Rating: 
Summary: A great product-awful documentation (Buy lots of batteries)
Review: I love my rio500. When I first got it though, the instructions were useless! I spent several minutes bumbling around trying to make it to do anything. When i first installed the software, it did not even know that it was connected to a rio500. I had to set that sepratly. The biggest problem with the rio is its lack of documentation. Following after that, it eats up batteries. An all around great product. If the documentation was better, I would give it a five star reveiw. Keep up the great stuff rio!
Rating: 
Summary: Rio's great, software sucks- DL Siren Xpress for free!
Review: I have one, my girlfriend got one, as did my roommate and myfriend. ***VERY IMPORTANT*** --> Rioport's software bites!Download Siren Xpress for free, and use it's explorer-like interfaceto load up your rio 300 or 500. It's much better than Rioport, and simpler to use. As for the Rio itself - It's the best thing that's ever happend to my running/workout routine. Last tip - get rechargable batteries. END
Rating:
Summary: The best mp3 player!
Review: I really wanted an mp3 player, but didn't know which one to get, the Rio500 or the Nomad. I thought about the Nomad because it has an FM Tuner. But the program that comes with the Nomad sucks, it's crap! and you can only work with that program, the FM Tuner also sucks! it doesn't work very well, and the Nomad is very expensive (more than the Rio). And the Rio plays mp3 much better, the sound quality on the Rio is the best! So I got the Rio500. If you also don't know which mp3 player to get, get the Rio 500! It doesn't have an FM Tuner, but it's the best!
Rating:
Summary: Great Hardware.. Forget Software
Review: I love it. A great product. Worth every dime with one big "but" that drops me to 4 stars.. The software and information provided is very bad. Both incompete as well as hard to use. The Audio Manager software shipped with the Rio never did work fully for me. I tried on two different machines. There is no way to even understand some of the Rio500 features from the material shipped, or from their web site. Although eMail questions are answered in about 24 hours, after a week of ongoing frustration I discovered MusicMatch. I tried Real Jukebox, but suggest downloading the free version of MusicMatch software from MusicMatch.com to use for downloading files and for ripping CDs for use with the Rio500. I found it to work intuitively and easly almost from the beginning. You will also need to down load the free plug in from MusicMatch to enable downloading to the Rio device. After installing Jukebox, then go to the Jukebox tab on the website, then to plugins. I will cheerfully upgrade MusicMatch and send them my money even though the free version is fully functional and more than satisfactory.
Rating:
Summary: Great, but buy lots of batteries
Review: I am extremely happy with my Rio 500. It sounds great and is easy to take anywhere. Only 2 things bug me:1) It goes through batteries like crazy. You're going to invest a lot of money in them. 2) The software isn't great. Hopefully they will upgrade it. On occasion, it can be incredibly slow in recording from a CD, and if you happen to move around your mp3 folders on your computer, it duplicates all of them in your playlist, which is an inconvenience.
Rating:
Summary: Best of the MP3 Players
Review: Great player, glad I found it for $220. MP3 is better than Minidisc: 10 minutes to convert and download a good 75 minutes of MP3s, AUTOMATIC TITLING by player, great sound, TINY player compared to minidisc... Only problem: once in a while the MP3 bitrate converter program (downgrades >128 kbs MP3s to save space) causes glitches in the MP3s (those little squeaks and blips you hear once in a while in MP3s). Doesn't happen too often, but first 5 seconds of first track may sound squabbly. Re-download that track and all is well.
Rating:
Summary: Your search for a great MP3 player stops here
Review: I bought the Rio 500 a few days ago after reading the comments on this forum. I echo the statements about the documentation being woefully sparse, but since I already had RealJukebox installed I was able to use that with ease. With an existing stash of mp3 files and having RealJukebox already installed I was ready to listen within about 20 minutes. This is a great player if that's what you're after. To the reviewers that complain it's too expensive -- WAH! Relatively new electronics always are. If you can't afford it either buy something more low-end or wait awhile until the prices come down or the item just becomes obsolete. My 2 minor complaints are the requirement of Win98 -- no NT option, and the foam covers on the headphone earbuds come off easily, but buy it anyway!
Rating:
Summary: Good machine but poor documentation
Review: Two quick negatives about this machine: 1. Documentation is terrible. You'll be hard pressed to find even the most basic instructions in the manual. 2. Software is buggy and will cause your system to lock up on occasaion. The player itself is very good. I would also suggest looking at the Rave MP2100 MP3 player before you make up your mind.Though this is a neat little machine, I am not sure that the USB option works as fast as it's touted in the promotional literature. Recommended with some hesitation.
Rating:
Summary: Good Things Come In Small Packages
Review: The Rio 500 may be a little costly but it is a great gadget. It is about the size of a pager and it holds a few hours of almost CD quality music. The Rio 500 is the best portable music player I've ever used
Rating: 
Summary: Warning - RIO 500 Upload death
Review: While uploading mp3 files using the WIN software provided with the player - The RIO suddenly went black - that is all the pixels turned black on its screen. This condition persists even after turning the unit on and off again or replacing the battery. I called Diamond customer service and they said that this is a problem they are discovering - that if the battery is not fully energized (Brand new) that the ROM in the RIO can become permanently scrambled during a download session making the RIO totally unusable. So - I think I'll wait for a better solution after Amazon refunds my money. My RIO is fried, dead, kaput, ruined, lost. Maybe there is a ROM upgrade they might figure out - but I would wait for a while.
| 
