Home :: Audio :: MP3 & Digital Audio :: MP3 Jukeboxes  

33 to 64 MB MP3 Players
Digital Media Players
MP3 Jukeboxes

Over 65 MB MP3 Players
Up to 32 MB MP3 Players
Rio Riot 20 GB MP3 Player (MP3/WMA)

Rio Riot 20 GB MP3 Player (MP3/WMA)

List Price: $199.99
Your Price:
Product Info Reviews

<< 1 2 3 4 5 6 .. 16 >>

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Great MP3 Player, some flaws.
Review: Let me just say that this MP3 player is very good, but it does have some rather annoying flaws. These flaws, in my opinion are not enough to make me return it. The price difference between this and other 20 GB jukeboxes is incredible. It is well worth the cost.

The only bad things about this player are:
Tag information cataloging
Battery life

Tag information -
The problem here is that your ID3 tags on your songs must be perfect. If they aren't, some songs have (unknown artist) labels, song title problems, and album title problems. However, you are only to blame if the tags are incomplete, but it is annoying to find songs with incomplete tags on this thing.

Battery Life-
Secondly battery life is a problem. While the unit charges relatively fast, and the lithium batteries last quite long, one, they can't be changed when they are empty, two, eventually, when the batteries don't hold a charge, (lithium batteries don't last forever), they can't be replaced. Essentially, you would have to have Sonicblue replace them (?),
or buy a new player. Three, and most of all, the batteries lose their juice gradually. I charged the player, used it for maybe three hours, and didn't use it for three or four days. When I turned the player on again, the display showed that the batteries needed charging.

Overall, this player is very good though, because the problems are minor. The player has a large, backlit, easy-to-read screen, easy-to-use controls, a wireless FM tuner, and fairly good sound with a moderate amount of bass, which is easily adjustable.

Also, all problems with uploads and hard drive crashes have been solved with firmware updates and with a free Powertoy from Microsoft, (since when does Microsoft give away it's licensed, patented software away?) you can use Windows Media Player to upload songs and files. No longer do you need to use the trouble-prone software included with the unit.

I have yet to have a major problem with this player, and with its rock bottom price, I highly recommend this to anyone, young and old.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Good Interface, quirky software
Review: I've had the Riot for about 6 months. The interface is great--big screen, easy to use buttons and nagivation features. And a lot of disk space! The FM tuner is also great at the gym if there's something on TV that I want to hear.

What I don't like, though, is that you cannot move files off of it back onto the computer. You can only delete. Although the Riot is 20 gigs, my 3 year old computer is only 8 gigs, so I don't have enough room to digitize the music. I would delete the music on my computer and digitize more, but it takes a long time to digitize music. I would like to digitize, move to the Riot and then delete, but only if I could move it back to the computer from the Riot if I wanted that song again. Other portable devices do this.

Also, you cannot create playlists on the computer and move them to the Riot; you have to create the list on the Riot itself, which is a bit cumbersome.

The Riot uses RealPlayer software to manage the songs and playlists. I've always found RealPlayer to be a bit buggy. It has gotten confused by when digitizing CD's and labeled songs on one CD as belonging to another.

And to weigh in on the battery issue, I've had problems with the battery. It has to be recharged constantly! I use it for the gym, and if I leave it my gym bag for a few days unused, the batter will be dead! How does the battery drain when it hasn't been used?

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Best Player ever created
Review: Probably one of the best MP3 Jukeboxes ever created. It's sleek design combined with its integrated dual buttons and scroller on the right and 4 way joystick on the left provide ease of use offered on no other MP3 player. The product one recieves for the price is exceptional. Similar to Bud Bud's Supra and Fishcake's 3000GT. Excellent MP3 player. Highly recommended

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: What THE????
Review: so far its been a week, and im already feeling to get a refund...
ive already got the updates on the firmware and driver, but its still bad.
after 5 hours of charging, in the morning the battert is half way down. the battery runs when its not even ON!!!
im really disappointed with this product.
and when i get that rare chance to play the music, it stops couple times, and sometimes it stops completely! and i gotta use the reset button!
you know what? im getting the refund RIGHT NOW!!!

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Wonder how a 20 GB MP3 player can be SO ...?
Review: Because that's exactly what it is... And not just in the inexpensive sense. I bought this piece of junk months ago and it simply has so many annoying quirks and glitches. The customer support sucks and they won't do anything for you. Buy a Zen, iPod, or Archos instead, just ANYTHING but this.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: discontinued - just talked to a Rio Rep yesterday
Review: Beware, this product is discontinued and SonicBlue is coming out with 20GB & 40GB replacement products within the next few months.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: AWESOME
Review: this thing is amazing besides to fact the that I can hold over 3000 songs on thing, I can also customize everything in the order I want it. It is insane 20 GB in a box the size of an index card. I would reccomend this to ANYONE. Nasty awesome thing man. GET THIS

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A review for people who have not bought this device yet
Review: Okay.

