SONICblue's lightweight, portable Rio One lives up to its name--you can listen to digital audio for up to 10 hours on a single AA battery. With its 32 MB internal flash memory, you can enjoy over an hour of near CD quality, skip-free music (there are no moving parts). It includes an expansion slot that enables you to add memory using SmartMedia cards.
In addition to MP3, Rio One also supports the Windows Media Audio format, so you can personalize which songs and what format you want to store. Specify playlists and what songs to transfer using the included Real Jukebox and iTunes software and you've got go-anywhere music.
Connect the Rio One to either a PC or Mac with the included USB cable and transfer songs at speeds five times faster than parallel ports. You can also download software upgrades to keep your player up to date on the latest formats. The Rio One comes with earphones, one AA battery, a USB cable, and a CD-ROM with audio-management software for PC and Mac.
The best-selling digital audio player now comes with a fast USB connection and support for multiple audio formats. A successor to the Rio 300 - the best-selling digital audio player - RioOne delivers up to one hour of skip-free music with 32 MB of upgradeable on-board memory. Add flash memory for up to 5 hours of playtime.
1 The door is flimsy and will break easily
My sister got this model for me-however if you leave the battery in even with it being powered off it will drain the battery and then it gets a little stressful thinking that it won't ever work-and definitely get a SmartMedia card for it if you do get one (as a gift don't buy one).
I read that the battery door breaks on these models but it was a gift so I was very careful yet it DID break-a small little plastic bit came off on the closing end when I was putting in the battery before use-I can use it if I tape the door and it works fine but it's an inconvenience-and considering purchasing a non-RIO product that does use a Smart Media card-
2 Mine just died (it is the third time)
I bought one when it first came out and it never worked right. Since it was under warranty they sent me a new (refurbished) one and it had the same problem. Then after a two month battle they sent me out a brand new one and it worked great for about a year but then it just died. Actually it isn't totally dead but all it does is blink the amount of memory it has until the battery runs down. I can't turn it off or play any thing.
So the support people do the best they can but I don't think the player is designed very well.
3 Worked for a while, then completely died
I bought this product , because it was my first mp3 player, and I wanted an inexpensive one. It worked fine for about a year, then one time when the batteries ran out, it just stopped working, and complety died. Now, with better models with more memory and durbility on the market, I'd skip over this one.
4 Small and easy use, but built very poorly
I wanted an MP3 player that was small and skip-free, so I bought the Rio One in December 2001. At first it was great. I was very happy that it fit in my pocket and was skip-free (great for working out). Soon after, I bought a couple of 128MB SmartMedia memory cards to hold my music, and I was able to swap them depending on what kind of music I was in the mood for. The battery life was not very good, but I bought rechargeable batteries (and a charger for about $15) and it was not a problem anymore. The only thing I really disliked was that it does not display the song (just a track number, which is useless when you have 100 songs on the memory card), and also that it has no radio (which would have been useful on September 11 because I live in New York City).
I was happy, just like the people who have written 5-star reviews about this player, but then it all went downhill.
Less than a year after I bought it, the battery door (which is a cheap tiny piece of plastic) broke off, so it was useless. Tech support was a pain, but I did manage to send it back and they sent me a new one. However, soon after, the same thing happened. I don't abuse my player, I don't drop or bang it, and it always stayed in my pocket; its just built very poorly.
The best thing about the Rio One is its small size and no skipping. The sound quality is only fair. Rio customer service is even worse (or should I say nonexistent), because they ignored my emails until I called up screaming to the supervisor, and I had to pay for long-distance call just to get nowhere with them (they have no 800 number). I have a couple of friends who own the Rio SP150 or SP250 (this plays regular audio CD's and CDRW discs with MP3 files and it has a radio and remote control) and they are happy with it. The reason I did not buy this model is because I wanted something smaller than a CD player.
After my experiences with RIO's products and service (or lack thereof), I will never buy any RIO product again.!!!
I am looking at several new players I may buy.
Feel free to ask me any questions you may have (Jmendelson@clarku.edu)
5 nervous wreck it'll break again...
I bought the RIO ONE 32mb for my son for Christmas 2001. It stopped working about 2 weeks later. We had to download new firmware. Then about 3 weeks after that it died completely. We did nothing for months because the store we bought it from said "too bad, call the manufacturer." Then in Nov. 2002 I decided not to throw away a hundred bucks and I sat on hold for about 45 minutes until a tech answered the phone. It was pretty easy after that, I guess there are a lot of problems with these things. They gave me instructions to return it for a replacement, which I did and about 2 months later a new remanufactured one arrived. We still had to download something for it but we have had no problems since (6 weeks or so now). Wish us luck.
6 The worst case of customer neglect I have encountered
Normally, I don't write reviews of products but with this product I will. The Rio one has got to be the worst poduct I have encountered for MP3 technology. To begin with, I have been through two of the Rio ones in the past month. When I first encountered the problem, the rio one basically dies if you let the battery run down on it, I tried, much to my frustration, to contact the costumer support and technical support service to no avail. First it is a toll number and second I waited on the phone for about an hour with no response to my call. I was on hold for an hour! I finally gave up and took it back to the store from which I purchased the Rio One. Rather than deal with technical support, they just gave me a new player no questions asked. Guess what? Within a month the same scenario was played out again with the tech crew at SonicBlue/RIO. As of January 17th, 2003 only one month after I purchased the first one, I have gone through two players, Spent about two and a half hours on the phone trying to get through to tech support, had no contact with anyone from RIO and am still in the same boat as I was with the first one. This product has got to be the worst I have encountered in a long time.
When you take into account the poor custumer/technical support, the continued experience of all those who have purchased it, the no frills package and the large bulky design of the RIO one it adds up to be a poor quality product. You would probably be better off buying a tape player than this MP3 Player if you wanted uninterrupted music when working out, running, or just simply enjoying the fine musical talent of the plethora of music icons available.
