Rating: 
Summary: A Little Beauty
Review: I've had mine for a few weeks and am a bit annoyed the price has dropped so considerably in that time! but what are you waiting for, this is a bargain.In the last 4 days I've ripped 3,400 songs and I haven't even filled the IRIVER halfway yet. The sound quality is pretty good - I'm using the OGG encoded music, but the machine can also handle MP3, WAV etc etc etc. It also has the added bonus of a Radio and a very easy drag and drop music system. It's so easy my Mom was doing it yesterday!! Well - don't wait! come on! Cheap as Chips as they say in Blighty
Rating:
Summary: schedule for firmware update and new features
Review: From the official iriver forum on July 19,2004, I see someone has translated the Korean iriver's announcement of H Series firmware update schedule. (If it turns out that there are mistranslations/misrepresentations, I'll update/delete this review here as soon as I hear). In late July/early August, they expect to have these features/fixes: 1. OTF File Deletion, 2. Propriety Format Support, 3. Playback Speed Control (not as flexible as IFP series, but will be supported)4. Gapless 5. Unicode Support in DB, 6. OGG Support for DB, 7. Hebrew Support, 8. Sub-dir support for Text Folder,9. Enhanced Shuffle Mode,11. Line Automated Lyric Support 12. A bug that occured to the remote when NAVI button is pressed in the PLAYLIST... is fixed,13. Programmable OTF Playlist,14. LCD Screen Bug in Radio Mode Fixed,15. Reduced Noise on the LCD Screen While Using the Remote,16. External Battery Support. Due in October they are claiming: 1. Volume Control in Record Mode, 2. Recording Without the Infamous "Pauses," 3. Mono recording Support,4. SAD Support 5. Auto Sync Support (??)6. Korean Menu Support First, for newbies/potential customers, note that iriver easily supports OGG (I'm listening to an ogg file now). The " OGG Support for DB" mentioned above merely refers to the accompanying PC software which apparently doesn't catalog ogg files correctly. Second, let me mention that I can't read Korean, so I can't vouch for the translation. Also, the firmware is really late (and owners are getting exasperated). Still, all of these are significant improvements, and even if we assume schedule slip and the usual marketing puffery, these would be significant improvements. I'm happy to see that they are updating firmware regarding recording for the October firmware update. I would feel good if this second firmware update comes before Christmas. If it comes earlier, so much the better. People on the misticriver forum are speculating that the "external battery support" that either ihp will be offering a battery pack or at least allow thir d parties batteries to be used. Pure speculation.
Rating: 
Summary: BATTERY
Review: IT'S A GOOD PLAYER, BUT DO YOU GUYS KNOW THAT YOU CANNOT CHANGE THE BATTERY?. THE BATTERY HAS A RECHARGEABLE LIFE OF ABOUT 3 YEARS, AFTER THEN STARTS TO FAIL TO RECHARGE. WHEN I ASKED TECHNICAL SUPPORT THEY TOLD ME THAT THEY WERE CONSIDERING OFFERING TO REPLACE THE BATTERY WHEN NEEDED, FOR A FEE AT THEIR SERVICE FACILITY. BUT THEY TOLD ME THAT THEY WERE JUST STARTING TO CONSIDER THAT POSSIBILITY AND THAT THEY COULD NOT GUARANTEE THAT SUCH AN OPTION WAS GOING TO BE MADE AVAILABLE. I FOUND COMPLETELY UNACCEPTABLE TO SPEND ALMOST 400 DOLLARS FOR A PRODUCT THAT I'LL HAVE TO THROW AWAY BECAUSE I CANNOT REPLACE THE BATTERY. I RETURNED THE PRODUCT. BEWARE.
Rating:
Summary: Very Good, with some Oddities
Review: I got my hp-140 about a week ago, and I'm 90% satisfied. The player certainly has its pros and cons, and there are some 'catches' that you have to figure out for yourself, and it can be very frustrated until you do. All the pros have certainly been mentioned, so I'm just going to list the problems I had that prompted me to give 4 stars instead of 5. Even though the player does support OGG files, it does not read the tags. So if you want to use the Search by Artist mode, OGG files are useless. On MP3 tags, there is a 52-character limit. If a title is longer, the player won't read the tag, and it will not be included in the database (though the song will still be on the player.) This can be frustrating if you have a lot of classical music, and the manual doesn't tell you this; I had to find out in a user forum. Manual good for learning basic functions, but doesn't offer much beyond. Luckily, there's a great user forum at iriver.com. Within albums and artists, tracks are listed in a seemingly arbitrary order; neither alphabetically nor by track number. This can definitely get frustrating. Navigation takes some (frustrating) time to learn; the manual isn't always clear. (Bad translation) Overall, I am satisfied with my purchase. The sound quality is great, and navigation makes sense once you get used to it. The presense of a stop button is a great plus; I always got extremely frustrated by that when using friends' i-pods. I would certainly recommend this to anyone considering buying one, but be aware that, as with all products, there are imperfections and flaws.
Rating:
Summary: Not perfect, but probably the best out there.
Review: Having owned 3 other jukeboxes including the 2003 iPod 40GB, I can highly recommend the iRiver. I don't think there is a better hard disk player on the market at the moment. PROs:
1. - Sound Quality. This is the reason why I immediately sold my brand new iPod to a friend, it sounds terrible! Although the iRiver doesn't match true CD quality, it really comes close and definitely beats the iPod. MP3s will probably never sound exactly like the original CD, although I encode them in VBR at best quality level allowing for 50% larger file size.
2.- Features and user friendliness. Having an FM radio built-in is a definite advantage, I don't use the recording possibility, but you never know. You need to take the time to read the manual, but once you figured it out it is really easy to use.
