Rating: 
Summary: All things considered, the best buy I could've made.
Review: Of course all that could change in 48 hours if this thing decides to up and quit on me. But so far that doesn't seem likely. I've been putting it through its paces pretty comprehensively, and I like what I'm seeing (and hearing.)If there's any problem at all with the RCA, it's MusicMatch Jukebox. Right out of the box it was clear that I had a later version on my system than what was on the disc. That would've been fine if the version I had behaved remotely the way the instructions said it would. In desperation I ended up upgrading to the newest version, and being told over and over again that I needed to download this or that...very frustrating. However, once I got the gestalt of MMJ, the only problem I had was organizing the way I wanted to approach the somewhat daunting task of putting my entire collection of music on the Lyra. I ran some tests between CD quality at 128kbps (CD quality audio) and 64kbps (FM radio quality) and decided that for a portable experience, the smaller files were just fine. Immediately that upped the number of albums I'm able to store on the Lyra to something like 800 (based on the number I've already done.) This will allow me to store my entire collection, even tape and vinyl, and it's given me the excuse I've been looking for to sit down and convert these last two formats to digital. Yes, it does take some time to convert files from CD to mp3, and transferring the mp3 files to the Lyra isn't instantaneous by any stretch, but I don't find myself rolling my eyes over the lag. The process isn't so resource-intensive that I can't do other things like check email and surf. Windows XP treats the Lyra like an external hard drive (which of course it is) and you can do drag-and-drop transfers without having to use MMJ, so you can be ripping an album to mp3 while transferring another to the Lyra. The controls aren't hard to learn which is good because printed instructions are sketchy at best. The PDF files are better, but still not comprehensive, and I dislike navigating PDFs, so they made no points with me by using that format. The best recommendation I can make is this: Organize yourself before you attempt any transfers. Know what you want to store on the Lyra, and how you want to store it. While you are, to a great degree, at the mercy of the information on the CD itself (MMJ will get artist, title and track listings from the online music database.) you can rearrange the files on the Lyra, just the way you'd rearrange data files on a hard drive. I had no problems at all with XP. It's true that the system doesn't recognize the Lyra when you plug it into the USB port if the unit is turned off, but once it's on, there's no problem at all. It shows up as another drive in your Win explorer. This is common with a lot of USB peripherals, I've found, and it doesn't bother me. For the price, I think the Lyra is the best buy I could've made.
Rating: 
Summary: No Doubt this is the player to have!
Review: OK, I have been fumbling around in th mp3 world for quite sometime looking for a good player. I purchased the rd2820 and am amazed at what this thing could do. With the 20gb hard drive it is the smallest, and toughest in its class. The player also comes with rca line-out cables to plug into your stereo or car, along with a cassete adapter for those who dont have rca cables on their car stereo. Currently the largest memory for a car stereo receiver is 5gb mp3 player which runs for about [$$$]. The rd2820 allows you to put all of your music in one place and plug it into your car or home stereo, or you can just take it with you as a walkman--WOOOW! It has rechargable lithium batteries which really do last for 15 hours, and it comes with a wall, and car charger. As for its performance, there is nothing that comes close for the money. Heres the real catch RCA has finally made public its mp3pro software and the rd2820 is the first player to utilize it. What the mp3pro does is allow the rd2820 to store twice the amount of files or songs as any other 20gb player without losing any sound quality, in fact I beleive it even sounds better than 128kbs. So to sum it up RCA has released without a doubt the best player out there!
Rating: 
Summary: it's so sad when people haven't used iTUNES.
Review: So i wanted an iPOD. My poor Dad who only uses PC's didn't understand the difference, and bought me this for christmas.
I was afraid to even open it, but i did. Yuck. I figured it was generated for the masses so hooked it up to my work laptop. (windows.) The software was so freakin wierd and backwards. I got it to work, transfered my iTunes files to it from my Mac. And it was ok. Not bad really, just not good. I swapped it. Traded it in and paid the little bit extra to get the iPOD. I plugged the iPOD into my mac. I took a quick shower, before my clothes were on 1327 of my favorites were loaded on, ready to go.