7 A COMPLETE WASTE OF MONEY!
To make a long story short...it was purchased as a birthday gift. Worked for less than a month and completely died. Does nothing, nada, zip! No support - no replacement! Cheaply made piece of junk! PLEASE read all reviews on this product before purchasing it. Recommendation: Buy an MP3 player from another company!
8 Great Basic Player
I've had mine for about a year with minor difficulties and am pleased with the performance. In fact I may buy one for my wife. This will allow me to use the same USB connection for both units eliminating hardware/software problems that arise from having different type units. I've seen a lot of negative reviews on this product and I haven't experienced any of the problems listed. One comments on the cheap plastic case that is broken on the first drop...I've dropped mine several times, not a scratch. My only complaint is that the battery compartment opens too easily and can allow the battery to fall out. It doesn't have some of the features you may want like track programming or song info but for the money a great starter unit at fair price.
9 Good....but save up and get better
Well I bought this MP3 player as my first one. I have to say it as REALLY good sound from what I have heard (at 128 or above), great battery life (but I think the 10 hours is pushing it) and I'm happy it can support my WMA files.
But this is where the good stuff falls short. You only get the song number so you don't really know which song you are selecting. Also it takes so long to go through songs, you better put only your best songs on there. DO NOT LISTEN TO WMA FILES ON THIS PRODUCT. Although it may support it no matter what the quality, I get a wierd fuzzing in the background EVERYTIME (which seems to be gone on my computer).
If you are going to buy this as your first MP3 player (or a spare one for one of the members of the family) then do it. But if you are looking for anything above MP3's and maybe some bells and whistles, look somewhere else.
10 Cheap, Shoddy, Its going back before it breaks.
I got this as a Christmas present, the person that bought it for me did so because she thought Rio was a good brand for MP3 Players. Out of the package you can tell its not the best, brittle plastic, (One drop and its finished for good), you can press in a bit on one of the sides and feel the plastic give a bit. Setup was a bit of a hassle, DO NOT USE MOODLOGIC.It would not detect the player at all, after installation it gave me a notice of an upgrade, I upgraded it and shortly after it gave me and error message. It wouldn't work afterwards and when I closed it, the program performed an illegal operation. (This is after uninstalling and installing it again*3) (My OS Win98) The Real One Player was easy to use. Drag and drop is nice.
The Sound Quality of the intial download to the player was great, the second download there was noticeable high pitch chirps and squeaks where there shouldn't be any.
The manual that comes with the player is overly simplistic (It will tell you how to put the battery in, where to plug it into your PC and that's it.)
My recommendation is not to buy the RIO one, in my opinion this product would sell best as a 10 dollar disposable MP3 player, then the quality wouldn't be so questionable. Save your money and get something that will last. 80-100 dollars for this means you are being nice and donating money to the company. For maybe from the looks of it a month or two less than outstanding performance, is 50 - 40 dollars a month.
11 Useless.
I bought the Rio One because I had another MP3 player (one from
Compaq) and I didn't like that the other player used the MMC
cards which have smaller capacity. The Rio One was a gift for
a relative and I wanted to buy them something better than what
I had.
That was a huge mistake. My Compaq MP3 player has never, not
once, given me problems. The Rio One player is currently broken
with the flashing "USB" message others have written about. Now I
feel really bad because I bought this person an MP3 player which
is far worse than mine. And as others have said, tech support?
What tech support?
12 Very Bad Customer Service
The product it's self is great. Very easy to use and great sound, but linking to the PC for downloads was not user friendly. The Mfg really failed here. Called customer service (no 800 number) and found the service to be very elementary. Their solutions so far were 1)"don't use the software that came with the unit, it doesn't work" 2)"we've never seen anything like that, could you email it to us and we'll look into it?"
13 You can't go wrong here
For my first MP3 player, I found this to be a very good unit. It is light, easy to use and plays forever on a a single "AA" alkaline battery. But I use the Energizer Lithium Photo batteries and I have maxed nearly 15 hours of use on a single battery. Since I use mine on hunting or fishing trips, it gets plenty of weather and outdoor use.
The up side:
It's not tiny, but it is small enough. And it's weight is just shy of not noticable. It's simplicity is unmatched. There are no moving parts. So dust and things are not a factor. However, be careful about moister in any form. You can add 128MB Smartmedia card to it to upgrade from 32 to 156. I know the math doesnt work, but for some reason you will only get about 124mb out of your smartmedia card. I chalk it up to the space required for the format. I dunno. None the less the 128MB upgrade makes it a really sweet unit.
Down side:
You lose a little of your storage on the Smartmedia card. Another problem is if you download your music to the memory that is built in, and let's say you have a little space left, you cant use that space after upgrading the memory. So if you use 30 of the 32mb of onboard memory, then you lose the 2mb of space or you put a small lower quality song there. It will not let you borrow space from the card. And when you factor in your preset loss on the smartmedia card, you are losing a small chunk of memory,about 5-6 mb.
Overall I give mine 5 stars. You might consider the newer player, which has 64MB onboard and is only more. Not too oftent you will add 32MB of memory inthe MP3 world. You can also add a 128MB smartmedia card to increase it to an aprx. 192MB. Hoever, you will probably only have about 185MB that will be useable.
Possible improvements: Allow the two memories to mesh together, as one. Build a unit with am/fm radio, and possibly add a record feature. Also, I would like to see a unit that would use two 128MB smartmedia cards at the same time. Like a unit that has 128MB onboard, and you can add 2 128MB cards to at the same time to crank out 384MB.
14 Good mp3 but wheres my rebate
I bought this and added a 32m memory card. So far I like it and it very easy to remove and add songs from my computer. Both the memory and flash card shows up on my mac desktop and I easily remove and add songs. My only gripe, and this is a big one. is where is my rebate? It is already 3 months.
15 Not great, but not horrible either
I wanted an inexpensive MP3 player that was expandable and chose this one. It has worked fine for me. It doesn't have as many features as some of the other players, but i didn't want to pay for all of that. I already had the realnetworks player installed on my pc, so i used that instead of the included software; and it has worked fine for saving, organizing, transferring songs to and from the rio one. At 128kbps, music sounds very good. (I have not tried lower quality settings.) (My PC runs Windows XP home edition.)
