iRiver H10 20 GB MP3 Player/Recorder (Grey)
By: iRiver Average Rating: 3.0 Total Reviews: 37
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 On: 2007-10-21
I have had this MP3 player for several months. I was able to deal with the the machine freezing (by keeping a paper clip handy and pressing the reset button). I also had a lot of patience when entire cds were mysteriously disappearing and I had to upload the cds again. Now, the scroll pad/volume bar is not working at all rendering this player practically useless. (If I select "All" I can hear each song on every CD in alphabetical order but thats about it.)
Im trying to figure out if I can send this in for repair or just consider it useless and go for the Toshiba Gigabeat (30 GB) which seems to be pretty reliable.
I received the Iriver as a gift but wouldnt dare buy any of their products and would strongly advise anyone else against throwing their money away on Iriver.
 On: 2007-10-01
The portable MP3 meets all my requirements, such as awesome quality recording , large capacity, radio. I love it and bought extra one as a birthday gift to my friend.
On: 2007-04-06
I really like the product, its very simple and nice to use. Comes with everything you need to use it, no buying extra things. I love the color screen and the radio, and even the Text reader is good keeping work out routines.
You cant go wrong with it.
On: 2007-01-31
I am the unhappy owner of several H10s and initially there were minor problems, but the closer they got to the end of the warranty period, the more problems they started having. Problems include freezing up for no apparent reason, scrolling in Chinese, and the most irritating is when the "system files are missing" and you have to reinstall the firmware and redownload ALL of your music (does this alot). The company doesnt believe in customer service - you cant get through on the phone and they take days to respond to email. I have returned two because the hard drives crashed and it took 3-4 weeks to get them back, and then one of them crashed again as soon as I got all the music redownloaded and I had to return it and wait another 3 weeks. I have a problem with one that has now gone out of warranty and iRiver told me they wont touch it and to look for a repair shop online. So save yourself alot of headaches and time, not to mention money, and dont buy an H10 player.
On: 2006-11-14
I bought anthis unit (I10) from iriver. It stopped working after 3 weeks of usage without any reason!!!, I sent 3 emails to customer service and they never even respond!!! I have been trying to contact the customer service phone number and the IVR doesnt even work it-is-a fake IVR there is nobody in there!!!! Can you beleieve??
Unfortunately this unit was bought directly from the iRiver online store and not using Amazon. I assume that amazon might have been able to help with this bad supplier.
I feel so bad for trusting this kind of company and now I will have to buy an iPod and spend much more money.
On: 2006-11-11
Dont waste your money. What iRiver doesnt tell their customers is that once the battery goes dead, the system is useless. I will never buy one of their products again and Im doing my best to inform everyone out there that theyll be tossing their money in the trash by purchasing any iRiver products. My system cost me $340.00 and it is now as useless as the customer service department at iRiver
 On: 2006-08-01
Okay, lets just get to it:
CONS:
1. For some odd reason that Ive tried to fix many times, it wont let me load all my pictures.
2. Froze on me tons of times, and the reset button is really small so I have to bring a paper clip or an earing with me if I want to be able to un-freeze it.
3. The adapter/ charger is a bit clunky to carry around, and for charging you have to connect the two and it gets to be a nusance.
4. The colour choices are kind of limited.
5. Dosent work with itunes.
6. The headphones sometimes freeze up when I change the volume or something else.
7. You cant see the album cover art.
PROS:
1. Superb sound quality. You can costumize your own, or choose one of the many already preset types.
2. Nice size, not huge, but fits in your hand nicely.
3. Tells time, alarm, date etc...
4. Has a great radio tuner and you can have your favorite stations set as preset stations.
5. I found the touch pad pretty easy to get used to (though some people said that it was really difficlt, I guess it just deoends on what your used to using.)
6. The head phones deliver great sound quality.
7. Has a great quiality microphone built in so you can record conversations or make your own memos with it.
All in all a good product with some awsome features, but Im probably going to be returning this one.
On: 2006-07-29
I thought I was getting a deal when I purchased the iRiver H10 but I was terribly WRONG!!! I bought my wife and ipod for her birthday (which is awesome) after I bought the iRiver. I will be getting an ipod very soon.
