- Small and efficient thumbdrive-style design keeps it simple
- Flip-out USB connection means file transfer is a snap and you never "lose the cap"
- 4GB memory - 1200 songs
- Digital volume control and track navigation make sure nothing gets between you and your music
- Includes earbud headphones
Reasons to buy this MP3 player:
#1: It runs on a AAA battery as other less intelligent reviewers have explained. This is awesome if you're on a hike across Europe and have no means of charging your battery in a computer, socket, or whatever. And many AAA/AA battery rechargers will work with portable solar panels, score.
#2: It's light, compact, and will easily withstand 3 years of service so long as you don't throw it at a wall or step on it (I've owned the previous model as well).
#3: YOU DON'T NEED ITUNES, or the software it comes with, thank the heavens. I hate iTunes and originally bought the previous version of this MP3 player for the plain and simple fact that you can drag and drop music into it without needing to install the software. You will get a prompt to install software when you plug it in but it's optional.
#4: It does play audiobooks (another reviewer seems to think it doesn't), however the audibooks have to be in a standard audiobook format, they cannot be in a large (and likely pirated) WMA or MP3.
Reasons not to buy this MP3 player:
#1: It doesn't have an FM Radio like it's older counterpart (RCA TH1702 2GB thumbdrive style MP3 player)
#2: It is very small and should be kept away from babies, toddlers, and animals as some parts are removable.
#3: It is not a status symbol, no one is going to be a impressed, except for you and your wallet knowing you've saved a lot of cash and made a responsible purchase on something that works great for $25.
Buy RCA TH1814 4 GB MP3 Player with Flipout USB and Display Now
I bought this yesterday(July 2 2011) and spent about an hour today messing with it before I decided to do things my way. at first glance it looks great,usb built in flip out which means no cables.
comes with standard earbuds.
4gb capacity(3.7 if you look closer)
comes with software.
first major problem is the software. Requires your player to be connected(not through a hub but directly to the computer so that the software can detect it) as you install the software(located inside the player itself). This fraustrated me as I didn't figure this out for a good 20mins(I use all my usb ports and have 2 hubs). Creating playlists was crap. It wouldn't load a set of files with track numbers in the right order(no option to even sort by track numbers. Sending it to the player itself took forever, after reading so much about taking advantage of usb2.0 on the box/install notes this was disappointing. This may be because it was creating the playlist at the same time as sorting each mp3 into an artist folder and an album folder and more config files
I decided to treat the player like a shuffle. drop my mp3s into the music folder, set the playmode to shufflerepeatall and thats that. this is great because transfering straight to the drive was faster than the software. I don't even have to deal with multiple folders, its just a music folder with all the mp3s in it. With 4gbs to work with i could probably fit 1200 songs, i use 128kb joint stereo mp3 saves me on space keeps great quality.
I'm no audiophile so all I can say was the headphones work fine so far I keep the volumn at 15(out of 31) and I hear my songs just fine.(normalizing the tracks helps with this.
The interface is a simple, play/pause button are also the power on/off. mode button switches between repeatone,repeatall,shufflerepeatall, just shuffle, or just normal play. volumn and skip controls are near each other, its easy to feel which button to press but having big fingers I sometimes hit the wrong one heh. there's a lock button near the headphone jack so you don't accidentally hit any of the other buttons. Trying to skip to a certain playlist was horrible(manual says it skips artists then skips playlists. I had to skip dozens of artists before it hit the playlist: completely bad.) Like I said earlier i just treated it like a shuffle and did away with playlists, its too much hassle.
The USB flip out is great as holding onto extra lines is inconvenient. you can jump on any computer and just add songs to your player on the fly, really great if you're not at home and your friend has a song you've been wanting.
the only thing i'd have wanted was an armband accessory of somekind but that may add more to the price.
Overall its a good backup 4GB mp3 player for the 20-30usd you may drop for it. It uses a AAA battery that they claim lasts 30hours. I plan on testing this to see. I'll update on wear and tear as well as the battery status at various volumn settings.