I have replaced the included headphones ... I've also added a 128 Mb smartmedia card which the player recognized correctly and it works fine.
The player turns off to save power if you leave it in "pause" for more than a few minutes. This is nice, but I wish it would start up again where you left off. When you turn it on, it always starts back at track #1.
You can get better MP3 players, but if you want a basic player that is expandable but has few other frills, this is a good buy.
16 Worthless
Took me 2 hours to figure out how this thing works, and I've been in the computer busness for over 17 years, so I know what I'm doing! The included documentation is a joke. Since it takes days to get a response from Rio that isn't automated and for another product you'll have to figure everything out yourself! So if you're not real technical this is not for you.
And if you're thinking about adding memory, forget it. I tried to add an 128m card, and that's where my problems really began. At first I couldn't add music to the new card, then it stoped identifing the card, now the unit doesn't work at all. Loading firmware from the web site was a disaster. Now the computer won't identify the RioOne, because the unit won't turn on and only displays 0. Rio's support is a joke, so now I have an ... piece of garbage.
I've wasted over 8 hours of my time trying to get this thing to work (which it only did for one download of music), it isn't worth the money at any price! Buy whichever mp3 you want, but read all the negative reviews on this one very carefully - they'll dead on! I'm buying an Archos.
17 Who rated this with 1 star?
Okay, you've probably been reading the reviews on this MP3 player and hearing that it has problems. Well, I'm here to clear up all that confusion.
I read the reviews and at my own risk, I ordered this item because of its low price and ... rebate. I received it about 5 days later and then started to play with it. Here's what I found.
Installation was very simple with Windows XP. I just plugged it into the USB port and didn't need to install anything. All the drivers were installed with XP, and it lets you copy with My Computer (although it doesn't let you copy with Windows Media Player....). It includes RealJukebox, but I use MusicMatch and Windows Media Player now to take care of all my track recording (it's slow to open up files). Windows XP also lets you copy music to this easily by drag-and-drop through Windows Explorer and My Computer, so there was no need for the driver installation.
Now the sound quality. I started out using different encoded MP3s and some WMA files, and this played them very clearly! Even with the small earphones, it sounds like two speakers are right next to my ears! It's great that way. The only problem I found was that copying my 128kbps MP3s only let me put about 6-7 songs on its 32MB of space, so I decided to encode all my MP3s to WMA, and I was able to copy about 6-7 more onto it without a SmartMedia card! And they still sound just as great as MP3s! The other thing is that it doesn't display any ID3 tags for the tracks, so you have to search through the tracks to find the one you want, but then again, if you like to exercise, it might not matter.
Also, the battery life isn't exactly VERY long, but it's been longer than what I've seen with other MP3 players, so I'm not complaining.
Recommendation: if you know nothing about MP3 players and liked this price, GO FOR IT! I've loved this thing, even though I've only had it for 3 days! I plan also to buy a 32 or 64MB SmartMedia card for this in a couple of days to expand my music. Then again, if you want more than just 32MB of space, try the iPod or Creative Nomad that hold 5, 10, or 20 GB of files! I do recommend this, however, to anyone here! You'll love it!
18 Bad Product, Worse Tech Support!
I purchased this product. It worked great for 2 weeks then started flashing USB. Nothing would play and unit would not even turn off! I have been talking with tech support for 2 months now, they gave me horrible directions for fixing it, it only make the problem worse and/or corrupted some files on my PC so that I had to delete/reinstall everything (I am A+ Computer Certified, so yes, I know what I'm doing). Each email to tech support takes at least 5-7 days to respond. My unit was sent back over a month ago and I still do not have a replacement (They make you pay for shipping charges for the new unit as well!) I would not recommend this product based on other reviews as well as my own experiences with their tech support. One plus, the included headphones have a great sound to them.
19 good sound, bad display
I just purchased this at a local electronics store. A great price after the rebate but I am returning it because the LCD display is pretty much useless. An MP3 player should show the title of a song and artist (it's the whole point of having MP3 after the compression capabilities), this one just list the track number. So I guess you have to memorize the song title to it's corresponding number.
The sound is actually good. THis is my second MP3 player and it beats my D-Link in sound quality. The RIO one is cheaply made, the D-Link is sturdier. I would keep if the LCD display provider more info.
20 A Worthless Piece of Plastic
My Rio One was fine when it worked, but then it stopped working and I was faced with the SonicBlue support department. After about a month and a half of waiting several days for each Email from the support department, the support department determined what had been painfully obvious from the beginning of the matter: the Rio didn't work.
Now, I am in the midst of a three-week battle for the privelege of paying Sonicblue [$$$] so that they'll replace my broken player in a reasonable amount of time (As in, reasonable amount of time after close to a month of waiting for them to get their act together). Furthermore, they've just informed me that it will be necessary to charge the full amount to my credit card before they send me a new player.
This company's actions make it clear that they have no interest in satisfied customers. I am left with a worthless player, a worthless SmartMedia card that I purchased for it, and months of hassle trying to get a clearly defective product replaced.
I suggest that anyone interested in this player look instead for a company that has customer service at a level somewhere above "non-existent."
21 Good Basic MP3 Player
All things considered this is nice basic MP3 player.
It is relativley inexpensive, easy to use and light weight.
It is not perfect. It looks and feels like it was cheaply made. I am afraid if I drop it that will be the end of it.
Sound Quality is not so good. Not even close to cd quality. Sounds more like a cheap walkman cassete player.
But the low cost and portability of the unit make it perfect for working out or listening on the beach.
