The sleek and compact H320 digital music player holds up to 600 hours of your favorite songs. Plus you can transfer and store digital pictures and view them on the vivid color display. A rechargeable battery that lasts up to 16 hours enhanced 3D sound ultra-fast USB 2.0 file transfers and simple navigation are just a few of the features you won t find anywhere else.. Plays up to 600 hours of digital music*20GB of internal storage Large vivid color displayUltra-fast USB 2.0 transfersSupports secure transfers from Windows Media Player**Rechargeable battery lasts up to 16hrsView JPEG or BMP imagesBuilt-in FM tunerIntegrated voice recorderRecord music from any audio source(no PC required)Supports MP3 WMA ASF and OGG music filesStore or transfer files of any typeEnhanced 3D audio
The sleek and compact 20 GB iRiver H320 digital music player holds up to 600 hours of your favorite songs. Plus, you can transfer and store digital pictures and view them on the vivid color display. It also features a rechargeable battery that lasts up to 16 hours, enhanced 3D sound, ultra-fast USB 2.0 file transfers, and simple navigation. It's one of the first players to be fully compliant with MicrosoftÕs Windows Media Player 10 secure music format that is used by such online music services as Napster. The iRiver 300 series also includes the H340 model, which has a 40 GB hard drive.
The compact H320 plays MP3, WMA, WAV and OGG formats and includes a built-in FM tuner and integrated voice recorder. You can also record, encode and store MP3s or uncompressed WAV files from a variety of sources to the H320's hard drive--no PC required. And it doubles as a standard hard drive, enabling you to store or transfer files of any type. The intuitive navigation system and color interface that makes it effortless to find any song. The H320 supports JPEG and BMP image files, which can be viewed on the crisp color LCD.
The iRiver H320 has longer battery life (16 hours) compared to other hard drive-based digital audio players. The sharp color display. It's also compatible with the latest version of the MoodLogic Software which offers an easy-to-use solution for users to create mixes based on genre, mood and tempo rather than simply by artist and track names.
Other features include:
- Line-in and Line-out jacks
- Upgradeable to future formats and features
- Dimensions: 2.4 x 0.9 x 4.0 inches
- Weight: 6.9 ounces
What's in the Box
The iRiver H320 comes bundled with iRiver earphones, quality carrying case, installation software CD, AC adapter, USB 2.0 cable, line in/out cable and printed user manual.
| 
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Look for the PlaysForSure logo if you're shopping for a portable music or video device and you want to make sure the digital music and video you purchase will play back on it every time. Match the PlaysForSure logo on a large selection of leading devices and online music stores. If you see the logo you'll know your digital music will play for sure.
The PlaysForSure logo makes it easy to find digital media stores and devices that work together. Choose from a large number of digital music and video stores including: CinemaNow, MSN Music, MusicMatch, MusicNow, Napster, Wal-Mart Music Downloads, and many more. |
1 nice set of features bad design
I bought the iriver in hopes of a great mp3 player, sure you get video,fm radio, voice recorder, but lets face it, the iriver is not very attrative, its thick and with the case on its like a brick in your pocket, and the worst navigation system ever, imagine clicking thru 20gigs of artists, compared to my girlfriends ipod the iriver didnt compare, sure its a nice player with all of the features, but 80% of the time i am listening to my mp3s and the buttons do take some time to learn, but with all the other slim players with touch pads, and so forth you would think iriver would catch on. The iriver became more annoying then anything, i am getting an ipod photo.
2 Good MP3 player, but very poor navigation controls
So, if you want to save time and skip to the next review, then in summary, this is a v. good Mp3 player with gr8 sound and lots of extra features, but its a little too ugly, and lacks a good scroll wheel or click wheel for easy navigation.
OK, here are the details.
If you buy this unit, you get:
1)An MP3 player which sounds excellent
2)An FM radio with 20 presets possible
3)Picture viewer and potentially a starter video player
4)An excellent Recorder which does the following
a) Voice Record through In Built Microphone
b) Radio Recorder
c) Line in Recorder. Which means, you could feed input from a cassette player, external radio, external microphone, electric guitar, electric piano, record TV's audio, basically anything that could feed your Line-In.
5) Portable Harddrive.
So, yes, in terms of features its extremely rich. Unfortunately, it looks very ugly. If looks are even slightly important to you, you might want to stay away from this player. But if you are willing to trade looks for features, only then is this player for you.
One more important feature its missing is a scroll button, or click wheel. Dell has it, Creative has it, IPOD has it, why not this player? I think no MP3 hardrive player should be without one. How do you expect me to get to the 106th song in my folder or playlist by clicking the next button 105 times. You should be able to even zip through 300 songs without much trouble. I have used these scrolling buttons in DELL and Creative, so I can tell you, its v. important in a Mp3 player.
I grant this player has lots of additional and good features, but if you are looking for a mp3 player which is easy to use (not talking about learning curve here), then this player is not your perfect choice.
I gave it 3 stars, because this unit may be perfect for some but not so great for others..I fall in the others category, so I will be returning it. Sure, all the features # 2,3,4 & 5 sound very appealing to me, and things I could put to good use, but for me, #1 is the most important. I need an Mp3 player which is easy to use, which looks acceptable, not too bulky or ugly to carry around, and most importantly offers easy navigation. So in the future, if they improve the styling and offer easy navigation of your songs,I will be ready to get this again.
I may have offered two criticisms, which broke the deal for me, but if you can live with those two flaws, then this player may be a really good player, because it offers great sound quality, and all those additional features which are so cool.
3 Superb player -- better than iPod for some uses
The H320 is an extremely good player. I bought it because it works as an external hard drive (and therefore works with Linux, my primary operating system) as well as OGG support, a superior codec to MP3, and the format most of my music library is in. I've been more specific with the drawbacks list, but don't get me wrong -- I am very pleased with my choice.
Selling points:
- Less expensive than the iPod photo, and does the same things (more or less)
- Supports multiple codecs -- MP3, OGG, etc.
- Color screen (which is very readable, and has brightness and contrast adjustment)
- Line in + line out (makes recording from a source very easy, or playing to a speaker system)
- Works as a hard drive and does not require any extra software, therefore platform-independent
- USB 2.0 connector
- "Hold" key-lock
- Comes with a suitable case
- Recording of voice (up to 128kbps encoding), radio, or line-in
- Excellent internal microphone
- Text viewer
- Photo gallery/viewer
- Artist/Album/Genre navigation, as well as filesystem browsing
- Playlist support (but cannot create/edit them in the firmware version that comes with the player)
- Excellent output audio quality
- Lots of options for configuration (such as a sleep timer that even disables itself once triggered)
- Excellent battery life
- Upgradable firmware (I haven't done this, but I plan to -- (...)is a great site for things like this)
Drawbacks:
- The provided earbuds are really lame. They fall out of my ears (I may just be weird) if I turn my head, have an odd wire design (there's a review that describes them in-depth), and have poor bass response. Definitely consider buying a better pair.
- No spinny-clickwheel like an iPod, but the buttons/clickers, while a little stiff, have very good tactile feedback -- there's a discernable "tck" when you've pressed them down.
- Lack of UI unification -- the buttons do very different things depending on what mode you're in, different menus navigate different ways -- guesswork or manual memorization is the only way, but it's doable after you pick it up
- Odd music selection method -- I still haven't figured it out. Picking any given track or album is easy, but more than one is more difficult. Sometimes I can get my entire library to shuffle (the way I like it), sometimes not. The manual doesn't have much on this.
- There's a small pause between tracks when it loads tag information -- not too annoying, but does exist
- Tag database (for Artist/Album/Genre navigation) must be compiled on a computer by a special program -- I use iripdb, a Linux program, but the iPod is no different, really, except that it does this invisibly.
4 iRiver = iSex
This player woops the iPod in any way. Longer batter, color screen, movies (Misticriver for more info on this little hack, veryeasey to do), FM, Voice and FM, recording, clock, everything. The screen is higher quality than the iPod Photos, and its cheaper. ( I have had both, this is way better than the ipoo photo).
I have had this play for 6 months and it is sexy!
5 Great product, Bad support
I got this unit since dec.04 and am very pleased with all the features. I wanted everything before I buy:
1. Has to use file folder organization (meaning no extra software required, no itune, music-match..blah, blah, blah...)
2. Has to have FM ( well, I wanted AM as well, but no one does that. )
3. Has to do recording from voice, radio, and in-line source.
4. Has to be charged via USB connection.
This unit does it all and with colors.
Only things I didn't like so much is that while in USB charging mode, you can't access the drive. This should be fixed!!!!
plus, USB on the go is disabled! This is a really bad move.
Also, this is rather minor thing...the unit could be a tad thinner.
NOW the bad part...
NO US firmware was ever release!!!!! Europe/Asia version is now at V1.27 and higher.... US firmware is at 1.02!!!! what the hell? Send email to Iriver gets no response!
However, there's another unit out there will have everything that I wanted and more. It's the IAudio X5. It is not yet released in the US but if you can wait...
The X5 will probably on sale here at Amazon sometime this year. And IAudio releases firmware frequently and listens to their customers. Iriver just uses porn stars to promote their products and doesn't really care about after sale support...not with H320 and firmware release anyway. Product support is another part of equation that should never be ignored.
That's the reason I gave it 2 stars.
6 IPOD KILLER
MP3 Fanatic wrote:
What the hell is this? The iRiver is the ugliest thing I have ever seen. You'd have to be really clueless to but this when the iPod is obviously so much better. Think about it: the iPod has an easy-to-read display screen, the innovative click wheel, the amazing shuffle feature, and high quality sound. PC and Mac. Quick assembly and installation. No wonder why Apple computer has saturated the MP3 market. Competitors like the shoddy iRiver are desperately trying to compete, but we know they can't. Honestly, there is NO reason to buy any other MP3 player besides the iPod. The iPod is changing the way we hear music, and it's much better than the questionable iRiver.
Ok, first of all he obviously has never tried one and is just looking from looks, not to mention all his reviews on every mp3 player are trashing other players for ipods..he is probably being payed or has no life. I actually OWN this player and it is amazing. Two of my friends have ipods and yes, they are smaller, but the iriver wins on everything else. Iriver has great if not better sound that an ipod, color screen, fm tuner, recorder, and with firmware can play VIDEOS. As far as mp3 fanatics's crap about the ipod advantages: the ipod shuffle option is the same as iriver's, the "innovative" wheel is not that amazing for navigation because all the options are on only a few buttons making it confusing and it took me over 5 minutes to go from a to z with his 15 gb out of 20gb filled, and the "easy to read display" HAHA, the iriver's is also colorful and vibrant as a pocket pc! Buy the iriver, ipod is just another trend that will be gone within a year or two!