Problems
- The battery life is only about 2 days. Which would not be a problem if the battery indicator actually indicated when the battery is getting low...nope, the display shows full bars and then with no warning it just shuts off and displays a battery dead sign.
- Downloading music is a hassle. On several occasions I have had to wait while the music is uploaded and re-uploaded before I can add more music.
- Sometimes (actually a lot of times) it just doesnt work. I will turn it on and it will just freeze up. At this point you have to take the battery out and wait for it to initialize and hope that it works right.
- The charging system as a whole is sloppy and akward. There is a 3 headed beast that should have been made into a simple input/output.
- There are several more issue about not being user friendly and other ways it will freeze up on you, while your in the middle of your workout but you get the point.
Get an ipod and be happy with life
On: 2006-07-28
I thought I was getting a deal when I purchased the iRiver H10 but I was terribly WRONG!!! I bought my wife and ipod for her birthday (which is awesome) after I bought the iRiver. I will be getting an ipod very soon.
Problems
- The battery life is only about 2 days. Which would not be a problem if the battery indicator actually indicated when the battery is getting low...nope, the display shows full bars and then with no warning it just shuts off and displays a battery dead sign.
- Downloading music is a hassle. On several occasions I have had to wait while the music is uploaded and re-uploaded before I can add more music.
- Sometimes (actually a lot of times) it just doesnt work. I will turn it on and it will just freeze up. At this point you have to take the battery out and wait for it to initialize and hope that it works right.
- The charging system as a whole is sloppy and akward. There is a 3 headed beast that should have been made into a simple input/output.
- There are several more issue about not being user friendly and other ways it will freeze up on you, while your in the middle of your workout but you get the point.
Get an ipod and be happy with life
On: 2006-07-28
Why settle for less, when you can get a brand new original iPod Video 60GB for Free! I got mine from this web site: nocostnow.info/ipod-video
On: 2006-07-17
Sure this product worked well the first time i used it, i uploaded 1300 or so songs in a half an hour i was very impressed by it. Fast forward to the next time i try to sync music onto it. Im on day 2 of trying now and everytime i plug it into the usb port almost instantly the player freezes. The memory is about 1/4 of the way full and to say that im p.o.ed would be an understatement. Im never going to buy an iriver product again and if customer support cant provide me with an answer i will be returning this product very soon. For almost 200 dollars the quality of the product should be a little bit higher. Take pride in the products you make and dont expect the public to handle you providing faulty devices in mass quantity
On: 2006-07-08
I will say that I do love this player dearly. Its done everything a player should do. I can listen to music, and the quality sounds fantastic, however, now that I have had this player for a year, there have been more than a few bugs in the gadget. Ive called Customer Service a thousand times, and if you havent read it here already you know by now that they are indeed lousy, (they usually try to get you off the phone if you call about this gadget, I should warn you). The main problem is when you try to put music in the player, The player itself freezes in the process of sycnhronization! The LCD in my opnion is beautiful, and although now its a bit bulky, its function is a little out of wack. Another problem that happens to me is that recently when I add a song to my playlist, and try to download it or sync as we call it to the player, the player will freeze in the process and I could lose almost half of my playlist thats already in the player! What I have discovered is that after it reaches 1 GB the player begins to defunct and act slowly, which defeats the purpose of making it a 20GB( I only have 6.5 gb of music anyway)! Look for a player that can withstand the capacity of 20gb, and aviod this one. Although it is a good first time player, its just not really worth the hassle. For now Ill learn to love and deal and accept the problems my player brings, but once the battery dies, Im getting a new one that works better...
 On: 2006-07-03
So after a year of owning one, my iRiver H10 was stolen from me a week ago from my workplace. Currently I am in the market of looking for a new mp3 player, so I thought while I was at it Id give a review of my ol grey
The Good:
Comes with tons of extra excessories that you cant get with the iPod. Built in FM tuner, voice recorder, text viewer, and a browser that easily lets you access any of these in a second.
Colorful screen and sleek look make it a very attractive player. The size never once bothered me, in fact it was perfect
Personal preference I know, but I way prefer the up-down scroll over the circle. Its way easier to go from track to track. As well the buttons on the side make it easy to go from track to track even if its in your pocket.