22 Mine died a slow death...
Ok, I bought this product and it was working fine for a while as long as I was only playing run-a-tha-mill basic MP3z. The WMA experience was somewhat less consistant, with some tracks not playing all together, after a certain point. I could not ascertain if it was the encoding of the particular files or the player that was the issue. The player worked fine with a 128 mb smart media card I bought also, until one day it couldn't boot with the card anymore, but booted without it. Tech support told me to go try out the card in another player, suggesting I go to a store and use one of their units to test my memory. Yeah right. Their lack of good advice forced me to figure the problem out myself, performing a tricky operation of loading firmware without the card, then putting it in, then unplugging it from my computer and letting the firmware re-formatt the card. It worked for about another month. Now it will not boot at all, with or without a memory card! I bought this product to be durable. I bought it to take my music with me. Now it reminds me of a Dodge truck because it is really "like a rock."
Buyer beware! I know the price is enticing. I know it looks good. However, YOU PAY FOR WHAT YOU GET! YOU DON'T WANT A PET ROCK! YOU WANT AN MP3 PLAYER! GO GET A JOB AND SPEND YOUR [MONEY] ON A REAL PLAYER!!!
Check out some of Rio's other stuff, or just shop around but avoid this ONE.
23 works great(if you know what your doing)
I got this mp3player off windows xp and it works great! Here are some pros and cons about this player.
pros: resonable price, good sound, largly expandable(up to 160mb), very low wieght, small size, more than 5hours to ONE good battery, and the EQ modes, random and repeat modes give it more than enough options.
cons:casing on the sides of the mp3player are partly lose, screen is very primative, the memory cards it uses are small and thin and can be broken if not handled carfuly, the battery cover is wiggly, and the head phones that come with it aren't that good.
But over all what do you expect not every things going to be purfect on a hundred dallar mp3player. I say this mp3player is good and I do suggest it.
24 Where did the external memory go?
I disliked more than less of the Rio One. Extended memory has stopped working although I've reloaded the flash many times and gone through the www drill of locating potential answers. Instruction book is over simplistic and not addressing potential problems very well. Help desk is past my waiting time. Good Concept, would not recommend it to anyone. P.S. "Cash back" voucher was returned after 3 months stating "bill" was not submitted. Not! Amazon.Com should regulate companies like this or at least stop selling defective products.
25 THE BEST MP3 PLAYER I HAVE EVER OWNED!!
Before purchasing this MP3 Player, I read the reviews by other owners and how the player deserves one and only one star. Well, I purchased the player at my own risk and have since been extremely satisfied with it. I am writing this review to counter all negative statements against the Rio One. Many of the reviews stated that they received the Rio One free with the purchase of Windows XP. Those who did not purchase items directly from Amazon.com or such retailers should not be complaining about it. The buzzing sounds, blips and static is something that I have never encountered on my Rio One. It has never stopped playing nor has it failed me in any way. The Rio One to this day continues to function perfectly. Its hard plastic shell is the reason for the player being lightweight and portable. If you are looking for a decent MP3 Player at a reasonable price from a renowned company - the Rio One is for you. Unlike those buyers who purchase the fancy/bulky/multi-function MP3 Players that costs up to $200, I say why invest so much money!?! THIS MP3 PLAYER IS WORTH EVERY PENNY YOU SPEND AND IS NOT WHAT MANY OTHERS HAVE STATED IT AS.
26 Decent product
I used to own the original Rio Diamond 300 and it worked beautifully until for some odd reason it stopped working (my guess it would've been the cold temperature at the time). Anyway so I needed a new one to replace it and since Rio One is basically the exact same model as the old one, I bought it.
Personally, I find my Rio One works like it should except for one fatal flaw that [really bothers me]. Whether it's an MP3 or WMA files, if the file itself is not a flawless rip of the song, my MP3 skips during the song. It would actually go into skim mode and fast forward and resume wherever it stopped skimming. Apparently, I don't think anything can fix this unless I keep searching for that same song and try to download it on my MP3 and play it to see if it works, but that's too much time consuming. So, it's either you have the whole song or you don't. That's the only thing I don't like about it, but other than that it works great.
This MP3 is made to be clipped on your pant or stored in a pocket, not to be held in your hand, it's no surprise that you're gunna drop it eventually.
If you're considering to buy this product, buy it at your own risk, but I think it's cheap enough for the amount of memory it can hold (up to 160 MB). I'm not fond of small earplugs, but buying larger headphones should be no more than 8 dollars. Be sure to read the product info on the Rio website so you're sure this is the product you want. Yes it's very light, yes it could break if you're going to drop it, but that's your own fault if you can't take care of it. I find it pretty practical, listen to music whenever you want, wherever you want all for 1 AA battery for up to several hours!
27 Great player, execllent sound, low price
This is the best MP3 player I ever heard! This player sounds great, has roomy storage space, and has fast transfer time from computer to the Rio One. The only problem I had was that I at first could not get the Rio software to work right until I downloaded a updated .dll file from their website, but from there on everything went smoothly. For the low price, great sound and quality, and ease of use, I give this 5 stars.
28 Poor quality and a lot of trouble
I am on my third one, the first two having been replaced under warranty. The first one would not play the selections that were stored on external memory. The second one had a very annoying background hum and the third one has that same hum but it isn't as noticeable. If you but one I would recommend that you first listen to it with a good pair of headphones with the volume set to minimum or you also purchase a really cheap pair of ear buds so that you get plenty of outside noise.
29 It is very good for the price
...I didn't get this thing new. I'm borrowing it from a friend, and sure it looks worn down, and the buttons are worn, but it's so sweet. He has a 64 mb chip too and I have 29 songs on it.(some are short, some are long.) Loading it is a breeze if you know at least a little about this type of music stuff. It does take some time understanding the program, but hey... every MP3 player I've read about there has been a complaint about the loading program. If you don't know what you're doing, then don't whine.
30 Very Cheap Quality, Sounds Decent
If you're looking for a cheap MP3 player, this might fit the bill, but it has some serious cons. The pros are that it's cheap, USB, lightweight, expandable, and it sounds decent.
On the other hand, it feels very cheap and mine has some problems. The plastic feels brittle and I feel that it's going to shatter the first time I drop it (knock on wood). The headphone jack also feels cheap and loose, and I'm afraid it's going to break as well.