3.- Connection to a PC. The easy and speed at which you transfer song is amazing! Less than a second per song! You don't even need to install software, the device is immediately recognized by Windows XP and you just drag and drop files. Beautiful! Don't forget that you need firewire for the iPod (I have it on my Dell desktop PC but not on my HP laptop) let alone the iTunes software (I always use Music Match) CONs:
1. - The sound is not loud enough especially on the line-out jack. This is a problem with a lot of players at the moment and the only reason why I did not give this product 5 stars. I have an auxiliary input built into my car stereo system; I turn both volumes at the maximum (car stereo and iRiver) and the sound remains very low. I currently compensate this with a cheap Radio Shack headphones amplifier which works surprisingly well without distorting sound quality.
2. - "Only" 40 GB. I would have preferred 60GB or 80GB as I calculated I need 60 GB to convert all my CDs, but then again you need time for that. I only have 9 GB of mp3 music for the moment, until I rip the other 50, the new iRiver will be out there. I will just need another friend to sell this one to.
3. - All the other mentioned cons are not an issue for me. Yes the iPod is very pleasant to touch, so what? Yes the iPod is in, but sound quality comes before fashion for me. Yes the case is brown, but it is good quaéity and thick enough to last and protect the player. Yes the earphone are probably crap, I didn't even try them out, I use Koss portapro for outdoors and BOSE headphones with noise reduction for plane flights. I hesitated between the iRiver and the Archos AV 380 with 80GB, but the iRiver is half the size and the cost. However, I am very tempted by a combined audio/video player in order to carry all my digital pics with me as well.
Rating: 
Summary: Good Player 3.5 Stars
Review: I have own my unit for about 5 months and it's
been pretty reliable. I like to record my old
minidiscs onto it and with in-line recording
features that's possible. I like the black design,
the sound quality is pretty good, and battery life
is good. I have not gotten 12-16 hours of playback
on a charge yet but I'm always playing this in shuffle
mode so I imagine that may use more power faster as the
unit does do alot of spinning. I really like the remote. I'm not happy with the lack of firmware updates. These units need to have an option to create playlists on the fly.
Rating:
Summary: Disappointed with this Very Hard to Use MP3 Player
Review: After using a 20 MB RIO that died on me (hard disk failure after 5 months) I decided to purhase the iRiver iHO140 becuase the hardware sounded top notch. While I agree that this is a very solid player it's been quite difficult and very frustrating.
I have not been able to get Playlists to work and I've also noticed that none of the On Line songs I purchase will work on this unit. When I sent an e-mail to tech support asking if the iHP-140 will sync with Windows Media Player They took 1 week to return an answer and they said this player doesn't currently Sync and they don't forsee it working this way anytime in the future. So basically if you buy music on line DON'T purhcase this player. I should have bought an IPod.
Rating:
Summary: Yes its great.....but I still had to return it :-(
Review: So the good news, yes you can record (although not off the nice radio)...yes it plays almost all the formats under the sun....yes its reasonably compact....but heres the thing, its impossible to make play lists on the fly. Sure you can play through the songs in a folder that you have preset on the juke box, sure you can even cue a song one song ahead of the one you are listening to.....but suppose you go to the gym and want to listen to this song then that then another and don't want to fiddle....well unless you had the foresight to organize your songs in a folder exactly that way and upload them (admittedly straightforward) then it can't be done....I really liked this player, I really wanted to keep it, but I couldn't make it play my songs in the order I wanted when I wanted and sadly that was a deal killer so back it had to go....Fortunately Amazon service as always was great and it wasn't a problem....given iRiver solved all the hard problems it seemed amazing they hadn't solved this easy problem, but I spent hours on the discussion boards and ultimately with their help people (a patchy experience) and they confirmed it....on the fly play lists cannot be created....so sad.....
Rating:
Summary: More Garbage from iRiver (the "iPOD Killer") : /
Review: "IPOD Killer"? Puh-leeze. Start by not immitating even the name of Apple's player. Then invent a navigation system as cool and easy to use as a scroll wheel. Next, work on getting some decent sound. Follow this with a jukebox even half as eficient as iTunes (no, you don't have to buy all your songs from Apple to store them on iTunes or iPOD). Then, while you're at it, work on a cool design (read, not clunky). Finally, try concentrating on making a few funtions perfect instead of a load of half-baked extras nobody wants anyway. And i'm only talking about last years' iPOD, not the new models. Don't waste your time and hard-earned $ on a throw away like this folks, spend a little bit xtra and get a keeper. If this sounds harsh it's only becuase I was dumb enough to fall for iRiver's hype last year. But I since switched from one of the many the followers (iRiver, Creative, etc.) to the leader (IPOD) and have never looked back. There's a good reason why IPOD is #1. It leaves the rest in the dust. Just wish I'd waited a little longer for the new 60GB photo/music IPOD :(.
Rating: 
Summary: blows away iPod
Review: Almost perfect. ipod comes nowhere close. I mean really, this thing RECORDS.
Cons: The joystick design is really dumb. Doesn't have gapless playback, but this will hopefully be available in a firmware upgrade.
For all you people having trouble with the menus- geez, what the heck do you want? For a service rep to come to your house and hold your hand while they open the instruction manual for you? Makes perfect sense to me.
And if you are reading this, YOU NEED TO START USING OGG VORBIS RIGHT NOW. www.vorbis.com. If you like this concept, it's going to get killed by Apple and Microsoft when they start being able to demand more and more money for this. Steer the digital music revolution YOUR WAY and USE OGG!!!!
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