The Bad:
Viewing the mp3s through windows was excruciatingly slow, but mainly because I almost had mine completely full. Still though, if other people have said the same thing, then I guess it wasnt only mine...
After a while of having all my albums on my mp3 player, I one day turned it on to find that it had reversed all the track orders. I took off all the songs and put them back on, which temporarily fixed it, but after a while it did the same thing. I soon realized that it was in fact listing the songs in order of most recently played. I tried to find a solution to the problem, but with no luck. And dont let other people fool you. I checked the ID3 tags a million times and they were numbered correctly, and shouldve been in correct order. I just dont know why it did that!
I also found that the random fuction was a bit weird. I kept on hearing the same songs over and over again. After a long time I realized that it was randomizing only within a few letters. So if I had started off with a song that started with an A, then it only wouldve played the songs with the letters A, B, or C in the beginning. If I got tired of the ABC songs, Id have to scroll down to F or G, or wayyy down to M or N. This got pretty frustrating, but I dont know if this was only my player, and Im fairly certain there was no feature on the player that made it this way.
So all in all, it was a great player for me. It got me through some boring lectures and lengthy bus rides. Ill miss the hell out of it, but I dont think Ill buy it again. The random function pissed me off too much, and Im big into music, so I like to know what album a song is off of when Im listening to it, which the iRiver does not do. The wrong album order didnt bother me too much after a while, but mainly cause I listen to it on random pretty much all the time. Even though I wouldnt buy it again doesnt mean I would not reccommend it though. However I do realize that I am biased against iPods, but why would you want to run out a buy something that everybody else has? There are better alternatives, and I do believe this is one of them!
On: 2006-06-18
Well I bought mine for 130 bucks. It was factory refurbished with 90 day warranty. Im going to outline all of my issues with it:
PROBLEMS
- When I first received it, I was amazed at how awesome it looked and felt. But, this player is suppose to be plug and play. My computer system is custom built, and did not pick up the mp3 player. On my mothers Dell, it picked it up immediately. I contacted Support, and they were useless. Worked all week trying to figure it out, then just bought a usb2.0 hub, and now it works fine. I researched this problem a little more and found that its a common problem with this player.
- It is kind of bulky... would have liked it to be smaller
- I really dont like the programming on it. You have to go into settings to change shuffle, repeat... eqs... and so forth. Kind of annoying.
- Scrolling for songs on this is completely annoying. It is touch-type scrolling, but not as simple and easy as an Ipod. Ipods is circular while this just up and down. I have over 2,000 songs and it takes forever to get to middle tracks, even when I increase the scroll speed in the settings.
THE GOOD
- It is fairly cheap...
- Works with napster, yahoo unlimited... windows media player playforsure...
- The sound is pretty good, earphones are okay...
- Comes with a rubber case/skin to protect it
On: 2006-06-17
I had this a total of five days before it broke. I sent it in to be fixed. They sent it back a month later. It still didnt work and I have to send it back again. I think they are trying to outlast the three month warranty. You are better off paying a few more dollars for a more reliable player. This has been a total headache and a waste of money.
On: 2006-05-29
This thing looks good and sounds good --- everything else about it is poor.
So far Ive had two (the second was a factory swap out). The second was only slightly better than the first. Battery life is short and the DC cable needed to power it in the car is not available and, (according to their official web site) wont be until October 2006. That is the top of the list then there is the issue of turning it self on without being touched. I would sell mine in a heartbeat except I would feel guilty about ripping someone else off knowing what this thing really is... My feeling is that this is a fly by night outfit... My advise is to look elsewhere for a more reliable and better engineered product.
On: 2006-04-25
I bought this MP3 player last year to hold all my awesome punk music. I had no trouble using Windows Media Player to upload songs. The interface is easy to use and has several other features besides just being an mp3 player. My friends and I used it to record our bands music. Theres tons of memory so its pretty cool. However its not perfect. Besides the record feature Ive never used any of the other special non-mp3 player features. Also its diesed. My friends call it "the brick" because its so big. The smaller models have detachable batteries but this one doesnt which sucks because tt has to be sent back when the battery completely dies (supposedly 2 years). Once in a blue moon it freezes up but its not very often.
