Rating: 
Summary: Cranky & poorly implemented. Can't even record DVDs!
Review: Don't think you are going to transfer your DVDs and then hop on an airplane to watch! The unit shuts down after giving you a warning if you attempt to copy any DVD or VHS to it.The unit arrives with obsolete software. You get to spend the first hour downloading updates, installing new firmware and new drivers before the main features are operational. (The unit comes with a sheet explaining that this is necessary.) Then, after installing the new software you find that many of the features will be available in a "future release." The menu options are there for new features, but if you click on the menus you get a vaporware promise of the future. Don't even think of using the built-in equalizer or tone controls: touching those buttons brings up more "future release" messages. "Please wait" takes on new meaning with this unit. It seems to need a 10 second pause frequently. The controls are wiggly and flimsy. The buttons are randomly sprinkled along the front, ends, and top of the unit in a pattern that defies logic. The menus are awkward and obscure. I never could get a movie that was playing to stop nor could I get back to any menus once a movie started. I literally had to power cycle the unit to get to the menus. The unit only supports MPEG-4, so you cannot RIP movies to MPEG-2, DIVX, or AV formats and play them. No, you cannot read a DVD using your PCs DVD player and save it onto the unit and play it. (Seems like that would be a basic feature of the unit.) The picture quality is acceptable, although the audio quality was a dissapointment. This unit is bleading edge. It really is a version 0.1 product. I am sure that with three hardware revisions and four major software releases it is the type of product that we will all take with us on trips and on the road. I'd pay a fortune for a version of this that works, but the one I purchased is going back to Amazon pronto. Havging waited for the unit for 6 months, this was a great dissapointment.
Rating: 
Summary: yes, YES - keep iPod
Review: Yep -
Quick story:
Bought on the day after Thanksgiving. Returned a week later. Longer story:
Although the there are a couple good points, there are many more bad ones. Good - pretty sharp screen for size, nice recording features (has straight RCA in and RCA out), on the whole nice set of accessories (although the leather case is ridiculous), lots of space (20gigs) Bad - slowest OS I think i've ever seen on a portable - it will randomly say "saving settings to hard drive" and pause for a good 30sec - 1 min, takes around 10-20 seconds to start playing each song or movie, cumbersome controls (if you want to use it as a convenient MP3 player, you have to hold it in two hands and go through the whole interface any time you want to change a song), can't browse through songs while one is playing, can't create playlists on the unit itself, start up time to record video is variable (from 10seconds to over a minute) so if you're trying to record anything off tv, its tricky to time the starting, audio lags on recorded video after 10 to 15 minutes (loses sync - gotta love watching mouths move and the words coming out after like a poorly dubbed foreign film), leather case is bulky and pretty much impractical short of keeping it "safe" for storage (who wants that on their belt?!), only .avi movie files recorded with mpeg-4 video and mp3 audio codecs can be used (plus the asf format it uses to record), and finally, the most annoying thing - half of the features in the OS come up with an annoying message saying "feature is not available, look for in future upgrades at www.rca....." Overall - RCA rushed this out to capture the xmas market long before it should have. While the video is relatively clean and a good step for portables in general, the negatives greatly overshadow it. Trust me, i loved the idea of video, and if all you're looking for it that, this could (COULD) be somewhat useful, assuming you're patient enough. However, if you have any plans of using it for music also, and don't have unlimited patience every time you want a new song, this is not the one. I ended up taking mine back and getting a beautiful new 3rd gen iPod last night, and while there's no video - wow, every accolade apple has gotten for this is warranted (and this is coming from a very anti-apple/mac, die-hard pc guy) and as a note to those who say the new firmware fixed problems, i'd just like to say that I had the newest upgrades for both the software and the lyra itself, and i still had all these issues
Rating: 
Summary: Can Anyone compare the Apple iPod to The RCA Lyra A/V
