1 or more cds per week or participates in music "clubs(pay for 1cd, get 120" or isn't afraid to pirate 1000 more songs please buy the 20GB or 40GB version of the ipod.
7 Awesome Toy...
I just recieved this RCA Lyra for my 14th birthday...llike another reviewer, when constructing a *wish list* I looked into the acclaimed IPOD and also competitive Archos MP4 player (similiar to the RCA LYRA). Probably like most of you, from reading reviews, good and bad, this item is a lot to spend your money on. I hope this review changes your mind. This incredible device strives where other competitors fall. Easily able to move files, audio, video, pictures, and word documents onto the device is amazignly simple. When looking forward to the device, I was expecting a screen lacking crystal clear picture =yet I recieved a detailed picture on a small, yet sufdficeint screen. If questiopning to buy this product I encourage you to do so. Although not able to record live TV like the archos, this device can rtecord dvd's and vhs's as well as cd's. You can plug the device into any car to hear it through the cars internal speakers as wells as put in output into a television.
8 a normal persons reveiw
ok you might have some doubts about this product form soem of the other reviews but trust me this product is great as long as you update the software when you get it. ok this picture is just amazing, the sound for your songs is also very nice, not quite as good as an ipo but an ipod doesnt have video. it is soo easy to record video you plug it in turn on the dvd and press record an thats it, if it a copyrigted dvd here is a tip when you first start recording unplug the wires, the systemw ill check to see if it is copurigted and it wont find anything after about 10 seconds plug it back in and the system wont know the difference, you can put so much on this little thing i am so glad i bought it
9 Great Gadget
Pros: Amazing amount of space. I have audiobooks, video television programs, and music on mine right now.
Software is easy to use. I actually had an earlier version of the jukebox program that I got with my first MP3 player (gathering dust somewhere. It had 16 meg of memory!) And if you use this program to digitalize audio tapes you need to be aware if you install the new version that they have made this feature available only on the upgraded version that you have to purchase separately. The other software is great.
Screen is small but clear.
Cons: I don't like the front controls. They are like cheap video game controls and feel "mushy".
This is well worth the purchase price though!
10 DO NOT BUY THIS PRODUCT!
So I bought this lyra thinking it looked pretty cool in comparison to the IPOD, and not too expensive at the same time...but after it broke...5 times...and i had to send it all the way back to the company only for them to re-send me another model which would break within a time period of 30 days, I decided that maybe I should stick with an IPOD or ANY other mp3 player...DO NOT BUY THIS UNLESS YOU WANT TO DEAL WITH SENDING IT BACK TO THE COMPANY EVERY OTHER MONTH!!!
11 Why RCA jukebox/Video Player is Amazing
Well the ipod is a popular item(featured in 50cents music video P.I.M.P)and the Sony Digital Walkman is featured on a commercial with Macy Grey singing "Walk this Way",Aerosmith's best song the RCA 20GB jukebox is much better. It is a lot better, has 5X the GB of ipod mini, you can watch movies on it(3.5in color flat screen)and import your dvds onto it(holds 80hrs worth of video):unfortunately you have to record the movies onto it from your DVD player and not your computer. I suprised myself be finding such a superior product. It may be a little more difficult to import songs from iTunes but includes 2.0cable for imports of the same speed as both Sony and Apple. It costs the same as the 20GB models of the Sony and Apple but again YOU CAN WATCH MOVIES ON A FULL COLOR HIGH QUALITY FLATSCREEN. IT HAS LESS MEMORY THAN IPOD PHOTO BUT CAN DO MANY OF THE SAME THINGS FOR HUNDREDS LESS($279+tax at Circuit City vs. Ipod Photo which I'd estimate at $400)
PLEASE BUY THIS SUPERIOR PRODUUCT,BE COOL,START A NEW TREND.
12 PLEASE WRITE HOW TO PUT DVDS ONTO THIS
THIS IS A SEXY,SEXY PRODUCT BETTER THAN THE IPOD. IT IS CHEAPER THAN IPOD PHOTO BUT I WAN TO KNOW HOW TO PUT DVD FILES ONTO IT. PLEASE WRITE IT DOWN STEP BY STEP. MANY PEOPLE WILL BUY IT IF THEY KNOW ITS A EASY WAY TO CARRY AROUND VIDEOS AND MUSIC.
13 THIS IS GREAT!!!!!!
Hey im only 14 and wow i just got it for my birthday and it is one of the best products ever.I read this review baord for about one week before i biught it. Let me tell you if you have any doubts forget them because i was thinking th same thing then when i got it it proved me worng. This product delivers everything it says and my friend has a ipod and this is supier to its sound. If ur worried about not being able to record dvds dont worry, you can! Just read the other reviews and they will help you greatly. The screen quilty is very sharp and clear and playback looks great on it. Be sure to get the firmware upgrade and trust me its not that hard to figure this thing out, come onim only 14 so you should be able to do.Well good luck and have fun.
Written december 1 2004
14 Confused?
I found this product in the Sharper Image Catologe and thought I had to have it. It records movies, TV shows, music, etc. But I was perplex as to how the video from a show or movie is transfered to the player. I was assuming the A/V cords, like the ones you set up a videogame system or DVD player to the TV with. If that is then I was definetily going to get it, but I was confused by the reviws above. If anyone knows how video is transfered, please leave a review telling how. I'm going to be checking back to this page as much as possible.Thanks.
15 iPod + Lyra
I have an iPod Mini and i love it but it only plays music!!! Yet I still love it. I am thinking about buying this item because it look and seems better then the Archos and you can recorde video + dvds to this. So i would get this product over the Archos because im going to italy in april and i want somting to keep me occupied (for 7 houres) oh ya i also have a portable DVD player but it is way WAY to big so if your thinking about getting a portable dvd player over this dont unless your just going to use it for 1-2 houres at a time. <br />
16 Bad Hardware. Bad Software
I have already exchanged my Lyra for a replacement because the first one locked up. The second one has taken 2 fatal hardware crashes. Functionality wise the rocker buttons are the worst. I never know what event if any will be processed and it takes forever for the event to be processed. The next issue is the shuffle all functionality is poor. With over 2000 files I should never hear the same song very often. However, the first song played each session is always the same and the same song repeat between sessions. I have heard the same song 3 and 4 times a week. My guess is this file number is used as the seed to the random file number generator, therefore the probability of generating the same file number increases dramatically. I should also be able to shuffle all songs for a specific Genre.
17 thank goodness for color
I chose the Lyra RD2780 because it could play videos and had a color screen. Why pay the same price for a monochrome iPod? lol. I haven't had any problems with playback or crashing since I update the firmware. File transfers are easy. Just drag and drop and that's it. You don't need any special software besides the device drivers. This is my second Lyra (different model) and I must say I am truly a fan of all RCA mp3 players. The only drawbacks to this mp3 player is that it is very bulky and the screen isn't as big as it seems. It's 3.5" (I believe), but there's two black side borders of the screen to make it seem bigger but it isn't. Anyways the screen is a good size.
18 Different Nifty Tips on some issues involving the lyra...
This item is excellent.... i give it 5 stars i have had a long time to review this so i would know...all the problems that people have can be fixed with updates,warrantys, or by this review...(lol)Mp3 sounds wonderful..the movies are good...but
this item has its glitches.. as long as you update right when you get it and before you put anything on it or do anything with it, it will be fine..... a little slow cf transfer and it is picky with the different types of movie files are allowed on it....
here are some helpful tips
HOW TO RECORD A COPYRIGHTED DVD ONTO THE LYRA:
step 1: pick your dvd and plug the cables into the dvd player...
step 2: start recording your dvd and after 6 seconds stop the movie (where you are allowed to resume it) or unplug the connection cables attached from the RCA to the dvd player... the LYRA takes about 9 seconds to determine a copyrighted dvd so after about 7 more second replug the cable back into the dvd player and there you go...BUT NEVER STOP RECORDING ON THE LYRA WHEN YOU UNPLUG THE CABLES...it wont work...
HOW AND WHERE TO REPLACE THE BATTERY ON THE LYRA:
This website i am about to give you sells the battery for the lyra and gives instructions on how to replace...there are screws on the lyra that you need a certain screw driver for (included with the purchase of a replacement battery)..FOR those who said it couldnt be done..you were wrong....(...)
NEW SOFTWARE UPDATE INFORMATION:
Reliable sources from RCA tell me that hopefully soon to be released updates will allow more movie transfers and new features that arent available already.. also they are hoping to come out with a digital camera attachment for the lyra...(release date unknown) the camera is a rumor but RCA said themselves they are going to work with the rumor... Many new things might be available in the next year
-possible longer battery life
-more hard drive space
-more advanced audio features
-for movie buffs, different movie types being allowed....
that is all i have heard so far.. hopefully amazon will post this so all the wondering eyes looking for good reviews can find this .
19 Horrible Company!!!
Bought one of this company's mp3 players and I lost my cord which connects it to the computer. I ordered a replacement and waited WEEKS to get it despite the next day air priority shipping. For over a week they showed that it was ready to ship, but they still didn't send it out. If you buy this item, pray you never have to replace a part!
20 Buyer beware....
Don't get your hopes up with this device for you may be sorely dissapointed. I really was looking for a nice quality Video player to transfer my DVD's over to and some of my books on tape. What a dissapointment. The DVD ripping process to the limited AVI file formats for audio and video were awful. The device has very specific settings for recorded video/audio codecs and I ended up trying like two dozen rippers till I finally found one that would work. The playback of videos was very dissapointing, stopping the playback or fast forwarding caused the audio to get farther and farther out of synch. Now let me step onto books on tape. I love books on tape and wanted to rip some of these as well but the audio bookmarking is just not there so if you are trying to do that forget it. The software (current and installed to todays date) is horribly lacking in this department. Trying to do some straight recording is terrible because of this as well. Bookmarking is a must for audio playback. Now lets jump back to video recording this device supports. I wanted to record direct from my DVD player to the device and it comes up with a message that the DVD is copy protected. Now we all know this to be true but the DVD belongs to me and it is my right to make a copy. I do not like RCA telling me that I can't do something that I know I can legally. This has got to change before this device will make it. If your looking for an audio player stick with an IPOD. Stay away from this device.
21 Great for music and pictures, touchy for video
Forgiving this device b/c it is the 1st of its kind along with the Archos AV line, I still found some aspects of this device sorely lacking.
+'s:
+RCA has released numerous updates for this device which they are not normally known for.
+It is Ultrafast when transfering data to and from the device.
+It comes with a very nice kit including a car charger and carrying case.
+Great sound.
+Love being able to browse by genre, album, artist, ect.