My unit has a serious problem - when I turn it off, I can't turn it back on without removing the battery and putting it back in. It seems that for some reason it won't turn back on unless the contact is completely severed first. Very strange, and very irritating. It also sucks down batteries very quickly.
I wouldn't buy this unless you get a great deal on it.
31 DON'T BUY IT!!!
Words cannot describe the frustration I have right now after trying for six hours to get this thing hooked up to my computer. I was on the phone with one of their tech reps for over an hour as well, and he finally gave up. It's a problem with the drivers... I cannot believe that any company in America could put out such a shoddy product with such weak documentation... (The rep, though he couldn't help me, did try, so they'll get a small point for that. But don't waste your time, buy something good...
32 It isn't wery cheap but a low level device.
I was first happy with the player, but soon my happines turned into anger, when the recorded music had distortions, mostly in high frequency range, like a short squeal. My annoyance only increased, when the battery compartment lid under the pressure of the spring (below the battery) broke the small hooks holding the lid. Such as a costumer service or technical support doesn't exist, it is inpossible to contact via e-mail or phone.
The only good things are the push-buttons, they have a good design, the body is light, but the display is primitive. Today we can find on the market for the same price much better and more sophisticated units. I don't recommed the Rio One for buy.
33 Don't Even THINK About It
I got the flashing USB message after using the machine for approximately three hours. Customer support doesn't exist. Seven emails have netted me three form letters (which apply to Rio-Volt, but not Rio One) and nothing else. I have been unable to find updated firmware on the Rio website (apparently my firmware is up-to-date). Please don't even consider this product, even if you can afford no other MP3 player on the market. Save your money until you can. Hands down, this is the single WORST piece of electronic equipment I have ever purchased. Ever.
34 For a cheap player, this is pretty decent
I purchased one of these for significantly lower than the manufacturers price and given my investment I am pretty satisfied. This unit is suprisingly small and lightweight and will clip easily to a pocket when excersizing. I found the controls and screen to be adequate, but not at all special. The design is nice, but the actual construction of the unit is very cheap (battery door feels like it will fall off, as does the headphone jack) At 32MB the memory is insufficient, but the Rio One can be expanded with small and very inexpensive smartmedia cards to 160MB which is nice. I've been using this player with iTunes 2 and Mac OS X and it works great, my only problem was when I accidently dropped a file onto the MP3 players icon on the desktop and had to reinstall the firmware (oops...). In short your getting a good deal with this player, though.... Don't expect very much though, if you want quality get an iPod or a Nomad.
35 DO NOT BUY THIS ITEM!
From day one, the unit had a buzz. The most irritating bug was the unit would randomly shut off and power on while forwarding/ backing up on tracks using the controls or playing tracks in the random setting. The earphone and USB jacks appear to be crimped with pliers. In addition, the battery door closes poorly. RMA'd to Sonic Blue in December, just got the unit on January 18th.
A defininate thumbs down! Customer service is absolutely horrific and unknowlegeable. I can't stress enough how much I hate this product and this company. I wish Amazon had a "0" star rating!!!
36 Great little mp3!
I got this MP3 player when I bought windows XP.... and I love it.... my favorite part is that it takes smart media cards.... since I already have a bunch of these for my camera I was really happy, plus these are inexpensive to acquire.... whereas most of the other mp3s make you buy their backs or mmc/sd cards.... its easy to use... has great sound and lets me play my music randomly or in order... I can mix a variety of smart media cards if I am going on a trip to match my mood and with a 128mb card it plays more then 5 hours of tunes and the battery (yes thats 1 AA) last more then 10 hours.... this is my very first MP3 player and I am very happy with it.... also has fast download times and easy usb compatibility.... thus far in the past 3 months since I have owned it I have only found one negatives the manual it came with.... not very helpful... but only took me about 10 minutes of playing with it to figure it out.... not bad for a first time mp3 player user....I would definately reccommend this to my friends or buy this item again.
37 Incessant hum and downloading problems
I bought a Rio One back in September 2001 and, at the time, felt like it was a good deal. However, since then, I have experienced two problems that lead me to strongly advise against getting this player.
99% of my use is in the car with the player hooked up to a cassette adapter, so I didn't realize how bad the sound was until I decided to use it around the house one day. The high quality ear buds that come with the Rio One were its downfall because they accurately reproduced an annoying low-frequency hum that didn't exist when playing the same MP3 files on my computer through the very same ear buds. E-mail with SONICblue tech support resulted in an RMA for a replacement unit. When I received the new one, it also exhibited the hum, so I have come to the conclusion that it's a design flaw, and an unacceptable one at that.
The second problem I've had is downloading songs to it from a Mac running MacOS X 10.1. Several times my Mac has gone unresponsive after dismounting the Rio One's media, forcing me to reboot. Also, several times the songs were not cleanly downloaded, leaving portions of the previous download's songs toward the end of the newly downloaded tracks.
I have given up and replaced it with a Nomad IIc 64MB player (which now comes with headphones, by the way, unlike the 32MB version). So far I'm very impressed with it.
38 Pass on this one unless free!!
I received this unit free as a promotion with Windows XP. Not much to complain about since it cost nothing, but functionaly it leaves a lot to be desired. The interface is very basic, and my unit often just shuts off with no explantion after a song ends. Very aggravating when running or working out!
Sound quality is very good but the 32 MEG of resident memory is barely enought to hold ten songs. Upgrading to an additional memory card is pretty expensive and probably not worth the investment unless you have, or intend to have, additional components that can also use the memory card.
Spend the extra money on a real good player. If you can get the Rio One for free - go for it, but plan on replacing it after you have grown tired of it's poor functionality and limitations.
39 Surprising poor quality...even for the money
I'll keep this short - this product is terrible. This was my first foray into a portable, and I went with the Rio name because I recognized it as one of a few industry leaders. I was mistaken. This product simply did not work - and I even exchanged it for another...and that didn't work either. The software was shoddy and inconsistent, - and when I did get it to work for a day it had unbelievably poor sound quality (a la the hissing you hear in the background that other reviewers have mentioned). Bottom line - this is a poorly designed and manufactured product, with incredibly bad website and customer support. Buy something else - like the Nomad IIc - it actually works and you'll be up and running in literally minutes.