7 Awesome
You want Bling-Bling? Buy an IPod and be trendy. You want a very easy to use, versatile digital jukebox/portable hard drive? Than this is the unit for you, it's great. So easy to use, display is nice, not too large. Guess I'm not trendy, oh well.
8 You're much better off getting an iPod.
What the hell is this? The iRiver is the ugliest thing I have ever seen. You'd have to be really clueless to but this when the iPod is obviously so much better. Think about it: the iPod has an easy-to-read display screen, the innovative click wheel, the amazing shuffle feature, and high quality sound. PC and Mac. Quick assembly and installation. No wonder why Apple computer has saturated the MP3 market. Competitors like the shoddy iRiver are desperately trying to compete, but we know they can't. Honestly, there is NO reason to buy any other MP3 player besides the iPod. The iPod is changing the way we hear music, and it's much better than the questionable iRiver.
9 H320 - 5 stars, iRiver support 0 stars
If you are thinking of purchasing anything made by iRiver you need to seriously reconsider. If you have ANY problems you will NOT be able to contact the company. They will NOT help you in ANY way. Customer support does NOT answer the phone or respond to Emails. The Corporate Office, iRiver USA, does NOT answer the phone. You have been warned. Must be the Chinese business model...
10 More than adequate for this audiophile!
I got my H320 shortly after Christmas 2004. I had originally gotten a RCA Lyra 20 GB from my Mom for Christmas. It sounded good, but it didn't seem very reliable. I took it back and got a Creative Zen Xtra NOMAD 40 GB. That one didn't sound very good at all. That's when I got the H320. I must say that I am very satisfied with this product! It sounds excellent, it's easy to use, and it hasn't given me one problem yet! The battery life is great too! Whenever I buy my next MP3 player, I definitely plan on getting another iRiver!
11 Sets the standards
In three months that i own this player i have not one complaint. Its easy to use, sounds great, looks great, built solid and just gives tons of options to play with. The battery life is true to advertised length, the buttons are easy to use and figure out and the software includes windows media 10 (incase you don't have it). The radio is a little weak but does the job, and being able to record from any source is the greatest gift of all. No other company has that feature!! One more to add, recoring on the fly is awsome, you can store your pictures from your digital camera if you run out of room on to the H320 without a computer! Think about that.
12 Beats out all competition
This iRiver really blew away my expectations. It really does come packed with features and since everyone has to compare it to the iPod (including myself), I have to say it is a better buy. A friend of mine has the 4th Generation 20GB iPod so we compared our two players in terms of features, etc.
First off, things I like about the iRiver. It looks great. The carbon fiber look is very unique and will catch attention. While it is slightly heavier than the iPod, it makes up for that with extra features. Here's a list of a few things the iRiver has that the iPod does not:
-Color screen
-Radio
-Longer battery life
-Video playback (not sure about this one).
(I've heard from many it can playback videos but when I tried upgrading the firmware myself, it wouldn't work for me.)
My one and only major complaint about the iRiver H320 is the boot-up time, it takes a good 15-20 seconds whereas my friend's iPod powers up in seconds. This can prove rather annoying if you ever need to turn it off for a few minutes, and also there is no standby feature. I'm sure this flaw is made up for in saved battery life, so all-in-all this MP3 player is a superb buy and I recommend it. I actually got the 40GB version free!
Go here:
http://tinyurl.com/8mt4y
Sign up and complete any of the free-trial offers (I recommend AOL¨ plus MusicNet, make sure you click the "I have completed this offer" button after doing AOL), refer some friends to do the same and you get a free iRiver! Check out their Member Gallery for dozens of people who have received their gifts. E-mail me with any questions.
13 Excellent player with a few issues.
There is no doubt about it, that the h320 is one of the strongest mp3 players out there. Tons of features like color screen, and OGG sold it to me. Especially cool is the fact that windows recognizes it as a hdd without drivers. This means you can goto any pc with usb, plug in and swap files. If you're willing to give up DRM support you can even flash it with an international firmware and gain video playback. Its way ahead of the Ipod feature wise. Its compact and comes with a pretty nice case and headphones. Now my gripes. Random playback isnt very random. Infact if you start on the same song, you get the same order everytime. No Gapless play back, not a huge deal, and the rio karma is the only one to do this now. It cant build a mp3 tag database without be connected to a computer. Not a big deal since you usually just do this when transferring. You'll want to make sure all your tags are correct to get the most out of this player or any player for that matter. (try the godfather) There are a couple iriver specific apps that are useful (ITD- database tool that supports more formats and irivium) Sound quality is great. Battery life is good so far. I leave it playing 9 hrs a day at work and yet to see below half meter on the battery. Overall its hands down a better DAP than the ipod.
14 I will buy another iriver if I need another mp3 player
I have been using this player for 3 months now and are fairly satisfied with it. I started searching for a mp3 player several months ago and finally narrowed down on this model. Although I have never seen or touched this model before I bought it, most of the reviews I read say good things about it.
After these months of use, I can summarize all the good and bad points of this player so readers can make their own decision about this model:
Pro:
1. Great sound. Sound is way better than any computer sound card, and many CD player. It is especially pleasing in the low to middle end of sound spectrum. If you turn on super-bass, the bass could blow your head off. However, I do find the high end is a bit soft, not as crisp as some great CD player. This could be due to MP3 encoding (I choose 256kbps for most songs).
2. High headphone amplifier output. I use Sennheiser HD600 which need big headphone output to drive. Most CD/MP3 players out there have miserable output (5mW to 8mW per channel) so they are totally out of question. The sound out of HD600 is great and I don't need to buy and use a standalong expensive headphone amplifier.
3. Very solid construction. Contrary to many people who want slim player, I like player which feels solid in hand. This one is like poker size and the weight is assuring.
4. Very good support of different languages. It deals with most languages people can think of. Of course, for me, Chinese language support is a must and this model does it flawlessly.
5. Color display. This beats the hell out of competitors which only provide black and white LCD display.
6. Sufficient storage size. 20GB is enough for sotring thousands of high quality MP3 songs. Buy a 40GB version if you have more songs.
7. Do not need special software to copy songs. When you use USB interface to connect this model to computer, it appears as a USB storage device so you can directly copy/delete songs on it. It is much easier for users. I hate to learn some software simply to copy/delete songs.
8. FM capability is definitely a plus. The reception quality is very good (even better than my home receiver!).
9. Line in and out are potentially useful to transfer old songs analogally. But I have never used them though.
Cons:
1. Fiddling with its controls can be fun or pain. The buttons definitely are not the most intuitive. You have to read thick manual and remember them through practice. Fortunately, for simple playback, you don't need too much fiddling.
2. Buttons are bit too small for me. I wish they can a bit larger for easy control.
3. Startup time is too long. I counted the time for the player to come up and play songs - 18 seconds. I wish it could be a couple of seconds.
4. It seems there are some interfaces on the player, but there are no corresponding connection in the package. Maybe something is removed from U.S. version, but I wish I got a complete package so I can use the full potential of it (my guess is that something might be for wireless/wired control).
5. I wish battery can be replaced. But it can't.
15 Good Choice Indeed!!
The recent 'review' or bashing of this product, just to show how people are trying to mislead into buying the status quo product. I have been doing research on MP3 player since back in December. I asked folks who personally owned mp3 players. I finally decided on the Iriver H320 versus Zen Touch & Ipod.
The size surprises me that it is not that big, although the case makes it more bulkier. It still fits my jean and shirt pocket. The case improved also where you can view the display and use the buttons. I read in other review that you have to remove the case to manipulate it. This is not the case for me.
I'm not much of an audiophile, but the sound is great. This is my first mp3 player, and I just like how I can set up the list without having to instal software ie. creative, itunes, etc. I upgraded my windows media player to ver. 10.
I like the radio option, since I like to listen to FM tunes occassionaly. Since, Los Angeles have a strong signal to station. I didn't have problem getting reception. It lets you record stuff from the radio like any funny skit that they have on morning radio.
It also have an awesome line out, where I can just plug it in on my Logitech Z680 to listen to music, saving me the hassle of turning on my computer. I used it also to listen in my friend's truck through a cassette adapter when we were on the way to go snowboarding. Sound is awesome for both speakers.
I have never had a recorder in my college years, and now H320 will enable me to record my management classes and conferences.
Having to listen to my collection in my car was the first place I got an MP3 player. I want to reduce the risk of getting into an accident when switching CD's. I deal with traffic everyday, H320 will be at my side. I have even yet to use the picture viewer and data storage feature.
I have many months ahead to explore this product. Other folks are right about having the manual handy to navigate through the menus. My only gripe is the battery life, it seems short about 10 hours.
I love my H320. 'enuff said.
16 Between H320 and Zen Xtra
I bought both the H320 and the 30G Zen Xtra planning to return one. Each has good and bad points but I kept the H320.
The key question to answer in choosing between the 2 has nothing to do with the players. The key criteria is you, the owner. Are you smarter than your computer? If so, the H320 is the one for you. Otherwise, go with the Zen.
The Zen is downright Apple-esque in its control. It copies the music for you. If you find dragging and dropping a chore, then the Zen is right for you.
But the Zen is not simple to use either. I installed the software, plugged the Zen into my computer, and couldn't figure out how to get music onto the Zen. I read the documentation repeatedely and still couldn't figure it out. I went to Creative's website customer support and finally found an article under "Advanced Topics" that finally explained to me how to transfer music to the Zen.
Other than usability, the H320 beats the Zen Xtra into the ground in terms of sound quality and features.
The sound is unbelievably awesome on the H320. Now that I can carry most of my music with me, I am rediscovering music. Stuff I haven't listened to in years is beautiful again, and I'm finding a texture and fullness to the music which I never heard before. I notice notes in the music which I had missed completely before. On loud airplanes I use Aiwa noise-dampening head phones; I never have to push the volume past 15 and the sound is still amazing.
When I first got the Zen I thought its sound quality was great. But then I put the same music on the Zen and on the H320 and started the same music at the same time. I listened through the Aiwa head phones on the Zen, then pluged them into the H320, and then back again. The difference was astounding. Each is great. But side-by-side the H320 beats Zen hands-down. Note that the Zen EAX sound feature is nothing but a gimmick and a dumb one at that. I simply can't imagine any reason why I would want to listen to music as if the band were in my bathroom.
The H320 beats the Zen on sound quality even with a variety of music: rock, electronica, classical, folk. The only thing which didn't sound better on the H320 was a Beatles album that was digitally remastered.
The voice recorder on the H320 works great. The color screen on the H320 makes the Zen screen look like carbon paper. Battery life on the H320 is good.
I thought the gap between tracks on the H3320 would spoil the whole thing but it doesn't. In the few places where I've noticed it, it isn't a big problem.
