Rating: 
Summary: Hmmm, we seem to be missing something.
Review: I got the Rio 900 to do some audio work for a corporate event that I was working on. The product arrived during the week and I got to the installation on the following weekend. To cut to the chase, the package I received was missing the USB cable. Their phone support is open only Monday through Friday. I emailed the Support mailbox and got a couple of bot auto responses trying to fix the problem by FAQ responses. Since none of the emails supplied the USB cable, they were of no assistance. It took about three working days for my request to get to a real person. Once in the hands of a real person, Rio Support staff did take the initiative to order a cable for me to be delivered via Next Day UPS. This was without needing to talk to me or gather further information about the problem. In my original note to Rio Support, I had said that they had 5 business days to resolve the issue or it would have been returned as parts missing. So they met my request to have a cable by the following weekend. Overall, while perhaps not really warm and fuzzy on the support side, they met my need with the minimum of hassle. Thanks Cary!Using the Rio is fun. It took a little time to determine the right software tool to use. In hindsight, the manuals do a fairly good job of laying out what does what. If you just do the typical "Install Everything on the CD" route and try to figure it out as you go, be prepared for a little head scratching. (Note the voice of experience here.) Otherwise, it looks like a good solid product...If you haven't played much with MP3 music and such, be prepared for great sound quality and a comfortable listening experience. I'll echo previous comments on the battery life. The claimed 10 to 11 hours of time between charges doesn't appear to be realistic. I am not sure if the problem is in the meter or the actual life of the battery charge. Charging doesn't appear to require the player being removed from the carrying case. At least it hasn't for me. If it weren't for the missing cable, this would be a 5 star review.
Rating: 
Summary: Rio has the worst support
Review: I have a Rio Player 500 that I bought a couple years ago and now the company is saying that they will not support the software anymore. I really do love listening to it and even went out and bought an extra in case something happened to this one. I am very dissapointed with this company. I paid for an upgrade and it will not work and I have written several e-mails to get a refund and have not gotten any reply. Also there is no telephone support. If there were 0 stars, I would have given them that for a score. Are you going to take a chance with Rio 900?
DO NOT BUY FROM THEM!!...
...
Rating:
Summary: not a good product
Review: I received my rio 900 as a gift and have had nothing but problems with it from the very beginning. Real Player didn't recognize the mp3 player unless I plugged and unplugged it in several times, turned it on and off... after a while (5-10 minutes) of fiddling with it, it would finally recognize it and I could load music onto it. After a while, the player would tell me it had a full charge and then just shut off after a few minutes. Then it wouldn't turn back on unless plugged into the charger. After finding shareware to replace the software that came with this device I have found that I don't have to play games to get realplayer to recognize it again. Today we pulled out the batter and placed a regular AA battery and it works just fine. I'm ordering a rechargeable energizer battery to see if that will work. For now, AA batteries will suffice. for the money spent on this, it should not have performed like this... poor software and a defective battery. I will be sure not to recommend this to anyone and I will never by another thing from sonicblue.
Rating:
Summary: Shoddy Quality
Review: I received the Rio 900 last X-Mas (2002) and have been very pleased with it. I use it with Windows XP and Windows Media Player 9. Grab the Windows Media Player Plug-in from the Rio website. Don't even think of using Real Player! If you do choose Real Player, read the installation options VERY CAREFULLY or else Real with infest your computer. I store only .wma music files encoded at 64 kbps to maximize the amount of music in the Rio. I find the sound quality very good with the Koss KSC35 earphones I use. The sound does vary with different headphones, so to me, that shows that the Rio is less of a factor in sound quality than the headphones. The battery life for me is about 5-8 hours. I have not bothered to measure battery life more accurately because it hasn't been an issue for me. The controls are intuitive. I am able to operate it without looking. One thing I do dislike is that many steps are required to adjust the treble and bass. Fortunately, I don't need to change them much. Even though it weighs so little, the Rio 900 seems physically sturdy to me, especially when I put in the included case. I travel with the player a lot and it has survived so far with nary a scratch. One shortcoming is that I have to remove the player from the case in order to recharge it. My only significant complaints are that the manual is not very helpful, and that I haven't figured out a way to sort the order of the songs on the player! So far, I have gotten around this problem by creating playlists in Windows Media Player to copy to the Rio. The remaining issue to consider is that Sonicblue is bankrupt. As of this review, the ReplayTV and Rio divisions have been sold to D&M Holdings, which make Denon and Marantz. It remains to be seen what kind of support D&M will provide. Again, I'm glad that someone gave this player to me!