Read Best Reviews of RCA TH1814 4 GB MP3 Player with Flipout USB and Display Here
I should have done a little more research on this before I paid $36 (after sales tax). Unfortunately for me, I was excited about the following features:1. The ability to play both MP3 and WMA files: My 1100 album collection is mixed between the two formats.
2. The cordless aspect: Just plug it into an open USB port and get going
3. Built-in software: Use with any of the 3 computers I use on a daily basis
4. The size of the unit: I've been carrying a portable CD player with MP3 readability for a year and it's heavy and cumbersome. I do a lot of carrying at work so I'm constantly changing tracks/ folders everytime I bend over.
What I hate about this player is:
1. I love music as albums, not as a random collection of songs. This player works more like a shuffler. When I have 1000 songs on a player, I don't want to skip 500 times to get to one song.
2. Skipping between playlists is cumbersome. Most of the time, I would end up just going to the next track.
3. Transferring files from PC to player takes forever. I attampted to put about 80 albums (in MP3 format at 192kbps) on this player and it took well over an hour. This is in spite of the fact that I'm using a computer that is 3 months old. I tried three different options to see if I could find a better way to do this. The enclosed RCA software was by far the most tedious and least user-friendly. Windows Media was a little better but still slow. Finally, I used Windows Explorer and did drive-to-drive copying which was the best of all bad options. Still, despite my ordered arrangement of albums, the songs played out of order (and I made sure I didn't have "Random Play" or "Shuffle Play" on).
Let me put it this way: You will like this player if:
1. You have time to kill getting music on it
2. If you don't care about the order that your songs play in
3. If you want a cheap way to have portable music
That being said, my sister enjoys having this brand of player which makes sense because up until very recently, she was using an early 90s Sony Walkman cassette player as her main source of music. This is great for someone like that. However, if you like a having an anal-retentive amount of control over how your music is catalogued, played and presented, you are requested to keep looking.
Want RCA TH1814 4 GB MP3 Player with Flipout USB and Display Discount?
The Mp3 player is conveniently sized and easy to slide into a pocket. It runs on an AAA battery, meaning it doesn't have to be charged, you just have to have some AAAs. This combined with the USB flip-out plug for transporting mp3s means the RCA TH1814 is completely cordless, not counting the headphones of course. Ah, yes, the headphones. As with any cheap mp3 player, the in-ear headphones that come with it are kind of crappy, but they're not complete garbage.I have some issues with the software, though. The LCD display is 6 characters long, and the text on it (Title, Author, Album) is always moving. When the screen reaches the last letter of the chain, it waits for a few seconds, then moves on to the next info piece. However for some reason the program skips the first letter way faster, and If you're listening to Adele or Jawnae or Ke$ha, the name flashes for 1/8 of a second, then goes the album, and if the album is "21" by Adele or anything else less than 6 letters, the album flashes by too and then the player takes 11 seconds to display the song. Also, there is no menu, so you can only skip forward and backward through songs, which SUX.
Then again, what can you expect from a player this cheap? Its not perfect, but for this price it's great.
P.S. All the sampler music seems to be either instrumental or in Spanish. Is the factory in Puerto Rico or something? I don't get it.
P.S.S. The EasyRip software isn't great, I just manually drag the files onto the drive.
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Love it Love it!!! stores up to 1200! Songs! very Compact and Light has a wonderful feel and fits perfectly in your Pocket its absolutely Wonderful for Jogging Long Car Rides or any occasion to fuel a wide variety of your Favorite Tunes! i Really Love the easy Flip out USB Connection all you have to do is simply Plug The Device into your Laptop or Computer and easily download all your favorite Music in a Flash! you can also Rip your Audio CD,s into the player another Awesome Feature is it has a brilliant Screen that labels Artists and Media as well as stop and Pause button and wonderful Volume Controls and more Buy this wonderful MP3 Player! that's compact light and has an amazing Battery Life! Loaded with Fabulous features to meet your Musical Needs this RCA Device is truly Satisfying in every way I Highly Recommend this to any Music Lover!
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