+I only took up 1 gig and I was able to load almost every single picture I own on the drive, so people can see pics of the new baby anytime.
+It definitely functions as billed with only a few quirks.
-'s (i.e. the quirks):
- Battery life on the device is substandard.
- You cannot browse the menus while music is playing.
- It has crashed during choppy mp3's.
- It is VERY specific about the encoding to divx. You can only use divx 5.0 320x240 29fps video and 128 or 160kbps audio, otherwise it will crash when you try to play a clip.
22 help help help
i just got this yesterday from Future Shop, Toronto, Canada. They have a tag saying it supports MPEG1, MPEG2 and MPEG4. I have tonnes of MPEG2 music video files in my hard drive and I download them into the RCA jukebox. IT DOESN"T PLAY. help please
23 Good Idea... Poor Follow Through....
I purchased this product back in December of 2003 when it first became available after many many production delays. Unfortunatley it appears as if those delays were not unfounded. This product can be best and most easily described as "Unfinished". It has been over 7 months sice priduction launch and consumer availability and all the features of the product are still not available. When it comes to reliability I can safely say that I have had nothing but trouble with mine. I have been forced to do a warranty exchange twice in about a 4 month period due to chronic and eventually permanent lock ups. The tech support for this product is sub-par in my opinion and in fact i was forced to have RCA/Thompson issue me a buy back on my device as they were unable to supply me with a 3rd replacement device. At some point in time this may be a great product, but given its current form and track record in the few months it has been available you would be wise to consider another product for the time being.
24 2nd thought
Ok, here is the scoop with this thing: I've had this device for about 6 months. About 3 months ago I wrote a review about how good this is. That is until yesterday I decided to load 2000 more mp3's to the +-900 I already had. Man! Was that a mistake or what? When I try to listen to them now, the A/V Jukebox will froze and takes forever to start. Does anybody else have the same problem? If that situation keeps on going I am afraid that my first rating of 5 is going to be degraded to 3 because it certainly does what it says will do, but it does it wrong!!!!
Note:
Ok guys, I found out the reason why it was freezing: When you make a folder that contains more than 300 mp3's, it takes the device a long time to locate the files. What I had to do was split those folders into smaller ones and that way it takes less time to locate the songs. Of course RCA does not say any of this on their user manual. Shame on them!!
25 the rca lyra is perfect for travellers
The RCA Lyra is so niuce to use, it is very easy and so portable that you can fit it in pretty much any pocket. The RCA Lyra can easily have enoug battery to power a video play back for up to four hours with the new free update which you can download from rca.com and I havent even gone far enough to see when it died when listening to music. Its perfect for travellers who get bored on an annoying trip. the only problem is that it pixelates with dark colors.... but its not that bad !!!!!
26 Compared to the Archos AV320
I'll try to be objective here. Overall, I think that both the RCA Lyra 2780 and the Archos AV300 series are both totally spiffy products. I must explain that my rating of 3 is based on a direct comparison to the Archos. All by itself, the Lyra looks awesome, but my rating is context based.
Ergonomics:
The Lyra definitely looks sleeker than the Archos. The OS looks nicer too.
Functionality:
The Lyra does have the analog video recording built-in, whereas the Archos uses an included plug-in module to do the recording. On the other hand the Archos can do digital video recording where the Lyra can't.
The Lyra has a built-in CF card reader, the Archos has a plug in SD card reader module (not included ~ $30).
MAJOR POINT for the Archos and against the Lyra - Lyra can't record video or DVD that has copyright protection on it, which is a lot of what most people want to record. The Archos can handle it.
Both offer firmware updates free on their respective websites.
Lyra can play mp3, WMA, AAC, where Archos can play mp3 and WMA.
Both can record audio from line in, but Archos' line in jack doubles as a mic jack for non-powered mics. Archos also has a built-in microphone and can record to mp3 and, with the firmware update, WAV.
Lyra can play pictures in slideshow mode with programmable transition timing as well as playing a selected mp3 as soundtrack - nifty! Sorry Archos people, you are out of luck on this one.
Lyra forces you to take time to profile all your audio before it will be playable on the unit. As far as I know, Archos is just drag, drop, and play.
Battery life:
Haven't checked this out on either model myself, but the listed play length for video on the Lyra is 2hrs and 3.5hrs on the Archos. Also, with the Archos it is possible to buy replacement batteries and you can open the Archos to replace the battery fairly easily (purportedly). The Lyra is supposedly sealed so you can't swap the battery out with a fresh one.
For a review of the Archos product, including a note on comparing it to this product, I found the review at http://shanebrinkmandavis.com/homepage/Archos/AV300/ quite helpful.
In the end, both products have features that the other one doesn't. You just have to decide what you want. (For me, using it as a DAT was important, which tipped the scale.) As far as I see it, the Archos is maybe heavier (not by too much though) and more expensive (~ $150 more), but the main advantage of the Archos over the Lyra is the digital copyright content copying ability. Nobody wants to buy a product that you have to jump through hoops (download from Napster, burn to CD, rip from CD, upload to player) to use. Seems like the firmware updates take care of a lot of issues that other reviews have mentioned. The longer battery life was another small plus, as is the built-in mic. At any rate, if you're trying to decide between these two, you should really just look at all the reviews, weigh them, look at the technical details for both, and decide for yourself. I haven't dealt with Archos, but if their customer service is bad as other reviewers have noted, then you may want to consider that as well. For myself, I don't care since my local Circuit City carries both of them and has a 30 return policy if you're dissatisfied for any reason. :) Personally, I shied away from the Archos at first because of the cost and liked the Lyra a lot because of the looks and the slideshow ability. After digging more though, I decided to pick up the Archos because of the copyright issue and the built-in mic. Hope this review helps.
27 I'm Returning This
After reading reviews and seeing that most others are having the same problems I am with the RCA jukebox, I'm going to return mine after all. I'd rather not have one at all than be a $400 tester for RCA on this prematurely released product.
As others, I am going to go with the Archos. I cannot afford it now, but at $300 more, and 60 GB more, including more features, and it's not a 1st generation, it'll be worthwhile to save and get a superior unit.
Update: I returned the RCA jukebox and bought the Archos 20 GB. It was only $100 more and is worth every penny. I won't elaborate here because this is for RCA Lycra reviews. However, I must say that Archos provides software for you to transfer video to the proper codec. Please don't waste your money on the RCA JOKEbox.
28 What A Tease!!
As the owner of a ten year-old, 8mm tape, chunky sized Sony handheld VCR/TV unit, I really looked forward to this RCA Lycra. Boy were my expectations too high!
As someone else said, RCA made a premature release. I am tech savvy and cannot record video from my computer using every codec available. This is only good for recording directly from the TV (cable box, TV set, VCR). The provided RCA web link does not even work!!
The video is very poor. I know it's analog, but so is my Sony and its video quality's better. The RCA has several features that are not yet active. So why put it on the market?
After plugging in the USB, there's no previewing until it's unplugged. After unplugging it, you are asked to reset the unit...huh? Then the unit turns off. You turn it back on, in my case, only to discover that the video file does not play.
This is a tease because while I'm tempted to return it, I am already attached to the "idea" of it. I will record mostly from the cable box, so it serves that purpose. I also have a long commute to work and this'll make it easier.
I'm sure improvements will come, but they should never have put this on the shelves as-is now. It only gives the competition an idea of what NOT to do.
29 The answers you want
I've had a few days to play with this device now. It works very well for recording from any video source with RCA plugs. I've been using it to record shows from digital cable to watch at work. However, there were a few questions that I had before I bought that I couldn't find answers to so I decided to answer them for you.
1. The battery is sealed in the unit, you can't buy a spare.
2. The battery will last for about 4 hours of continuous use.
3. The .asf files that the unit records can be played back on any Windows PC. They are MPEG-4 video with MP3 audio and don't seem to have any DRM protection.
4. It doesn't have a built-in speaker...
5. You can copy images from a compact flash card to the unit without a PC so it works great as a portable hard drive for digital cameras.
Overall, the device is awesome. It's great for travel and as a distraction at work. ;-)
30 Split Decision
Great concept but needs a bit of work. It is great having the video capability and the playback on the screen is very good (very very bright for showing photos though - needs to be adjusted when switching between video and still photos). The interface is easy to use although it would be nice to be able to adjust it and set your own preferences/look.
That's the good - what about the bad. Flash card compatability is a bust. Of my four flash cards, only one worked, the Lexar 40x 1GB card. I had to get rid of all the other cards in exchange for more expensive prograde cards to be able to use it for its primary function of downloading/storage of digital images while travelling. Unfortunately, the copy all function, when enabled, didn't function all that great/all that often. It's good that RCA supply a case for the Lyra but the plastic screen cover provides way too much deterioration in quality to be practical. The case also makes using the somewhat flimsy rocker switches difficult never mind the smaller volume buttons etc on the top. The Lyra was unable to play any .AVI movie clips recorded off my Canon digital camera which is a problem. Software codecs notwithstanding to be able to get this to work via a computer - I don't carry a laptop with me when I'm in the middle of the tundra and want to playback the clip. Finally, its only 20GB!! Sounds a lot but load it up with a decent selection of music and movies for a longish trip and there's not much room left to be able to download photos.
Overall, I was pretty happy with the Lyra even with the negative comments above as the concept of the device was great and what I was looking for and the basic functionality and ease of use (I didn't have problems copying video straight onto the Lyra albeit I was doing it via the audio/video cables supplied off Videotape or DVD and not via a computer) was pretty good, even for a non-computer head like me, even if the "Saving to Hard Disk" drove me crazy all the time. That changed, however, when the machine crashed and locked up on me during a photoshoot to Zion NP. During lunch I was downloading the morning's images to free up space on my CF Cards and to review them in comfort rather than burning up the camera battery. After about 80 images were downloaded, couldn't do anymore. Fortunately I managed to have enough card space for my one day there to be able to not miss any images. Then I had the problem of dealing (or trying to deal) with RCA' customer service. To be fair, once I eventually got through to them (no mean feat in of itself), they acknowledged there was nothing that could be done to retrieve it other than sending it in for replacement. Five weeks later and the replacement is still on backorder and I'm sitting with a nice looking but totally non-functioning block of metal and plastic. Unable or unprepared to wait any longer due to a pending 3 week trip to Alaska where I have to have something to back up photos on a daily basis, I've gone with a Flashtrax - 80GB of capacity and I'll live without the video capabilities. Fortunately, RCA have agreed to buy back the Lyra from me so all is not lost other than a lot of time and frustration. Hopefully future versions will be less problematic as the idea is great.
31 Above Par for a First Generation Product
I gave the RCA lyra AV 4 stars only because it is a bold new product that has few competitors and deserves praise for being a high level of versitility out of a 1st generation product. That said, if there were many PVPs out there on the market, then I would not recommend buying this particualr one because it has many quirks.