Rating:
Summary: Very Happy with the Rio 900
Review: I received the Rio 900 last X-Mas (2002) and have been very pleased with it. I use it with Windows XP and Windows Media Player 9. Grab the Windows Media Player Plug-in from the Rio website. Don't even think of using Real Player! If you do choose Real Player, read the installation options VERY CAREFULLY or else Real with infest your computer. I store only .wma music files encoded at 64 kbps to maximize the amount of music in the Rio. I find the sound quality very good with the Koss KSC35 earphones I use. The sound does vary with different headphones, so to me, that shows that the Rio is less of a factor in sound quality than the headphones. The battery life for me is about 5-8 hours. I have not bothered to measure battery life more accurately because it hasn't been an issue for me. The controls are intuitive. I am able to operate it without looking. One thing I do dislike is that many steps are required to adjust the treble and bass. Fortunately, I don't need to change them much. Even though it weighs so little, the Rio 900 seems physically sturdy to me, especially when I put in the included case. I travel with the player a lot and it has survived so far with nary a scratch. One shortcoming is that I have to remove the player from the case in order to recharge it. My only significant complaints are that the manual is not very helpful, and that I haven't figured out a way to sort the order of the songs on the player! So far, I have gotten around this problem by creating playlists in Windows Media Player to copy to the Rio. The remaining issue to consider is that Sonicblue is bankrupt. As of this review, the ReplayTV and Rio divisions have been sold to D&M Holdings, which make Denon and Marantz. It remains to be seen what kind of support D&M will provide. Again, I'm glad that someone gave this player to me!
Rating: 
Summary: PROBLEM NO EXTRA MEMORY
Review: IS OK
SETING UP AND WORKING IS COMPLICATED
THE WORST PROBLEM IS THERE IS NO STANDARD EXTRA MEMORY AVAILABLE I THINK THIS SPOILS ALL THE POSITIVES
Rating: 
Summary: Bought the Rio 900--then returned it
Review: Nice look, great control layout and quite good sound. However, it was a little to heavy for use during workouts, memory expansions are very expensive and I opted for the Rio S35 which is smaller, has a built in FM tuner and takes regular batteries so when the power goes out you can pop in a fresh battery.
Rating:
Summary: very expensive - not reliable
Review: Paid huge money for big storage MB. Recharge system does not work and AA must be used. Often firmware will lock up and it must be re-booted. Lots of trouble getting audible books onto the device. Have bought two RIOs now and both are not a good value.
Rating:
Summary: very expensive - not reliable
Review: Paid huge money for big storage MB. Recharge system does not work and AA must be used. Often firmware will lock up and it must be re-booted. Lots of trouble getting audible books onto the device. Have bought two RIOs now and both are not a good value.
Rating:
Summary: Addicted to music
Review: Stay Away from...
Uploads often freeze, battery life remaining is a joke it tells you 90 % still available and the player doesn't last an hour (so if you leave home with it make sure to bring some "AA" batteries otherwise you might have to sing your way back home), the ear buds are not made for active people if you exercise and sweat they will either fall from your ears or short circuit and leave you with less than one half of the volume, controls are weak when you want to skip more than one songs at the time it often get lost and stop, the player consume energy even when it OFF so you have to shut it off and start over at the begining of your list, The Rio 900 is not even a year old and he`s already obsolete you can't find any support for it. On the Sonic blue website the are no more traces of the Rio 500, 600, 800 and 900 only that should tell you something!! STAY AWAY....
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