There have been many rumors lately about a potential video iPod that's around the corner... However, what about the existing mobile A/V solutions? We took the RCA Lyra RD2780 for a spin, the audio/video recorder/playback jukebox that's currently selling for only $219 at Geeks.com.
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Oh sorry I didn't click on the Read More link. I just went to the review site. Anyhoooo, the point is that these video players are solutions looking for problems and RCA is a tired brand. They went nowhere with the Lyra MP3 player, and they're going nowhere with this video device.
RCA should perhaps partner up with movie studios - imagine if they got a deal with Universal Studios so that movies are preloaded on these devices and once you're done watching them, return them to the Blockbuster store and get another machine with another movie. It's like renting videoplayers with the movies instead of just renting the DVDs.
Member since:2005-06-29
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Why would you want this instead of a PDA or PSP? You would want a jukebox for the built-in hard drive, I'd guess.
On the other hand, I have a Palm Tungsten T3 and a 1 GB SD card that I load up with rips of full-length kids' movies (the Incredibles, Porco Rosso, etc) and when my kids are feeling antsy on long trips or at a restaurant I bust it out. I compress the movies down to about 2 MB, but they look fine on the small screen. And at 2 MB, I don't miss the hard drive much. On the other hand, I don't have it loaded up with music. I've got a seperate iPod mini for that. Pluses: compact size, convenience, PDA functionality Minuses: battery life isn't great (though it's probably comparable to the life of this RCA unit).
Member since:2005-06-28
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Sure, but as I write in the review, the advantages --except the large hard drive-- is the TV-out capability and the ability to record audio/video from any source.
PDAs can't record audio/video from an external source. You will have to use a TV card (that has access to the cable/satellite box), then have software that records for you (usually not found on Linux or Mac as easily as for Windows) and then use something like PocketDivX to re-encode the video to QVGA so most PDAs can run it full speed or without ugly resampling.
As you can understand, this is quite some work. An A/V jukebox, like the Archos and this Lyra allow you to record from a TV with a push of a button.
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2005-08-04
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Thanks for the review. I remember when I first got my rca 2780, I was happy with it just because of the cool factor, but after a few months I found it to be a steaming pile of ... electronics. Here's a quick rundown of my pros and cons
Pro - the quality of the ASF files recorded off TV is very good.
Con - well, its an ASF files for starters, and I couldnt ever figure out a way of ripping the stream out to be in an AVI no matter with fourCC I used. Also it doesnt actually play back most mpeg-4 content... it warns you if it fines B-frames in the stream and then proceeds to drop all of them.
Pro - It plays most mp3s
Con - It can be picky about some mp3s, and it tends to give up quickly when playing them back.
Pro - It has a battery
Con - After a few months of usage.. you'll notice your battery life quickly dwindle to about 1-2 hours for mp3 playback. That's just too little. And you can't change the battery yourself.
Pro - The read/write speeds are blazing
Con - Without some sort of annoying proprietary way for it to keep track of what mp3s are where, you have to use this library-update piece of software that scans the tags of all your mp3s and puts them in a database. Depending on the number of mp3s, this can take 1-3 minutes. Major pain.
Pro - The cable management is about as good as you can hope for (all cables suck... just some don't suck as much as the rest)
Con - The headphone jack is flimsy and if it breaks you're up a creek. Which is why I solely use mine as a portable 20 gb hdd.
You decide. I bought an Archos AV420 and it served me much better with video playback, battery life and battery swapping, durability, mp3 sorting and playlisting, etc. Just guard it with your life as mine was ripped off and dropping $500 each time it hardly worth it.
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2005-07-06
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The use case of an mp3 player is this:
- select a song (more likely a playlist)
- push play
- drop the unit in your pocket
- do something worthwhile
Notice that at no point does the user interact with the unit for long periods. They don't stare, they don't watch, they don't fast forward. That's the whole point. Minimal interaction. So why try to put video playback on one of these devices? It's not the same use case.
As I've said before, the only people who bought portable TVs in their "hayday" were Radio Shack hangers-on (today's geeks) and creepy loner types who lived in cabins in the woods. That's the same market these devices target. All the people I know who bought them found out later on that they had no use for them. I mean really, when would you use something like this?
Long mass-transit commute? Lots of travel? I could see the use. Damn near anything else? Worthless. It just doesn't seem to justify the hype and expense.
