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RCA RD2850 20GB Lyra Audio HDD Digital Audio Player 20 gigabyte 1.8-inch HDD / Integrated digital tuner with FM Record MP3 encoding / USB 2.0 - 1.1 interface / Lithium battery | |
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| Product Reviews from Amazon.com (Rating System 1 to 5) |
| Review | Rating | Last Updated | Solid performer so far, Mine is the 2826, but very similar.
I just purchased this product clearence at a local book/music store, and I must say I am impressed so far. 20 GB capacity is a decent capacity. the display is big, nice blue back light easy to read. I have figured out how to make playlists, and it sorts songs by group. you can drop and drag files to the unit, or use Musicmatch to sync with the unit as well. Works a hard drive on the drop and drag. It comes with everything from power/charger cord, connection cables to computer and stero system, and a case. Also headphones to boot. Software disc as well. Only drawback is that the battery has lasted me between 5-6 hours when loading songs, have not seen how long it last with playing only. Also, it has locked on me a couple of times, but the reset button works ok without wiping hard drive, but worrys me. Not a bad player. | 4 | Today | Don't Get Tricked by Ad Language
I had this product for a little over a year without a warranty. I used it primarily for MP3 recordings. It died one day. The buttons stick, its operation was confusing, manual confusing, nice screen. Not looking forward to getting ripped off by RCA (again) for a repair. Wish I had bought a more expensive iPod, it would have been cheaper in the long run and without the frustrations. | 1 | Today | Thomson (RCA) Lyra - Used with Linux
ok I'm using this thing in an unsupported Linux environment, but basically it works. Plug it in and it appears as a USB drive, drag and drop mp3 files onto the device. They play fine.
The battery life is good, a day's play no problem, the capacity is 20Gb and it can handle any type of file so is useful for data transfers between machines etc. It's capacity actually makes audio books worthwhile though it doesn't play Audible's .aa files.
Audio quality is very good, but the earphones you get with the device are cheap, get a decent set.
The user interface on the player kind of sucks. It profiles the M3s into genre, year, artist, album etc based on the mp3 tags, so make sure they're correct or it's a mess to use. If you use Linux, get hold of easytag and set all the tags correctly or use something like Grip which will fill the tags in from freedb.
The big niggle and why it's only getting 3 stars is that you can't play music *while it's charging*. If you try to, it crashes with loud buzzing and has to be switched off/on. It's been back to the manufacturer with the problem but it still exists. This is stupid and down to poor quality control, it makes the car charger useless and it means I can't play music while transferring stuff to it. It just doesn't multitask. Otherwise, when not charging, it's actually reasonably reliable for me. The little niggle is it can't create playlists of it's own, you have to create them on the attached system and copy them with the mp3 files, again something like easytag or rhythmbox can create playlists.
| 3 | Today | Trying to get mine repaired is heck!!
I bought this a year or so ago and (unfortunately) didn't get the extended warranty this time. After many hours of downloads, at least 100 CD's, it stopped working. I took it apart and found the tape that holds the hard drive to the battery had come apart in several connections. I called all over, searched the internet, and found someone in Canada who had the same prob w/a similar model. He knew of 2 other people as well.
I (finally) located RCA-Lyra Customer Service and was told after about 20 min on hold to give them my credit card number and they'd bill me $100 then tell me where to send the unit for "repair"
I know they're going to just send me another of the same product and I'm going to lose my hours of downloaded music. The buttons DO stick, it takes forever to format the music (it reformats everything in the memory, instead of just the CD or file you added).
I am not happy with this item. So now do I pay the $100 and get a new one or just say screw it and buy an iPod? | 3 | Today | This MP3 Player is A PIECE OF S***!