I have been watching the RIO RIOT on amazon, and other than the price dropping like a stone, I have noticed some trends in the reviews. The trends are this:

1. Customer service stinks. I would have to agree, due to the details of the complaints, and taking a personal look at the diamondww website, that there might be a problem with c.service.

2. Battery trouble. This is totally unfounded. There IS a battery problem, but, there is a solution to the battery problem at the horrible web site (it is very difficult to find the battery driver update...but it is there). If folks would take more time combing through the bad website to find the update to the firmware, instead of complaining on amazon, they would have an answer here. For every complaint of a battery problem there is a person writing in noting that they had their problem solved through the upgraded driver. (this includes me, fixed easily)

3. Many people note that thier Rio Riot just stops playing and will not play anymore. It just sits dead. Will not respond to anything. There is some reason to suspect this story. Mine has done this three or four times, but if you read in the directions, there is a small hole in the back of the Rio Riot which will reset the machine. People have to read the directions on their machine, then they will have to find a paperclip to utilize for this simple, yet seemingly hard excersize. A very simple solution.

3a. Still other people have had their machine die, and the ugly folks at diamondmm could not fix their machine and they were stuck with it. This is a problem. It is NOT a problem that should leave someone totally out of their investment. Keep your receipt. Return it. This IS an electronic device, a hard drive. A hard drive with a user interface. Hard drives, by nature, can be easily damaged. If you drop the box with the Rio Riot in it, which could happen during shipping, this device most likely has a 50% chance of not working. Makes you wonder just how many of these devices, while EN ROUTE are dropped? I would say a fair amount are either dropped or, at the very least, shipped in a rough manner. I am in the military, and have moved several times, and even though the movers have wrapped my belongings in several layers of blankets and crated them, they still arrived broke and mangled. Why? Nature of the beast. If you buy something and it fails within your warrantee period, keep your receipt and return it. If you didn't keep your receipt, take it back anyway, most places will take it back in lieu of an exchange. You might not want this product after a bad experience, but if you don't have your receipt, and you return it for an exchange, you won't be out your money. (ask for a new receipt this time, most of the time you can get a new receipt when you exhange, or they make you sign a return paperwork, KEEP THAT)

4. People like to complain about the size of the device. This is confusing. The size is posted on the box, and on the amazon site. I can only say one thing to this: 'BUY A RULER'. This is a larger MP3 player. Not intended for jogging or athletic participation. IPOD will be good for that, they are slim and sexxy. This is fat and ugly. But it does what it says it does ON THE BOX. Rio Riot is NOT guilty of false advertising. Matter of fact, the only guilty folks are the folks buying this device without reading anything before hand, without determining what they need, or what they will be doing with the device. No help for these folks. They will be upset, and will get EVEN MORE UPSET with the cruddy website.

5. Transfer Rates. Once again, this device tells you the transfer rates RIGHT on the box. In english. If you don't know what the terms are for speed in transfers, or if you can't read english, that is NOT Rio Riots problem, it is yours. Read. Look. Decide. Or learn english, read, look and decide.

6. Price. This device is TONS cheaper than the IPOD. There should be allowances for price. Our society is based on supply and demand principles, most of the time. cheaper means, in this case, a bigger device, slower transfer rates, perhaps bad customer service. Is Diamond the same type of company as Apple? NO WAY, apple is a caddilac and this is more like an every day low budget import. BUT IT IS VALUE FOR YOUR MONEY.

I hope I helped someone that might be thinking about purchasing this device.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Love it or leave it.
Review: I think the rio riot is just great. I orginally bought it for my wife, but I love it so much that I just purchased another one for myself.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: The Best Mp3 Player There Is You Won't Feel Sorry Buying It
Review: I was a bit leety about buying this item I had looked at the i-Pod but it was way to expensive for my budget. I rated it a five for all the haters out there. First of all get it because you can store alot of music that can go anywhere with you(i mean alot). Second update the software as soon as you install it update it to Real One. While in Real One if you have music on your computer just scan or media it will appear in your library and then copy it to the rio after all you have to do is just transfer. For the people that said it had slow transfers it doesn't its not the best but sufficent for most people. Don't forget to update the firmware it improves battery life. I got it for my B-day and have had it for almost a month I have 1038 tracks on my rio and room for plenty more. I transferd all my cd's already (i had alot of cds). SOUND QUALITY IS EXCELLENT, and backlight is very useful at night. It is very organized and Rio DJ is a very nice featureto have. There is also a FM radio, but i haven't used it very much because i have my whole CD collection with me. Like i said it is the best I used to carry a cd player and my huge case of Cd's, but now i can take my rio everywhere because it is so portable and useful. YOU WONT REGRET BUYING THE RIO RIOT TRUST ME I DIDN'T.


<< 1 2 3 4 5 6 .. 16 >>

© 2004, ReviewFocus or its affiliates