Rating: 
Summary: HELP ME for the LOVE OF GOD.........
Review: I am so damn confused. Im using kazza to download video files that are avi type, but when I transferred the files they dont play. Then I tried to record fromt eh T.V. and it gave me an error message: warning! no video signal is present Cannnot record!. I went to the faq and followed the instructions and nuttin. Im only having trouble with video and this is very very frustrating. If i need to change it to mpeg-4 plz tell me how or sumptin I need instuctions!! gave it 5 stars cause its kool
Rating:
Summary: THIS THING RULES!!!
Review: I just got it and already I love it!!! The first thing I noticed about it is that the screen is AMAZING. I was worried that the 2.5 inch screen was gonna be too small, but its perfect for watching videos. The resolution is perfectly clear, I cant wait to record a full movie on here! The battery is good for 4 hours of watching video so it gives me enough time to watch a full length movie on a plane ride. And who cares about the firmware? As long as I know theyre improving it, and I can download both video and music already, I'm definitely a happy customer.
Rating: 
Summary: oh my GOD! RCA Please release good firmeware updates fast!!!
Review: This Unit is awesome it's rather unexpensive, well made, rather small, in short the unit is awesome(reason for that many stars). The real problem is the firmeware... it sucks!Lots of options like playlists are missing.Message to RCA: if you're gonna release a product this late at least make sure it isn't buggy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Rating: 
Summary: Buggy, buggy, buggy
Review: I really wanted this to work - it was the first affordable unit that had all the features I was looking for. Unfortunately, it's so buggy that it makes the unit unusable in certain areas. One of the reasons I bought the unit was to use it as a digital wallet for my digital camera. That is, I wanted to be able to take it on the road with me and dump photos off a compact flash card in order to free up space for more (I shoot 6 megapixel uncompressed photos at about 8MB each). Unfortunately, none of the three CF cards I have works in the unit (yes, they're all Type I and formatted correctly). Inserting them locks the unit up. On the video side, I wanted to be able to watch the clips off my other camera (Canon S400) on the unit. Converting to mpeg 4 is a hassle, but not too bad with Virtualdub (though I can't get sound since I can't seem to be able to encode the audio into mp3). However, every time I try to watch one of my videos, the unit locks up. Interestingly, if I watch one of their sample videos first, my videos will play fine. Talk about buggy. Other annoyances - the unit routinely takes 10-20 secs to do some tasks while you get a "Preparing hard drive" message and the UI is pretty non-intuitive, though tolerable once you get used to it (get a "back" button, RCA!). The concept is great - if this thing did everything it's supposed to do, I would love it. Unfortunately, the execution is severely lacking - I realize it's v1.0, but I have rarely seen any released electronics product this buggy.
Rating:
Summary: Nice product
Review: Got it a few days back and overall its a nice product. Pros:
1) Audio, video, jpgs all in one
2) Nice set of accessories - car kit, cables, etc.
3) Sounds good. RCA software works well. Cons:
1) Buttons can be confusing at times
2) I dont care for musicmatch jukebox but the RCA software
works well.
3) Case is functional but makes the buttons difficult t0
maneuver (sp?). As for one of the earlier reviews, you may want to try plugging the car adapter into the line out port opposed to the head phone jack - I am guessing RCA figured most people would use the volume control on their car stereo... Over all I like it and its a keeper. I dislike musicmatch because it tends to place all of the songs at the top level directory on the device while the RCA synch feature mirrors the pc hard drive - which is organized they way I like it.
Rating: 
Summary: Great product, needs a Better Software Engineer Behind It
Review: Cool concept. Put video and audio on the same device? Brilliant! Great display, easy tools, horrible software and instructions. They are working to improve the software slowly but surely, so be patient. The ability to record off of the TV or DVD is very impressive. Very easy. Overall, I think I'll keep it and hope that RCA can figure out the software issues. Huge wow factor!