Review: Disregard the stars...Sorry people this is not a review, but I didnt know how else to get peoples attention on this. I wanted to know how this compares to the Apple iPod becuase I have the 20GB iPod and I ordered this as well. I know that with this product you can watch videos and such, but as far as dependebility and study-ness how does it look? Because with the iPod there are no moving parts (except the button which you flip to lock the buttons) and that means that there is not risk of "breaking" the iPod (except if it accidentally hits the flor from a high enough place). SO if anyone can post a review which tackles this question I would greatl appricieate it. And again sorry for me posting it in the review section
Rating: 
Summary: I love my Lyra ... :)
Review: I found the negative reviews to be extremely unhelpful. I recorded a movie from my Tivo onto the Lyra and it plays back perfectly. The sound quality was outstanding. Nice surround effect. The picture quality is fairly good but not outstanding. It's definitely good enough to give friends the wow factor. Recording from Tivo allows to you to "backup" movies. Of course you can not "backup" copyrighted DVD's from a DVD player. Unless, of course you get a Macrovision- disabled DVD player off the internet. Seriously, with a Macrovision-free DVD player you can backup YOUR DVD's (that you purchased) to the Lyra and have it for long trips. I found that 40 hours is the maximum video hours alloweable when using the "High quality" video setting and the "192 kb/s" - best audo setting. The Matrix Reloaded which was 2h 30min used up 1.10 GB. My computer with Windows XP, recognized the Lyra instantly as a removable drive when plugged into USB port. Very nice. So you can just drag and drop files into the three main folders-"video, photo, audio." For the reviewer who said, "there is no signal, unable to record." The video source, (Tivo, dvd player) must be on play or the Lyra will not recognize. If it's on pause it will not see the source. However, some MPEG (not sure what MPEG format) clips I downloaded fromt the internet was not a "recognized format." Supposedly the Lyra will support "AVI and MPEG4-SP." MP3 playback is outstanding. Excellent sound quality. And it loaded very rapidly via USB to the Lyra. I wish I had USB 2.0 on my computer because the Lyra does support 2.0. For those complaining about screen quality- you would have to purchase a laptop with a excellent video card and LARGE battery to have better screen quality. I think the picture is fine considering the size and form factor. Any better will require a heavier larger battery. Ie- buy a laptop and lug that around. I love my Lyra, considering it's size and price...:)
Rating: 
Summary: Amazing
Review: The Lyra is a great product. The problems mentioned by everyone else are fixed with the new firmware upgrade on the website. It is easy to record videos and the quality is good considering what you are watching it on. Sound is very crisp and loud. The pictures are clear as well. It was well worth the money and far superior to the AV320. Awesome!!!!
Rating:
Summary: Not Bad, Needs Work But Well Worth The $$
Review: If you want this thing to work correctly, you've GOT to upgrade its fimware! The RCA site is now up with current firmware and a complete manual. I suggest that you print out the manual. Believe me, you'll refer to it much over the 1st few days as you find out what The Lyra can do. I bought it on 11/19/03 and haven't looked back. It takes a while to get used to the feel of the controls and to what does what, but after a couple of days, it's almost 2nd nature. Some functions are not yet available but will come in future upgrades. I look fwd to them. They will make The Lyra really worthwhile to own. I usu watch it when I have a break on the workroom floor, usu 1 hr out of 4 hrs. It fits well in my apron pocket and isn't heavy. Where ever you stop the playback, The Lyra 'timestamps' that spot so that you won't have to FFWD to that spot again. Upon your return, it asks you if you want to start where you left off or start @ the begining of the show. I might have to reset it once or twice/day, usu after entering a lot of commands in rapid order. The video is good as is the sound. I use the low rec mode and the picture is close to tv quality, which is more than fine for one person watching an hour or so @ a time. To rec, I hook it up to my DVR's tv out, set the DVR to play and the Lyra to rec for the duration of the show. The Lyra's screen shows what's being recorded. After the rec period elapses, The Lyra shuts down after saving your file. I don't like that you can't name the file, but that's supposed to be one of the firmware upgrades. It won't rec DVDs directly from your DVD players' out plug, but it will play DIVX encoded files (ie, owner purchased ripped DVD's, for your own personal use, of course). As for the MP3 audio, it's close to being as good as my iRiver flash player. Nice, crisp, and loud. I work in a nosy place and can hear it just fine. Also, nice leather carrying case. On a down note, I'm not sure where they are getting the battery life info, but my LYRA gets about 3-4 hours (video)before it poops out. All in all, $$ well spent!
