MP3 Reviews

The Odyssey 200 would have been a good value had it worked properly when I received it. The memory expansion slot was defective and fried a 32MB SmartMedia card that had been working fine in a Rio for 2 years. Tech support refused to acknowledge the unit was defective and refused to exchange it or give me a refund. Buyer beware -- the company is dishonest.

The overall sound quality is good in all modes tested by me (audio-CD, MP3-CD, FM-radio).

There are some problems, however:

1. The ESP (electronic skip protection) system is bad. The player buffers up to 40 seconds of audio CD data and up to 120 seconds of MP3 (at 128kbps). However, it behaves very badly. While walking (just normal fast walk) with an audio-CD (the ESP is ON) I sometimes (too often :-) get sound "breaks" (this has never happened to me with my old philips player which also has about 40 seconds buffer). The situation gets even worse when using a MP3-CD. The following happens (almost always !) - in the beginning it reads the MP3 data until the buffer is full. Then it switches the cd-spin-engine off and plays the music purely from the buffer. About 10 seconds before the end of the buffer, it switches the cd-spin-engine on and tries to read consecutive MP3 data. If you are walking, it usually happens that it fails at this moment, and the sound "breaks" for many, many seconds (so, let's say ... every 100 seconds of "music" you get 20 seconds of "break" ... is this what you expect from a player ?).

2. In FM-radio mode it is not possible to use EQ function at all (in CD-related-modes there are 6 different settings available: Flat, Rock, Jazz, Super.Bass, Classic, Power.Sound).

3. In FM-radio mode one can preset up to 15 stations (I would need at least 20 in my area :-)

4. The remote control does not have a LCD display (the main unit has one, but not illuminated).

Note that there is no firmware upgrade possible for this model, so all these problems will not go ...
It's up to you ... if you can live with them ...

I bought the Istyle and was extremely excited to receive it. When it got here, it was attractive, and came in a fairly speedy fashion.
So I put the Ipod in the case (hooray!) and it looked great and works well. Then, after snapping and unsnapping the cover approximately three times, the snap broke, and now the cover is useless. This is an incredibly shoddily-made piece of equipment. To top it off, Speck won't refund your shipping, should you want to send back their defective product.

Save yourself the trouble and spend your money on something that will hold together for longer than 5 minutes (the length of time for which I was able to enjoy the Speck Istyle cover).

Okay, when playing MP3s I want to strangle it. It makes weird noises and skips constantly.

Playing normal CDs, it doesn't make the weird noises, but skips constantly and cuts off the end of songs. (It has a "feature" that cuts off what it considers silence at the end of tracks -- well, it makes CDs that you've listened to normally that have fade outs and such, sound horrible)

It doesn't even work anymore; it thinks the player is open and won't play. I tried to fix this so the really tiny button inside would always be pushed down to make it think it's closed, but, I got annoyed with it and gave up.

It requires 4 batteries and is huge..needless to say, it eats the batteries up really fast. Actually, it won't even play unless you have really good batteries - it said my batteries were dead and I put them in a battery detector and it said they were all "Good" ... of course, the batteries worked with other devices.

This player is, to say the least, terrible. Performance with MP3 playback is useless, songs cut out during play or turn to high speed Chipmunks.

Bad Menus, poor controls, all in all a most unsatisfying experience.

1. First of all, do not buy this item if you have already have many libraries of MP3's on CDR's. This item will not play most of them. The ones that it does play will be cut off 1 min or so into the song. It requires that you format them in a specific way to play the entire disc.

2. RCA/Thompson packs it with so many goodies, you want to buy it on impulse; car adapter, stereo cable, ac adapter, decent 'phones. That's what I did when I saw it at [a local store] BIG MISTAKE. It is loud, incompetent, pickier than a WASP at a sushi place, overall, a big pain in the rear. One of the few pluses was the software (Music Match), which I didn't even bother to open.

3. The interface is akward and LOUD. Compared with other models, this is a garbage disposal in a library. One plus, the tags on mp3's will be read in a nice way like the WinAmp interface.

4. The bloody thing won't play CD-R copies of original CD's! If you want people to buy your stuff, why not make sure it works. The songs would hang on the last few seconds. I would have to hit the cue button to advance. P.I.T.A! RCA/Thompson pulled a MS-like [mistake] by releasing this product with no remedy for it, besides shooting back into the hands of the retailer.

5. Go to Philips- they have a line of stuff I followed from reviews here. I've since bought an expanium model from Amazon and couldn't be happier (although the car adapter looks like a toy).