Cons:
1) Battery life is pretty short. But this isn't such a big deal to me. It comes with an AC and car adapter so the only place you have to wrroy about this is outside.
2) When recording video, it is slightly out of sync. I recorded the Matrix Reloaded onto it yesterday and the lips were slightly out of sync. Just enough to be bothersome, but still watchable.
3) Many JPEGS show up as "format unreadable." For no reason whatsoever the RCA lyra chooses not to read some JPGs while allowing others to be read.
4) Limited readablity of video formats. Simply put, if you dont have a program with AVI MPEG layer 4 codecs, dont get this. It is annoying that it doesn't read a wider range of formats.
5) The included software is NOT Apple MAc compatible. I am an Apple user, and while the RCA lyra AV showed up on my desktop as a disk drive PERFECTLY without installing drivers, the included Musicmatch and firmware transfer sowftware is for PC ONLY. When you recieve your Lyra, you will absolutley NEED to update the system's firmware. YOU MUST have acess to a PC-compatible computer in order to do this. NOT A MAC! But otherwise, transfering movies, pics, and mp3s to the lyra on a mac is a simple drop and drag procedure.
6) You CAN NOT read Text, Excell, Word, PDF, or any other files on this machine. This is slightly decieving, because the description DOES make it seem like this is possible, by saying "view files such as word and excell documents." What this means is that you can LOOK at the file NAME and see that it is there, but cant look at the FILE itself!
7) Not to be petty, but the machine looks GREAT, except for these odd orange stripes ugglifying the back panel. Poor choice of color.
8) Cheap buttons. It has these little plastic joysticks that feel loose. One of mine is not even centered. This machine, for this price, should have touch sensative buttons like the apple iPod. This is only a minor drawback though.
Pros:
1) AMAZING sharp screen. A pleasure to watch video on. I mean, I never thought I could sit there and watch a movie on a little screen like that, but this screen is so crystal sharp that I was blown away.
2) Even though lips are out of sync, the sound and video quality of video recorded directly onto the lyra is SUPERB! I mean, it is just freaking incredible. The sound will blow you away. Again, a pleasure.
3) The look of this machine is great. Except for the buttons, it feels solid. Nice silverish color and black screen. The operating system is flashy and full of colorful graphics and sybols. It looks pretty.
4) Although I dont LIKE the case it comes with, the fact that it comes with a leather case at all is a plus. Any case will extend the life of a product.
5) Lots of great features. Allows you to set the recording time so you can start the recording at the begining of a 1 hour TV show, and it will automatically stop at after 1 hour. This is great so that you dont have to attend to the machine.
Overall, I think this is an AMAZING first generation product with about as many quarks as a typical first generation product has. It deserves 4 stars because I believe that it delivers everything it promises. Dont believe anyones review that says "THIS IS AMAZING!! BEST PRODUCT EVER!!" or "THIS THING IS TRASH!! GARBAGE!!!" They are extremes and dont accuratly represent the RCA Lyra AV. The truth lies in the middle.
My verdict: If you ABSOLUTELY MUST have a PVP, and cant wait a few more months untill the consumer market grows with many more PVPs, then get the RCA LYRA. I promise you wont be dissapointed. But if you are weary about getting a PVP, and are (...) and want a perfected top notch machine, wait it out. Hopefully Apple will come out with one and will blow away all of the competition!
But for now, I say the RCA Lyra AV is just plain fun to use!
-propynyl
32 I LOVE IT
i love my new lyra but i recomend u buy it from digitaldistributors.com Mine arrived broken and when i called they sent me a new one saying that i hasd just recieved a "lemon"... I sent mine back and got a new one the day after
33 Notice
RCA Lyra audio performance is kinda low, i give it 4 out of 10.
I have to do 4th time exchange.(*trulely) at bestbuy Whitemarsh....
Bad points of RCA lyra....2780
First, the decrease volume button is really easy to break. Second, the software have some error.
Third, the reset hole is too small to reach in to reset.
Forth, the the compact disk is limited(perhap it only read up to 512mb not up to a Giga).
Fifth, The hardrive cannot updatable.
Sixth, the protected case come with it really nice, but it will make the decrease volume but breakable, and the plastic screen will attach to the RCA lyra screen making hard to see the screen.
Seven, Every single cord(power, serials, 2 output..) is kinda little short)
Seven, if the one who have only cd player in the car, (s)he can get the ip transfer to radio thing, not RCA product.
Eight, the battery will not last up to 15hours, if only you don't touch any button to led the light on it will last up to sum=10 hours.
Ninth, during recharge, the screen is dead, no notice of recharge if under saving battery mode even off.
Tenth, product have no manual to point out which button will capable of what....only include cd have adode manual in it..*(what if i don't have a printer, few english or other languages it included(note only one kind of peaces pager were translated))
11)The player stick in the case very well to prevent fall out...but it really hard to take it out, if take it out *(decrease volume will might brake), and reset button was completely coverd in the case) u will know what i mean if u brought one.
In my final word, every device is not perfect, but this device RCA lyra..2780 is better than a Ipot, if u compared to and ipot 20GB is about same price but less fetures than RCA lyra...I really like it.
*and someday I would like RCA company can have a new update softwar(better one) and also the new update can read 40Gb, 60GB, or higher..Because the movies is take sooooo many spaces. Thanx
34 WOW!!! BEST PURCHASE I HAVE EVER MADE!!!!
I just bought this thing from Amazon and all I can say is WOW!!!!
This is probably the best purchase I have ever made. This thing is everything I ever expected and more!! It's easy to use as well - even my wife can operate it!
I have to say, everyone out there who is thinking of buying this, stop thinking. I bought it and I am extremely happy with it the moment I powered this thing on. YOU ABSOLUTELY POSITIVELY CANNOT GO WRONG WITH THIS PURCHASE! I GUARANTEE IT!!!
35 Potential is there
I just got this new toy and at my first reaction was wow...what a great toy. But be aware, the lyra is about 1 inch thick, so it is bigger than what is shown on the picture -- they jsut angle it so it look slim.
Anyway, the firmware 0.17.10 SUCK, it made most of the divx movies unplayable while having the the stupid mpeg4-asp error message poping up. Luckily the new firmware 17.11 fixed this problem. Also, be aware that it only plays divx codec, and some xivx. As a result, you might be spending most of your time converting your darn movies you already saved into divx -- use dr-divx for this.
Once everything is done the machine was a joy to use. It works beautifully. But, it is really bright though. So much that it might dim the color a little. The images is very sharp.
the mp3 player have great sounds, comparable to the ipod.
Anyway, you have to be patience with the thing, but once you understand it, its a great thing to use. This product has many gret potiential that i hope the next frimware will add on more goodies, maybe for format being reconize? shesh, how long does it take to get a licence.
The fact that this product will only get better, conforts me. Beaware, this is for the computer savey, but the fact that your even thinking about it mean you must be savey about codecs in the first place.IF you thinking about getting the the Argoes instead, that toy is one is HUGE, and expensive, lyra is more bang for your buck.
36 Actually, its a 4.5 or maybe a 4.7
Now that the new firmware has dropped, many of the issues have been worked out. For the money and for the abilities the Lyra A/V has it is a tremendous piece of machinery. Taking all the factors in the Lyra far outpaces the cheap looking model put out Archos, it's only competitor. I imagine other manufacturers will soon follow of course. I would definitely recommend the Lyra to anyone and everyone without hesitation now with the new firmware in place. Only the lack of communication from RCA themselves is slightly disappointing. I find it interesting that this Amazon message board yields more information about the Lyra than the RCA site itself. But I guess that's spilt milk. My only hopes would be to see the operating system move faster between functions, more Mac compatibility (as far as the installation discs are concerned) and more codecs for movies. But again, if you were weighing all your options, the Lyra kills any other portable on the scene to date. Good stuff!
37 They made it...
Guess what people. On April 3, 2004, RCA came out with a new firmware upgrade (Ver. 17.9) for its RD2780 A/V Jukebox. It is the best yet!!
I was really disappointed when I just bought this device and noticed all the features it had but were not available yet. Finally yesterday, I went to their website and there it was..,, the new firmware upgrade, Even though it doesn't have completely all of the features ready to use, it has a lot of stuff that I personally was dying to try and now I will!!!
Some of the enhancements are:
*Audio Graphic EQ enabled! Choose from 21 unique settings as well as a customizable 5 band graphic equalizer.
*Video Book marking enabled! Bookmark and restore up to 10 separate time-indexed locations from each movie on your Lyra? AV.
*Smart Tagging and Playlist Creation Enabled! By using the plus and minus keys, songs, photos and videos can be tagged for creation of and adding to "playlists" for each media type.
*Video Indexing Feature Enabled! When the menu button is depressed during Video playback, a NEW video banner is presented with +/- 30 second and +/- 15-minute fast forward and fast rewind (small and large arrows).
*PAL Recording Frame rate Bug has been fixed!
So do yourselves a favor and download this last firmware version and start getting the best out of your Lyra RD2780 A/V Jukeboxes!!
38 Avoid this product until Version 3 or 4
Good points:
For such a small screen, it looks good.
Easy to carry around.
It does a good job of saving and retrieving computer files.
Needs work:
Software just plain stinks. This has to be the worst software written since the Commodore 64.
First, the "Saving settings to hard disk" - what a waste of time. Let us turn this feature off. I use a bunch of 2 minute videos and after I view a 2 minute video, I have to wait 45 seconds while it "Saves settings to hard disk". Extremely annoying and no way to turn it off.
And, on MP3s, specifically books on tape, where you WOULD like to bookmark the spot you left off, the feature is not available.
On MP3s, they require you to "Profile" your MP3s, whatever that means. It takes a good 10 minutes to profile your MP3s, and every time you add another album, you have to re-profile. I have owned 6 MP3 Players, and NEVER have had to anything like that. As near as I can tell, there is NO advantage to doing a profile.
It also would have been a better idea to use batteries vs. this rechargeable lithium-ion deal, that, like the iPod, will burn out and then you have nothing. With regular batteries you can use rechargeables, and if the batteries happen to run down and you don't have time to recharge, you can just run into a store and buy batteries. RCA used to make a lot of money selling rechargeable batteries. Are they out of that business now?
39 Very cool! But not perfect.
First of all, let me just say that I love my Lyra! Simply put: It does pretty much exactly what I'd hoped, and more. I can EASILY rip my DVD's to the device (Thanks to a clever technique discovered by another user) and copying files to the device from my PC is a snap. Playback quality of Video and Audio is remarkable! That's what I wanted from the device, and it delivers in spades.
