Rating: 
Summary: If you want a Hard drive player, read this.
Review: I couldn't wait to recieve this hd player for Christmas. After literally researching hard-drive based audio players for hours upon hours, I came to only one logical conclusion, the IHP 120. Cnet is a great site and I want to thank everyone that writes LEGITIMATE reviews, they helped influence my choice. How can 276+ people with the same product be wrong? After ordering the IHP online (from Mac Mall {thank you Cnet}, sorta ironic, huh?) for around the PRICE: of $344, I realized it was cheaper than the main competitor of the Iriver (Ipod of course-an admirable product).
The main factor in my decision was
SIZE/WEIGHT: This thing is bursting with excellent features and is just about as tiny as the Ipod. As a 16 year old electronics fanatic, I wanted the best of the best. At first I wanted a Nomad Zen Xtra. I soon realized it was a slighty cosmetically upgraded technological DINOSAUR. The thing is simply HUGE. (Great price though, if you are on a tight budget and have to have a hard drive player NOW) I then wanted that oh so sleek and sexy Ipod, but I do not own a mac (although I respect them) and they DO have pretty bad compatbilty issues with windows. And if one was so inclined to do any pirating of music (Who on earth would do such a thing) it is out of the question. Bad battery life. Too popular for my tastes ( I wanted to root for the underdog of the hard-drive player market {Iriver} that can't afford to produce trendy televised advertisements and such). Bottom line for the Ipod- It is too expensive and can't compare technically with the obviously superior Ihp. When I took it out of the package and picked the iriver up I was like, "Wow this thing is extremely light." Yup. The pictures found online do not so this thing justice, you really have to see it in real life to size it up. This thing is TINY. This is obviously a major advantage/pro.
FEATURES: Boy, I don't even know where to start. If you are reading this you already know of the optical in/out, fm reciever, internal mic (recording capabilities),etc. I am going to do something usefull and tell you how all of these thing perform.
*The fm tuner is of high qualty, I live in Houston TX and the reception is great.
*The quality of the internal Mic blew me away + the on-board MP3 encoding and options suite is beautiful.I have not yet used the external mic.
*I have not yet used the optical twins, but their usefulness is obvious and need no explanation.
*NO NEEDED SOFTWARE. Just drag and drop ANY type of file via explorer. Beautiful.
*This player has tons of great features for a great price.
*Navigational system is great / gets the job done with tact
*Ogg Vorbis
*UPDATABLE/UPGEADABLE FIRMAWARE. People, listen up, if there are any software issues EVER,
Most of them can be fixed. All kinds of cool new stuff can be added/ All bugs fixed. Simply Beautiful.
*Battery Life is pretty good (still much better than Ipod)
*design is impeccable
QUALITY: With the magnesium body, this thing is very scratch resistant (unlike the shiny Ipod) The body itself feels very sturdy and solid (no cheap sounding creaks when pressure is applied). The buttons on the sides are wonderfully placed and feel extremely durable. (they are in small "valleys (indentions)" so they don't annoyingly protrude.) The navigational joystick is a bit small but feels pretty solid. I read online that to make the joystick knob more "gripable", ( it is always really dry and slick, as if Iriver should have put rubber on it) you can apply a coat of fingernail polish overcoat to it, to enhance the "gripability" Anyways, it is of very good construction. Props to Iriver. The included
ACCESSORIES: kick A$$. The case is perfect. Wonder why there aren't any aftermarket cases? The case is flawless and serves every need for a protective casing. Earbuds are actually ok, I usually use my YAMAHA RH-5Ma's to listen to music though. OK, People- the earbud cord is short in order to accomadate for the length of the awesome IN line Remote. This is, hands-down, the best accessory. It does feel a bit cheap but it is reliable and is just awesome (blue backlight, 4-line lcd, does basically everything). A USB cradle would have been nice, but what are you gonna do? And the speed of USB 2.0 is amazing (and faster than firewire). The external mic is great for recording concerts, whatever. Tons of accessories, no added cost (basically). I would've bought this thing completely by itself for the same price.
If you are looking for an mp3 player don't get some dinky flash player, buy this product now. Period. (They just realeased the Ihp-140!) Go Iriver!
"Nothing is without flaws."
AtomzzzZ- 2004 Yes, even the almighty Iriver could be improved. Most of what you will read is nitpicky preferences of mine. (I'm slightly anal retentive)
*The biggest dissapointment (that could've been avoided if Iriver were more specific online and in their manual): No Database support for Ogg Vorbis. *My hold button (I've heard others complain as well) is loose! It is just wiggly! It drives me crazy! This is something very minor and superficial and I heard Iriver physically fixed this issue when they got the word. So If you purchase one, it will most likely be fixed.
* I for one, prefer the Ipods scroll whele for two reasons: It does not protrude from the body and it is faster/slightly easier/cooler.