I owned the belkin voice recorder then somehow lost it and then I saw ads for the iTalk. Since I owned the iTrip and was happy with it, I thought this was a blessing in disguise. I'm a college student and record my lectures, for the most part the Belkin voice recorder worked well but the iTalk claimed to have auto gain control etc. I'm buying another Belkin. I've recorder a week of lectures already and not a single one has come out with the iTalk. I know it's not the lecture halls because the Belkin voice recorder worked just fine. I don't know where to even begin about how bad the iTalk has worked so far. All my lectures sound like the beach. I cannot hear any voices at all. Just hours and hours of horrible background noise. It obviously does not work for lectures as claimed. Go with Belkin for once

this 50 dollar (after taxes s/h etc...) piece of cheap garbage is a big waist of money. distorts even if just recording your own voice talking. griffen advertises that you can use this product to record song ideas. tried that. all i hear is a muffled distorted version of what i played. the sounds quality is horrible. i get better quality recordings on my pocked pc's built in mic. bottom line.... DO NOT BUY THIS ITEM!!! you will feel ripped off... i certainly do. i'd give the iTalk negative stars if i could.

I bought the iTalk to take memos when I'm out in the field. Camera in one had, iPod in the other. I read the reviews first so knew it would be risky but it sounded ok for my uses and I got it cheap.

* Files are about 1 minute per Mb, stored as wav.
* Sound quality is understandable but not as good as AM radio.
* For a fully charged iPod, I got about 90 mins recording before the battery showed empty.

Pros

* Recording works fine, and I can dictate captions for photos as I think of them on site. Typically these are 1-2 minutes at most. I have also made an hour-long recording as a test without problems. I tried recording conversation in a cafe but it picks up too much background to be understandable.
* The best feature for photo memos is that files are time stamped, so I copy each memo to the same folder as my photos (which are also time stamped) making them easy to match up.
* iTalk can take an external mike which cuts out background white noise.
* Files are automatically sync'd to iTunes Voice Memo list and stored in the iTunes unknown artist folder. (If you have this feature set in iTunes)

Cons

* Software glitches randomly lock up the iPod under almost every condition except for the initial condition (more about this below).
* The iTalk covers the iPod lock. This is a serious design flaw given how quickly the battery drains. It means that you can't carry the iTalk connected to the iPod and easily lock the keys.
* The line that takes a mic also doubles as a line out. If headphones are connected and you try to record, the recording light shows but nothing is recorded. It creates a file but it's empty.

Hints

Prevent freezing: If the iTalk is in place when the iPod is turned on, it will often freeze. To prevent freezing, remove the iTalk before turning on the iPod every time. Under these conditions I've never had it freeze. If the iPod does sleep, to prevent freezing, remove the iTalk then insert it again (i'm not sure how often this is necessary, but I haven't had to reset the iPod since the first day).

Reset: To reset the iPod, remove the iTalk and hold down the iPod's MENU and PLAY '>||' buttons for 10 sec. I used this 5x the first day with the iTalk but haven't needed it since.

Locking: Slide a laminated card (my credit card is too thick) between the iPod and iTalk to lock, or carry the iTalk separately (annoying, but not as annoying as rebooting every time).

Saving: It's not enough to pause a recording, you need to remember to stop and save it before removing the iTalk. The MENU button will also save files.

Finding the files on PC: I have iTunes set to automatically sync files. To find the files in iTunes, look under the Voice Memos list. It's a trifle disconcerting when they disappear from one list and appear elsewhere unless you're prepared for it. On my PC, they can also be copied from
iTunes music/unknown artist/unknown album

Battery: I tried letting the battery run out while recording. It ran for ~50 minutes while the battery was showing empty then shut down with no warning. The file appears to have been saved ok.

Battery life: Check out the apple web page for battery tips (...) (I know this comment is outside the scope of iTalk, but if you use a voice recorder with the iPod, you're going to be dealing with battery issues.)

Summary

Despite the glitches, I like having a handy memo system and will keep it til something better turns up. Doesn't sound like Belkin is any better in terms of software glitches or battery life, but it looks like it would be possible to lock the iPod with the Belkin in place which would be a plus. The minus is that Belkin doesn't take an external mic.

A 800 Mhz Celeron CPU doesn't cut it. MAYBE if they had included Windows 2000, but WinXP needs a 1.5 Ghz or higher cpu to feel snappier.

I still don't know what's the hype with the "tablet PC" idea.

I recommend a SONY VAIO P4 notebook, instead of this.

It's not the worst tablet to own, but it doesn't hit any of the sweet spots for a tablet other than WiFi abilities.

1) It's not convertible, so you have to buy a USB keyboard for data entry.

2) It's not using WindowsXP for Tablets, so you don't get the integration of Microsoft's specific handwriting recognition abilities.

3) The hardware is pitiful, clearly offering power-saving compromises to overcome some engineering problems. The CPU is slow, the RAM is limited, and your hard drive isn't exactly fast or large.

The best of the first-gen tablets was the Fujitsu Stylistic, but it cost twice as much. Of course, it also had twice as much ability. For tablet shoppers, the second-gen offers WindowsXP for Tablets, Office 2003 with OneNote (really leverages the tablet's strong points), better CPU selections and more mature engineering (convertibles!). Toshiba's Portege 3500 is probably the best tablet in the second generation, and that's the one you buy.