Now let me caution you however. This is no Ipod! If ease of use is a critical factor for you, and you don't care about video, don't buy the Lyra. Buy the Ipod, because it's interface is without equal. The Lyra interface, while a good start, is slower, less intuitive, and incomplete. Once you putter with it for an hour or 2, you can get around these issues, but I am still eagerly awaiting the addition of such features as equilizer functions, and managing playlists (Yes, you can port in your MusicMatch playlists, but it will be so much easier built in.
BTW, I had a chance to play with the Archos jukebox for a short time. Personal opinion: Archos suffers from poor interface in similar ways to the Lyra. Some features better, some worse. Plus, I prefer the design of the Lyra, as well as the protective case.
So, to sum up: Do your homework! Be sure an A/V jukebox is really what you want before you invest. The Lyra is certainly priced competitively with the Ipod, or Archos, but you must be prepared to take the good with the bad.
40 Dead air in "Shuffle all" mode
Just purchased this product. Tryed to get a solution to my problem from the RCA "service" dept. They acted like they didn't know what I was talking about and told me to send it back to them!
In a nutshell- Quite often in the "shuffle all" mode there is a pause of up to a minute between songs! I would like the next song to start instantly after the prior song ends. Can this be fixed?
41 It's ok........ I guess
Purchased early january. Love the video features. Did like the photo features. Mp3 features lack a few things. The video recorder/playback is cool, works fine for me. Being able to connect to the tv is great. The photos were cool until it lost the ability to read jpeg(i still see the photo but it doesnt fit the screen). I get an annoying, file format not supported. Mp3s play ok but you dont get the ability to search for another song while listening to the current selection. Adding costume album art creates, file format not supported, and no play. Desperately needs a current playlist to add songs on the fly. It takes eight seconds to load a song once selected. A lot of features still unavailable. Overall I feel I didnt get my moneys worth considering that two months later and im already troubleshooting problems. I have all current firmware/application updates. I use it with a brand new dell.
42 Not ready for prime time
Like the story of the talking dog that no one could understand but that amazed everyone because it could talk at all, the Lyra AV Jukebox has amazing capabilities, but it doesn't do anything particularly well. A few examples:
* It supports MP3 and WMA audio formats, but doesn't support Windows Media files with any kind of digital rights management, meaning that files purchased from services like Napster have to be burned to audio CDs, then ripped back into WMA or MP3 format, and finally, copied to the Lyra AV Jukebox.
* Copying a large library of audio files to the LYRA is S-L-O-W. Using the (included) MusicMatch software, it takes hours to transfer my approx. 4GB library to the Lyra, vs. 10-15 minutes to copy the same library to my Rio Karma using the Rio Music Manager.
* Many, many features are still unimplemented, five months after I purchased the Lyra; attempting to use them will get an error message that says, in essence, "Try again later when we release new firmware."
* Transferring video to the Lyra requires extensive trial and error, and no software to do so is bundled with the player by RCA. I've had good success with a combination of DVD Shrink (freeware) and Dr. DivX (paid software) with custom settings.
In short, I'd recommend that you wait for RCA to implement all the features that were supposed to be in the product from the beginning and fix the product's performance problems (which, at this point, may never happen,) buy the Archos (which also has problems but nowhere near as many as the RCA,) or wait for players that use Microsoft's portable Media Player software later this year.
43 Good Value
This product is actually really good. I did a lot of comparison shopping between this and the Archos model, and although the Archos model is superior it is also made cheaper, with cheap plastic, and is from $150-200 more than the RCA Lyra.
So I opened up my Lyra and tested it out, and I played the sample audio, videos, and pictures and it look great. The operating system was very slow and clunky though, and a lot of the features didn't work yet. I went online to the RCA Lyra site and I downloaded and installed the Feb. firmware and that helped a lot, because it included all the fixes from previous versions of the fimrware as well as many new ones. The speed of the OS is better now, although it's still not perfect. Flasing the firmware was easy, as ripping the cds with musicmatch and getting them onto the device, and recording or viewing the device on the TV was a snap. You need to encode your videos into DiVX to play them on the Lyra but just download Dr. Divx and it's a snap. I downloaded a bunch and it worked fine. The thing that's great about the Lyra is that it can only get better. The new firmware will come out and fix even more stuff and add a bunch of extra features. Also all the accesories are nice as well as the case. Right now the Archos model is better, but this one is cheaper, and once the firmware bring it up to date, it will be just as good, if not better than the Archos, and at a better value.
As for video I got it to play for 3 and a half hours until the machine died, with the LCD brightness at default(half). I set the backlight timer at 5 seconds, and played audio and got a good 8 hours out of it, so maybe its just the new firmware but it works fine.
I'm glad I purchased this model after this new firmware release though, because it made the device a lot better, and I can imagine the headaches that it gave users when it first came out with the 1st firmware. You have to have basic computer skills to get this running though, because you need some extra programs to get around encoding and stuff, but it was easy for me. I just think RCA should have had all the features working before they released this though, and give a little bit better support. Overall this was a good purchase for a good value.
44 RCA has a winner with this
I bought this unit with some concern as the reviews were a little mixed. After a month I can say that it is one of the best gadgets I have ever owned, including the iPod. Used on its own, it makes PERFECT videos off a cable box or VCR. I used it on a recent trip to London with 25 kid's videos recorded. Whether used on its own (as on a plane) or plugged in to a TV, the replay was excellent with good sound. Reviews said there was macroblocking and other artifacts -- perhaps with the old software, I have seen almost none.
MP3 playback is on a par with the iPod but with greater loudness available. In sum, in one little device I can hold my entire family photo album, a few thousand songs and over a dozen movies. It is worth more than what I paid for it. Highly, highly recommended.
45 Use only for recording soap operas, I guess
I have a specific use for this item and it involves video that I have downloaded off the internet (legal download)
After jumping through hoops and trying everything, I discovered by trial and error and some nice analysis software from GSpot.com, that, if you use EO video conversion software and install the DivX 5.1.1 codecs and use the MP3 audio codec, you can make the video work on the Lyra. It's the only conversion software that I have found that works (and I tried a half dozen). The problem with EO is that it doesn't correct for the audio shift so the audio is a second or 2 ahead of the video. This is not a problem for me, but it probably is for everybody else.
BTW, if you don't use the right codecs and try your video on the Lyra, it locks up and you have to use a paper clip to reset it.
Recording off TV is easy, but don't expect to be able to record movies or DVDs - there is a protection scheme and it doesn't record.
I haven't tried MP3s - I didn't buy this to use as an MP3 player - it's too big and it costs too much for that.
I did transfer some .jpg pictures over to the Lyra. Only about half of them showed up. The rest said "format not supported", which is wacky, because I created the .jpgs in Photoshop 6.0, which I always thought was pretty standard software.
There isn't (currently) any way to adjust brightness or contrast on your videos, so everything I uploaded to the Lyra looks washed out. I can correct that.
Overall, this is not ready for Prime Time. It's looks like they are updating software, but right now, forget it.
If you want to upload the soaps or some other TV shows, it is very easy to do. But for computer stuff, it's not worth it.
BTW, it's a dinky little picture, but I expected that. Others may be disappointed.
One other thing. Right now there is no way to shut of the "saving settings to hard drive" which happens if you turn a video off in mid-play. It takes forever to save those settings. This is a feature that needs to be turned off. I need to be able to get out of a video and into another video a lot faster than that.
46 Piece of Junk
Very simple. This unit is supposed to record video from an
outside source. Somethimes it does, sometimes it just shuts
itself off.
RCA won't do anything about it and just ignores me. I'm buying
the Archos.
47 I love it yet..
Wow i just wrote a long hate letter to put on here but the profanity was too strong so im just gonna write one little thing. RCA you are all absolute morons it seems like you are run by a dung throwing monkey. OMG why would your realease a product before it is ready!(morons). All I gotta say is that you killed such a good product and I hate you. I still love my Lyra and will never return it but to the creator who is hopefully reading this just get up walk over to the window and jump out.Ahhh glad i got that out
48 So close, but yet so far...
Last week I bought a Lyra 40GB mp3 jukebox and really enjoyed the storage, how it functioned as a hard drive, the sound, and ease of use.
The one thing that kept nagging me was how the 40GB mp3 jukebox was $299 and the Lyra AV was $399, so why not spend the $100 more and get the video player/recorder?
At first I loved the RCA AV device and spent the entire weekend playing with the features that were available. It was good improvement over just a pure mp3 jukebox, however after a few days the drawbacks and limitations became clear.
These are some big problems:
1. The video you capture is in ASF format and not avi, which makes editing in a common video editor a far tougher task.
2. The picture play back is only for .jpg files and not all jpg compression files worked.
3. Battery life with video only or mp3 only was very close to the same, which is alarming. The battery indicator also would go from full charge to 1/2 to 3/4 and never showed the correct charge. In one mixed function test the system ran for almost 3.5 hours. After another full 6+ hour charge it ran for about 2.5 hours in the same conditions.
4. The latest January 15 firmware adds a few features and fixes some problems, however a large amount of functionality is still missing.
5. RCA restricts users from backing up copyrighted works. People have figured out a work around, however there are several things that could be done to tighten copying, which severely restricts the usefullness of the device.
6. The system OS also runs slow. Checking the Lyra status screen took more than 2 minutes for some reason. At random times switching songs, stopping playback, or performing simple functions gives you 10-30 seconds of lag and it almost appears as if the system locked up.
The best things about the RCA AV jukebox include the nice TFT screen, the sleek form factor, the lower price, how so many accessories are included in the box, and how it forced Archos to lower the prices on their competing products.
If the RCA came out with complete functionality, recorded in avi format, and offered the same functionality as the Archos players it would have been a serious hit.
As it stands the RCA player is functional, has some good points, but it fails in a side by side comparision with the Archos. The promise was there, but the delivery was not.
Perhaps with jukebox 2 from RCA or after 6 more months of firmware updates the Lyra will be better competition, however there is a good chance future devices will be even further restricted as time goes on because media companies will just blame them as tools for abuse, ignoring the fact that any PC or Mac out there is a far better tool for any person wishing to pirate media.
I initially gave the Lyra a 5, but now feel it deserves a 2.5-3 for what it currently delivers. I am moving to a Archos AV340 because after my experience with the Lyra and after further research it appears the additional money is well worth it when it comes to these types of devices.
49 I want some accessories
thats it my subject pretty much said it. I want to be able to play games, take pictures, and whatever else u creative little RCA people can up with.(i hate you)ummmm i dont liuke that we are kept in the dark i would like it if you could tell us what is in development or give us some forums. Also you RCA people are probably not even reading this but what the hell im bored.