40 Solution for Flashing USB
I, too, had the flashing USB thing happen to me the day I bought my Rio One. After many many hours of searching the net and Sonic Bleu's website, I found that I needed to reinstall their firmware (which I somehow found through their obscure FTP site).
41 SonicBlue Should be Ashamed
I bought this player (I only had if for 2 hours though). When I plugged the USB cable into my XP system, NOTHING.... What's worse, I went to riohome.com to find a new driver for windows XP, the website told me to install the software from the CD... NICE!! So, I tried to call(which by the way was a long distance call).... my call could not be transfered at this time, but they were so nice as to give me another long distance number that was busy for over 30 minutes. Sooooooo, I went back to the website to e-mail tech support, basically, they sent me a link to the FAQ in their web site, now if I hadn't already read the FAQ I would've been thankfull for nothing. In a nutshell, when you buy the Rio One, it isn't compatible OR supported. It seems like a nice enough player for the money but the company needs to stand behind their product, they pretty much have made the player extinct by not updating the software. You would think that with the advent of the internet, companies would want to control negative pub, but it doesn't seem to bother SONICblue. Good Luck!!
42 Rio One works nicely
I found the Rio hardware to work very well, but the free software
that comes with it for the Windows environment is poorly
documented. I believe I followed the instructions but
only got it to install properly on one of two PCs running
Win98. The Real Jukebox user interface is a bit obscure, to say
the least.
For the price I think the Rio itself is a good value, works well and it looks cool!
43 MP3 Lover
I love MP3's. Always have and always will. Never had a "digital" MP3 player before, though. I just got this on Christmas 2001. I love it! Can't see why people are wasting time just to gripe and complain to blow some smoke. If you cry about the memory just buy a flash memory card. They are cheap! It's upgradeable to 160 MB with flash memory. As for something you buy that doesn't come with everything or is missing something, that's why they give you "reciepts." All in all if you get one that works like I and most others it's a great player. Specially if you've never had one before.
44 Flimsy, and DOA!
The first thing I noticed when I pulled the Rio One from the blister pack (no easy feat in and of itself!) was how light and flimsy it felt. A strong wind (maybe) or a drop on concrete (definitely) would be the end of this device.
The second thing I noticed was that it does not support Windows XP.
Most importantly, however, was the third thing: it was dead on arrival. No display, no USB communication, no nothing. Changed batteries, pressed all the buttons, read the manual (!)... no luck. And reading other reviews, it sounds like I wasn't the only one with this experience.
Bottom line: Get something else. This one's a stinker.
45 NO Quality Control
Bought with Win XP promotion...Was it unreasonable to assume XP compatability? Can't use for WMA files using Real Jukebox. Media Play 7 doesn't recognize the device. Battery compartment cover pops open so I must use tape to cover it on my new MP3 player. Now I get the flashing "USB" on display which won't go away. Tried Email Tech support and Web support. Nada on both accounts. The headphones are the earbud variety but the most uncomfortable I have ever used. I like its size. Everything else is horrible. There was apparently no QC on this item. Unfortunately, USB problem happened after 30 days so return to store not an option. Hate to say it but I don't trust there warranty department due to the Cust. Service and Quality issues. I will buy another and repackage and return the original and hope for a "functional" unit but I really feel I got burned on this. The worst Electronics product I have bought P E R I O D. EVER.
46 Don't bother with this...save and get a better one!
My RIO came without the firmware that runs the display... So I was never able to use it. I tried reaching Tech Support for a week by e-mail and then started the trek through SonicBlue's labyrinth of phone options. After running in circles and never actually reaching a human or a voice mail and always being refered to another toll number, I decided tell you all about it.
If you haven't already figured it out my opinion of the player is poor and the company is yet even poorer.
Good luck and Happy Holidays!
47 RIO Not So XP Friendly
The RIO One was a free bonus for purchasing Windows XP at Best Buy. Unfortunately, the drivers for the unit are not that XP friendly. The software included is an older version of real jukebox. It locks or hangs XP from time to time where the machine cannot be shut down, just shut off. If running XP do not buy this unit until fresh updated software is availble. The low rating is because of the lack of up to date software.
48 TEN reasons to make this your first MP3 player!
This is my first Mp3 player after several years of buying portable walkman style devices and being dissappointed at the size, performance, power issues and their eventual breakdown.
This particular unit is perfect for an entry level buyer who wants to become a casual user. There are several more units that feature huge storage amounts and can even record MP3 format from other sources, but there
(1) Size. It's small, fits in just about any pocket or can easily be stowed away in your lunch kit, notebook or briefcase. I've owned several portable music devices over the last twenty years and this is the first one that is small enough to be considered unobtrusive.
(2) Solid State. Moving parts break unless they are particularly well engineered. This device has no moving parts once the battery is installed and the selector pad is durable enough to last for years
(3) Sound Quality. Despite the other reviews claiming poor sound, I found the quality of sound to be really good. I usually record my MP3's at a bit rate of 192k, and never less than 128k. I did notice an improvement in the sound quality at moderate to higher volumes.
(4) One AA battery. This unit runs on ONE "AA" battery, which is important to me because I do not like having to buy batteries all of the time. I've listened to several hours of music at moderate volumes with one battery and am impressed with the battery life.
(5) Power display. One very unique feature of this device is that it has a simple power bar at the bottom of the LCD screen that reports the current status of your battery. You don't find this feature much on battery operated devices that use standard batteries, and it helps you maximize how much power you get out of each battery.
(6) Expandability. This unit comes with 32 megabytes of memory, which holds about six or seven songs that run a total of about 30 minutes. I bought a (current price)128 megabyte expansion card that really made the difference.
(7) Online Support. It's great, go to rioone.com and you will find everything you need to get your device up and running on any system.
(8) USB compatability. The software installs quick and easy and moving files from your computer to the Rio One is a breeze. Your computer will see the Rio One as an external drive that you can move, copy and delete files from.