The H320 has some warts:
- The provided case is simply ugly.
- The user interface is excessively complex. It must have been put together by two monkeys, a gorilla, and a Borg, each working separately from the others. But once you get used to the fact that there are at least 3 separate menu systems and two separate USB ports (WTF???), it gets easier.
- The random shuffle feature is about as random as the sunrise.
- The database-building tool provided with the H320 simply doesn't run. Don't even bother installing it. I use tdd but I hear iRiverium is good too.
If you buy an iRiver product, be sure to check out misticriver.net.
Having said all that, I've had the H320 for a month and I simply love it.
17 Received Defective Unit - No Technical Support
Unit would not charge. Contacted iriver tech support, waited on hold for 45 minutes, no answer.
Sent email. No reply.
Called again, no answer.
Second email. No reply. Returning to Amazon. Not happy with customer service. Unit looks nice but doesn't work.
18 A great player in the market, OGG Support a A+++ However..
I bought the player about 3 weeks ago now. Don't get me wrong as you read the rest of the review I love it, and wouldn't trade it for the world.
Pluses:
1. OGG support, being a Linux and open source geek I love that I can play my .ogg files on the player. Its the feature that lead me to it in the first place. The Oggs play and sound great and the player has no trouble going from one format to another on the fly during random play back.
2. FM Radio...I didn't even know it had the feature when I bought it a cool feature to be sure.
3. Picture display, it can display .jpg files on its color screen GREAT! I love this feature.
4. The USB 2 uploads and downloads between the computer fast!
Things that Bug me:
1. When listening to a rip of a live CD there is an annoying gap between songs. I thought this was an issue addressed years ago, in most quarters. I have made feedback to them on their web site suggesting that they do something about this in a future firmware.
2. The buttons are a little crampy, some of the documentation even acknowledges this and points at a remote control attachement that is supposed to make control less carpal-tunnel inducing. I think I am going to have spring for this.
3. Things that are mentioned in the manual as add ons that don't seem to be available for purchase currently...forementioned remote, an extra batterypack...
King Tick me off thing....
The American Version which I have and bought from Amazon...IS CRIPPLEWARE and I can't find any explaination of WHY anywhere.
It simply doesn't have the same features as the Asian and European versions. I wish I had known this before purchasing it. The American version is at Firmware 1.03...the Asian and European version are arounf 1.27 or 8 from what I can tell. They have a ton of additional features. Video playback, transfers of data to other USB devices directly, just to name two.
My advise get the foreign versions if you can the US one is a downer once you know. And I guess you do now if you read my review.
19 the psychology of mp3 player reviewers
i did a lot of research before buying this player. during the course of this, i had what i think are some interesting epiphanies that i wanted to share with other prospective player owners. i don't expect that this review will help anyone decide to purchase the H320, but i hope that it will help people make more informed decisions. consider this a meta-review for buying an MP3 player ...
first, a word on reliability. after reading many user reviews on different sites on many different players, i learned that all players had a large number of reviews from users that said that their player was unreliable (including ipod). again, this was the case with all players. in lieu of more scientific data, i came to the conclusion that there is not enough information to determine that any player is more reliable than any other player. also based on the large number of negative reliability reviews, it seems that all of these players have reliability problems, to greater or lesser degrees. now, take that with a grain of salt. folks are much more likely to write a negative review if their player fails than if it works. people *expect* it to work. it's when it doesn't work that people get upset and take the time to write a review.
the same goes for support. almost all of the players had significant reviews saying support was terrible.
conclusion so far? if you buy one of these players there is a significant chance (relatively) of getting a bum unit. secondly, if you do get a bum unit, expect getting it repaired or replaced to be a pain in the ass.
jukebox player vs. microdrive is something to think about. for a given $$$, microdrive players are about 1/2 the weight + dimension, and hold about 1/4 to 1/8 the data.
now to the H320 review ... for each rating criteria below, i've specified an importance factor between 1 (not important) and 3 (very important)
size+weight: 2
battery life: 2
open standards: 3
fm tuner: 3
extra features (beyond simple music playing): 1
ease of use: 1
size+weight-
the h320 is about middle-ground for jukebox players. it's bigger and heavier than an ipod, but smaller than some of the creative jukebox players. one thing to note, the length + height of the h320 is about the same as the ipod, however, the depth is about 40% greater. i use the h320 mostly for gym use. with it's stock belt clip, it's okay for low-impact activities, but i think there'd be a problem for jogging.
battery life-
the h320 is better than average. this wasn't terribly important to me. i would only use the player for about 2-4 hours a day, and all players last longer than that.
open standards-
i keep my music collection in standard file folders. it was important that i got a player that did not insist on categorizing things into it's own database, directory structure, or otherwise. i wanted to be able to just dump files onto the player. the h320 handles this excellent. when you plug it in, it simply shows up as a hard drive in windows. apparently, there is a way to allow the player+software manage your collection at a higher level, but i have not even tried that.
also, the h320 plays OGG files. for those who don't know, OGG is an open music encoding standard (mp3 is not open). OGG has smaller files and better sound quality than MP3.
fm tuner-
the h320 has a nicely integrated FM tuner.
extra features-
the h320 has lots. picture viewer. can play video files. line in and microphone mp3 encoding. interesting, but i'd have preferred to have paid $50 less and not had these things.
for those not interested in an fm tuner, the archos gmini is a nice simple player for a good price. i would have opted for it if i did not want an fm tuner.
ease of use-
the h320 rates poorly here, as you know if you've read a few reviews. they took an odd approach. instead of having a simple set of navigation keys and then all options and features available by navigating on screen menus, they made features accessible through un intuitive key sequences. here's an example. hwne using the FM tuner, you press and hold the "A-B" key to auto-program the FM presets. that is non-obvious.
if you get the h320, you're going to have to carry the manual around with you for a few weeks to learn your most common functions. and there will be times when you wish to do something obscure and you simply will not be able to find it until you look on the manual.
that all being said ... the color screen on the h320 looks very slick.
----
hope this helps.
20 Most versatile player ever!
I bought this player because of the additional functions that iPod didn't offer and the color screen. Totally worth every of the $270 I paid for it. The color screen is 2" large and of the brightest quality I have ever seen, works good in all lighting conditions. The sound is amazing (I changed the earphones for in-ear Sony 51). So are other functions:
-the radio: I used it on a plane and got 21 stations, I usually get 25 in NYC. The sound is very good and you can change AM/FM. And the coolest function is that you can record any song you hear on the radio WHILE listening to it on the radio: just press the button with a dot on it to start recording and again to finish recording. The quality of recording depends of the radio reception which is usually very good.
- watching movies: I followed the instructions on www.misticriver.com and downloaded the European bios and can watch all my movies converted to .avi files. Conversion is easy, just follow the instructions on the misticriver website. I converted my Notebook DVD and watched it on the plane with no problems, except for all passengers staring at my iRiver with awe.
-watching pictures: quality is excellent, pictures are very saturates and bright and easy to watch. Just copy paste them in the player like on any other drive and they're on your iRiver in an instant.
-The design- here I prefer the look of ipod, but only for the wheel, because buttons do not look very sleek and are quite complicated to use at first, because the same button has different function depending on the mode you're in and how long you press the button. It's because the iRiver has lots of functions for every mode and only so many buttons.
If you want to buy a player: don't hesitate, buy the iRiver h320 or 340 (same but with 40G). It's a one lean, mean multi-playing machine with best quality screen and sound.
21 Great Buy
I'm gonna keep this short and to the point. This is a great mp3 player for its price. The Creative Zen Touch comes close but does not offer many of the features this thing has such as built in recording, picture viewing, etc. [...]
22 Really good player
The iRiver H320 hard drive/ MP3 player is definitely something great to have. I personally felt that it was better than the iPod because of the color screen, image viewer, FM radio, and recorder. On the H320, I didn't like how there are two places for a USB connection. One connection is called "data," which makes the player show as a hard drive on the computer for regular file storage. The other is entitled "media," which is for synchronization with Windows Media Player 10. I just wonder why they couldn't make one USB connection so that a user wouldn't have to switch to use the H320 as a hard drive or for synchronization. The line in/out feature is good. You can record from and external analog source or even connect another pair of headphones. The player comes with software that updates the database on the player. No drivers are required for its use. Just connect it using the "data" port. I do not know about its compatibility with online music sources-I bought music from walmart.com and doesn't seem to synchronize with the player. Windows Media 10 tells me that I need a security upgrade, but it doesn't download! At first using the player was very confusing. There are only a certain number of buttons that mean multiple things depending on the mode or option that you are in. It takes a little while to learn about what everything means. My H320 takes 15 seconds to load with about half of the 20GB filled. The music organization isn't the best. The player has the options of a file tree like in Windows Explorer to find music, by artist, by album, or by genre. Since I have about 2000 songs I still find that I have to do a lot of scrolling to find what I want. I wish that there were a search by name feature. Making play lists was hard at first. It seems that you can only use Winamp to create play lists, because there is not play list on the go feature. Play lists can only be made out of mp3 files! The FM radio is nice, and has many settings, including the country. The reception is all right, depending on your location. I like the fact that you can record in mp3 from the radio and from other outside sources. There is also a text viewer, but only in the .txt format from Notepad. The EQ/SRS settings are cool. It is user friendly. There are many different settings that you can use for bass, treble, etc. There are also multiple play modes like random, repeat, etc. The LCD is nice and bright, but viewing pictures is another story. Pictures can only be under 1MB in size, and they load slower as the size becomes greater! The recorder is ok for recording speeches, discussions, and music from outside sources such as the radio and external CD players, mp3 players, etc. It is not good for recording live music! The internal microphone can't handle the different frequencies of sound, making the recorded sound become distorted. I guess if you connect a good external mic, it might be perfect. Overall, the player is good. It is a little on the heavy side, and slightly chunky. The case makes it even bulkier. The player itself can be compared to a deck of cards. I wasn't happy with the double USB connection, picture viewer, and recorder, and the music searching. I was impressed with the capacity, color screen, options, and radio. The fact that it had more features and the same size capacity as the Apple iPod made it my choice. There is no scroll wheel, but the button configuration is good. All of the buttons are flat, which requires that you keep pressing or holding the down or up buttons to find what you want. Pressing a button once has a function, while, if you hold the same button down, it brings you to another different option. Anyway, I felt that this definitely was worth my $296.40. I would recommend it for users who want to carry all of their music collection around all of the time. It is good for use that does not require a lot of physical movement, because there are moving parts within the player! -Written by fet4.
23 It just works! Linux/Windows/Macintosh - no problem
Lately, I've noticed that everyone around me has an iPod. I thought they were pretty cool, so I went to the apple store to play with one. I was less than impressed with the black-and-white LCD screen and the reliance on iTunes.