Bottom Line: It works pretty well and serves its purpose.
On: 2006-03-25
The H10 iriver is a very convienent product to have and it has served me well. If you intend to use it for taping lectures an want to be able to scan to specific points inthe lecture, though, this may not be for you. The Fast forward scanning is slow, it is made mainly for music. If you intend to label your recordings also you need a computer so if you dont hae access this can be irratating. So if you plan to use it for music and downloading this is a very good option for its price. For anything else I think other MP3 players have better options.
On: 2006-03-17
This is a great first time mp3 player. The price is well worth it considering other 20GB players cost far more. The music is easy to download and takes virtually no time at all. PLUS you it holds pictures.
Make sure you have all the latest software and the players works like a charm.
There are quite a few snags but nothing too bad (it freezes up). The resest button clears it up with no loss to memory. Plus my experince with their customer service was really pleasant. I called them with a problem and had an answer and my problem fixed in under 5 minutes. I thought it would be a more tedious process because of what I read from other reviewers but I had a great experience.
Again I would recommend this to any first time MP3 owner or second or third time owner.
On: 2006-03-14
I got my H10 on Friday and couldnt get the unit to finish its boot sequence. Using the emergency sync I was able to reformat and install the latest firmware, but the unit still would not boot. iRiver online customer service didnt help much so I sent them an e-mail (via their system) and on Monday I called. There was little wait for a phone rep. but he said Id already done everything I could and that it needed to be returned. Amazon had a new unit in my hands three days latter. Way to go Amazon. 35 days after sending my e-mail to iRiver I finally got a response saying they were sorry for the delay and that if my problem persisted to please contact them. Bottom line, if you have a problem, call, dont wait for online CS to get back to you.
The new unit works well and Im very pleased with it. The only problem, as others have mentioned, is the sync function. I made changes to Windows Media Player library a few times to get things the way I wanted them. The sync would add the "new" order as new selections and pretty soon I had 4-5 copies of the same songs/albums on the player. The sync function does not seem to delete or rearrange items on the player, it only adds items to the player. The only way around this was to delete all the files from the player and sync again. Now things are syncd between player and WMP as long as I dont delete or move items in WMP. Im very satisfied with the battery life on this unit.
 On: 2006-03-13
I dont recommend to buy this item. It is getting hung frequently and i need to wait till the battey drain to restart the system. Some times i am not able to reset the system also.
I replaced this item from Amazon and even the second item is also having the issue.
I am totally not satisfied with this product.
On: 2006-03-10
This divice freeses every now and then, its not worth returning so i will just deal with it.
On: 2006-03-08
I received one from Amazon and it was defective out of the box. Would not charge. Returned it through Amazons return process and received another one. Had that one for a little over a month and that was defective as well. Was no table to return it through Amazons site because it was over the 30 day period. I called Amazon and they said theyd mail me a return slip so I could sent it back in. Two weeks went by and no slip. I called Amazon again and they gentleman said he had no record of them sending me a return slip. He said hes send one again. That was last week and still no slip. Right now Im not happy with Irivers product or Amazons customer service.
On: 2006-03-04
I did all of my research in advance and am glad that I did. This player is great.
1. Simple interface did not require reading a manual.
2. Uses Windows Media Player (where I had already been ripping my music).
3. Very easy to create playlists and rate songs.
4. Includes an FM tuner.
5. Includes plug in charge cord.
6. Good battery life.
7. Adding on the iRiver FM tuner to use the car stereo works great.
8. Simple to use with various sites for downloading songs.
My only complaint is that there is not an auto scan or recognition method to see when I have updated or changed my play lists. You will need to add the playlist to your sync to get it updated. Not a big deal but I did need to figure it out.
This is a great unit.
On: 2006-03-03
The IRiver is great, however there is on glitch. All of a sudden out of nowhere, it turn on and you cant press any button to turn off the lcd screen. You cant play anything. Its frozen. It stays frozen until, until you manually reset. It works fine despite this. But your battery could pay a toll on this random bizarre event. I think Ill keep it despite this defect.