If you don't have a Mac, and you're used to having to do 20 extra steps to get stuff to work, then this one is great. If you have ever used a Mac, give this one up. It's a nice macine. Looks good. Runs pretty good, but it's not worth booting up a PC for.
Rating: 
Summary: good sound, bad sorting
Review: Sounds good, transfer speed is okay - it's not instantaneous, but it doesn't take too terribly long.
Couple of gripes - the sorting is terrible: can't play songs by genre, can't even play all of the songs by one artist. If you select artist, then press play, it will only play tracks from one of their albums. Guess you could get around this by not putting album names in your tags, but then you couldn't play by album when you wanted to. You ultimately end up having to make tons of playlists, which is fairly easy but still a hassle.
Also, you can't adjust the tags on the player, even when it's hooked up to your computer - if you want to change a tag, you have to remove the file from the lyra, change the tag on your computer, then re-download it.
These are kind of nit-picky problems, but they irritate me. I'm pleased with the player on the whole, and it fulfills its basic functions well - it holds a ton of songs, and playback is fine. I would recommend it, but just with the caveats listed above.
Rating:
Summary: Poor excuse for a mp3 player
Review: The cigarette lighter adapter that was shipped didn't work and it would power off after being fully charged.The player locks up frequently and is cumbersome to work with and the headphones didn't work either.The only thing worse than the player is the customer service.Avoid at all costs.
Rating:
Summary: to slow downlowding , gets frozen a lot
Review: The downlowding is very slow because it is USB.
It gets frozen a lot (I press restart an average of 2 times a day).
There are only folders for in the Hard Drive Part Not The MP3.
The Case it comes with is bad.
The only good thing is the price.
Rating:
Summary: Didn't get it to work . . .
Review: The first Jukebox had a blank screen, making it impossible to navigate or select music. Amazon.com replaced it promptly. But the replacement Jukebox was also defective. It did not respond to the volume settings and the headphone plug seemed to work sporadically. Unlike others I don't mind the MusicMatch software. But I found the Jukebox controls to be clunky and counterintuitive. There is no autodj function as found on MusicMatch. There is a surprising delay between playing one song and the next. The LCD screen does not allow horizontal scrolling and so it was impossible to see the names of the songs or artists when I was trying to select them. I asked for a refund and I'll wait for the next generation.
Rating:
Summary: Not bad for the price
Review: This is a cool MP3 player/hard drive for the money. It is simple to use and easily read by my computer. It does have a few minor problems that I don't like. It has a slow download time (USB not firewire), the screen has a minor uncontrolable dimming problem, and the control knob sticks a bit. The worst problem the player has is it doesn't like to play in the cold. If it is cold, it has a loud, continuous beep and give the message, "ambient temperature too low." It will not turn back on until it warms up, so it will not work well on a jog unless you live in Las Vegas. The player works best plugged into the wall. But with all the drawbacks, it still is pretty good for the low price.
Rating:
Summary: Not bad for the price
Review: This is a cool MP3 player/hard drive for the money. It is simple to use and easily read by my computer. It does have a few minor problems that I don't like. It has a slow download time (USB not firewire), the screen has a minor uncontrolable dimming problem, and the control knob sticks a bit. The worst problem the player has is it doesn't like to play in the cold. If it is cold, it has a loud, continuous beep and give the message, "ambient temperature too low." It will not turn back on until it warms up, so it will not work well on a jog unless you live in Las Vegas. The player works best plugged into the wall. But with all the drawbacks, it still is pretty good for the low price.
Rating:
Summary: Great product
Review: This is a great mp3 player. A little bigger than the Ipod, but I would not shell out ... more for an Ipod. Easy to use too. I had very little problems with the software. Just plugged it in and started downloading my music on it. Great for anyone!
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