I then saw this on the internet. I bought it mainly for the OGG support, but found out it has MUCH more to offer. The main thing I love about this is that it requires NO software to use. I just plug it into my USB port and it shows up as a hard drive. I can then just copy my music over to the device and organize it however I feel like. It also will act as a media device so you can use programs like media player, and jukebox, etc. to manage your music as well.
Since is shows up as a standard USB storage device, I have easily been able to make this work on ALL my computers, whether they were running Windows, Linux or MacOS. It seems to work with any computer with a USB port.
One thing which I have started to use is the built in voice recorder. As part of my school projects, I have to interview people and transcribe the interviews. The voice recorder with built in mic works very well for this, and the interview becomes a nice small MP3 which I can copy over to my computer.
Second, it has an FM tuner which works relatively well, but has some minor reception problems. I wouldn't recommend buying this for the FM receiver, but it's nice to have when you get tired of your own music....
Other features which I have discovered are the convienent "lock" switch which deactivates the buttons on it so you don't accidently change tracks or turn it on, and a picture viewer, so you can load in all your digital photos and show them off without trying to view them on a clunky camera. (The color LCD display on this is NICE!)
The only thing I wish it had was the "wheel" found on iPods. The navigation can be a bit slow at times when you have to scroll through a long list of mp3s.
With all these features and the fact that it's priced very close to the iPod, I can't understand why people go for the iPod... Oh yea.. That status thing... (You COULD buy white ear-buds for the iRiver if that's what you're going for)
24 Great sound/features; Bizarre UI
This product has an amazing set of features in one package. So, if you use all the stuff, its great. I bought it for its recording capability mostly and its been great!
But, I'm totally incredulous at how crappy the UI is, esp. in this day and age. I've had to read the manual 3 times & if I don't use a feature for a few days, I have a hard time re-figuring it out. Buttons are strangely labelled (e.g. Why the heck would you label a button on the front of the box "A-B" switch?); navigation approaches are not consistent.
You get great sound quality and features - so I'm keeping it. But plan on working on understanding the UI.
25 This player just ROCKS!
I've been looking around the mp3 player market for over a year -- and I narrowed my choices down to iPod (just coz of the cool interface) and the iRiver (coz I really wanted an FM tuner). The H320 was priced at $320 at best buy ($312) at amazon, slightly more expensive than the 20GB iPod, and even then I was seriously considering the iRiver vis a vis the iPod. So when Best Buy put it on for clearance at $214, I just grabbed it. And I haven't been disappointed. The coolest feature, I think, is the ability to record not just from the FM tuner into mp3 format, but from any headphone output using the line in jack (which comes with the player). I've used this to convert several real audio songs I owned into mp3 format. The picture viewer is cool but doesnt really add too much utility, since there isnt a zoom feature, nor can u load pics onto it directly from a camera or usb key without using a laptop. (usb on the go is not available in the US version, though the European version apparently has it -- but is also more expensive). Tuner quality is great and the ability to view text files is an added plus. (eg, one can download mapquest directions onto the player and use it while travelling). Apparently one can download the korean firmware and get the player to even play videos! (of a specific resolution. However, loading non american firmware might void warranty and also affect a couple of other functionalities, such as time display etc -- see www.misticriver.net for more details -- this is *THE* website for firmware, FAQs, announcements, discussions and HowTos for iRiver products). Several of my friends got the iRiver after seeing my player, and some of my iPod owning friends are really jealous -- this player has a load of extra features over the 20GB iPod: FM tuner, Color display, Longer battery life (16hrs vs 12 hrs advertised for iPod), ability to record from tuner, line-in or builtin microphone, Picture viewer, Upgradeable firmware, support for multiple file formats (mp3, wma, ogg...). Its a the same length and breadth as the iPod, but is a little thicker and heavier, and of course, doesnt look as cool as the iPod. But if features are what u r looking for, this is THE player for you.
Pros:
(1) Great sound
(2) Supports text and picture viewing
(3) FM tuner
(4) Records from line in and FM tuner into mp3 format.
(5) Color display -- the colors have been used nicely to good effect, rather than just having colors for the sake of it.
(6) Support for multiple formats besides mp3, such as wma.
cons: (in detail, so you know what you are getting into!)
(1) The shuffle mode isnt that great -- it always plays songs in the same order -- this is a big negative according to me, but I found that by adding a couple of songs occasionally it changes the order, so i can manage to live with it.
(2) The headphones that come with it arent too good -- as is the case with most mp3 players -- I changed it to the sony clip on the ear ones and the difference in sound quality was v discernible.
(3) Battery life probably isnt the advertised 16 hours -- though i havent measured it, i think its probably closer to 10 hrs or so (not sure about this)
(4) The song indexing software doesnt work too well with windows 2000 (it worked great with windows xp though). This is the software that comes on the CD that helps index the songs by artist, title etc so you can search using mp3 id3 tags.
26 Thinking about an iPod? Think again.
As a previous owner of two iPods, which both broke within weeks of purchase, I had been uneasy about purchasing another mp3 player. After a good deal of research I chose the H320. 20G is ample storage space for me and the other features were highly desirable.
Pros:
-Battery life. I have yet to run through a charge before having a chance to plug it back in. I often go a couple days before recharging, if I only listen for a few hours each day.
-Feel. Very solid feeling.
-Case. Don't worry about having it covered in scratches--you probably won't notice too much with the black case.
-Features. FM, recording, color screen, picture viewing, many audio formats (ogg included), the list goes on. The controls aren't bad and will only take a day or so of use to become intuitive.
-Video. Contrary to what other reviewers have stated, YES, YOU CAN have video on your US model iRiver. Simply download the Korean firmware and install it on your device--takes 30 seconds.
-Color screen. It's simply beautiful.
-Sound quality is excellent, of course. Good ability to change sound settings as well, from presets to SRS WOW hardware 3d.
Cons:
-iRiver America is apparently not great at customer support. For example, some of the confusion over whether or not US models of the device can use the Korean firmware in order to get the video feature was caused by conflicting reports from iRiver customer service reps. Some stated that the US model could not use it, when in fact it can--as stated by other service reps. I would like them to update their firmware more often, as well, but this is a minor issue and doesn't affect the usefulness of the mp3 player.
-Playlists. This ties in with firmware issues. I have found it difficult to set my own playlists, both on the fly and downloaded to the device from my computer. This is probably my main gripe about the mp3 player.
-The included headphones. This is an issue that will vary from person to person. The headphones are great sound quality from Sennheiser. The design, however, seemed to me to be so absurd that I thought I received a defective pair. From the point where the wire splits into two earbud parts, one side is a foot and a half longer than the other. I think this is one of the worst designs I have ever seen. Ever. Other people I have talked to find this desirable because it means you can carry the device in a pocket and have the wire hanging at your side rather than in front of you.
Overall, I highly recommend the H320. The design and function are high quality. I have been using mine for several months now without a hitch. Before you mindlessly march in conformity with the "non-conformists" who think iPods are gifts from God, look at the competition. There are a lot of excellent players that don't get mentioned as much as Apple's.
27 WOW
What can i say? This is THE MP3 player. It has everything. It shows as an external hard disk! Just drag and drop. Built in FM tuner. I uploaded Korean firmware and now i am watching movies on it! And sound? Try the U Bass! I tried on BB King files. I never heard those sounds before on my previous player (A Sucking Creative Zen). Then there is SRS! There is a line in and line out! My only complaint is that the photos take a while to load and there is no zoom. Otherwise the best MP3 player in the market. Went to buy Ipod, saw this, bought this and i now i think i have a better player.
28 Better than I could have imagined
I am going to consider this the best purchase that I have made over the last 12 months. Every feature exceeded my expectations.
1) Battery Life. I charge it before work, can work my 13 hour shift and come home with 2 "bars" of battery left. My IPOD would have been dead by 3pm.
2) Napster to Go. I cannot think of a better way to spend 15 dollars a month to download any music I want into the player. I had no trouble transferring the music..i wish the transfer rate were faster, but that only matters the first time you really load it.
3) FM Radio. I have a great Grundig radio in my office. I get better reception and more stations with this player.
4) I can record with the touch of a button, which is great for class, meetings at work or recording the radio
5) NO drivers, just plug it in and go
6) They have very reasonably priced accessories at IRiver. I bought a backup power supply for 7.99
They really got it right with this device. Just make sure to set the time and date, so your Napster to go works! that was my only mistake.
29 H320 Observations from 1st Time Jukebox Owner
I'm not going to go into a lot of detail on some of these since so many reviews have.
Positives
1) Feature set is great for such a small device and love the "open" standards support since most of my music comes from purchased CDs.
2) Sound is good enough although I don't have a good baseline to go off of.
Negatives
1) Start up time (3000 songs loaded) is horrible. It's about a 45 second start-up even just to listen to the radio. They need to fix that in a firmware or future release.
2) When recording via line-in or other port, there is no graphic to tell you how loud it is. For example, am I cutting out at 0db? There is no visible way to check the waveform amplitude on recordings. A firmware fix should be able to correct that.
3) They need some help with buttons. Many people have mentioned this but it is very true. I futzed around with the device a while back trying to switch the recording source and through a process of elimination figure out which button to press.
4) The "Shuffle Mode" for all songs in the playlist is not all that much of a shuffle mode. Apparently, it sets a predetermined order and so the only way to randomize it is to enter in on a different song. It does not seed the random list on device startup or even between stop and starts. Kinda frustrating on that one for those of us who like to hear random music from a playlist.
30 beware!
Guys , Just like the other reviews have mentioned the player is pretty cool . But if you have purchased music , be careful . You should be able to connect the player to the media port ( a special port for copying purchased music ) .
For connecting to the media port you should be running Windows XP not Windows 2000 or earlier versions .
I had lot of purchased music and running windows 2000 . The Customer service in iriver told me I will not able able to connect with this OS. So if you are like me this is not ideal for you .
Also there are other posts which says you will be able to play videos . That is not in the north american model . You will have to download the software for other region ( europe or korea ) and in that case the warranty will not be supported . There are a million places it is mentioned not to do that . Will you take a chance with warranty so that your player can play mpeg . Not me
Hope it helps
31 Nifty PseudoPod: capable and cost-effective, but clumsy
I bought a 20-gig iPod awhile back. Loved the design aesthetics and ease of use, but didn't like the copyright-slavish limitations it came with. It ended up as a Christmas present for my Apple-crazy stepson. I missed having 20 gigs of music with me in such a portable format, but I have a real aversion to owning equipment that refuses to let me do what I want with it. I kept the iPod for about two months; I've had the iRiver H320 for about that long.