Rating:
Summary: Limited capacity
Review: This model only supports mpeg4 avi file format for video, and only mepg3 for audio, nothing else.
Rating:
Summary: Half the features don't work YET!!!
Review: Sorry, but the folks who are trying to convince you that because this is a small device, you should accept less quality are wrong. The fact is RCA released this product with half the features not yet available and with almost no documentation in the box. Even updating the device immediately after unpacking (as recommended by labels inside the box) didn't improve the device. I tried 2 methods of playback - (1) recording various qualities (and coverting to DivX MPEG 4) on a PC and (2) recording directly onto the device. While the PC recorded files played back clearly on the PC, the Lyra produced blocky images even on scenes with little motion. Colors appeared washed out. The quality of the recording directly onto the Lyra at the highest setting was slightly better, but still produced blocky images especially noticeable during motion scenes. Even if you're OK with barely acceptable images from the device, some of the missing features like fast forwording or reverse during playback are not acceptable. In fact, during playback of video, almost nothing else works. To stop the playback and return to the main menu requires you to illogically press the On/Off button instead of the Menu button. For me, this device is on its way back to the store.
Rating:
Summary: People are way too hard on this thing!
Review: I bought the A/V jukebox, and I love it! I am definitely a gadget guru, and I've had all kinds of goodies like this from PDA's to MP3 Players and more! First, the build quality is pretty good. It has a nice metalic case and feels robust. It is very light, which makes sense considering its basically a laptop hard drive and a screen. As far as complaints about video quality, you have to remember it plays back MP4 files. They're highly compressed to fit more video onto the hard drive, so they're not going to be DVD quality. That being said, they look good on the built-in screen. The two sample videos that are pre-installed will give you a good idea of the quality. There's a clip with a lot of movement that I was particularly impressed with. Anyone who has made homemade VCD's will know how bad motion usually looks when compressed. This definitely looks better than VCD quality, more like VHS. I haven't tried it hooked up to a TV yet. **update** I've had a chance to record a few movies onto it! I have an old Apex DVD player in which you can disable copy protection, so I've been able to record a few of my movies directly into the RD2780. Wow, the quality is far better than I had hoped for! Some lip-sync problems near the ends of films (less than a second after a 90 minute movie, not bad for a hardware encoder like this), but otherwise clean and nice looking at the lowest quality! At this setting I should be able to get about 35-40 full movies onto the hard drive! ***end update*** It comes with tons of accessories, including a belt-clip case (which is way too bulky, but at least its protected), fairly good ear buds, a FULL CAR KIT (including the auto power adaptor and cassette adaptor), and all of the cables. There are two sets of A/V cables so it can be set up to record and playback without changing cables. I was a little inpressed that they didn't skimp on the cables. Mac support is there, but pretty dismal. I was hoping to use it with my Macs, but I'll end up using it with my wife's PC. It can be used with the Mac, but not to its fullest. The box clearly states this though, so you can't fault RCA. The display looks great, the sound is great. I've shorted them one star for rushing it to market and not enabling all of the features (the "coming soon" message that pops up when you try to enable some features is a bummer), but there are firmware upgrades on their site already, so it looks like they'll support it aggressively. And to update other complaints, I did not have a problem downloading the PDF's of the manuals. I agree that if Apple gets into the game it will be incredible, but this is definitely the next best thing.
Rating:
Summary: MUSICMATCH made in Hell
Review: MusicMatch is the worst software EVER. Do NOT support RCA MP3 products until they support drag and drop. Install MusicMatch and YOU'LL BE SORRY! Drag and drop is available on all iRiver MP3 players.
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