iRiver H10 20 GB MP3 Player/Recorder (Blue)

• Digital music player/recorder with a 1.8-inch, 20 GB hard drive for more than 330 hours of audio (128 kbps)
• Compatible with MP3/WMA audio files, JPEG image files, and even TXT documents for light reading
• 1.8-inch full-color TFT LCD supports up to 260,000 colors, rendering your favorite digital photos with breathtaking clarity
• Integrated Microsoft Windows Media Player 10 simplifies media management
• Internal battery gives you about 16 hours of continuous playback between charges

One of the great things about this player is you do not have to install any special software; just drag a folder of MP3s over to it. The best feature is its future potential; the manufacturer brags 'firmware upgradeable' on the box and an Internet search reveals an active user forum and homebrew software available.

I actually found a use for the text file viewer-it is a handy way to keep track of a new workout routine. Sound quality is good enough for loud rock music while mowing or working out.

There are some minor annoyances in the software. The equalizer does not have enough frequency ranges and introduces some noise. There is not a clear indication when you disable the EQ and turn on the SRS feature. The picture display is cool, but no zoom and pan even my cell phone does that. However, these are all minor bugs that could be fixed with new software.

One of the advertised features is line in recording but you don't get the line input jack unless you buy a cradle. Hmmm, why not just use the line input jack on your computer sound card and save the money. I would rather have had a line input and/or a mic jack on the unit itself than the wired remote control jack the iriver is about the size of a remote control itself so I am not sure what the logic was here.

Like I mentioned earlier these are minor annoyances and I am generally impressed with the performance and sound on the player.

Buy iRiver H10 20 GB MP3 Player/Recorder (Blue) Now

Let me start off by saying that I have owned or used many mp3 players. Iriver h120, h320, rca lyra, ipod(not the color one), Creative zen xtra, the new samsung, and many more. The only mp3 player that beats this one is the h120, and you can't buy that one anymore. No software is needed at all. plug it into your cpu, go to my computer, and drag and drop. it took 35 minutes for me to transfer 3200 songs. has fm, fm recorder, and timer for the fm recorder. Nice if you would like to record a morning show or something while your at work. Turns on instantly, great sound quality, easy navigation. People say the albums are not in order, rename your files via musicmatch or what ever and have the track number first. this will solve that problem. You can search for your music or files with the browser function. Very nice if you like a more computer type of navigation. This is currently the best mp3 player on the market, I've only metioned a few features of this player. If your into electronics, this is the player to get. If your more about being cool and don't mind software that controls your music then I would suggest an ipod. In my eyes this player has the ipod beat in every area, with the exception of acceseries. Not to bash the ipod of coursel. Even I'll admit that the ipod is pretty cool and if it wasn't for all of it's restrictions, I would buy one, if there was no iriver of course.

Read Best Reviews of iRiver H10 20 GB MP3 Player/Recorder (Blue) Here

Where to start?

Well, feature-wise its far superior to the standard 20 GB. For the same cost as the afore mentioned iPod you can have the same amount of memory, in a slightly smaller and slightly lighter package. It includes a built FM tuner (which is unavailable in iPod's, and unfortunately you need to purchase external adapters for your iPod to even play the radio), voice and FM recording (another feature that the iPod can only obtain via an adapter), a color screen (whihc is now becoming a standard feature and has recently been added to iPods). It also gets a longer battery life than most of the competition, including the iPod. Also, its compatible with a wider range of file formats than the standard iPod, including .jpgs.

My one knock on the H10 is its medicore navigation. While it's touchpad won't cause songs to change, fastfoward, rewind, or pause as it slides around in your pocket (like the iPod tends to), its not very ergonomic. The vertical scroll touchpad gets the job done but its not as cool as the iPod's wheel.

Pros:

-Comaptible with a wider range of files than the standard iPod.

-Picture Display.

-Color Screen.

-Accessories (which can only be ordered from the iRiver website since iPod seems to have a monopoly at stores for shelf space).

-Built in FM tuner.

-Built in voice and FM recorder.

-Smaller and lighter than the standard 20GB iPod.

-Being able to use Real, WinAmp (with plugins), and FooBar (also with plugins) allows the sound files to maintain their quality, which iTunes actually tends to deminish (particularly the bass and treble).

-Better built in equalizer and even SRS Wow features.

-Larger variety of online music stores that you can order music off of.

-Large color variety. It comes in red, blue, platinum, and gray.

-Doesn't get scratched up like the iPod's tend to (because it doesn't have a metallic back).

Cons:

-Inconvenient navigation.

-If you want accessories like cradles, car adapters, boom box and/or stereo adapters, and replacements for lost accessories, you'll have to order them off of the iRiver website. Theres nothing wrong with this, but it requires a wait and the extra charge for shipping and handling. However, you can pretty much use any iPod accessorie that only requires the headphone jack, (since they're universal) including some of the nicer Bose surround sound and sound canceling headphones.