I got the LYRA for christmas. I was excited to finally get somthing that had a big enough storage capacity for all of my music. It took me hours to figure out how to work the damn thing but I eventually figured it out. Not even 3 days after I got it, the buttons started sticking, and it wouldnt shut off. I had a 30 day return so I sent it back to them to fix. I sent it on 1/4/06 and I still havnt got the damn thing back yet. I wouldnt recomend buying this prouduct. | 1 | Today | STAY AWAY FROM THIS PIECE OF *CENSORED*
I got this for my birthday over a Creative Jukebox, and I've been kicking myself for it since. "Oh, it has a radio in it, that's a big plus!!" WRONG!! The radio is CRAP, and is NOT worth buying the product for. Also, as mentioned by the others, the buttons begin to stick after a while, and the interface is confusing. What's driven me to the point of writing this review is the fact that it won't even allow songs to be copied to it anymore!! And its not even to 1/5 capacity!! Back when I COULD put songs on it, that was just as maddening. I would have to apply intense pressure onto the USB cord just for it to even recognize it was attached. Also, I was charging it in the car once, and it thought it was connected to the computer!! And stopped my songs every 3 seconds because of it!! I have had problems with it freezing unexplicably, or not loading a song for 20 minutes. Another point of notice: MUSICMATCH is possibly the worst music program I've ever used, but it seems to be the only one the device recognizes! It has NEVER worked w/ WMP like it says in the little review above. Don't believe the lies, this thing is not worth $50. | 1 | Today | STAY AWAY FROM THIS UNIT!!!!!!!!!!!!
So, I figured that I wanted a compact mp3 player of great quality that would have a decent amount of storage space- HEY THE RCA LYRA 2850 LOOKS LIKE IT FITS ALL OF THE CRITERIA! I couldnt have BEEN MORE WRONG!! After about a month of using this player I would get small things happening like freezing up and emitting an ear piercing noise in the middle of songs. That would happen on and off but wasnt such a big deal. Another month passes and the buttons on the Lyra player begin to stick and sometimes stay stuck. At one point my mp3 player would not turn off because one of the players buttons was constantly pressed down. The final straw was about another month later when i would try to power the unit up and it would give me an error message and when I would attempt to turn it off it would turn itself back on. It did this for a whole day until the battery finally ran out. I have since been issued a complete refund by RCA's parent company (thomson inc), dont buy this player or any rca portable mp3 units, they are not fully tested and if you do have a problem the customer service sucks. If you do buy this unit make sure you buy whatever warrantee is available through the retail outlet or you will cause yourself much headache- like I did. It took me about 6 months to get this all sorted out. Im gonna try one of the Creative Zen units next. | 1 | Today | DO NOT BUY THIS PRODUCT!
It was finicky from the first day (2/05). Thought it was our inexperience...should have returned it. Now it is completely frozen, even the Off button will not respond. Called RCA customer support (580-634-0115). Even though I am willing to pay, they will do NOTHING because they don't repair them only exchange. However, they don't have any in stock to exchange. They're only advice....call back in 10 days or so and try again. Amber's supervisor would not even take the time to talk to me directly. | 1 | Today | Good for the price, but not intuitive
I purchased an RD2850 about six months ago, mainly because of its price, and the accessories that came with it (namely, a cassette adaptor and car charger). A comparable IPod with those accessories would have been around $150 more expensive. While I saved a good deal of money, and am happy with the Lyra, it has a number of problems that one should watch for:
1.) The interface and overall design is completely counter-intuitive. It took me a long time to figure out how to even learn how all the buttons worked.
2.) The device tends to freeze every now and then, and when it does, it lets out a deafening buzz. By far the most annoying aspect.
3.) The headphones that come with the player are awful. While most headphones that come with mp3 players are of poor quality, these are exceptionally bad.
4.) If you subscribe to most music download services (Napster, MSN, etc.), the music format won't play on an RD2850.
If you're looking to save money on a 20GB mp3 player, the RD2850 is a good buy. It has its problems, but it does what you need it to. If money isn't an issue, buy an IPod. | 4 | Today | Did not work reliably
My Rio Carbon died but I bought the store protection so I went out and bought the RCA Lyra because I wanted to spend a reasonable amount of money, 20 gig was enough storage space for my tunes, and I liked the FM tuner. I am pretty familiar with MP3 players this is about the 5th one I've owned.
I charged it up and loaded up the tunes. However, it just did not work reliably. It took forever to find songs and then just froze all the time. I don't know if it was because I loaded up 14 gig of the 20 gig capacity or what but it just would not respond. I tried updating the firmware but it didn't help. It is going back to the store for a refund and I will try something else.
Too bad because it came with lots of extras including a car charger, one of those tape deck converters for the car, lots of cables, etc... It also was pretty easy to link to musicmatch which was a plus because I use that. But unreliable stuff has to go back.
| 1 | Today |
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