On: 2006-02-26
A little Bigger than two Ipod 20 or 30 gigs stacked together (maybe 3), Buttons are durable and rugged..(it will last) I bought it for FM stereo tuner option and price.. Software no problem with XP, uploading songs no problem. I use my Bose® TriPort® headphones and sounds great!!! I Recommend it for FM tuner option..
On: 2006-02-25
I have had this product for about a month now and it been excellent so far. the battery life is very good...only slightly lower than that advertised...all in all, very happy to have bought it.
On: 2006-02-25
I Brought Player about 6 Months ago. I had the apple ipod 40 gig player Before. I got tired of seeing everyone with the same Player. Player Works like a Charm ! People who were saying it freezes and it trouble transfering songs, have not done the firewire update. Only reason I know is because I was about to throw the player in trash. I called IRIVER to complain and tell them I want a new player, and they explained I needed upgrade. I did this and WOW 1000!!! Difference.
Pros
Color Screen
Works with Yahoo Music unlimted "Reason Why I brought it"
Battery Life is Good
Gell cover keeps it looking nice.
Speed of transfers
Am/FM
Put photos on it
Cons
Not all that thin, but fits very easily in pocket
Photo Quailty
20 Gig of space !!
Jubril
www.Jubril.com
On: 2006-02-21
About six months ago I was bound and determined to buy and MP3 player. Before I purchased this player, I had had an iPod.
The sound quality on the player is very good, though, of course, the ear buds are not of the best quality; theyre just your average free-with-your-purchase ear buds. It doesnt take long to charge, but I find that sometimes it doesnt quite last as long as the twelve hours its supposed to. Other than that, the performance of it is very good. The H10 is also very durable; Ive taken it with me everywhere without the case on and there still isnt a scratch on it. It synchs easily with Windows Media Player 10, and had the added feature of storing text files and pictures. My only small complaints are that a) It isnt an audibleready device, and b) It doesnt come with any amusing little games like iPod does.
All in all, its a great MP3 player, and Id buy it again in a second!
On: 2005-12-23
Ive had this player for about three months now so I can safely write a review.
First the good: I got this primarily to use with Rhapsody To Go (there was a $100 rebate if you purchased this player and got a subscription), after a few initial hiccups everything worked fine. The unit has frozen up on me several times but I just let the battery go dead or reboot attached via USB to my computer and everything works again. The FM radio feature is nice to have and works fine as well.
Now the ugly: There are some features in here that are simply unnecessary, such as the picture viewer (who wants to look at pictures in a 1.5 x 1.5 inch screen?), the text reader (see previous comment), and the digital recorder. AM radio and or Satellite radio capability would be better than any of this stuff. Its also annoying that there is no way to play one song by itself - that is, if you browse your way to a particular song, it automatically plays the next song on the album or playlist it is a part of. Many times you just want to hear one song, so it is really annoying that they didnt think of this. Finally, you cannot hook up to a computer via a standard USB cable but rather only through their proprietary cable, same for hooking up to a power source. Ergo, if your cord is lost or busted your are up the creek without a paddle unless you order another one. What worries me is the prospect of iRiver going out of business and then I will be unable to order a new cord and will be stuck with a $200 purchase that does me absolutely no good.
All said, its not a bad player but if I had to do it over again I probably would have purchased something else.
On: 2005-10-18
I have found what Ive expected and beyond. Iriver have excellent sound and features. When I synchronize with the computer, it organizes all of the images and music automatically. But unfortunately, when it is connected to computer it is not possible to listen to it.
On: 2005-09-24
This is more 4.9 stars - great and almost perfect. I have been with iRiver since their previous 20GB model (the one ere this one.) It is a DEFINITE improvement. This model allows automatic category set-ups with Artist, Album, Genre and the likes; and also, one is able to create Playlists via Windows Media Player. The battery life has definitely been extended; and unlike the previous model, does not diminish every time you upload or delete songs from the player. (This was what always killed me on the older model.)
The difficulty, though, is in the set-up. When one uploads, it automatically categorises the songs via available information. The problem with this is that you wont be able to view songs that dont have an Artist or Album in those categories. A separate folder will be created for "Unknown Artist," "Unknown Album," etc. (Although, this issue can be dismissed with the built-in "Browser" feature.) Another issue is with Playlist creating. Unless you have it checked and the songs still on your computer (via Windows Media), it will automatically delete the songs you are not syncronizing.