50 Worst. Device. Ever.
Nice idea, unfortunately almost every feature of this device was not active and was awaiting some "future software update". Totally beta level release. In addition, it had the most painfully slow operating system I've ever had the misfortune of using. Save your money for the next generation one from Creative that debuted at CES this year. The Lyra is garbage.
51 Would've been five stars if all the upgrades were available!
As is, with the most recent firmware upgrades, the Lyra does a very good job on both video and audio. Many features still aren't available though - get to work RCA - with better support the Lyra RD2780 could be a grandslam. This device is ripe for some clever porters to vastly improve it.
The unit seems very sturdy, compact, and well made. The control joysticks take a little getting used to, but they work well. The included accessories are more than adequate, I especially like not having to buy a case.
Video recording is easy and works well, but RCA needs to incorporate a start time option. The "wait six seconds, pause the record, and then start it again at 11 seconds" method for recording copywritten DVDs is an absolute godsend. Video playback is awsome for such a small device. As noted in previous reviews there is some pixelation in the dark (black) areas of videos, but it's not a major problem unless your expectations are very high. I would put the video on par with, and maybe slightly better than, some of the less expensive portable DVD players on the market. It takes maybe 10-15 seconds to load a 2 hour video file before playing.
Audio capabilities are more than adequate for me. Playback is smooth and clear. I don't experience the lag times some people have talked about between songs. It takes maybe 5-10 seconds to load a playlist, and then it plays all the songs smoothly. Here again though some features aren't yet available, RCA needs to get the equalizer feature working.
Connecting to a PC is easy, and downloads are fast, no problem there. I haven't tried to download from a compactflash card.
Battery time is really very good considering this is a hard drive based unit. I have watched 3 straight hours of video before running out of power. This was with the screen brightness turned way up. I've never run the battery out during audio playback, but I haven't used it for long periods of time. The battery meter is very rudimentary, and doesn't give a good indication of how much battery time is left...an area for improvement.
The picture viewing feature works well and allows you to zoom and rotate. There are other picture features that don't work yet.
Bottom line: The Lyra is a very good device that works well as is, and is well worth the money, but there is room for improvement. If RCA comes through with the promised firmware upgrades I'll be totally satisfied. The only reason I'm critical at all is that the potential is here for a really awsome device, and I'd like to see RCA (or someone) explore that potential.
Suggestions for RCA: 1)Get all the features working. 2)Get the user manual finished and online. 3)Offer accessories such as an external battery pack (for those extra long flights), and maybe a plug-in video/digital camera...the possibilities are great for this device. 4)Get some smart programers to explore the unused capabilities of this thing (such as allowing people to customize the desktop/menu page, and better file exploring/manipulating capabilities).
52 How to get your videos to play on this device
Ok to get your videos to play on this device you need DivX
go to www.divx.com and get the program called Dr. DivX
this program allows you convert all your videos to DivX in 3 easy steps. Its very easy to use.
This device should really come with this program included. Too bad thier support doesn't even know this.
53 Mac help
Does anyone no how to upgrade the firmware to the rd2780 using a mac.
54 Has video been fixed?
The RCA website has terrible customer service so I'm asking users of this product, did RCA ever fix the terrible pixelation of dark areas yet? I'm gonna buy this as soon as possible based upon all of its good reviews*.
*reviews that have been written after the firmware updates.
55 Waiting for Non-Beta Firmware
I recieved this product for Christmas and was confused by the controls and recording areas but after a day or two, I had mastered both. Recording TV doesn't have any copyrighting problems, but you must use the techniques talked about below to copy DVDs and VHS from the player directly. XViD codecs do not play properly, but I imagine this will be fixed in the future. The latest firmware has some problems with folders and I am waiting for this issue to be resolved. The video playback is so/so, once again, it will be fixed in the future. Dark areas are garbled and video is occasionally squished. There aren't any performance or audio issues in the video or audio.
56 4 stars for now
Got this a couple of days ago and love it. The image quality and UI is pretty awsome. I was disappointed with the lack of features availability so I called yesterday and talked to the Lyra support people. He said they are dropping codes about once/month. Wouldn't you know it they just dropped 15.19a yesterday. I also wrote an e-mail to them asking for more features like "COPY ALL" from CF. I have a digital camera and was looking for a combo MP3/photo wallet device. the RD2780 gave me these plus a PVP. I looked at the Archos Gmini but the UI and display are kinda cheesy and unimpressive. I would recommend everyone calling and writing to RCA asking for more upgrades quickly. The Lyra # is 580-634-0115 Option 2.
57 Any one see that new update that just came out today?
Isnt it all the same features that it got on the other update? am i crazy here? i havent had my lyra in a week due to my horrible accident with it(brother) but i kinda remmebr most of the featuers they mentioned. just wondering if i was the only one?
LYRA ROCKS!!!!:):):):)5 stars!
58 Great buy but lacking in some areas
I just picked this baby up and after about 5-6 hours of playing around with it i found that this is a awesome little machine, Copying audio/video is a breeze and audio/video playback is excellent(Note the 2780 handles dark areas pretty bad) The only gripe i have about the 2780 is the lack of features right now, alot of basic features that should be included IE: Playlists,Password Protection & Name Tags instead you get a "Will be included in a futeure upgrade meesage", Small price to pay for a new product on the market,Dont let these minor problems effect your decision on buying this gem
59 Looking for the best for my Lyra
I want the absolute best in headphones but i dont know where to look. Does anyone have any suggestions? LYRA ROCKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!:):):):)
60 Excellent
This is my second mp3 player, and since I work in the portable electronics section at Circuit City I have to know my stuff and I was very careful in choosing this. The player is fantastic- but has a few drawbacks. The player only records in mpeg4 video and mp3 encoded audio, so be prepared to either buy some $30 converting software, download one (legally, of course, ahem), or only use a few video files that happen to be the right format. It does take some time to find the tracks to play audio, in particular, but anyone who doesn't have fifteen seconds to wait while their mp3 player gets the track ready has some serious patience issues. Note: it only takes that lag to find the artist, after that, every track by the same artist loads instantaneously. The battery life is not terrific- a little less than the ipod on audio (about 6 to 7 hours) and only a few hours on video. Not atrocious, though. The good parts are far more numerous. Video and audio quality are outstanding, the recording is easy and terrific (if you get that error message, make sure the plug is ALL the way into your input on the player. It happened to me too), it's incredibly easy to use, very stylish, I can't say enough. And for all those people who cite the lack of immediately available features- you're wrong. The only feature you'd like that isn't available is the playlist-on-the-fly thing, and they'll get that out soon. All the rest of the features that aren't ready are things you wouldn't use anyway. This is definitely the best product on the market, and to prove it, I don't even care if you buy it from my store. That's how good it is.
61 Excelent product
The lyra is amazing. From past reviews on this site i was a bit worried about this product, but once i got it my worries were gone. This thing does every thing it says it can, some features say you cant do it until a later time, but if you hook your lyra up to the computer and go to the hard drive, then you can do pretty much every feature and those features are mostly just editing anyway. the copying dvd trick is great too, let it record for about 6 seconds and then press stop and let it record nothing for like 10 seconds, then press play and then you got it. i have no complaints so far, it transfers files fast, easy to acsess files, great sound, good video, it has lots of memory, and by accessing the lyra through your computer, it has lots of sorting and editing features. only downside is that it has poor directions for use and may take a while to figure out how everything works, other then that this is a great product that i would recommend for purchase. it is also much cheaper then the other models out by at least 150$ from what i havee seen. hope this helps.
62 AWESOME
I bought this thing for my wife and she hasn't been able to get it away from me. Like the rest of you, I was worried by some of the older reviews, but after using it, I've found that the critics are wrong. I spent hours ripping DVDs and converting to DIVX (for personal use of DVDs I own), and just recently discovered the way around the copyright protection for recording directly from DVD player (mentioned in an earlier review). This makes it 100% better. The features available now are more than sufficient and will only get better as they release more. The only downside is that when recording video, you can't specify a later start time, which kind of defeats the purpose. Hopefully this will be an added feature.
I loaded a movie and took it into the car, hooked it up to the car stereo(included attachment) and was blown away!
Also: I made a photo slide show of my honeymoon and set a sappy song to play over it - brought tears to my wifes eyes.
63 The DUST!!
yes i agree with you the dust is evil and its because the geniuses put holes on the top of the lyra above the screen. the same thing happened with my gameboy sp and it pisses me off. anyway im returning my lyra for a new one because the dust and my stand. LYRA ROCKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!:):)
64 Wich could be the best product?
I want to buy the best 10-40GB mp3 portable player, and I check this one but in the RCA website says that this device doesn't play WMA and here in Amazon, the specifications of the product says that this RCA device can play this music format as well. Those who has this portable device, could you tell if this little thing can play WMA as well? And coparing to the Rio, IPod and the RCA 40GB, which one is better? Thanks
65 Return your Lyra and say it just the stand just fell off...
I love my lyra also, but I have dust on the lower right corner that is inside the LCD screen. It is VERY annoying! Otherwise, I think it is great for the price and form factor, plus with ALL the include accessories, unlike the Archos.Just remember to upgrade the firmware at RCA.com which is very easy to do. As RCA updates the firmware, this product will only get better. Plus, you can get this at circuit city for 359...the Archos is at least $100-200 more (depending where you shop), plus the screen on the ARchos is a cheap plastic, and you don't get a carrying case to protect it. The Lyra screen seems like glass, but is probably a good quality plasitc. I already dropped my Lyra on my hard wood floor, but becuase I had it in it's included case (which is thickly padded), no harm was done. If this was the ARchos, it's cheap chinese plastic would shatter!
DVD's CAN be copied onto the Lrya!! There are 2 ways: You can always use a store-bought product that converts your DVDs on your computer to MPEG 4 avi files. I personally use Super DVD ripper which I got off the internet. I've seen others at stores like Circuit city or Best buy for around 30 bucks. Second...to record directly to from a DVD player, hook up the Lyra to the DVD player via the inputs on the Lyra. REcord...up to 6 seconds. At 6 seconds, disconnect the INPUT to the Lyra (or stop playback on the DVD player...both ways work the same....The goal is to cut the signal from the DVD player). MAKE SURE THAT THE LYRA IS STILL RECORDING...DONT STOP RECORDING. At 11 seconds, hook back the input to the Lyra or press play on the DVD player (if you chose the "stop playback" method). VIOLA!! you are now recording a copyrighted DVD. Remember, this is only for archiving your PERSONAL collection. Nobody condones piracy, because in the long-run, we all lose!