*Don't get me wrong, I am totally for the Ihp line over the Ipod's, but the Ipod feels a little tighter, sleeker. (probably just because I love symmetrical electronics and the Ipod's lack of a protruding (not by much at all though- I am just picky) knobby joystick and the perfectly rectangular (prism) body as opposed to the slight downward curve under the joystick of the Iriver Ihp 120.
*I haven't needed to call Iriver, but I have heard bad things
Rating:
Summary: Does the iHP-120 record to wav?
Review: I'm looking to purchase an iHP-120, and the unit looks VERY promising, but I'm having a hard time finding information about it's recording capabilities. I'm interested in recording to wav using the optical line-in, and was wondering if anyone had any experience with recording to wav using one of these?
Rating:
Summary: Doesn't get better than this!
Review: I have had the player just over a month now and this is truly the player of players and definitely the IPod killer it is supposed to be. Some of the best and most useful features include: - Remote which shows almost all the information and all the control that the main-unit gives.
- Firmware upgradeable. Fix broken and add new functionality.
- OOG Vorbis support
- More than loud enough
- Equalizer (preset and user-set)
- No need for drivers, just plug it in and see it as another drive.
- Leather case
- Comes with every cable needed (except for Optical recording). External mic, Stereo hookup, USB, headphones and so forth.
- Lyrics can be shown in the display
- Text-file support
- Boot-time is only 12 seconds (I know others have mentioned 3-4 minutes, something must be wrong with their player)
- Plenty of 3rd party support and forums (search Iriver and forum in Google). With such a great product there has to be a couple of snafu's. - Since the IRiver does not have a clock, it does not have a real random function either, and this manifests itself by starting with the same song every time it has been disconnected. This could easily be solved through the upgradeable firmware so I do expect to see an update.
- No delete support from the player. Would be nice if you could just delete a file right on the player. Both of these minor problems could be solved with firmware upgrades so I am not worried. This is the player to get... Yule Love It t
Rating: 
Summary: Nice item - fatal flaw!
Review: Ok so before the holiday season I did a lot of research on mp3 players, particularly Windows-compatible products (since I have heard entirely too many stories of Ipods and their awful customer service for non-mac users...). Based on reviews and the product description the Iriver seemed like the all-around best buy so I got one. It arrived, and I eagerly transferred all my songs onto it...only to discover that SONGS DOWNLOADED FROM MUSICMATCH DO NOT PLAY ON IT!! Not only this, but after spending a horrendous amount of time (upwards of 30 mins) on their awful customer service hotline on several different days to try and talk to somebody, I was told that "oh, iriver products don't support files from commercial vendors in WMA format because when we built it, we didn't realize that the WMA files from online stores are in protected format." This seems pretty ridiculous to me; to advertise a player that ostensibly supports all forms of music, but then doesn't cater to the online services that have come to dominate the market of music sales. Thus, I can only play those unprotected mp3s that I have, and none of the new songs that I have acquired through online services. My player is essentially useless for new material, so what was the point of the $400 spent on it? Nothing whatsoever. Do yourself a favor -- make sure the HD player you buy supports protected file formats before you make such a huge investment on something that doesn't do what you would expect it to.
Rating:
Summary: Very Nice
Review: I got my hands on mine January 7, 2004. It has not disappointed me in the least. After a very brief review of the manual(not even 5 minutes) I was loading my library of tunes. I loaded about 6GB in about 5 minutes, and was charging the battery. The navigation system is not that complex, I mastered it after about 5 minutes. It is pretty straight foward. Scrolling through tunes, and menu operations is fast. The visual display is very nice looking, it is not hard to read at all. The remote is what I use to operate the unit. It is very handy, I just clip it on my jacket and stow the player safely inside my inner jacket pocket. I am using the supplied headphones, they sound good but are very uncomfortable. The sound quality of the unit is excellent. I am 100% satisfied with my purchase. The battery goes and goes, have not timed how long it stays on. The battery has yet to disapoint me.
Rating:
Summary: Best mp3 Player on the Market. Period.