Here is a run-down list of Plus/Minus of the new player. This is set-up in comparison (though not included) of the older models.
PLUS -
1. New, sleeker look.
2. A bit smaller.
3. New, classier backgrounds in the player.
4. Better Radio sets.
5. Extended battery life.
6. Easier (and about 10x faster) uploads/downloads (as in returning the songs to your computer).
7. New playlist feature.
8. Greater sound enhancements that are more versatile (SRS WOW, User, Rock, iriver Rock, etc.) and easier to change.
9. Automatic categorizations.
10. Great new Browser feature.
11. Ability to save and read Text files and Photos.
12. Works wonderfully in a car stereo system. (Imagine a mini theater in your car without the use of sub-woofers or extra speakers. Yes, its THAT good.)
MINUS -
1. A bit confusing at first with finding your music.
2. Plugs to charge are annoying to figure out.
I do believe that the plus definitely out-weigh the minus. This is a MUST for any fan of MP3s and general music. This makes a great storage device if not used for music. Trust me, for the price, it has more features than an iPod AND works better. iRiver is the next generation of MP3s.
On: 2005-09-21
ive found similar problems in the bulletin boards ive searched through, and some computers, even new ones that meet all the irivers requirements, just dont recognize the player when you plug it in. i was on the phone with customer service for hours a day over the course of a week, and no one was able to tell me why my brand new dell laptop running windows xp service pack 2 could not recognize the player. they then gave me a "workaround," which i thought had worked...i spent hours copying cds, and downloading from napster to go, only to find that everything i had copied was in the player - but wouldnt play.
so i guess its a crapshoot...make sure your computer likes the player before you buy. im going to try the toshiba gigabeat next...
On: 2005-08-26
I think anyone considering purchasing this product should also consider waiting until they upgrade the firmware and offer software to organize the music. The player takes forever to organize using WMP 10 and is buggy to say the least. The pictures you load on it are going to look like blocky messes unless you supposedly resize them ( I never tried it). It kept causing Rhapsody to lock up and corrupted the licenses for music that I had already purchased that were on my computer. Also for people that are thinking of buying the H10 for the $100 rebate for Rhapsody, you should know that you cant sign up for Rhapsody To Go for a year, you can sign up for Rhapsody Unlimited for a year but not the service that allows you to load subscription music to your player which is supposedly what the rebate requires. I dont know if this is because I already had a membership but it wouldnt let me sign up for the "To Go" service for a year. I will say this though, Napster To Go worked pretty good with the player but it wasnt enough to keep it, there were just too many problems. After about eight hours of trying to get it to work correctly, I decided to return it and buy and Ipod. I really wanted something that would work with a subscription service but this isnt the one and Rhapsody definitely isnt the service.
On: 2005-08-14
I purchased the iriver H10 20GB (Blue) about three weeks ago after saving and researching for about 6 months. In summary, I have been very happy with the player and would definitely buy it again.
The Good
The sound quality is very good. The included ear buds are fine (Im not a fan of ear buds in general), but the source is clean and accurate and you can spend as much or as little on after-market headphones as you like. There is a lot of control over the EQ.
Virtually all of my music is in Variable Bit Rate MP3 format. The H10 supports MP3 and the Microsoft format (WMF). I dont use iTunes (ACC) or Audible so lack of support for those formats is not an issue for me.
The form factor is nice. Its about the same size as a deck of cards and fairly light. It fits in my hand or a pocket easily.
The user interface works well with either one or two hands. The controls are simple, intuitive and make sense. (I recommend you read the short manual or it might take you a while to stumble onto some of the more subtle features.) The thumb slider works well, even with a large list to scroll through-when your thumb hits the end of the slider, the display keeps scrolling. Using the slider to control volume rather than a physical knob or wheel is a good idea.
One of my main reasons for picking the H10 was the FM tuner. I like to listen to National Public Radio and other local stations. The tuner has good reception and it is easy to program stations as presets. I have used the ability to record an FM transmission a few times already.
The color display is bright and clear. The screen layouts make sense and have useful information. I dont have a reason to use the player to display pictures (other than when showing off the player), but it does have this ability.