Also...to the guy whose brother broke his stand on his Lyra..Just exchange it at the store you bought it for a new one! Tell them that the stand just broke with normal use. They cant prove a thing. Just show them your receipt.
Happy new year all!
66 Question to all you lyra owners
Wanted to know if there was anyway to add a photo as sort of a wallpaper at the begining screen in the top right corner because I have seen so many different pictures there on the Rca site and other pictures i have seen. If any1 knows just post it on reviews or contact me at Speedy064@optonline.net
67 Worth it!
It is true that many functions need firmware upgrade to be activated, but the unit is very functional out of the box and there was a firmware upgrade posted on 12/30/03. I absolutely love the video functionality. All you have to do is hook it up to a laptop or desktop with TV-out capability and you can go straight from DVD to lyra. I recorded a 2hr movie with 128Kbs Mp3 sound and the file was less than 700MB, wich means I can transfer it back to the PC and store is on a CD-R until it is time to go on a trip. Before my trip, I will load about 10 of these movies back on to my Lyra and add an additonal 10GB of mp3 audio and still have room for more. It will record straight from a cable box or VCR and let you watch last night's football game while you're on the bus/train or in the waiting room of the dentist's office. This thing kicks ass!
68 I shed a tear
I absolutely love my Lyra so much but my brother my stupid stupid brother had to drop IT!!! Nothing is wrong with it except for my awesome back stand which doesnt close. AHY im so pissed. I had to put it away because I cannot look at it. I sent an email to customer support for rca and am awaiting an email telling me if i can get it repaired and where. I am so upset I love my Lyra so much.*cries*:(
69 THIS SUCKS
you may be like me and think that this is the coolest new thing to hit the market but its not its a great idea and all but its just not ready yet if you want somethign good get an ipod they rock.
70 UMMMM
THIS THING IS SO GREAT!!!!!!!!!!!! OK this thing is so awesome. at first you will have problems but ti will suddenly just click. dont listen to those geeks they have problems. I do not see anything on this that you can dis besides that sum of the features are not there look if you have just bought it and you need help send me an email at speedy064@optonline.net
71 ÀYour AVI's won't play?
I have had the same video formatting problem that a lot of people have had. Avi's won't play. It's just because the format of avi doesn't match. you must find video converter software. a good site to get one is here http://www.avsmedia.com/. hope i've helped.
72 The gadget to get...
I am fully aware that this product is still in development software wise, but the functionality out of the box, the price, weight, form are the qualities that swayed me from the ARchos. Out of the box, the basic functions of listening to MP3s, watching DIVx movies, and storing my photos are all there. When all the promised upgrades are implemented, this will be one hell of a Personal AV player.
In size, quality and form, it beats the Archos. Where the ARchos seemed like a toy, the Lyra seemed more elegant. It is 50% textured plastic and 50% aluminum which makes it sturdy.
I have successfully made a lot of DIVx movies for the Lyra using Intervideo DVDCopy. They all played without glitches but I am sometimes annoyed by the blockiness in dark or black scenes. I am sure this will be fixed by firmware/software upgrades soon. MP3 playes just beautifully.
I really like how it feels in my hands, not too small to easily lose, not too big to warrant leaving it at home like the Archos. It is also cheaper than competition.
Overall, I am satisfied. All the accessories included are way useful for me. For the Archos, you have to buy everything extra. For the Lyra it all came with the package which is thoughtful.
73 Poorest piece of junk on the market
I've had a Hango Personal Jukebox (10GB) for a number of years. An AV device seemed like the way to go for an upgrade.
Don't buy a Lyra.
The controls are difficult to use and too sensitive. Joystick style controls??? I test and review hardware/software for a living and anyone that tries to shove a joystick style control on a network device is immediately slapped for being CHEAP and stupid. The menu navigation is poorly contrived and missing most of the useful features (smart tags, playlists, etc...).
And God forbid you try to "stop" an audio playback. You can't. You have to exit by manipulating a tiny button on the side of the device. I have long finger nails and it's nearly impossible to use the "menu", "on/off" and "record" buttons.
The crappy leather case makes it even more difficult to control.
From a performance standpoint, it will only accept 128kbps MP3s so if you've already got a collection you may need to rip it again. It does NOT do buffering of any kind (which the Hango PJB has done from DAY ONE) so if you try to move from one song to another (good luck - this in and of itself is a pain) you have at least a 5-10 second wait while the device finds the next song and begins buffering it. It definitely appears to be an embedded windows device - slow, slow and slower. Trying to use it in the car today was so painful I'm ready to have my husband take it back and throw it at whoever sold it to him.
It is poorly designed physically and ill-conceived of in terms of functionality and usability.
In short, it's a piece of crap that isn't worth much more than a paperweight.
It is NOT worth the asking price.
Buy an Archos if you want AV or a PJB from Hango if you want MP3 playback that's USABLE.
74 Lyra is a good looking piece of Junk
The Lyra is a great concept. Storing vidio, audio, and pictures display. The reality is that the product is not fully functional. So don't expect to have the features that will make it useable. You will constantly see "this feature will be availabe in a future release". The user interface is clunky and there are a number of file formats that are not useable. If you try to contact Thomson (RCA) to find out when updates will be available they will tell you nothing. It can only be surmised that the promised updates will never be available.
When you install the basic operating software expect to be pushed marketing information. Buy this subscription, this software upgrade, and on and on. This product is a nice looking incomplete marketing night mare.
Save your money
75 What's the problem?
I've got to say that after reading all the reviews listed here I was quite worried about how the Lyra A/V I had ordered would perform. After three months I finally got it and I am very relieved. I promptly installed the updates available on the RCA website and everything functions as it should. There have been a lot of complaints about some of the functions not being available yet but that's no big deal, I'd rather have a functioning MP3/MPEG-4 player now and get the non-essential functions later. Also, if you can't make the Lyra A/V work right all I can say is you must not know how to use it, try reading the instruction manual, you can also download that at RCA's website.
76 Ahhhh RELIEF(spelling doesnt matter)
I finally figured it out after 2 long days. Ok what you gotta do is go onto the www.divx.com and get the 15 day free trial for doctor divx. Then you just download an avi file then use the three simple steps of doctor divx to encode it in Mpeg4 format and you can easily just zip it over to your lyra. I already have about ten of ym favorite shows on it and some of them came pre encoded. Also if your like me you were confused with the recording thing. Just hook the end of that wire with the audio video at the end into the line in of your lyra. Them hook the audio video parts inot a dvd player ( has to be a free DVD player you will see the details in the older reviews)or VCR. then you simply press record pick your time and then the picture shows up on your little screen and it records. Only problem is the copyrighted stuff which you can easily get passed with a free DVD player which I have seen cheapest around $139 (yes I know It sucks). It really is amazing that this amazon review board has been more helpful to me than that cr**py RCA site of frustration.
77 Not Ready Yet
Overall impression after several days of use is that I am just disapointed. The hardware makes your drop your jaw in amazement but once you start using it the sodtware makes you scratch your head inc confusion on why this was released.
About 80% of it advertised functions do not work yet because the software doesn't exist on it yet. WHen attempting to enter or view functions that aren't available yet you are prompted with the message "Feature will be available in furture firmware upgardes". You will get that message MANY times as you try to use the device. Also be prepared to Wait. That's right, I've seen some shorter load times on my playstation one. IT waits to save configuration information and it wait about 30sec to a minute to start playing an MP3 even when just moving to the next song.
Video playback is a joke. Expect not to be able to play any of the videos you have on your computer as it will only play very specific video codecs.
The batterly life is the BIGGEST draw back of the entire device. I have yet to have it last longer than 3 hours doing anything from only audio to watching video the whole time. This again is partially due to the software since the screen will be 100% on and bright during all function time unless you turn the backlight to off all the time in which you will have trouble seeing the screen. Expect to carry a charger around with it 24/7 or risk it going powerless extremely fast. It has never last a till I get home form work yet from the just over an hour commute each direction.
Dispite all this bashing this device has GREAT potential. have about 6 more months of software upgrades it might actually be usable the all of a sudden worth is with better batterly life and functions that actually function.
78 HELP ME for the LOVE OF GOD.........
I am so damn confused. Im using kazza to download video files that are avi type, but when I transferred the files they dont play. Then I tried to record fromt eh T.V. and it gave me an error message: warning! no video signal is present Cannnot record!. I went to the faq and followed the instructions and nuttin. Im only having trouble with video and this is very very frustrating. If i need to change it to mpeg-4 plz tell me how or sumptin I need instuctions!! gave it 5 stars cause its kool
79 More to Come
This will not be a comprehensive review but rather a few points I do want to enter into the fray.
I have a love/hate relationship with the RCA Lyra A/V Player.
As a tech gadget lover (but not wealthy enough to buy many of them)I think this purchase will definitely give me more than my money's worth by the time it's all through. As such, it delivers on it's main functionality- video (most of which I have recorded off my TV thru the included RCA cables), audio (a nice mp3 collection) and photos.
The thing I hate about it most at this moment is having to wait for new firmware releases, of which the Lyra is in need of.
Battery life: I've consistently gotten 4 plus hours from the device, but I was told I'd get 12 hours audio and/or 4 hours video. I have yet to come close to the 12 hours of audio.
Backlight: It doesn't turn on/off on the timer set like it's supposed to, ergo, I have to turn the backlight off in order for me to conserve battery, yet it still doesn't seem to conserve battery. Frustrating.
Even with these qualms, I still stand by the product. It serves me well and I know this product will have a bright future. It's only on firmware 0.14.10, so the software engineers have a long way to go to make it as good as it can be. I look forward to seeing it's evolution into what I desire and expect out of my gadgets.
80 THIS THING RULES!!!
I just got it and already I love it!!! The first thing I noticed about it is that the screen is AMAZING. I was worried that the 2.5 inch screen was gonna be too small, but its perfect for watching videos. The resolution is perfectly clear, I cant wait to record a full movie on here! The battery is good for 4 hours of watching video so it gives me enough time to watch a full length movie on a plane ride. And who cares about the firmware? As long as I know theyre improving it, and I can download both video and music already, I'm definitely a happy customer.
81 Very cool, but requires patience and a high GeekQ
As many other reviewers have stated, this device is really cool. Essentially for the same price as the Apple iPod 20GB, you get Video, too!
BUT... RCA was clearly not ready to release this thing. You have to be fairly A/V and computer saavy to fully use this thing. First, you have to update the firmware and the software that came with the unit. Then you have to figure out how to dump video to this sucker. You could always encode off of the line-in, but that's too pedestrian. Most of us want to capture video - in my case from a TV tuner card - and dump the TV show or clip to the Lyra for later viewing.
The problem is you can't do this with the software that comes with the unit!
