Rating: 
Summary: This thing suxx
Review: I bought one of theese for 100 bucks i came home tried to download the software, jukebox, and the only difference is that it has a Rio skin and visualization but it wouldnt recodnize it. so i reinstalled it, same thing.Also the buzzing noise gets very annoying, i could hear it on the preloaded song - also worthless. So in the end i returned my 100 dollar purchase - if you find one at 10 cents it might me a good value, if youre lucky.
Rating:
Summary: Don't Waste Your Money On This Player!
Review: I'm glad to finally see truthful reviews of this poor quality product. As others have, I bought the Rio One expecting it to be everything the PMP-300 was, but now with the added features of USB and the ability to accept higher capacity SmartMedia cards. What I received was underwhelming to say the least. The sound quality is extremely poor with a high frequency "hiss" and a low-frequency "rumble" in the background with noticeable audio problems in the MP3 playback. These problems are garbled audio, glitches, pops, screeches, etc. even in high bitrate files. The same file played on the PMP-300 (I also own two of those) sounds perfect compared to this. The PMP-300 also would allow you to resume at the beginning of the "track" where you left off when you last shut off the unit (unless the battery died in the interim). The Rio One starts over at the beginning each time you turn it on. Like others, I contacted SonicBlue technical support and asked that they either send me a unit without these problems or return my money. I also asked them to send me a prepaid label to return what I considered was a unit that was defective right out of the box. I was told that wasn't their policy and, without requesting it, I received a second unit in the mail with precisely the same shortcomings. Great, so now I have two defective units for the price of one. I emailed their VP in charge of customer support describing these problems to no avail. They apparently do not listen to their customers. I certainly wish I had read the reviews posted here before making this purchase. Like others, I am hoping there will be a firmware upgrade to remedy the MP3 audio playback problems, but I expect the "rumble" is a result of poor hardware design. I definitely do NOT recommend this unit to anyone.
Rating: 
Summary: Stop Whining
Review: First of all, let me say that the previous reviews on this page are the height of parsing and whining. Not only was this product adequate (price for the punch the best I've seen), but it was the best sound regardless of price. . .which is why we buy an AUDIO device, isn't it folks? I think those complaining about an inexpensive player(and free for most of these other whiners who got it as a promotion) that performs basic functions so well is just arrogant, if not condescending, clap trap. If you want to spend more money for bells and whistles folks, go ahead. Just don't tell me it's the smart thing to do. My advice? Don't look a gift horse in the mouth fellas . . . particularly if it rides better than more expensive horses.
Rating:
Summary: 4 Mths of Non-Stop Use Prove Its A Stable Beginning Player!
Review: I bought the Rio One about 4 months ago, and I have yet to be disappointed. I was tired of my CD player skipping when I went walking or exercising. I use the player every single day. For being a college student, this unit was affordable; however, I did have to buy an expandable disk. I would say that is the only real disappointment I found with this product. Without the disk, I can only program about 6 songs at once. I did notice the buzzing sound that everyone is talking about, but now I rarely notice. I have never had a serious problem using the software, and my installation was a breeze. I think both the software and player are easy to use. While it doesn't have a fancy screen, I wasn't interested in something high-tech, expensive and fragile. If it breaks, I will not have to worry about how I am going to pay for a new player. Also, I am a klutz, and I have accidentally dropped this player on the ground at least half a dozen times. Nothing more than the battery door opening has ever happened (knock on wood). Believe me, if you give this product a chance, it will be well worth the money for a practical user.
Rating: 
Summary: It is not the worst.
Review: Granted it is not the top of the line mp3 player, but for the money, (...) it is all right.
As for not working with Windows XP, if you follow the instructions in the booklet, NOT the on-screen instructions, the player works fine. If you are having a problem, uninstall Real Jukebox, delete any reference to it in the device manager (unknown device, etc.), unplug the player from the usb drive, restart the computer, re-load the Real Jukebox, ignore the part where they say to plug in your player on the on-screen instructions. After completing the Real Jukebox install, reboot, and when you are back to the desktop, re-plug the player to the computer and Windows XP will find it and install it. I made the same mistake and talked to the tech support, which did not know the correct answer to the problem, so yes they are useless.
For the price of the player and some cheap flash cards you can have an unlimited sized player, and have hours and hours of music.
Rating: 
Summary: Dissipointed
Review: I also recieved the Rio one free along with Windows XP, it worked great untill 3 hours later I loaded XP, and well I should have thought ahead cause now its just a christmas present for some else who hasn't upgraded there computer yet. I've emailed support too many times to count, but all they say is to either downgrade my operating system(which isn't possible with XP so they obviously don't know what the're talking about), or to try taking the battery out and trying again(its a software problem though, not a physical problem). If you're going to get a computer loaded with XP, stay away from this player.
Rating:
Summary: hum is very distracting
Review: As mentioned here (reference to ungrounded phone is very accurate), the humming noise really distracts what might be a good beginner mp3 player. Sound quality(above the hum) is fairly good and although not feature laden with an inexpensive 128MB smart media card, you can have a 160M player much cheaper then 128MB products. I got this free after rebate with a windows XP promotion but I would not buy it for any price. The humming is that bad and the manufacturer must be fully aware of it and it is totally unacceptable. Funny thing is from reading reviews from CNET, the people love this player but I don't understand why they're not hearing what we're hearing.
Rating:
Summary: Flashing "USB" -- the saga continues (SONICBLUE SUCKS)
Review: I, too, was lured by the low price and expandibility of this item. However, like the electronics fan from Connecticut, I had to buy a second unit. Now, the second unit is flashing "USB". It's as if the internal memory card needs to be reprogrammed or re-initialized. Unfortunately, SONICBLUE's CUSTOMER SUPPORT (...)!!!! Who wants to wait 20+ minutes on a long-distance call? Their online support (...) as well. Basically, their poor service is great advertising for Creative Labs, as I will probably order their Nomad IIC. I learn another lesson with this product--You get what you pay for.
Rating:
Summary: WILL NOT WORK WITH XP
Review: I got a RIO ONE Free with the purchase of WIN XP only to discover that they are incompatible. There is no driver for XP, and after sending three e-mails to technical support at sonic blue, I still have not received a response. Now I know why it was free :-(
Rating:
Summary: A Disappointment
Review: I got my Rio One for free during a promotion... when I purchased Windows XP. If it hadn't been free, I would have returned it. I have since added a 128MB flash memory card . Pros: Lightweight and small; easy to use; sound quality is more than acceptable Cons: The display - it is absolutely worthless (I currently have 24 songs on my Rio One and by the time I memorize which song is where, I'm ready to swap them out anyway); The Rio One always starts on song 1 which is really annoying since I listen to mine in the car so several short trips results in me starting with the same song (one solution - front load your favorite songs); Skipping ahead or back is slightly yet irritatingly delayed - no where near as fast as my Rio 500 (a product I recommend highly - if you can find it); the buzzing sound from the unit when playing songs at a low volume level (but since I'm normally in my car its not nearly as annoying as it would be if I used it at home more often); it doesn't have a backlight
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