Fred

Although this PC has a nice combination of features and appears to be well designed, it is just running Windows XP pro.

It does NOT come with "Windows XP Tablet PC edition", so I suspect that the ink and recognition features you might expect will be missing, or not up to the standard of a real "TabletPC".

In addition, the stylus is very thin - more like a PDA stylus and is difficult to hold.

I received this product as a gift and have had nothing but problems with it. After only 2 weeks of use, it is already completely "dead".

First of all, it doesn't really fit in my car, as the company claims it will. We managed to get it installed and it worked great...for about 3 days. It occassionally locked up while playing a CD. I mean REALLY locked up - to the point where it had to be turned off and back on again. Then it mysteriously erased all my preset radio stations for no apparent reason (other online reviews mention this also). Now the entire screen is blank and NONE of the buttons work! Therefore, the radio doesn't work either. Needless to say, I'm sending it back.

I thought I was getting a great deal for an MP3/CD player for my car. I didn't want anything expensive, but I wanted something that would last. This was not the deck to get.

I've had it for less than three months. The player 'skips' on a brand new disc while sitting still (no bumps from driving). If the disc has the smallest scratch on it, the cd will skip (this doesn't matter if it is MP3 or CD). Also, the LCD has already gone out. There is no backlighting at all, so you can't read anything on the LCD.

I'm extremely disappointed in this product and wouldn't recommend to anyone.

bad would be a good word for this product. I am writing this in the first day that I have this product. It sucks really bad. It sais that it costs $100 regularly.Ha ha ha, I wouldn't pay 50 cents for it, let alone $30.

This mp3 player is so un believably BAD. It takes like 9 hours to finally set up. I bought mine about 2 months ago. guess what, it broke. the thing is so bad. no wonder it was so cheap. the customer service is also horrible. the thing just stopped turning on. i put a new battery in too. when i got it, i opened the battery slot and one of the things that closes it broke off so i had my battery taped in the whole time. If your looking for an mp3 player, do NOT buy this peice of @$#!* !!!!! i would never buy ANYTHING of this brand ever again.

I don't write many reviews, I just don't have the time. But I can't pass up the chance to tell everyone what a piece of ____ this player is. I'm just going to be redundant, because everything negative that anyone here has listed is true. I've had both the 32mb and 64mb versions (got the second one free through a rio employee, but paid too much for the first). Both died just after the three month warranty period (not to mention the faulty buttons and software prior to that death), and rio could care less. I just don't understand what's wrong with these units that every single one could die. There is no quality control. These are my first rio purchases, and I could never in good faith purchase another rio product. Listen to everyone here and stay away, no matter how cheap. You will just be throwing your money away. Take a hint from that 3 month warranty, it's pretty clear that Rio knows these will not last, so they won't stand behind their product.

I received this as a gift and know the Grundig name typically as a quality product. The sound was so poor I decided there must be something wrong with the unit. I called the Grundig tech support and explained that I heard a very tinny sound with no bass at all. The tech without pause said "Thats typical with all of those units." He further continued to say "you'll get some bass response with the headphones but thats as good as it gets." I couldn't believe something with a $150 price tag was known to sound so bad. Do not waste your money on this product.

Unfortunately, my husband bought this piece of junk well before I'd had a chance to read any reviews. I think it's all been said before, but this CD player is a complete rip-off, and an expensive rip-off at that! We were wondering why we only got a couple hours out of a set of batteries, but apparently it's not just us; the problem is inherent in this poor excuse for a CD player. And if you still think you might like to buy one, you can have mine. I'm going to buy something that works.

I purchased this to wake up to a CD. It takes 40+ seconds to fill the buffer for the anti-shock system. During this time, the CD stutters. Extrememly annoying. You can shut the anti-shock system off, but only after it begins playing. By that time I'm awake and irritated.

Other than that, I like it.

Picked this up at Target iPod center for the same $20 Amazon is charging and after a week it's going back as defective. The first thing it did was jam itself inside my tape deck where it was only removable with a pair of needle nose pliers.

However, it did at least work, kind of, if you stared at it right and made the proper sacrifices. It had good sound when it wasn't randomly reversing directions or attempting to eject itself. The problem is that it spends way too much time doing those things. If only it had worked consistently the fact that it was a permanent part of my car stereo without aid of pliers and brute force wouldn't have been such a drag...

Recently purchased this unit. Works (kind of) in a 2003 Prius - rattles like crazy when inserted in the factory cassette. Doesn't work at all in my 1999 Honda Odyssey - factory sound. Reverses forward and back, forward and back, then ejects.

I purchased the Belkin Cassette Adapter for use on both my cars. Never able to play. It jammed both times but unfortunately I was able to get it out without damaging the tape players. Vehicles tried: 97 Toyota Avalon, 96 Porsche 993.