So I went and bought a fairly inexpensive package, Roxio's VideoWave, and tried to create my shows. Still no good, because until they update the firmware to support the widely available codecs, you *MUST* encode in AVI format such that the audio is MP3 and the video is either MPEG-4 SP (standard profile) or DivX. I only have MPEG-4 Version 1-3 codecs on my brand new box.
Luckily, you can save yourself a lot of time and hassle by just going to the following site and downloading the *FREE* DivX codec: http://www.divx.com
Now everything works fine, and I only spent about $50 for the additional software, which will be useful anyway for creating videos.
If you already have capture software, the only thing you have to watch out for is to make sure you can specify the audio compression algorithm (MP3) when creating an AVI. Some (many?) packages simply use uncompressed PCM audio, and that won't play on the Lyra! Besides, it will make you AVI file substantially smaller if you compress the audio.
82 oh my GOD! RCA Please release good firmeware updates fast!!!
This Unit is awesome it's rather unexpensive, well made, rather small, in short the unit is awesome(reason for that many stars). The real problem is the firmeware... it sucks!Lots of options like playlists are missing.
Message to RCA: if you're gonna release a product this late at least make sure it isn't buggy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
83 Buggy, buggy, buggy
I really wanted this to work - it was the first affordable unit that had all the features I was looking for. Unfortunately, it's so buggy that it makes the unit unusable in certain areas.
One of the reasons I bought the unit was to use it as a digital wallet for my digital camera. That is, I wanted to be able to take it on the road with me and dump photos off a compact flash card in order to free up space for more (I shoot 6 megapixel uncompressed photos at about 8MB each). Unfortunately, none of the three CF cards I have works in the unit (yes, they're all Type I and formatted correctly). Inserting them locks the unit up.
On the video side, I wanted to be able to watch the clips off my other camera (Canon S400) on the unit. Converting to mpeg 4 is a hassle, but not too bad with Virtualdub (though I can't get sound since I can't seem to be able to encode the audio into mp3). However, every time I try to watch one of my videos, the unit locks up. Interestingly, if I watch one of their sample videos first, my videos will play fine. Talk about buggy.
Other annoyances - the unit routinely takes 10-20 secs to do some tasks while you get a "Preparing hard drive" message and the UI is pretty non-intuitive, though tolerable once you get used to it (get a "back" button, RCA!).
The concept is great - if this thing did everything it's supposed to do, I would love it. Unfortunately, the execution is severely lacking - I realize it's v1.0, but I have rarely seen any released electronics product this buggy.
84 Nice product
Got it a few days back and overall its a nice product.
Pros:
1) Audio, video, jpgs all in one
2) Nice set of accessories - car kit, cables, etc.
3) Sounds good. RCA software works well.
Cons:
1) Buttons can be confusing at times
2) I dont care for musicmatch jukebox but the RCA software
works well.
3) Case is functional but makes the buttons difficult t0
maneuver (sp?).
As for one of the earlier reviews, you may want to try plugging the car adapter into the line out port opposed to the head phone jack - I am guessing RCA figured most people would use the volume control on their car stereo...
Over all I like it and its a keeper. I dislike musicmatch because it tends to place all of the songs at the top level directory on the device while the RCA synch feature mirrors the pc hard drive - which is organized they way I like it.
85 Great product, needs a Better Software Engineer Behind It
Cool concept. Put video and audio on the same device? Brilliant! Great display, easy tools, horrible software and instructions. They are working to improve the software slowly but surely, so be patient. The ability to record off of the TV or DVD is very impressive. Very easy.
Overall, I think I'll keep it and hope that RCA can figure out the software issues. Huge wow factor!
86 Pretty darn good - worth it for me
Okay, I bought this as sort of a Portable Digital Video Recorder, and so far, so good. Some of the comments by other reviewers are correct, there are some issues, but pay close attention to what they say.
Pros: After I downloaded the new firmware, which you have to do, I hooked it up to my TV and recorded the PSV v. RKC soccer match on Fox Sports World. Set at the medium quality, the 2 hour match (including half time) took up about 1 gig. I watched the first half on the Lyra screen and it was pretty darn good. I stopped it at around the 20 minute mark, turned the Lyra off, started it back up and the match started right where I left off - very nice.
Cons: When I got to half-time I tried to fast forward and the unit totally froze up. I had to shut down and then it lost the place I was in the video. Sigh. This is just basic functionality that should work.
I then hooked the Lyra up to my laptop and watched the match again through windows media player (Windows XP Tablet edition) and was able to 'scroll' through the video with no issue. The quality (again - medium video quality setting) of the video was great! The best part was that I was watching this from the device, I didn't have to copy it to my hard drive.
My main issue so far is that the OS is slow. But, for what I'm using it for that doesn't really matter.
A couple of other thoughts:
1.) I'd love to have a timer that I can set that will wake-up the device to tape something while I'm at work.
2.) The unit has a compact flash card slot and I have compact flash 802.11b wireless card... I'd love to be able to 'stream' content from the device across my wireless home network.
As I mentioned, read the comments by other reviewers closely. Don't compare this device to an MP3 player like the iPod - if you just want an MP3 player, get the iPod. If you want a multi-purpose device, this is worth the money if you don't want to wait for a future release....
Finally, seems they should be able to fix all the issues with future firmware upgrades, I hope they release these with some regularity.
87 Little promise, more disappoinment
Waited six months to get a device with more promises than hardware. I bought it mainly for the photo function and the video playing ability. Video can be played but only in Mpeg-4, not mpeg-1/2 as promised. Quality of video is okay, but that is not the point. All 3.5" screen could give you a reasonable viewing experience.
Accessories are rediculous. The designer of the case should, let's say, lose his job. The ear plug on the car kit does not even fit the device (it is for phones rather than headphones).
Basically, RCA rushed this device out without even thinking that it will ruin its reputation, if it had one.
88 The Guy who asked keep the iPod, answers his own question
As the title says this is from the same person who asked if it is wise to keep the iPod or trade it in for the RCA Lyra A/V. Ok first off the idea is really good: to combine both audio and video in one compact unit, every electronics persons dream, but this does not live up to it. At first it seems cool, but the more you look at the negatives the positives go away.
Positives are that it can play video, it can play music, has a cool interface, stores 20GB of stuff, it comes with everything you need so you dont need to spend extra money, and it can record stuff from the TV, VCR, or DVD(with the DVD you need the right "tools").
Negatives are that its super bulky so you cant just carry it around for fun, it cant be used as just an mp3 player becuase turning the thing off and on may damage it and it take a while for the stuff to load, the product is not complete so it cant just be used out of the box becuase you have to download some stuff, and the video quality is not good. If the video quality is what your concerned about, like I was, then dont get this product wait for the next generation ones like these to come out because it will get better.
All in all the product was ok, but if you want to compare it to an iPod, the iPod is the way to go...for now.
89 I love it! But it does have problems...
I have been carrying this unit on my daily 2-hour commute since buying it two weeks ago. I record programs I want to watch on the hard drive of my DVD recorder in my absence, then copy to the lyra. Saves me the cost of recording shows I don't want to keep permanently to DVD's just for portability. Wish the timer recording feature allowed selections of smaller than 1/2 hour increments, though. The video and audio quality are plenty good for me.
But... the fast-foward bug is NOT fixed. I have to reset the unit several times daily. It should have come with an attached reset accessory. Plus the leather cover has to be removed to reach the reset hole - not good planning. Also, the cover's see-through plastic over the display ripples and reflects light so it's sometimes a struggle to have a glare-free picture.
Battery life is not impressive -- under two hours for me so far.
You can't name files using the unit directly, but you can re-name in windows explorer when attached to your PC.
On-line customer support is non-existant. I've sent two inquiries -- one about buying additional accessories and the other reporting the FF bug remaining -- both replies came quickly but basically said they weren't equipped to respond.
The buttons are quirky - and if you don't push in the precise direction, you won't get the result you want.
Despite the problems, I really like this unit and will be keeping it.
90 RCA Lyra RD 2780 AV Jukebox leaves a lot to be desired
The unit is fairly compact, but certainly not pocketable. The screen is reasonably nice and so is the audio along with the 20 GB HD capacity. The problems lie mainly in totally inadequate and clunky software, which has to be updated on-line right after purchase. It is very counterintuitive and extremely deficient. One cannot even perform the simple operation of zooming in and out on photos. They can only be displayed in one, fixed size.
Alhough it seems logical to be able to load DVD movies into the unit, that has proven to be impossible. It might be done with an MPEG4 encoder (which RCA did not see fit to include), but straight out of the box - forget it. Since the video playback feature is by far the main atraction of this gizmo, a serious oversight like this renders it practically useless.
It might record off a TV set, but frankly that seems like too much of a hassle to me. I would much prefer to do it through my computer's USB 2 port. In short, the Lyra is going back to the store. Hopefully units such as this, will soon be available in an improved version and for less than $400.
91 Cranky & poorly implemented. Can't even record DVDs!
Don't think you are going to transfer your DVDs and then hop on an airplane to watch! The unit shuts down after giving you a warning if you attempt to copy any DVD or VHS to it.
The unit arrives with obsolete software. You get to spend the first hour downloading updates, installing new firmware and new drivers before the main features are operational. (The unit comes with a sheet explaining that this is necessary.)
Then, after installing the new software you find that many of the features will be available in a "future release." The menu options are there for new features, but if you click on the menus you get a vaporware promise of the future. Don't even think of using the built-in equalizer or tone controls: touching those buttons brings up more "future release" messages.
"Please wait" takes on new meaning with this unit. It seems to need a 10 second pause frequently.
The controls are wiggly and flimsy. The buttons are randomly sprinkled along the front, ends, and top of the unit in a pattern that defies logic.
The menus are awkward and obscure. I never could get a movie that was playing to stop nor could I get back to any menus once a movie started. I literally had to power cycle the unit to get to the menus.
The unit only supports MPEG-4, so you cannot RIP movies to MPEG-2, DIVX, or AV formats and play them.
No, you cannot read a DVD using your PCs DVD player and save it onto the unit and play it. (Seems like that would be a basic feature of the unit.)
The picture quality is acceptable, although the audio quality was a dissapointment.
This unit is bleading edge. It really is a version 0.1 product. I am sure that with three hardware revisions and four major software releases it is the type of product that we will all take with us on trips and on the road.
I'd pay a fortune for a version of this that works, but the one I purchased is going back to Amazon pronto.
Havging waited for the unit for 6 months, this was a great dissapointment.