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the only people who bought portable TVs in their "hayday" were Radio Shack hangers-on (today's geeks) and creepy loner types who lived in cabins in the woods. That's the same market these devices target. All the people I know who bought them found out later on that they had no use for them. I mean really, when would you use something like this?
Long mass-transit commute? Lots of travel? I could see the use. Damn near anything else? Worthless. It just doesn't seem to justify the hype and expense.
"loner types who lived in cabins in the woods...." Now that just sounds ridiculous.
I got my Lyra for Xmas in 2003 and have had it for some time now and have enjoyed it. Right now I have about 10 DVD movies on it (and it didn't take me 5 hours to rip and encode it) that I copied straight from my DVD player. Currently I am continuing my education and during the free-time between classes I listen to MP3s and watch episodes of the Simpsons that I recorded from the television. Whenever my wife drags me to the mall to shop for clothes, I whip out my Lyra and listen to music, or at times watch a football or baseball game that I recorded earlier that day. My wife and kids make yearly trips to Los Angeles and is a 6 hour drive for us. My wife records her "soaps" from the television and she has 6 hours of programming at the palm of her hand. She just plugs in the included car adapter and she is fine.
What's cool is that the Lyra has a TV out to play on the big screen but it can also play on the little screen. We have a 10 inch portable DVD player that allows for video-in so whenever we go out with the kids I record a few episodes of Dora the Explorer or Oswald and hook up the Lyra to the portable DVD player and play through the big LCD and speaker for the kiddies. This is good for travel or when visiting a relatives house and they get bored.
I also use he Lyra for my daily walks on the treadmill. I watch the DVDs that I recorded from my dvd player or if I get bored, I record a television program or news program and watch it while I walk on the treadmill. The Lyra is pretty compact, so I made a strap that will mount it on my treadmill so I can walk and watch without having to hold the thing. If I want to run or jog, I listen to the MP3 player and it works fine without any skips.
So you see, there are plenty of uses for the player, and I live in a 4 bedroom house and not in a cabin. The lyra is good for listening to music,working out with, and travel like you said, but also free-time when you want to kick back and watch a show or dvd. You just have to think outside the box to see its true potential.
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2005-07-08
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RCA's making good portable media products... I'm looking foward for their future players as this device looks very nice (and not expensive).
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Some advice about important itens in media players reviews:
-Does the device use standard USB cables?
-Does music (and maybe video too) selection done via metadata/Tags? Via foler browsing too?
-Can media be transfered without any program (besides DRMed media), like drag'n drop the a portable harddrive? (does the new media is recognized this way?)
-Can we make playlists on fly?
-Can the device be charged via USB connection? (if so, can it be used when charging via USB?)
-If the device supports USB Host, does it support MSC devices? PTP devices? (maybe MTP devices too?)
-Does the device suport for WMA includes DRM? (if so, includes "Janus DRM"/subscription services?)
-If the device has colour screen, does it support album art for music?
-What versions of ID3Tags the device supports?
Well... just *some* of important features for a media player. I'm sure these information will be available in future reviews! =]
Member since:2005-06-28
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JrezIN, some of these questions are answered in the article, like all 4 first of your questions (the answer is "yes" to all 4).
Regarding the rest of your questions, usually, if I don't mention them, it means that these things are not supported. There are many things that are not supported on any product, you can't always mention everything, but you can mention what it IS supported.
Also, some of the things you ask are answered in the freely downloadable PDF manual of the product. There is no reason to duplicate that information as the imprortant thing of any review IMHO, except a quick introduction, is to attest if it works as expected or not and if ultimately is a good buy or not.
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I used to occasionally buy from geeks.com, then purchased two 'new' Athlon motherboards from them.
One was sealed in the anti-static bag with a sticker over the CPU socket, the other was a re-taped anti-static bag with no sticker on the socket.
Obviously an RMA. I tried it out and it didn't work. Got an RMA # from geeks and mailed it back.
They sat on that motherboard for two weeks then sent the exact same defective motherboard back to me!
Buy from them at your peril, they are at best incompetent, and at worst crooks.
Member since:2005-06-28
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I am sorry for your bad experience, but both myself and my husband have actually bought stuff from Geeks.com in the past year and they have always come out fine. Geeks.com are selling lots of remanufactured products many times, but when they do so, they do say so too.