Oddly enough, I bought the H320 as a result of my search for another kind of device. I was looking for a voice recorder that would encode directly into MP3 with high fidelity for more than two hours at a time, and transfer those files to computer easily via firewire or usb 2. Because such recordings can be helpful in my work, I was willing to shell out about $175 for a recorder with those capabilities.
Well, the H320 has them -- up to five hours at 128 k/s via either the internal microphone (surprisingly good) or an available external (five bucks from the mfr's website; it looks cheap and doesn't have a good clip for securing to tie or clothing, but it recorded so well and was so inexpensive that I bought several more after testing the first one). I was able to buy the H320 for $300, so in effect all the features listed below ran me $125 over what I was willing to spend for a voice recorder (though I should point out that I still think it's a deal at $300).
The H320 plays those 20 gigs of music with fine sound. There sometimes seems to be a bit more background hiss than with the iPod, but I have very good low-volume hearing and even I usually have to strain to hear the hiss on either device.
The H320's appearance is presentable enough, and it's roughly the shape of, and not much larger than, a pack of cigarettes.
The controls are not intuitive and not particularly convenient to learn or to use; this is the feature where iPod rules.
But one of the reasons it takes awhile to learn this beast is all the things it can do for you. For example, there's an FM tuner that you can listen to while recording the FM signal directly into MP3 with admirable fidelity. You can take a "line out" signal from any audio source, plug it in via the included standard patch cable, and encode the incoming signal directly into MP3 at up to 192 k/s. And, of course, you can use it as a usb 2 external hard drive.
Also, it has a color LCD display with about a two inch diagonal on which you can display .jpg and .bmp images (not .gif, dunno why) with surprising fidelity. I'm sure that the new iPod photo models do it better (and I imagine they'll let you use other features while viewing images, which the H320 won't). But this feature was essentially gravy, and you can store a LOT of images in a tiny fraction of a 20 gig drive.
My habits are such that I haven't had occasion to test max battery life; I just plug it at my bedstand at night and let it juice up. I have not yet attempted to use the firmware-update feature, and unless and until I get a freeze-up, I probably won't.
In short, I think the guys who designed this beast started with a 20 gig hard drive and jammed into it every feature they could think of (that they could make work without jacking up the price much), and rushed it onto the market. All in all, despite some kinks and quirks, I think they did a fine job.
You can download both an abbreviated manual and a full one from the mfr's website; I'd recommend your doing so before buying.
32 Very Disappointed
I've been tracking through review after review in search of a good juke box...the H320 seemed like a good answer. From first boot up I had nothing but trouble. After having lock up upon lockup, and having the inability to play transfered files, I put it back in the box and it's headed back to the store tomorrow. I've been gritting my teeth at the though of buying an iPod like everyone else, but I think I may give in after what I've been reading about everything else.
33 iRiver H320
The iRiver H320 mp3/mp4 player kicks the crap out of the 4th gen. 20 gb iPod in every way possible. Lets start off with the awesome 2" color screen, it's so awesome. With millions of colors you can store tons of photos because most photos don't even take up 1mb. The quality is unbelievable, you can see every single last detail, and you can store really big photos on the H320. The H320 can store 5000 songs, thats A LOT, and it supports mp3, wma, asf, and ogg vorbis, which is really cool. The songs title, artist, and album will usually be displayed on the screen while you are listening, unless you transfered the song from a burned cd, in that case you have to type in the title, artist, and album, and if you don't know those then it will say unknow title, artist, and album. Navigation is somewhat difficult once you first get your hands on the H320, but skim through the directional booklet and you will get it down. Also, when you are listening to a song, after a certain amount of time, the screen will go black, but don't worry, the song will still be playing and you just have to press the NAVI button to have the screen return to normal, (the reason the screen shuts off is because the H320 is conserving battery.) You can also go into settings and change the amount of time the screen stays on. When the H320 starts up, it takes about 15 seconds because it starts from scratch, unlike the ipod, which stays on stand-by and drains the battery. Oh, and about battery life, it says you will get 16hrs, you will probably get about 10, which is still better than the iPod. Now onto the subject of firmware upgrades, the H320+H340 are currently being shipped in the U.S. with the lastest firmware on them, you might have read in other reviews that if you upgrade your firmware to v 1.25 k you can play videos in AVI format. Well, I've read a lot of reviews and from a majority of them I have heard that it doesn't work, people have trouble getting videos into AVI format, etc. Well, I wouldn't upgrade the firmware because of a lot of reasons. 1. It's hard to find a website where you can upgrade it, iRiver U.S.A. doesn't have firmware v 1.25 k availiable yet, I think the only place where you can get it is from the international site, and you have to download it in korean, which would be impossible to read unless you know how. 2. It voids your warranty. 3. If the H320 freezes up on you, and you call iRiver and tell them about the firmware upgrade, they probably wont be able to help you. 4. According to some reviews you lose your clock function, which is valuable. Therefore you should wait until iRiver U.S.A. provides firmware v 1.25 k. Next lets move to the FM radio, two words, unbelievable reception. Before the H320 I had the Polaroid 40gb Jukebox Jam, I returned it because not only was it the size of a brick, but the radio reception absolutely sucked and the only way you could get reception is if you were 3 feet away from where the radio station was broadcasting. The H320 allows 20 preset FM stations and FM recording, and you can choose what quality of recording you want, I think I chose the bitrate of 112, whatever it is it's really good, (CD quality). Moving onto voice recording, I haven't used it very much yet, but for the 1 or 2 times that I have, it records really good and gets far off sounds, good for recording classes in college. There is much more to the H320 that I will leave up to you to explore, just remember this play kicks the crap out of an iPod.
34 1 star on the poor customer service
Mine 1st unit was defective and I am awaiting the second. Just wanted to post how awful the IRIver technical customer service rep was on the phone. Immediately very rude and short with me as if helping customers wasn't part of his job description. My threshold for returning the unit now is very low.
35 Bleh
Obviously the people who gave this five stars have never used an Ipod or iTunes. The software for this devcie is clunky at best. The controls are terrible. The screen is murky and the entire device is cheap and plasticky feeling and looking. Is this really the best iRiver can do?
36 MoodLogic software is quirky
This is my first experience with MP3 players The instructions are fair however I had problems with the music management software MoodLogic. My XP based computer crashes with this software installed. I have to reboot my computer in "Safe" mode then uninstall the MoodLogic software. This is unacceptable!!! Is there another software available where I can manage my MP3 files better? Please tell.
Second with the MoodLogic software installed only about half of my music was copied to the H320. File names gave the indication that the accompaying music was available however when that track or file was selected it was empty.
Even when I had the H320 disconnected from my computer my system would crash. Once again, unacceptable.
Now for the H320....I like it. I give it five stars however the accompanying software brings the overall rating of this wonderful system to my rating of three stars.
Down loading music directly from Windows is easy however you are only able to view your downloaded music by the groups name not genre, type of music etc. Having better music management would make this MP3 player tops.
I downloaded JPG files and it's nice being able to look at the photo's. The hardware itself is great but the accompanying software stinks. Unless there are better compatible music software with the H320 I would avoid buying it.
Hope this review helps.
Sound quality is first rate with different headphones. Upgrade the accompanying headings will be worth the investment.
37 Great player
I am extremely happy with my new H320. Navigating took a little while to learn but now it is a snap. The flexibility, extra features, FM radio and the color screen all appealed. iPod was missing quite a lot. Nice interface on iPod but my attitude is that this is a detail. I recomend the H320 without hesitation. Great sound. I got my from Amazon for $296, but my friend got it for free. (...)
38 Simply the best HD based MP3 player
I've been lusting after an iRiver ever since I first saw the specs for their original HD based model. It had great specs and this one is even better with an awesome color display. So I was strolling through Best Buy a day or so after christmas and saw they had these on clearance. I picked it up right there and then. Man I am not disappointed. It was a breeze to copy my files over just using drag and drop and then browse to them on the device and play. The sound quality is great. The UI is easy to get used to. Having an FM tuner is great for listening to the ball game or other music if you want a little variety. Having seperate line out and phone jacks lets you listen with both at the same time, so two people can share.
There are many more ways to use this device, just check out the specs.
Some things you might want to know:
- Turn off USB charging as it can make connecting to a computer a hassle sometimes.
- Use a database program like the one it comes with, but watch out it's buggy.
- If you have small ears like me the earbuds it comes with don't fit well and actually hurt my ears (they sound good though). I bought the Sony MDR-EX51LP and have been very pleased.
- Look for forums on the net for other people using this.
39 The incredible iriver
I received my iriver as a Christmas gift. I'd wanted an mp3 player for some time, and I was thrilled to receive it. The iriver is a joy to use. The sound quality is excellent, and the color screen is crisp and beautiful. I use Windows Media Player to organize my music on my computer, and the iriver will sync my music directly off Windows Media Player. All I have to do is connect the "media" outlet on my iriver to my computer's USB port. The iriver will play almost any sort of music file; there's none of the file conversion nonsense of the ipod. It's also easy to put photos and text on the iriver. The quality of the photos on the iriver screen is excellent. There is also a firmware update available that will allow you to play videos on the iriver. I cannot stress this enough: the iriver works splendidly with Windows Media player, and this makes life easy for Windows users. Also, the battery lasts a long time once charged. It'll last for 16+ hours, which is great. Furthermore, the iriver doesn't skip when you're walking, running, or in a bumpy automobile. Some have complained about the iriver being "difficult to use" and "not intuitive." I beg to differ; I found the iriver quite easy to navigate after skimming the instructions. It's only difficult if you are in an "ipod" mindset. The iriver's navigation pattern is different from the ipod's; I prefer the iriver's navigation, frankly. The iriver also comes with this really wonderful case. The iriver's case is compact and attractive, but it is also solid enough to offer real protection from the elements. I use the iriver's extra features; the AM/FM radio is great to have, and the record option is fun, too. In short, I highly recommend the iriver. It's the best mp3 player on the market, and an excellent value, considering the features it comes with.
40 Arguably the Greatest MP3 Player of Them All
There is a controversy in this day. A battle of epic proportions. The fight of the century:
iPod vs. iRiver
My original purchase was of the iRiver iHP-120 20 GB. It was stolen from me (the thief recognized quality). So I got a new one. But this time, I got the iRiver H320 20 GB.
This is one the greatest MP3 players that I have ever seen or owned (I've also used a NOMAD Creative Jukebox Zen 2.0). Its features boggle the mind.
To start, it plays basically any music you have. MP3's, WMA's, WAV's, or OGG's, they will be played. The only thing missing is a *.ram file. In this case, you can plug the iRiver into the headphone port, and use the BUILT-IN CODECS to re-record your files as MP3's. This also allows you to rip music from your favorite videos, flash presentations, or DVD's. Also, if you're too lazy to use a program to copy CD music (such as Windows Media Player or MUSICMATCH Jukebox), you can just plug the iRiver into a CD player and record the music as an MP3!