I had no problems getting Windows XP to recognize the player-it shows up as a USB drive. Data transfer rates have been good for a USB device. Ive loaded my entire library several times as Ive played with different software besides Windows Media Player. It takes about an hour and a half to transfer 12GB.
Some reviewers have complained that the player locks up when they used Windows to browse the players hard drive. It does take a while to display the contents of folders on the player, but I havent had the player or Windows actually lock up.
The battery life has been good. Ive taken it on a couple of multi-day trips and havent run it down completely.
The OK
The player is designed to work with Microsoft Windows Media Player 10 (included on CD with the player). WMP does all of the basic things you want: rip, organize, update ID3 tags, build playlists, sync with the player. Of course it takes Microsofts typical "software for dummies" approach-it doesnt do any of the things as well as some other programs and you cant change the way it behaves, where it stores your music files, etc. ("Sorry maam, but you dont need to know the bit rate were using to encode your music. Move along now...") But, if you are willing to be assimilated (resistance is futile!), it can manage your music collection and player adequately.
Fortunately, because you can copy the music files directly to the player using Windows, you can use any software you wish. I like to use FreeRIP to create the mp3 files-it works very well, queries freedb so you dont have to type in any information, supports variable bit rate encoding, and is free.
To use the player with a lot of content, having clean ID3 tags is critical. ID3 tags store the information about the music file (artist, album, title, genre, etc.) in the MP3 file. I tried Windows Media Player, but again ended up using a different free program (MP3Tag) that worked better, especially when cleaning up hundred of files at a time.
Some reviewers have complained that the player will not play songs in the order that they were on the album. Remember that the players has only the information in the ID3 tags and the file names to work with. It doesnt seem to use the "Track" tag, but you can get it to play in album order if you include the track number in the file name and play songs in alphabetic order. For example, I name my music files "Artist - Album - Track# - SongTitle.mp3." 99% of the time I have the player on random shuffle.
Im still looking for a program that can make it easier to sync the player and manage playlists.
I dont expect the software to be an issue for the typical owner-I tend to be very particular.
I suppose the support for text files is useful, if you wanted to keep some reference files on the device. Ive read novels on a Palm Pilot, so Im not opposed to using a small device for reading, but electronic devices have a long way to go to before they can match the performance and convenience of paper for pleasure reading.
Some reviewers have mentioned having to upgrade the firmware and having to remove the battery to reset the player. The H10 20GB does not have a firmware upgrade release yet, and it resets very easily by pressing a small recessed button with a paper clip. I have had to reset the player a couple of times, but it reboots quickly and this hasnt been a big deal.
The Bad
Bad is relative. Nothing Ive encountered with the player is truly "bad."
Probably my worst complaint is that there is a brittle-sounding click in the headphones as the player changes songs. I dont really notice it any more, but at first it was annoying.
I like to listen to longer material, audio books and old radio programs, and fast-forwarding to a mid-point to resume listening can take a while, even with the scan rate set to max (6x). A progressive scan (longer you hold it down, the faster it goes) would be more effective and intuitive.
The player comes with a white translucent silicone protective cover. It has a belt clip and is soft and does a good job of protecting the player, even if it is not the most attractive thing Ive seen. Ive listed it under the Bad category because it also makes it difficult to feel the Prev Track/Play/Next Track buttons through the silicone.
I havent had to call iriver for support yet, but have no illusions about the quality of live support that will be available. Unfortunately, no one provides good customer support. Best we can hope for is a device that is made well enough that the need for support is rare. So far, the H10 20GB seems to fall into this category.
Because the player is designed to be a copy of your master library, theres no obvious way to delete files (even ones youve recorded using the players FM tuner) using the players interface. You have to connect it to your computer for this.
Theres also no obvious way to figure out how much disk space is left on the player, either from the player or from Windows. As a work-around, I add up the size of the various media directory trees on my computer to estimate how much space is left.
Im hoping both of these are addressed by firmware upgrades.
Oh.. and I wish I had gotten red.
On: 2005-08-13
I got exactly what I expected in buying this iRiver over its trendy rival, the iPod: having additional features at the expense of design. Song organization, music playback, and menu interface are all superb. A very neat feature is the players ability to record from the radio. I have found this very handy. And of course, the text compatability is great and easy to navigate.