(9) Informational. The Rio One can tell you the recording length and the frequency recorded at.
(10) Price. You can pick this unit up for less than what you paid for your Sony Walkman that was so big that you broke it and you don't buy cassette tapes anymore anyway.
So where do you get the MP3's to install here?
Everyone knows about the various (music download) sites out there that allow you to trade MP3's, but how about making your own? It's easier than you think. I record my own mp3's at 192kbps and use the free CDDB to automatically title my songs.
49 This thing suxx
I bought one of theese for 100 bucks i came home tried to download the software, jukebox, and the only difference is that it has a Rio skin and visualization but it wouldnt recodnize it. so i reinstalled it, same thing.
Also the buzzing noise gets very annoying, i could hear it on the preloaded song - also worthless.
So in the end i returned my 100 dollar purchase - if you find one at 10 cents it might me a good value, if youre lucky.
50 Don't Waste Your Money On This Player!
I'm glad to finally see truthful reviews of this poor quality product. As others have, I bought the Rio One expecting it to be everything the PMP-300 was, but now with the added features of USB and the ability to accept higher capacity SmartMedia cards. What I received was underwhelming to say the least. The sound quality is extremely poor with a high frequency "hiss" and a low-frequency "rumble" in the background with noticeable audio problems in the MP3 playback. These problems are garbled audio, glitches, pops, screeches, etc. even in high bitrate files. The same file played on the PMP-300 (I also own two of those) sounds perfect compared to this. The PMP-300 also would allow you to resume at the beginning of the "track" where you left off when you last shut off the unit (unless the battery died in the interim). The Rio One starts over at the beginning each time you turn it on. Like others, I contacted SonicBlue technical support and asked that they either send me a unit without these problems or return my money. I also asked them to send me a prepaid label to return what I considered was a unit that was defective right out of the box. I was told that wasn't their policy and, without requesting it, I received a second unit in the mail with precisely the same shortcomings. Great, so now I have two defective units for the price of one. I emailed their VP in charge of customer support describing these problems to no avail. They apparently do not listen to their customers. I certainly wish I had read the reviews posted here before making this purchase. Like others, I am hoping there will be a firmware upgrade to remedy the MP3 audio playback problems, but I expect the "rumble" is a result of poor hardware design. I definitely do NOT recommend this unit to anyone.
51 Stop Whining
First of all, let me say that the previous reviews on this page are the height of parsing and whining. Not only was this product adequate (price for the punch the best I've seen), but it was the best sound regardless of price. . .which is why we buy an AUDIO device, isn't it folks? I think those complaining about an inexpensive player(and free for most of these other whiners who got it as a promotion) that performs basic functions so well is just arrogant, if not condescending, clap trap. If you want to spend more money for bells and whistles folks, go ahead. Just don't tell me it's the smart thing to do. My advice? Don't look a gift horse in the mouth fellas . . . particularly if it rides better than more expensive horses.
52 4 Mths of Non-Stop Use Prove Its A Stable Beginning Player!
I bought the Rio One about 4 months ago, and I have yet to be disappointed. I was tired of my CD player skipping when I went walking or exercising. I use the player every single day. For being a college student, this unit was affordable; however, I did have to buy an expandable disk. I would say that is the only real disappointment I found with this product. Without the disk, I can only program about 6 songs at once. I did notice the buzzing sound that everyone is talking about, but now I rarely notice.
I have never had a serious problem using the software, and my installation was a breeze. I think both the software and player are easy to use. While it doesn't have a fancy screen, I wasn't interested in something high-tech, expensive and fragile. If it breaks, I will not have to worry about how I am going to pay for a new player.
Also, I am a klutz, and I have accidentally dropped this player on the ground at least half a dozen times. Nothing more than the battery door opening has ever happened (knock on wood). Believe me, if you give this product a chance, it will be well worth the money for a practical user.
53 It is not the worst.
Granted it is not the top of the line mp3 player, but for the money, (...) it is all right.
As for not working with Windows XP, if you follow the instructions in the booklet, NOT the on-screen instructions, the player works fine. If you are having a problem, uninstall Real Jukebox, delete any reference to it in the device manager (unknown device, etc.), unplug the player from the usb drive, restart the computer, re-load the Real Jukebox, ignore the part where they say to plug in your player on the on-screen instructions. After completing the Real Jukebox install, reboot, and when you are back to the desktop, re-plug the player to the computer and Windows XP will find it and install it. I made the same mistake and talked to the tech support, which did not know the correct answer to the problem, so yes they are useless.
For the price of the player and some cheap flash cards you can have an unlimited sized player, and have hours and hours of music.
54 Dissipointed
I also recieved the Rio one free along with Windows XP, it worked great untill 3 hours later I loaded XP, and well I should have thought ahead cause now its just a christmas present for some else who hasn't upgraded there computer yet. I've emailed support too many times to count, but all they say is to either downgrade my operating system(which isn't possible with XP so they obviously don't know what the're talking about), or to try taking the battery out and trying again(its a software problem though, not a physical problem). If you're going to get a computer loaded with XP, stay away from this player.
55 hum is very distracting
As mentioned here (reference to ungrounded phone is very accurate), the humming noise really distracts what might be a good beginner mp3 player. Sound quality(above the hum) is fairly good and although not feature laden with an inexpensive 128MB smart media card, you can have a 160M player much cheaper then 128MB products. I got this free after rebate with a windows XP promotion but I would not buy it for any price. The humming is that bad and the manufacturer must be fully aware of it and it is totally unacceptable. Funny thing is from reading reviews from CNET, the people love this player but I don't understand why they're not hearing what we're hearing.
56 Flashing "USB" -- the saga continues (SONICBLUE SUCKS)
I, too, was lured by the low price and expandibility of this item. However, like the electronics fan from Connecticut, I had to buy a second unit. Now, the second unit is flashing "USB". It's as if the internal memory card needs to be reprogrammed or re-initialized. Unfortunately, SONICBLUE's CUSTOMER SUPPORT (...)!!!! Who wants to wait 20+ minutes on a long-distance call? Their online support (...) as well.