Onto the next feature: the FM Radio. Yes, this player does FM Radio. No matter where you are, just open the radio and go! The headphones act as an antenna, so there're no problems with that. And one new feature from the iHP-120 is the ability to record FM radio. Yes, you heard me right. Hear your favorite song is about to come up? Just press the record button, and you're good to go! Listening to the news and want to record an interview for a school club? Just hit that little button with the circle!
As we all know, the H3xx series has a color screen. That's nice, but why!? Well, because the player can also display BMP and JPEG images!! I know what you're thinking, but it can be used for other things too =p. Also, with the use of some other firmware, video can be brought to the iRiver (this will void your warranty however, be warned).
The iRiver also features a very simple navigation system. The iPod, for example, has a very sexy wheel thingy, yes. However, the iRiver has all the buttons you need around the center, with a directional pad instead of a wheel, which is kinda nice.
As far as file navigation, this is also a WONDERFUL feature of the iRiver. The Creative Jukebox players, for example, organize based on the file tags. This can be annoying if, for example, you want Riverdance (composed by Bill Whelan) and Lord of the Dance (composed by Ronan Hardiman) to both be listed under a folder called "Michael Flatley." The iRiver, however, is recognized as an external harddrive via the USB port. Therefore, all you need to do is plug it in, and you can whatever you want! Design your own folder system, drag-and-drop your files, and that's all you have to do!
This ties in with the fact that the iRiver can be used as an external hard drive! Windows XP requires no special drivers in order to recognize the player (nor did Linux, but earlier Windows or Macs may), which means that you can stick any file you want on the player to transfer it elsewhere.
I had originally thought that the iRiver iHP-120 was the greatest MP3 player ever made. I was wrong. The H320 is the best MP3 player I have ever seen, far exceeding the iPod, the Jukebox, or anything else.
41 Definitely worth it!
I got my iRiver H320 at Best Buy since they had it on sale (also, my sister gave me a $45 Best Buy gift card). Anyway, I'm very happy with my purchase. Already, I have over 5 GB worth of music on my player (over 90 CD's) and with plenty of room to spare! Contrary to what some other people have said, the navigation is very simple to use. The player automatically organizes the music files by artist and album. However, if you don't like the way the player organizes the music files, first connect the USB cable to the USB port labeled "DATA" on the bottom of the player. Doing that turns the player into another hard disk drive (HDD). Click on "My Computer" under the Start button in Windows and you'll see the player appear under Hard Disk Drives. Click on the player icon and you'll see all the subdirectories for music, pictures, recordings, etc. From there, you can organize your folders as you see fit. Pretty easy, I might add. The iRiver H320 also comes with a set of preset equalizers (normal, rock, jazz, classical, ultra bass, SRS WOW). Better yet, you can create your own equalizer! There's also a built-in FM tuner, and you can make your own voice and sound recordings with the built-in mic. On top of that, there's the nice 2 inch color LCD display to view pictures (you can store them too, jpeg and bitmap). The fact that the iRiver can funtion as a HDD means you can store other types of files too (Word documents, Excel spreadsheets, to name a few). So why only four stars? The only drawback I see is that you can't create your own music playlists on the player itself (you have to be hooked up to a computer to do that). Other than that, the iRiver H320 is worth buying. In fact, this player is definitely better than the iPod!
42 Flawed, navigation wise.
My sister bought one of these things, and I can honestly say that this is one sturdy MP3 player, however it doesn't stand a chance compaired to the iPod, the industry standard, and I can see why.
The H320 features a crisp, vibrant display, slightly sharper than the iPod Photo. However, that's the only advantage I see. The iRiver might have useless, 'cool' features.
Navigation is the most flawed part on the iRiver H320, it's a real pain to navigate to your desired artists. Certainly it won't bug you when you haven't filled the thing up with that much music, but when you do. It's real annoying.
It's a cheap alternative, but I'm fine with using my 4G non-color screen iPod, it's cheaper, better quality, and iPod has better computer sync than the iRiver.
43 Excellent mp3 player and more
I recieved my H320 as a Christmas present from my wife. Initially she was set out ot buy an iPod but luckily a friend told her about the iRiver. I had never heard of the iRiver before but at first glance it looked to be some good competition to the iPod. To make a long story short I'm now very happy she got me this instead of the iPod.
The color screen is amazingly crisp and vibrant. It kills the color iPod display. I friend of mine at work got the color iPod and although its nice the color screen seems very washed out and weak compared to the iRiver's. Not only that but as others have mentioned the iRiver can play back video and it looks very good doing so.
As far as the user interface the iRiver is fine. The manual could have been a bit clearer at times but overall I've found the device fairly simple to use. The fact that it just shows up as a drive on your computer makes transfering files very easy.
The only downside to the unit so far is its inability to play gapless. There is a small delay from switching from one song to the next. So for something like a DJ mix this can be a problem. The solution is to just copy the mix over as one big track. There is a function called "study" which will let you skip through a song by a pre determined amount of timr set by the user. I have read that this is an acceptable workaround but have not tried it out myself.
All in all I'm very pleased with this unit and would deffinatly recommend it to anyone who isn't dead set on having an iPod. The iRiver comes standard with features like a dedicated line in for recording as well as an FM tuner, all extra options (and cost) for iPod users.
44 easy to use--really!
Most negative reviews I've found on this product complained that the iRiver H320 had a user interface that isn't very friendly. That was my one hesitation on choosing this product, because I'm not a tech-savvy person. However, I don't see why people had so many problems, the player is very simple to use! It comes with a manual, which is very to-the-point, and after spending a few minutes with the manual, trying out all the features, the player is easy to handle and can do so many things. The sound on this thing is wonderful--the volume goes up to 40, but I mostly have it somewhere between 5 and 10. The recording features are excellent and the voice recordings come out very clear with minimal noise. I could go on and on about all the wonderful features, but the reason I posted this was to point out how easy the player is to use and ease potential buyers' minds. Also, the lovely people on misticriver.net have posted a slew of tips on organizing files for faster bootups, and many other handy hints. You'll be so happy with this product.
Some things that could be improved:
Firmware upgrades to view photos while music is playing, possibly incorporating album art. I really have no use for the photo viewer personally, but wouldn't that be neat?
45 A device with potential
Overall a good machine, is good to have colors and sound is very good. Nevertheless there is a lot of room for improvement. I was surprised for the poor quality (contents) of the manual included, it does not help too much to manage the tricky programming. Hopefully the new firmware will be much better and a new manual will be developed.
46 Simply the best money I've spent in a long time
I ended up finding this at best buy for $249 but by the time I made a decision on it, it had gone back up to $266 which is still good considering Amazon wants $312 for it, but anyways I only ended up paying around $200 out-of-pocket through coupons and discounts, so this was an amazing deal, anyways, I couldn't ask for anything more with this player it plays all kinds of music files, it has a built in FM tuner, you can store and view pcitures on it, it has a built in recorder allowing you to record from the radio,the line out,or internal or external mic, you can view text files on it, you can use it as a huge mobile hard drive to tranfser data on and the biggest thing which does not come standard but you can modify it safely to do is actually PLAY VIDEO files, you can do this by simply flashing the firmware with the korean version 1.25, I've done this and had no problems whatsoever the only thing you lose is the built in clock and the langauge stays the same, Now you do have to convert the videos to play on the H320 but there is plenty of info on www.Misticriver.net on how to do this, but now I've got tv shows, comedy specials and other things loaded on the H320 to watch when I'm bored, After listing all that, this thing just makes the IPOD look like a piece of Sh!%, Now the sound quality is excellent it comes with around 6-8 preset eqs along with SRS WOW and TRubass, and has Adjustable eqs as well, now the controls take about 20 min to get used to but who cares you should be the only using it anyway, it also has option for remote which mine did not come with (US version) a line out, line in and two USB ports one for DATA USB 2.0 and one for MEDIA USB 1.1 not sure why something about secured WMA's but I've only used the 2.0 and data transfer is pretty quick like hard drive to hard drive copy, and the best part about it that you don't need any kind of software if you have XP it's just drag and drop, XP installs it and there you go,the only thing I could complain about is that it does not come with a dock and the USB charging options sometimes gets in the way of it linking with your PC, but this option can be turned off with no problem, all in all this a great player and perfect for anyone, so go buy one if you can find it cheap
47 Awesome player, loaded with features!
This the Mp3 player to get at this time. It is loaded with features. The sound quality is great with SRS effects. It plays all kinds of audio files. Unlike the Ipod, which is limited as to the type of audio files that it'll play. Plus, you can view pictures on it. With AM/FM radio and the ability to record voice, radio, or line in. What more can you ask for?
The few minor things that i don't like are:
1. the fact that it takes about 10 seconds to power up
2. you can't view pictures and listen to music at the same time.
3. remote not included, which you can buy for 19.99 at iriver.com.
Picky, picky, huh? Well, the firmware on the h320 is upgradeable, so maybe those features can be available on future upgrades.
48 Simply Amazing
I love this mp3 player, Let me explain why. The interface is amazingly smart, at first it's a bit confusing but after you memorize the commands it becomes second nature. Finding songs is very easy, as long as you have all the folders nicely organized. The image viewer is great and the radio is one of the best portable radios ive ever seen. One thing thats really cool about this player is that you can record song driectly from another audio source by using the double sided audio wire. The only things that i dont like about this player is that its a bit bulky, the songs take a while to load (about 2 seconds), i still havent found a way to delete songs directly from the player, it makes some hard drive noises and has a low hum when its on, and you have to make the playlists on the computer. Even though there are a handful of things i dont like about this player it's still amazing and beats the ipod by a long shot.
49 Great, nvm the 1 star, I couldn't edit that part
This review is updated from my previous one. After tinkering a bit I got my player working fine. To get things in order you just need to edit the track name in your music folder. Now that I've got it working I love it. I use the picture viewing option a ton and have about 1/5 of my cd library added to it so far. I take tremendous pride in my iRiver. The only thing that any iPod owners I talk to at school can say is, "Oh, well, it's a bit heavier than my iPod." Big fricken deal. The only thing I don't like is the lack of accessories. The case that comes with it is very nice, but a little bulky and doesn't give you access to the buttons or the usb port. I heard that there will be iSkin's coming out for the h300 models within the next month though, so I'm happy. Other than lack of accessories I've got barely any complaints.
If you want a great mp3 player that has a ton more options than the iPod, go iRiver. Unless you can't lift it, seeing as how it's a whopping ounce or two heavier, jeez, you girl.