-Not as pleasing to the eyes as the simple, curvy, plain white iPod.

Want iRiver H10 20 GB MP3 Player/Recorder (Blue) Discount?

I have been an iRiver fan for a long time but avoid this player for two reasons:

(1) Although you connect the player to your computer via USB, the player side of the connection does not have a standard USB port. Why should you care? With many other players you can charge the unit and transfer songs with a simple standard USB cable. With this one if you forget the special cable that comes with the unit (very non-standard) then you can't charge the unit or transfer songs. I have one USB cable for my phone, camera, etc. and want to use it for the player. Or, if I am out of town I can be assured someone is going to have or sell a standard USB cable. I despise the iPOD for many reasons but at least they give you a real USB connection on the player itself.

(2) DRM on the US unit. When you connect the unit to your computer you don't get a simple drive letter to drag and drop MP3 files to/from the player. You must have Windows XP and you must use either Windows Media Player or "Portable Device" in explorer to move files over. This means you can copy files over but not the other way. I hear the Korean version of the unit gives you a real drive letter. Come on iRiver how much did Microsoft pay you to cripple the US version?

Summary: Stay away until companies get the message loud and clear no DRM on the unit if you have your own collection of MP3 files. Supporting DRM services such as Napster, Audible, Yahoo, Real, etc. is fine as long as it does not prohibit the use of my own collection make the device appear as a drive letter when connected, and gives us a standard USB connection on the player side to charge and transfer data.

Color Screen:

The screen on this thing is very nice for displaying photos...but as far as practicality for diplaying track information it is very poor. The screen is totally unreadable when the backlight is off or when in sunlight. Just pretend it's an Ipod shuffle outside, eh? The colors are

gorgeous...inside. Darn disappointing.

Pictures:

A rediculously poorly executed function. The windows media player sync for photos NEVER WORKS CORRECTLY. How do you get a Digital Rights Management warning for a JPEG picture taken off the internet???!?! It will hang on a certain picture and only sunc the first 5 or so. It should have been a "Drag and Drop" type operation. The pictures display correctly in the "File Browser" mode, but that is slow and cumbersome, just like every other menu system.

Synchronization:

I use a different application for synchronizing music and such and it works fine. I've tried using WMP 10 for photos, but that never worked. Oh, just a hint...your Windows XP computer will not recognize the player unless you have upgraded to SP1 or later (a problem I had, NOT COVERED IN THE MANUAL). Oh, and proprietary cables for connectivity. There's a separate jack for the remote, but USB is integrated into the wierd conection on the bottom? Why? The multi-pin jack on the bottom of the player sounds like a great place to plug in accessories...not a separate space wasting connection on the top.

Size/Weight:

Tolerable when kept naked. In the case, it becomes unwieldy. This means scratches. However, the metallic case seems relatively hard. Besides, I'd rather have a slightly heavier case that is rock solid than a lighter player that scratches easily.

Sound:

Great with the SRS effects turned on. I wish the custom equalizer had more bands to adjust (only 5 bands). Since it doesn't adjust finely enough, I use the SRS effect.

Navigation:

In a word: annoying. You cannot flip through catgories with any sort of ease. There is a terrible few second lag in between every selection and display. Getting back to the Now Playing screen is one button away...however I never know if I've pressed it since I have to press it twice (once to turn on the screen, and once to switch) and waits 4-5 seconds to switch back to the now playing screen. These types of response times give the impression of sluggishness. New tracks take many seconds to display the track name, and occasionally will not display at all. The Ipod has no such issues with menus, why can't this player be quick too? The scroll pad is pretty, but has a stupid arrangement. Instead of a normal "dragging" motion, one needs to only use a small section of the middle part to "drag" their finger down, otherwise you will go the wrong direction for one line. The top and bottom parts of the pad will auto scroll if held, and I believe this is where the problem lies. This makes volume adjustment a bit of an adventure. Oh, and there's NO SENSITIVITY ADJUSTMENT! Why?

Text File Reading: Stupid functionality since it does not wrap the text to fit the screen...

it will di

splay like

this on th

e screen.

Usable, yet retarded.

Voice Recording: Have not tried it for any length of time yet. Seems to work.

FM Radio: Acceptable reception, sound is good though. Auto scan loves to pick up static stations, which makes the feature more of an annoyance.

Haven't tested the battery life yet...initial indications are about 10-12 hours of life.

Overall, I like the player for music since it sounds great and only cost me $200. However, if one needs to file through music quickly and actually wants to look at photos or practically read text files, that person will be insanely frustrated. (That's me...10% of the time) It just seems like they went "half way" designing this player. So many loose ends and unecessary complications (WMP10, for instance). I just wanted a friggin player that acted like a hard drive...you know, simple and not subject to buggy windows software and unecessary complication. Still, I love the sound, look, and feel of the player. Maybe the next iRiver will be better.