Review: [--------] Having owned this product for a about a month, I am happy to report that I am very, very pleased. I am not going to go over the plethora of features and options in this review, rather I will list some of the things that I enjoy most - in hopes to enlighten you as a potential buyer. For me, it came down to this mp3 player and of course the famous iPod. Although the design of the pod is quite nice, and navigation is a breeze, it is way too simplistic and lacks the versatility of the iRiver. I find the design of the iHP to be quite nice.. with an all-metal exterior and well designed remote (with all the funcions of the main unit - such as track listing, bitrate, etc). When you hold this you get a sense of the sheer quality of the unit. Solid. The main reasons for my purchase are as follows: Long (16 hour) battery life. While the iPod's 4-5 hour life may be sufficient, you never know when you might be yearning for melodic fix with no access to a charger. Optical in/out - line/in out. Very nice to have this at a buddies house and be able to hook up to his stereo (iPod needs docking station for optical out). Also you can hook it up to a car stereo via the tape adapter, very nice. No Drivers. So your at so-and-so's house and she has that set list for your favorite band. Just plug in the player to a USB port and drag the folders to the drive that pops up and your all set. Which leads me to my next plus.. Functions as a hard drive. With no drivers needed for installation, the iRiver functions as a secondary hard drive. You can store data files as well as read text documents on the player itself. Did I mention the HD is made by Toshiba? 'nuff said. Ogg Vorbis support. For those of you that don't know, the .ogg format is a way of compressing music files similar to mp3. Ogg is open-source and is completely free, unlike mp3 (trust me its not a free source). Here is where ogg really shines. You can encode a .ogg music file to sound the SAME as mp3 - but it will take up LESS SPACE. Or (my favorite), you can have it take up about the same space, and sound BETTER. This seems nice but let me tell you, ogg files sound AMAZING on this player. I was very impressed with it. Did I mention that the iPod has copyright protection on a lot of files? Comes standard with a leather case. This may not seem like much, but its a nice case that covers the optical input/output as well has having a nice beltloop. The beltloop came in handy more than I thought it would. Volume fade. May not seem like much, but when you turn the player on, or resume it from being paused, it fades the volume up slowly to the point it was at last. I LOVE this. It is the little things like this that make me proud of my iRiver *wipes a solitary tear from eye*. I could go on and on, and probably should - but other reviews cover the rest and I want to watch Adaptation. So heres the wrap-up. This player sparked me to write the first review I have ever written for ANY product on the internet. I wanted to share with everyone the joys that is iRiver. But what review would be complete without a few complaints, you say? Well.. as much as I love my baby, here they are. Slow scroll speed. You can turn this setting up, but it is still not as fast and responsive as the scroll wheel on the iPod. With over 15 gigs of music on my player already - this has yet to annoy me more than slightly, and is easily covered up by the other features (plus the unit is firmware upgradeable.. so they might even fix this). Neophyte usability. If you are even remotely savvy with electronics (mainly computers/directory trees) you should have no problem. This is more of a warning to those people who are looking to buy this product for the clueless. The setup is not bad by any means, but it is not as straightforward as the iPods. In a nutshell, if you want a solid mp3 player with tons of high-end features, great sound, and lots of depth, buy the iRiver iHP. If you really don't need any extra features, want to spend more moeny for less, and just want simplistic player to get the job done, get the iPod. Seriously guys and gals, this thing is worth every penny. I truly believe it is the best mp3 player on the market. Hope this eclectic review helped someone. G'nite and thanks for such an outstanding product, iRiver. Keep up the good work.
Rating:
Summary: Awesome!
Review: I did a lot of reasearch on various players and even ordered a Samsung Napster (which I promptly returned) before buying the I-River ihp-120. It has totally exceeded my expectations. So easy to set up and use and so versatile. It took less than 10 minutes to set up (actually set it up in less time than it took to get it out of the package!). No special software to mess with...just plug into the USB and drag files over! This player has a lot of versatility with its features, also. In addition to my CDs and mps, I've transferred all my old motivational and language cassette tapes to it and will probably tackle recording some of my vinyl collection as well. The external recording capability makes it a terrific business tool for recording meetings, as well as taping speeches for later review. I can also use it to take files with me on trips, or to transfer a Powerpoint presentation from one laptop to another. The sound quality is great and I love the external remote. I can't say enough good things about this device -- it has totally exceeded my expectations and I am very pleased with the purchase.
Rating: 
Summary: Awesome
Review: I just got the iRiver iHP-120 and so far I love it. I'm coming from the Nike sport psa128 max, which is a miserable mp3 player. I chose the iRiver over an iPod because I'm a PC user and didn't want to take my chances with an iPod - plus the iRiver comes with the USB cable, which the iPod doesn't. It's been really easy to use my iRiver with my computer. It is recognized as an external hard drive and you just drag files into it. So simple! The sound quality is great and I have no problems navigating the buttons. The headphones are pretty bad, but a decent pair of headphones doesn't really cost much. I totally enjoy my iRiver and would definitely recommend it.
Rating:
Summary: Go For It!
Review: I was a bit disappointed when Santa showed up with the iRiver instead of the iPod. What a mistake! The sound quality and navigation are great. Battery life is superb. Remote is awesome. I'm having a ball with it. My only regret is that it doesn't have that sleek Apple design. But reliability counts for a whole lot more.
Rating:
Summary: Above Expectations
Review: The iRiver iHP-120 is simply an awesome little MP3 player. It is a little overwhelming trying to get used to using it but other than that it's been outstanding. Every day for the first two weeks I've learned a little more and there isn't much it isn't capable of. I love it's simple computer hookups and the internal and external mics. I've used it for running, plane rides, transfering music files, recording guitar practices and intend on using it to record live music. A must for every music lover and certainly a peak into the future of music media.
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