I love my iRiver
50 The best music player ever!
Since my brother had a 20gig ipod,
i thought i will buy something different rather than buying the same thing. (We hav thos sibling rivalry thing going on)
So I bought this cool hard disk player few weeks ago...
I was shocked, literally!
Sounds much better and has this cool interface.
The interface is easy to use when you get use to it.
The interface also provides some secrecy(?) like a password.
You must see the manual to operate this machine, if you don't people hav no clue what they're doing.
You could change your interface in different ways if that helps.
It looks much better with color in terms of interface and listing music, and Storing and looking at the picture to the source(digital camera)and videos to the source (Camcorder) etc.
Computer is not the only way to download.
Also more battery life than ipod too. (16 hrs. compared to 12hrs)
Everyone thinks that ipod can be used for 12hrs.
yes, that is true. but without listening to music.
But with music its around 3-4 hrs of life.
For Iriver, for some reason goes up to 8 hrs with music with bass with 3D sound with color screen.
Believe me, I experiement with it. To get up to 8hrs. life, make the volume exactly in the middle, which is bit loud, with backlight hold for 5 sec.
Plus, you could watch video in what i will say, Ultra-Super-Mega-high Definition screen.
The downloading speed is blazing fast comparing to ipod. If ipod is 56k modem, this iriver is highspeed DSL.
It is not your old ipod, it is a REVOLUTION on hard disk players.
If you want quality, function, and eye-popping design, YOU MUST look at this first.
Downside is that it is little thick and expensive, and i guess there is no color choices, however black suites for me though.
For my brother's reaction, angry like a mad dogg!!!Giving me those weary eyes...meaning he's jealous :P, Take that Bro!!HAHAHA
51 iriver rules
Ipod has nothing on the iriver. If you are techno-savvy in any way, shape, or form you will not be disappointed with this player. Albeit the controls are a little complex to begin with, once you take the time to actually read the owners manual the navigation is pretty simple.
I researched MP3 players for quite awhile before buying the H320, probably because I was a little afraid to take the "big step" away from Cd's. Now that I've had a chance to see what a difference a MP3 player makes I can't believe it took me this long. I was able to put every single song I had stored on my laptop into this device and still had 13GB to spare. To put that in perspective, I ripped every song from my CD collection to this player and still have room for about another 130 CD's. Keep in mind that is EVERY song on each CD. Because you are able to see the songs you are putting on the device you can edit out the songs you don't like, saving the room for those you do. Not only that, but if you get tired of your saved music you can record any songs you pick up on the built in FM receiver. It saves them in MP3 format so you can replay them or save them to your computer to burn. You can also record live concerts to MP3 format with the built in microphone, save and view jpeg pictures, and copy your address book and other text files to this device.
Another cool feature of this device is you can create your own personal playlists using Winamp (which is a free download). Using the playlist option is great if you have strange taste in music (like myself) and can't get into the music mood when listening to the default alphabetized listing (for example: Sinatra followed by Slayer). There are a multitued of other neat features this player has I could list but I think I've already taken up enough space on this review page...
52 The REAL iPod Killer
I got the iRiver H320 for christmas and couldn't be more satisfyed. the navigation is very smooth, but a little confusing if you dont read the section in the manual about it. Screen has crisp display, ive heard that a internation bios will allow you to watch AVI files, but i havent tried that yet. The USB 2.0 (data) transfer is super fast, transfering about 6 gig in music in about a half an hour. Great Battery life. The quality of music is fantastic, although i do recomend buying a new pair of headphones with it, because like always the stock ones are very janky, but i never expect much out of stock headphones. Player is very loud and the SRS(WOW) settings are nice and add a good quality of listening. One slight drawback is the fact that you cant look at pictures while listening, but thats minor.
RECORDER!
The Recording feature is amazing. I have recorded several songs from the Built on FM Radio, and has good clarity, and has just as good when recording from it. It'd be nice if you could name the files from the player, but would probably be cumbersome if you could.
THIS MP3 PLAYER IS BETTER THAN THE IPOD!!!!!!!I TOOK IT TO A FRIEND WHO IS A DIE-HARD IPOD MINI FAN AND HE IS CONSIDERING TAKING IT BACK TO GET AN IRIVER!!! Best buy carries this item, and they will talk you into an ipod...but dont sway! even the 500 photo ipod doesnt have as nice of a screen and the picture quality isnt as good on the ipod.
Lastly...this is one of the best mp3 players i have ever looked at, i was considering the archos gmini, but this mp3 player is just too nice.
and if your wondering about the size, its the size of an IPOD MINI, it is just thicker!!!!!
in conclusion...if you're going to pay 300 dollars for a 20gb ipod, then pay an extra 12 bucks to get a color screen, recorder, fm radio, picture viewer and (AVI VIEWER!!)
53 Good player, bad firmware/software
I purchased the iRiver H320 20 GB Player and quickly returned it for a full refund. The player is great if you want to drag and drop your music files. It does work with Windows Media Player but does not 'sync'. This is a huge downside to this player. This makes it very difficult to create playlists, etc. The FM Radio has the best reception that I've seen in conjunction with an MP3 player. I did not try to store and access digital photos. The color display was nice. The controls are a bit difficult to manage.
54 One MP3 Player that will Rule them ALL
I am writing this review as I listen to U2 - Hasta La Vista Baby album on my iRiver H320...the sound is amazing. I have owned an eDigital Treo 15, then upgraded to a Creative Labs Zen Jukebox 20 w/FM Tuner. When I decided to upgrade, I took over 4 months researching for my next generation 1GB+ mp3 player purchase. What I was looking for was something that had storage space, on-board FM Tuner, recording capabilities and most importantly great sound. I considered Rio Karma, Creative Muvo2 w/hack 2GB CF card, iPod Mini, iPod, iPod Picture and a slew of other mp3 players available outside of the USA. I know some of my considerations didn't have all of the above, but I would have sacrificed space for sound, functionality for looks...etc. But just in the last few weeks, I came across this website www.misticriver.net . It is _THE_ user forum for iRiver products. I considered their mp3 flash devices, but not their hard drive based device, until I read their thread on how the H320/H340 can play video if you flash the bios with the European or the Korean or the Japanese bios upgrade. My jaw dropped! And it is still dropped...and I'm still drooling. You have to understand....I'm a closet geek. I like my electronic toys, I do my research and I recommend the heck out of products that impress me. I am going to do this now. First things first...go to the webpage above and read it for yourself. The H320/H340 plays converted video files. That's right!!! Convert your DVD's to AVI files; transfer then to your H320/340 and boom....play your videos on your MP3 player. The website tells you exactly how to do it. I addition to DVD's, I've converted several hour episodes of Stargate shows and have watched them on my H320. I've got a whole slew of them queued up for my 4 hour flight to LA. So with that amazing ability out of the way, I'll briefly review the H320/H340 for you. Out of the neat package comes a shiny black brick with a big 2" COLOR screen. It comes with earbud headphones, protective ballistic nylon case, AC power supply, USB2.0 cable, audio cord (line-out) and cd-rom and nice instruction book. IT DOES NOT COME with a docking station, LCD remote or the external battery pack...all of which you can buy from the iriver store. Charged the unit for 2.5 hours and plugged the USB2.0 cord into the slot labelled `data', it connected at USB2.0 speeds (the one labeled media is USB1.1 and is intended for connectivity with Windows Media Player). I first upgraded the BIOS to something that is NON-US. After reboot, the new bios took immediately. I lost the functionality of a clock on the H320, but that's ok...I have a watch. I lost the ability to manage my music with Windows Media Player....that is ok..I prefer to arrange my own music with other programs. But I did gain the ability to play videos and the USB1.1 port turned into a USB on the GO, which you can connect to other USB ported devices (like digital cameras) and transfer files from those devices-I haven't used USB2Go yet, but it does look promising. I quickly scanned over the Owner's Manual, turned on the H320. I connected as anoher hard drive device WITHOUT having to install any additional drivers. I proceeded to load MJ's Number Ones as my test music, since he has a variety of sounds to test the H320. Speed was fast. Unplugged the H320 from my computer and plugged in my Sony MDR-EX51LP (sound isolation ear buds for $40). Hit the ON button...then hit NAV to navigate to the mp3's I downloaded...and was amazed at what the stock sound from the H320 sounded like. WOW. So I tweaked the sound a bit..increased the base..it has SRS(WOW) settings, so you can tweak the low-mid-high ends of the music as well as increase the thump. Very cool. Even at the default level 20 (30 is the highest), it was pretty loud. Very very impressed. So then I loaded a `converted' episode of Stargate Atlantis and started to watch it; very very smooth video display as well as great sound. Anything can be converted to AVI for this player as long as you have CODECs for conversion. And then I loaded some of my pictures onto my H320, they weren't formatted for the h320 display so they weren't awesome, but good enough to show off! But when I reformatted my pictures for the H320 the pictures turned out awesome on the 2" display. Again the visual display is beautiful. ID3 tags (or not) show up nicely as well as volume strength display for both ears (a mini spectrum analyzer?) So navigating the device Set-up menu, you can set the FM-Tuner regions, LCD contrast, LCD brightness, LCD power off, ways of ID3 tag scrolling, sleep-stop-standby power down times, types of shuffle, repeats, random, set the study mode that allows you to fast forward through songs and videos and much much more! The battery time has been tested..if you play mp3's only with SRS off and very minimal LCD use, you can go to 15 hours. The average seems to be 9 hours, I've had mine on all night plugged into my home receiver through the line out port and playing. The rechargeable lithium-ion battery is replacable, take out a few screws and you are set. There is a HOLD button. Also it charges off of USB cable to your pc/laptop. There is a small learning curve to the buttons, and I must say its not as smooth as the touch pad of the iPods, but I prefer to have some tactile feedback when I hit the buttons. So, now I don't have to buy a media player for the plane, nor do I have to drag out my laptop to play dvd's..just convert them at home (which takes a bit of time..but lots of support online on how to do it right) and load them on my player before a plane ride. The H320 is bigger than the regular iPod but smaller than the iPod Picture. It fits nicely in the palm of my hand, doesn't feel flimsy at all. I haven't tried to record voice yet, but people say its pretty crisp and the default mic pics up everything. In addition, you can record from FM Tuner as well as record from Line In (mic or other audio devices). The FM tuner (with autoscan and store of stations) picked up 20 FM channels, my stock car stereo only picked up 14 channels. It can also read text files. I'm not sure where iRiver is going with that...could be interesting. So, the NEGATIVES (more like annoying to me) things about the H320/340. 1) I must be a greasy guy, because I'm cleaning the finger prints from it a bit 2) coverting the videos to AVI can get time consuming at first, but once you get it right, its set-it-and-forget-it 3) I bought a 20GB one 4) the US VERSION doesn't play videos UNLESS you flash the bios to another region BIOS-Korea is the best here 5) it didn't come with a power/USB docking station, but you can get one for $30 6) the case/holder only protects. That's about it...just annoying things to me that can be quickly resolved with $$ or reading around on the internet. If you are already reading this far, you are doing your research and doing a little bit more reading at http://www.misticriver.net will give you all the information you would ever need to make an informed decision. I don't hate iPod at all, I'm a bit jealous for the styling, but now after XMAS 2004, everyone will have one; but not everyone will have a iRiver H320/340 THAT PLAYS VIDEOS!!!!!!! I would recommend you go to your local Best Buy and get a feel for it. The sales people at BestBuy will tell you to by iPod. They won't tell you anything about the iRiver and how you can flash the bios and play videos on it, and all of this for $300 for H320 and about $400 for the H340. I'm sorry this has been a long post, but I just can't stop talking about this thing.