Basically, their poor service is great advertising for Creative Labs, as I will probably order their Nomad IIC.
I learn another lesson with this product--You get what you pay for.
57 WILL NOT WORK WITH XP
I got a RIO ONE Free with the purchase of WIN XP only to discover that they are incompatible. There is no driver for XP, and after sending three e-mails to technical support at sonic blue, I still have not received a response. Now I know why it was free :-(
58 A Disappointment
I got my Rio One for free during a promotion... when I purchased Windows XP. If it hadn't been free, I would have returned it. I have since added a 128MB flash memory card .
Pros: Lightweight and small; easy to use; sound quality is more than acceptable
Cons: The display - it is absolutely worthless (I currently have 24 songs on my Rio One and by the time I memorize which song is where, I'm ready to swap them out anyway); The Rio One always starts on song 1 which is really annoying since I listen to mine in the car so several short trips results in me starting with the same song (one solution - front load your favorite songs); Skipping ahead or back is slightly yet irritatingly delayed - no where near as fast as my Rio 500 (a product I recommend highly - if you can find it); the buzzing sound from the unit when playing songs at a low volume level (but since I'm normally in my car its not nearly as annoying as it would be if I used it at home more often); it doesn't have a backlight
59 Things you should know before you buy
1) MP3's are only as good as you! Don't complain about the quailty of the mp3 player when the odds are your mp3's aren't of a high quality, or were ripped by someone other then you. If you play songs at a high bit rate then this player sounds fine.
2) 32mbs is not enough for decent quality music. 128kbps will give you a little less then 32 mins of music, buy more cards, because they are very cheap, and you can listen to more music then a cd player will give, and HIGHER QUALITY TOO!
3) This is a beginners mp3 player, or a very frugal persons mp3 player. If you know how to rip, edit formats, and enjoy music of high quality, get a more expensive player.
4) THERE IS NO BASS BOOST, if you are used to that on other players, you well be dissapointed with this. Also there is no text display of the ID tags on the player either.
5) Battery life goes pretty fast, but it only takes on AA.
I like it cause its cheap, expandable memory is cheap.
60 Not for the discerning ear...
I just bought one of these a few days ago, so here's my first impressions.
It states all over the place that 32megs will give you up to 1 hour of playing time. What that means is you can play 1 hour worth of 64 kps mp3's. I don't know what you listen to, but the minimum acceptable bitrate is 96, with 128 being the standard, cd quality rate. So right off the bat, you either have to sacrifice sound quality to get that hour of music, or you have to pony up some more dough to get a flash memory card. BTW: It only takes Smartmedia 3.3 volt flash cards just in case, like me, you were unable to find this out from the poor packaging and wondered what type to get.
This unit will accept up to 128 meg on a flash card bringing the total to 160 meg or app. 2.5 hours at 128 kps. That's the max. Also, if you think you can live with your music at 64kps, you will have to re-rip all of it, or convert it. The included software doesn't have this ability unless you pay to upgrade it to RealPlay Plus. Even then, I can hear all kinds of blips and pops where the conversion program failed. So beware. I used MusicMatch 6.1 to do the conversion from 128 down to both 64 and 96 kps and both the converted files had the problem.
The software included is RealPlayer's Jukebox. It comes with the plugin's necessary to move music to and from the Rio. If you've never used MP3 jukebox software before it will probably suffice, however it pales in comparison to MusicMatch 6.1. Right now MusicMatch does not offer a plug-in for the Rio One, just for the other Rio's. I have a call in to there tech support to find out when it will be avialable.
On the plus side: Its lightweight, with a simple to use interface, the USB interface worked flawless, all of which is why I gave it three stars.
Bottom line: If music quality isn't important to you, then this is a low-cost, very portable alternative to MP3 cd-players.
61 complete waist of time and money
I spent 3 hours trying to install this product on my Toshiba laptop. Finally gave up and decided to send it back... I find MP3 players are still too new and have lots of bugs to be worked out. So for now I am planning to buy a CD burner and use my trustee CD player instead. Save your time and money.
62 Very Bad Sound Quality
I thought that all those reviews talking about humming could not be true. I mean, this is a very well known player.
However as soon as I started using it I discovered that was true. The humming is very annoying. The sound scale of this RIO is from 1 to 20, and unless the volume is higher than 8 you will hear that noise.
I hope the Nomad is better than this. I'll return mine and get the Nomad.
63 Lacking
I got this unit to replace my Rio 500 that got lost in a car crash. I was disappointed with it as soon as I got it.
First, there is a constant buzzing sound at low volumes that makes everything sound muddled.
Second the display is awful. A cheap calculator has a better display.
Third it decides to shut off right in the middle of a song for no good reason about every 15 minutes.
I thought it would be a really good deal considering I could buy it and a 128mb smart media card totaling 160mb for quite a bit less then the Intel Pocket Concert(which only has 128mb). But the disappointing performance forced me to return it.
After more in depth research, I found that the Creative Nomad IIc offers everything the Rio One does, plus a far superior display, backlighting, voice recording, etc. at the same price!
64 Think about another player
This is my second Rio One and both had the same problem. There is a constant HUM sound that is loud enough to be very distracting. They need to fix the audio sound qality on this unit. There should be no humming sound period. Have you ever hooked up a record player to your amp and you didn't ground it and you heard that constant loud hum. That's the audio quality of the Rio One.
Second, I've only had the second one for a week and today It is just flashin USB on screen. Tech support wasn't helpful and suggested I buy another company's product. The only current support for this "FLASHING USB" message is to return it for replacement.
Features and the low weight are nice. It simply is to bad the rest wasn't good.
65 Overall Great Product!!
This mp3 is simply great!! I just bought this a week ago and i filled the 32mb memory up immediately! (so then i bought another memory card). The sound is crisp and clear. The 32mb is enough for a short trip for like to school but i highly recommend buyin this with another memory card cause if ur like me ull want to listen to everything on it!!!!!