Rating:
Summary: Pretty darn good - worth it for me
Review: Okay, I bought this as sort of a Portable Digital Video Recorder, and so far, so good. Some of the comments by other reviewers are correct, there are some issues, but pay close attention to what they say. Pros: After I downloaded the new firmware, which you have to do, I hooked it up to my TV and recorded the PSV v. RKC soccer match on Fox Sports World. Set at the medium quality, the 2 hour match (including half time) took up about 1 gig. I watched the first half on the Lyra screen and it was pretty darn good. I stopped it at around the 20 minute mark, turned the Lyra off, started it back up and the match started right where I left off - very nice. Cons: When I got to half-time I tried to fast forward and the unit totally froze up. I had to shut down and then it lost the place I was in the video. Sigh. This is just basic functionality that should work. I then hooked the Lyra up to my laptop and watched the match again through windows media player (Windows XP Tablet edition) and was able to 'scroll' through the video with no issue. The quality (again - medium video quality setting) of the video was great! The best part was that I was watching this from the device, I didn't have to copy it to my hard drive. My main issue so far is that the OS is slow. But, for what I'm using it for that doesn't really matter. A couple of other thoughts: 1.) I'd love to have a timer that I can set that will wake-up the device to tape something while I'm at work. 2.) The unit has a compact flash card slot and I have compact flash 802.11b wireless card... I'd love to be able to 'stream' content from the device across my wireless home network. As I mentioned, read the comments by other reviewers closely. Don't compare this device to an MP3 player like the iPod - if you just want an MP3 player, get the iPod. If you want a multi-purpose device, this is worth the money if you don't want to wait for a future release.... Finally, seems they should be able to fix all the issues with future firmware upgrades, I hope they release these with some regularity.
Rating:
Summary: Little promise, more disappoinment
Review: Waited six months to get a device with more promises than hardware. I bought it mainly for the photo function and the video playing ability. Video can be played but only in Mpeg-4, not mpeg-1/2 as promised. Quality of video is okay, but that is not the point. All 3.5" screen could give you a reasonable viewing experience. Accessories are rediculous. The designer of the case should, let's say, lose his job. The ear plug on the car kit does not even fit the device (it is for phones rather than headphones). Basically, RCA rushed this device out without even thinking that it will ruin its reputation, if it had one.
Rating:
Summary: The Guy who asked keep the iPod, answers his own question
Review: As the title says this is from the same person who asked if it is wise to keep the iPod or trade it in for the RCA Lyra A/V. Ok first off the idea is really good: to combine both audio and video in one compact unit, every electronics persons dream, but this does not live up to it. At first it seems cool, but the more you look at the negatives the positives go away.
Positives are that it can play video, it can play music, has a cool interface, stores 20GB of stuff, it comes with everything you need so you dont need to spend extra money, and it can record stuff from the TV, VCR, or DVD(with the DVD you need the right "tools"). Negatives are that its super bulky so you cant just carry it around for fun, it cant be used as just an mp3 player becuase turning the thing off and on may damage it and it take a while for the stuff to load, the product is not complete so it cant just be used out of the box becuase you have to download some stuff, and the video quality is not good. If the video quality is what your concerned about, like I was, then dont get this product wait for the next generation ones like these to come out because it will get better. All in all the product was ok, but if you want to compare it to an iPod, the iPod is the way to go...for now.
Rating:
Summary: RCA Lyra RD 2780 AV Jukebox leaves a lot to be desired
Review: The unit is fairly compact, but certainly not pocketable. The screen is reasonably nice and so is the audio along with the 20 GB HD capacity. The problems lie mainly in totally inadequate and clunky software, which has to be updated on-line right after purchase. It is very counterintuitive and extremely deficient. One cannot even perform the simple operation of zooming in and out on photos. They can only be displayed in one, fixed size. Alhough it seems logical to be able to load DVD movies into the unit, that has proven to be impossible. It might be done with an MPEG4 encoder (which RCA did not see fit to include), but straight out of the box - forget it. Since the video playback feature is by far the main atraction of this gizmo, a serious oversight like this renders it practically useless. It might record off a TV set, but frankly that seems like too much of a hassle to me. I would much prefer to do it through my computer's USB 2 port. In short, the Lyra is going back to the store. Hopefully units such as this, will soon be available in an improved version and for less than $400.
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