55 Best Buy
First, I love this device! It has so much more features than other competitors. The sound is outstanding (with the included Sennheisser earphones its already great but even better with mine Sony MDR-EX71SL). The display is really nice and can be easily viewed in all light conditions. And the best thing is to show the Ipod freaks how to watch movies on your 'mp3-player' ;-)
Pros: Great Sound, brilliant display, good battery live (12-16h), even plays video with firmware update.
Cons: Not really intuitive to use (many buttons have 2-4 functions), tricky to handle with big fingers ;-)
(- how to play movies on your H320/H340 go to misticriver dot net
- the none US-version comes with a remote, a 'backpack-batterypack' and you can connect your digital-camera/mobile storage directly to the H320/H340 and exchange data, but.... right now you pay in Germany 369 Euro that's $500!!!)
56 Great machine, after you get used to it
The gripes others made about the interface being somewhat enigmatic has some truth to it but once you get use to it, it's a piece of cake. The feature set of the player is unbelieveable. I brought this player because I wanted a mp3 player that was also a voice recorder, it delivers that and so much more. The picture viewer is beautiful, the FM tuner is clear, the text reader works fine. But here is the clincher, go to www.MisticRiver.net and check out all the tips. With some firmware updates (korean), the player can be used to view video. There are some tradeoffs with this feature so check out the site.
I love this player, if I had a ipod, I would sell it and pick up this player.
As for the playlist issue, I had no problems, my playlist work fine (just follow the instructions)
I gave it 4 stars instead of 5 because I am sure some people will want a simpler interface. If you want rich features, this is your player.
57 Good hardware, bad software and usability for playlists
The hardware is great - see the other reviews about the color screen and storage space.
However, I feel the firmware on this device is severly lacking in the ability to use playlists created on your computer. I ended up returning the device. If a 20 GB device hods all those songs and you can't easily play them back the way you want what good is all that storge space?
I was on hold for 35-40 minutes to tech support and when I got an answer as to how to create a playlists I was assured there is only one way to do it, and iRiver has no plans to improve it!:
1. You copy your songs to the device using windows explorer - this part works great - no drivers or extra software needed.
2. You create a playlist in winamp (you cannot use any other software to make playlists such as Windows Media Player) by clicking "Add file" FOR EACH SONG AND NAVIGATING in the popup window to ex. g:\(path to the file location) on the H320. This becomes extremely tedious after the first click.
3. Save the playlist onto the H320, not your computer
Thus there are the following usability problems:
1. The h320 device needs to be connected to the computer when creating playlists.
2. Songs cannot be browsed and added using Windows Media Player or the Winamp interface, instead you are basically creating the playlist one song at a time through a basic popup window file browser window. The window closes after each song is added and you need to completely renavigate down the same tree again and again and again and again ...... for the next and all the other songs
3. Playlists that run on your computer are useless - they need to be completely recreated for using on the h320, even if you are using syncing software to auto sync and have the same directory structure on your PC's music folder and your h320 root folder.
Another gripe about the software is the photo browsing software. You need to have your photos in one folder to browse seamlessly. If you have a folder for each download of photos, like me, and you copy that folder structure to the device, it is very tedious to change folders when browsing photos. You basically have to turn photo browsing mode off, choose navigate mode, go into the new folder, and turn photo browsing on again. Also, you cannot create playlists of photos to show which would be nice. Photos that average 500 kb and were taken with a 2.1 MB camera also take about 4 seconds to load up for each one, so it is pretty slow to browse more than a few. They look great on the screen though, better than the $600 IPOD photo model I saw.
The headphones earebuds are too big too and fall out/don't fit - plan on getting new ones if you7 buy this.
I would suggest holding out on this until there is a firmware update and it has been reviewed by new users.
58 Great product too many functions
I love it, but is somehow hard to get around, there is a lots of room for improvement. No firmware upgrades yet. The battery will not hold for 16 hous as they claim, it goes faster than I expected. Like the multi codec idea. The sound is good to.
59 US vs. Non-US H320 Features
Just a note. A lot of stores are advertising that you can transfer photos from a digital camera to an iRiver H320 without using a PC. This can only be done on a non-US version of this product.....of which I'm still trying to figure out where you can buy one.
60 the smart money goes on the iriver h320/340
I've read the reviews here and I'm generally in accord with what everyone says about this machine.
Visually I find this player stunning. It's very well finished, the carbon look is great.
One reviewer wrote that it took a long time to boot up. This is caused by having lots of files in the root directory. You can fix this by keeping your music in directories. I create a directory for the musician, then a directory for the album. That way it starts fast(er) and I can navigate easily to the music I want to listen to.
Using the data usb connection, copying music is extremely fast.
Navigating for me, isn't as bad as some say. The most needed functions are right there; click nav to navigate to what you want.. and play to play it. This is really all you need to do 95% of the time.
The US version of this player is quite cut down on what you can buy in Europe and that is a shame. The EU model comes with a charging base and a remote control (I believe), along with something called 'USB on the go' which I haven't quite figured out. I'm inclined to think the US model has been 'dumbed down' and the accessories removed to make the price competitive. Having said that, you are getting a whole lot for your $$$.
Anyone interested in this player should take a look at misticriver.net. There's some excellent FAQs there which will explain the best way to do things (like directory structure for your music).
This is a wonderful machine. An Ipod was never an option for me with their insistence on using iTunes to transfer music. Support for OGG is very welcome here too. There are also OEM cases available (vaja makes one for instance) that are really good quality.
61 The Diamond in the Rough
Like everybody, I wanted an mp3 player. However, I was hesitant to drop the $300 bucks for a tiny electronic device without doing sufficient research. At first I was only looking at the two most popular of the mp3 players - the iPod and the Zen touch. Immediately I realized that for some reason that each side of the spectrum has rabid, biased, partisan fans. There's the iPodophiles and the Zen Buddhists that practically worship the thing. Back and forth they argued on every internet forum, on every comments page about which of the two were better. Well after reading countless head-to-heads I came to the conclusion I would get the iPod. However, if it weren't for a techy friend of mine nearly biting my head off having overlooked the iRiver - a more techno-savvy but vastly superior mp3 player - I would have never found this diamond in the rough.
I did some research and discovered that the only real gripe was the difficulty of the user interface - which is a valid gripe. It is much more complicated than that of the iPod or Zen Touch. Hand an iPod to a war vet and he'll pick up the gyst of it in no time. Hand the same man an iRiver and he'll likely use it as a cup-holder. It takes some getting used to. However, the following is the conclusion I came to:
People get used to anything. After doing some research I discovered the amazing features of the iRiver that seemed to be lacking from the iPod or Zen touch. For instance, the iRiver has a color screen - something you learn to love. I never realized the importance color makes over black-and-white monotony that the iPod and Zen sport. After witnessing the beauty of the iRivers color screen it makes me gag even looking at the bland iPod interface. Also, the iRiver has an FM tuner! This is a major plus (especially in the mornings when all I really want to listen to is NPR). The iRiver also has a recorder (something that actually HAS proven handy). Additionally, and amazingly, the iRiver has a photo storage/viewer feature which is ENORMOUSLY handy for someone like me who is both an avid photographer and graphic designer. Can't stop yet, though! The iRivers sound quality and headphones are breahtaking. Can't stop yet, though! One of the BIGGEST draws was that the battery life is TWICE as long as that of the iPod's (though not as long as that of the Zens). While yes, the iRiver is a little bigger than the iPod - the few centimeters was a sacrifice I was more than willing to make for 8 more hours.
All this for the same price!
Reviewing the situation makes me baffled when I think that the iPod is widely regarded as the "paradigm" of mp3 players. To be honest, I recommend the iRiver for anybody who is even in the LEAST bit technologically inclined (pretty much only excluding soccer moms and war veterans these days). It is such a vastly superior mp3 player that it's made me a believer in this whole mp3-player-craze. It's become my favorite personal electronic device.
I give the iRiver my highest recommendation.
62 Great Alternative to an I-Pod
I did a lot of research on MP3 players, spoke to many people and then settled on this as I thought it got over many of the issues with an I-Pod. Multiple file format compatability, shows photos, built in radio, built in recorder, 3 hr USB Charge for 16 hrs of playback, easy winexplorer file management. A few litle firmware issues were sorted out by helpful on line support.
I have now had it for two months of easy use and IPod users I know are jealous!!!
63 Excellent player with color screen - better than Ipod
I got the new color iRiver a week ago and could not be more satisfied. It has excellent sound quality, crisp color screen, and so many extra features all for the same price as the 20GB ipod. It has voice recorder, image viewer, line out jack, FM radio and you can record the radio songs, and can charge through the USB port in 3 hours, for a 16 hour battery life. It acts as an external hard drive so transferring files is a piece of cake compared to using iTunes for the ipod. Plus it came with a case [...].
The only con is it takes a little time to get used to navigation, but after that it's a piece of cake.
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64 Don't waste your money
Don't waste your time with this company; I am completely frustrated, and I'm sending it back.
This player has one of the worst user interfaces I have ever seen. It's virtually impossible to tell what songs you have in your library or which song you're trying to play. In order to export the song data (ID3 tags), you have to switch the USB cable to a separate port on the machine. Worse, you can't transfer any song data for secure WMA files, which means that if you bought this device to use with one of the new subscription services (which I did), all it will do is bring up a list of the file names. However, since it only shows a limited number of characters in the file name, often you will see only the album and artist information repeated over and over again in the album's folder. Basically, it's impossible to see what music you have on your device.
Another (although more minor) problem is that there is no apparent way to eliminate the gap of 3 or 4 seconds of silence between tracks, which is not helpful if the album was designed to be listened to continuously.
Additionally, I waited on the phone for a half hour for their tech support only to be told they couldn't answer my question because "there aren't any programmers here and my supervisor is in Chicago." That was my answer right there.