92 Delivers what it promises!!!
I was skeptical about this product. Unlike most new products that the manufacturers scramble to release before the holidays, the Lyra A/V jukebox is bug free. Some reported bugs like freezes during fast rewind, etc. were fixed by the latest firmware. There are many fancy features that the unit does not support yet, but will support in the future. But the main features that, I'm interested in, work flawlessly. The unit can record from any video source with rca a/v out (tv, vcr, satellite receiver, etc). The unit plays back video recorded directly from an a/v source OR DivX encoded video transfered though the USB interface. The unit can also playback video on a TV. If you're planning to buy this unit, do yourself a favor and also buy a copy of DrDivx from Divx.com. DrDix can encode any DVD into DivX format directly playable by the Lyra A/V jukebox. If you travel a lot, with 35-40 movies on the palm of your hand, this gizmo is your dream come true!!!
Impatient, non-computer-savvy people are giving this unit a bad name. Those who don't know how to rip a dvd, or re-encode a video file to various formats, I suggest you stick to a portable dvd player. This unit is not for you. For the rest of us, this is what we've been waiting for!!! An added PDA functionality would have been nice, but I am happy with what this unit has to offer!!!
93 yes, YES - keep iPod
Yep -
Quick story:
Bought on the day after Thanksgiving. Returned a week later.
Longer story:
Although the there are a couple good points, there are many more bad ones.
Good - pretty sharp screen for size, nice recording features (has straight RCA in and RCA out), on the whole nice set of accessories (although the leather case is ridiculous), lots of space (20gigs)
Bad - slowest OS I think i've ever seen on a portable - it will randomly say "saving settings to hard drive" and pause for a good 30sec - 1 min, takes around 10-20 seconds to start playing each song or movie, cumbersome controls (if you want to use it as a convenient MP3 player, you have to hold it in two hands and go through the whole interface any time you want to change a song), can't browse through songs while one is playing, can't create playlists on the unit itself, start up time to record video is variable (from 10seconds to over a minute) so if you're trying to record anything off tv, its tricky to time the starting, audio lags on recorded video after 10 to 15 minutes (loses sync - gotta love watching mouths move and the words coming out after like a poorly dubbed foreign film), leather case is bulky and pretty much impractical short of keeping it "safe" for storage (who wants that on their belt?!), only .avi movie files recorded with mpeg-4 video and mp3 audio codecs can be used (plus the asf format it uses to record), and finally, the most annoying thing - half of the features in the OS come up with an annoying message saying "feature is not available, look for in future upgrades at www.rca....."
Overall - RCA rushed this out to capture the xmas market long before it should have. While the video is relatively clean and a good step for portables in general, the negatives greatly overshadow it. Trust me, i loved the idea of video, and if all you're looking for it that, this could (COULD) be somewhat useful, assuming you're patient enough. However, if you have any plans of using it for music also, and don't have unlimited patience every time you want a new song, this is not the one. I ended up taking mine back and getting a beautiful new 3rd gen iPod last night, and while there's no video - wow, every accolade apple has gotten for this is warranted (and this is coming from a very anti-apple/mac, die-hard pc guy)
and as a note to those who say the new firmware fixed problems, i'd just like to say that I had the newest upgrades for both the software and the lyra itself, and i still had all these issues
94 Can Anyone compare the Apple iPod to The RCA Lyra A/V
Disregard the stars...Sorry people this is not a review, but I didnt know how else to get peoples attention on this. I wanted to know how this compares to the Apple iPod becuase I have the 20GB iPod and I ordered this as well. I know that with this product you can watch videos and such, but as far as dependebility and study-ness how does it look? Because with the iPod there are no moving parts (except the button which you flip to lock the buttons) and that means that there is not risk of "breaking" the iPod (except if it accidentally hits the flor from a high enough place). SO if anyone can post a review which tackles this question I would greatl appricieate it. And again sorry for me posting it in the review section
95 I love my Lyra ... :)
I found the negative reviews to be extremely unhelpful. I recorded a movie from my Tivo onto the Lyra and it plays back perfectly. The sound quality was outstanding. Nice surround effect. The picture quality is fairly good but not outstanding. It's definitely good enough to give friends the wow factor.
Recording from Tivo allows to you to "backup" movies. Of course you can not "backup" copyrighted DVD's from a DVD player. Unless, of course you get a Macrovision- disabled DVD player off the internet. Seriously, with a Macrovision-free DVD player you can backup YOUR DVD's (that you purchased) to the Lyra and have it for long trips. I found that 40 hours is the maximum video hours alloweable when using the "High quality" video setting and the "192 kb/s" - best audo setting. The Matrix Reloaded which was 2h 30min used up 1.10 GB.
My computer with Windows XP, recognized the Lyra instantly as a removable drive when plugged into USB port. Very nice. So you can just drag and drop files into the three main folders-"video, photo, audio."
For the reviewer who said, "there is no signal, unable to record." The video source, (Tivo, dvd player) must be on play or the Lyra will not recognize. If it's on pause it will not see the source.
However, some MPEG (not sure what MPEG format) clips I downloaded fromt the internet was not a "recognized format." Supposedly the Lyra will support "AVI and MPEG4-SP."
MP3 playback is outstanding. Excellent sound quality. And it loaded very rapidly via USB to the Lyra. I wish I had USB 2.0 on my computer because the Lyra does support 2.0.
For those complaining about screen quality- you would have to purchase a laptop with a excellent video card and LARGE battery to have better screen quality. I think the picture is fine considering the size and form factor. Any better will require a heavier larger battery. Ie- buy a laptop and lug that around.
I love my Lyra, considering it's size and price...:)
96 Amazing
The Lyra is a great product. The problems mentioned by everyone else are fixed with the new firmware upgrade on the website. It is easy to record videos and the quality is good considering what you are watching it on. Sound is very crisp and loud. The pictures are clear as well. It was well worth the money and far superior to the AV320. Awesome!!!!
97 Not Bad, Needs Work But Well Worth The $$
If you want this thing to work correctly, you've GOT to upgrade its fimware! The RCA site is now up with current firmware and a complete manual. I suggest that you print out the manual. Believe me, you'll refer to it much over the 1st few days as you find out what The Lyra can do.
I bought it on 11/19/03 and haven't looked back. It takes a while to get used to the feel of the controls and to what does what, but after a couple of days, it's almost 2nd nature. Some functions are not yet available but will come in future upgrades. I look fwd to them. They will make The Lyra really worthwhile to own.
I usu watch it when I have a break on the workroom floor, usu 1 hr out of 4 hrs. It fits well in my apron pocket and isn't heavy. Where ever you stop the playback, The Lyra 'timestamps' that spot so that you won't have to FFWD to that spot again. Upon your return, it asks you if you want to start where you left off or start @ the begining of the show. I might have to reset it once or twice/day, usu after entering a lot of commands in rapid order. The video is good as is the sound. I use the low rec mode and the picture is close to tv quality, which is more than fine for one person watching an hour or so @ a time. To rec, I hook it up to my DVR's tv out, set the DVR to play and the Lyra to rec for the duration of the show. The Lyra's screen shows what's being recorded. After the rec period elapses, The Lyra shuts down after saving your file. I don't like that you can't name the file, but that's supposed to be one of the firmware upgrades. It won't rec DVDs directly from your DVD players' out plug, but it will play DIVX encoded files (ie, owner purchased ripped DVD's, for your own personal use, of course).
As for the MP3 audio, it's close to being as good as my iRiver flash player. Nice, crisp, and loud. I work in a nosy place and can hear it just fine. Also, nice leather carrying case. On a down note, I'm not sure where they are getting the battery life info, but my LYRA gets about 3-4 hours (video)before it poops out.
All in all, $$ well spent!
98 Limited capacity
This model only supports mpeg4 avi file format for video, and only mepg3 for audio, nothing else.
99 Half the features don't work YET!!!
Sorry, but the folks who are trying to convince you that because this is a small device, you should accept less quality are wrong. The fact is RCA released this product with half the features not yet available and with almost no documentation in the box. Even updating the device immediately after unpacking (as recommended by labels inside the box) didn't improve the device.
I tried 2 methods of playback - (1) recording various qualities (and coverting to DivX MPEG 4) on a PC and (2) recording directly onto the device. While the PC recorded files played back clearly on the PC, the Lyra produced blocky images even on scenes with little motion. Colors appeared washed out. The quality of the recording directly onto the Lyra at the highest setting was slightly better, but still produced blocky images especially noticeable during motion scenes.
Even if you're OK with barely acceptable images from the device, some of the missing features like fast forwording or reverse during playback are not acceptable. In fact, during playback of video, almost nothing else works. To stop the playback and return to the main menu requires you to illogically press the On/Off button instead of the Menu button. For me, this device is on its way back to the store.
100 People are way too hard on this thing!
I bought the A/V jukebox, and I love it! I am definitely a gadget guru, and I've had all kinds of goodies like this from PDA's to MP3 Players and more!
First, the build quality is pretty good. It has a nice metalic case and feels robust. It is very light, which makes sense considering its basically a laptop hard drive and a screen.
As far as complaints about video quality, you have to remember it plays back MP4 files. They're highly compressed to fit more video onto the hard drive, so they're not going to be DVD quality. That being said, they look good on the built-in screen. The two sample videos that are pre-installed will give you a good idea of the quality. There's a clip with a lot of movement that I was particularly impressed with. Anyone who has made homemade VCD's will know how bad motion usually looks when compressed. This definitely looks better than VCD quality, more like VHS. I haven't tried it hooked up to a TV yet.
**update**
I've had a chance to record a few movies onto it! I have an old Apex DVD player in which you can disable copy protection, so I've been able to record a few of my movies directly into the RD2780. Wow, the quality is far better than I had hoped for! Some lip-sync problems near the ends of films (less than a second after a 90 minute movie, not bad for a hardware encoder like this), but otherwise clean and nice looking at the lowest quality! At this setting I should be able to get about 35-40 full movies onto the hard drive!
***end update***
It comes with tons of accessories, including a belt-clip case (which is way too bulky, but at least its protected), fairly good ear buds, a FULL CAR KIT (including the auto power adaptor and cassette adaptor), and all of the cables. There are two sets of A/V cables so it can be set up to record and playback without changing cables. I was a little inpressed that they didn't skimp on the cables.
Mac support is there, but pretty dismal. I was hoping to use it with my Macs, but I'll end up using it with my wife's PC. It can be used with the Mac, but not to its fullest. The box clearly states this though, so you can't fault RCA.
The display looks great, the sound is great. I've shorted them one star for rushing it to market and not enabling all of the features (the "coming soon" message that pops up when you try to enable some features is a bummer), but there are firmware upgrades on their site already, so it looks like they'll support it aggressively. And to update other complaints, I did not have a problem downloading the PDF's of the manuals.
I agree that if Apple gets into the game it will be incredible, but this is definitely the next best thing.