However, there are some annoyances here and there. Navigating menus isnt smooth, especially when compared to the iPod photo. There are occasional load times and the scroll speed could be a bit faster. Also, loading playlists onto the player can be tricky. The learning curve on this player is definitely steeper than the iPod.
Overall, the player is worth its cost. I would only recommend this player if you are buying it for the extra features, such as FM radio, text compatability, and voice recording. Otherwise, you should go for the iPod photos smoother menus, elegant design, and ease of use.
On: 2005-08-06
This little gadget never leaves my side. So easy to set up, easy to use and great sound quality. There is no SW, it seamlessly integrates with WMP, I at first thought the CD they gave me was corrupt because it ejected itself immediately and told me I was ready to go. I bought this intentionally because it support Windows Media and MP3s. Going forward this will be far more compatible and semi-future proof compared to IPod or the crummy Sony devices and service.
In the meantime, I LOVE my iRiver.... and for $50 more got the 20GB instead of the 6GB..... iRiver needs to rethink the extreme cost of the 6 Giger! CHEERS!
On: 2005-08-05
Overall, the player is sturdy and consistently works.
Switching to a new song can be slow. Pictures are tricky to upload. Its battery life is about 16 hours. The player uploads new songs quickly. Its easy to create your own listening libraries. The player is fast and reliable.
Also, I am glad I made this purchase through Amazon. The first unit was defective. I had a new replacement within 2 days and it worked perfectly. (And returning the defective one was a piece of cake.)
On: 2005-07-06
I recently bought and returned the YH925GS. Not only did it not have an FM tuner (didnt care that much), but adding, modifying, and deleting files was becoming a BIG pain.
The MP3 player is pretty slim, even though its not the slimmest one you can buy, its light so if you like jogging with it or excersising youll barely notice it. Like all 20 GB MP3 players, you can store 5,000 songs (approx. 400 CDs). The controls look strange at first, but actually, all you need to control is the touchpad. There are also arrows for them most easy navigation. Youll notice that its easier to use than most MP3 players on the market today. The battery life is 16 hours. Some of todays players have more than 20 hours, but I guess 16 is okay.
The player also comes with a 1.8" LCD screen, and more colors than a computer so your photos will look of professional quality. On this player, something that most if not all players cant do, is view .txt files. This is a really cool feature. You can store lyrics or essays in Notepad, then transfer them into the player. This is a VERY cool feature that I will be using more often.
The sound is really good. It doesnt have WOW features that most MP3 players have, but it has a very decent equalizer. The sound isnt distored at all, and Im suprised about this.
The player also comes with recordings and FM tuning. THe microphone can pick up voice pretty far, and the FM tuner is quite good too. There are also 20-preset stations for your tuner. And listen to this one, you can rip off of the radio. How cool is that? Say your listen to the radio, and you hear this hot new track that is so good, you can just press record, and you can listen to it whenever you want. Its not that other players dont do this, its that this is the 1 of 2 players that has the fantasic combination of 20 GB, Radio, and Recording. (the iAudio X5 is the other player that has this...I didnt buy it because it doesnt allow you to change track settings, WTF?)
Its also PlaysForSure compatible, but to use WMP 10, you have to download the drivers from the iRiver website. Unless you have a lot of music on WMP, I would just stick to the drag-n-drop. Its not just drag-n-drop (e.g. My Computer, iRiver) or WMP 10 thats compatable. RealPlayer is compatable, and Napster is too (but I think Napster sucks). To put photos on your MP3 player, you can use the manual drag-n-drop. As a matter of fact, the My Computer>iRiver method is probably the best. I have no reason why you would want/need WMP 10 or Real to manage music. Though, I guess to have further options, you would need it. But otherwise, its VERY easy to add tracks since you can drag-n-drop. But remember, if you cant get Windows to understand the H10, youll need to go to iRivers website and download the new drivers. I wish they would give you the drivers beforehand, because some people with computers may not have internet.
Overall, if you want the great combination of 20 GB, WMA and MP3, Recording, Drag-N-Drop (no hassle with WMP or Real), and FM radio, you just HAVE to have the H10.
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