Rating: 
Summary: Great Idea
Review: I very much like the idea for this product. The larger display is very clear, and very helpful in selecting and viewing audio/video. Most players of this type have small difficult to read/navigate screens. I think the build quality is fine - The buttons seem like they could be a bit more robust, but I haven't had a problem with them. The function / tactile feel is ok. Setup - no problem - plugged it in and windows XP sees the device. Transferred all my wma's to the device, then ran the 'profiler' utility - took maybe a minute or so to profile the device. Audio - playback quality is good - no problems as others have stated. Navigation is great - uses the audio tags - by Genre, Artist, Album, Year, Title, Playlist (Coming soon?) coupled with the big screen makes this very useful - I think being able to find/play audio via the audio tags is one of the reasons for having a device like this. Pictures - I copied several hundred pics to it, and they look good - a bit slow in rendering them though. Firmware - Not there yet - many features will apparently be available via a download - still waiting for that. But the unit functions pretty well as is. Overall - very nicely done, comes with a complete set of accessories. I think the only drawback is the 20gig drive - a bit small for a device to handle audio, pics, and video - seems 40 would be more appropriate.
Rating: 
Summary: I paid $400 to be a beta tester.....
Review: The software is flat out awful in this device. The GUI is clumsy and unstable. If you want to change songs you have to stop the music, go all the way back to the main menu->audio->artist...oops, hit a button that says "This feature is not available"..wait 5 seconds for that to go away...I have not been able to have this thing play 3 songs in a row without locking up either. If you thought like me that you can spend the same price as an ipod plus get video, jpg and CF, trust me it doesn't succeed at any of them...get the ipod. Or get the Archos...it plays divx movies.
Rating:
Summary: Not as delicate as others have stated
Review: So far (2 days) has worked well for me. On the plus side - easy encoding, easy capturing, decent (but not fantastic) picture. CF card interface is going to work well on trips for copying over from my camera when I run out of CF cards rather than buying more CF cards. Not being used for MP3s, so I cannot comment on that (editorial coment: I use minidisks - very slim unit and 5 hours of listening for a $1 blank and a 40 hour battery life for a single 'AA'). I like the fact that I was able to load the complete "Yes Minister" and "Yes Prime Minister" series to watch on the road and still have over half of the storage left (might be adding the complete "Prisoner" tonight). On the minus side - it is an RCA product, there is no printed manual, No encoding guide for DVDs (Use Dr. Divx for the easy interface) and several menu items say "future". But for what I bought it for - keeping the kid occupied in the plane, me catching up on archived videos, portable storage for ebooks and pictures, I like it a lot. More disk space would be great, but RCA claims 80 hours can be saved on the 20 megs. I would say more like 60 depending on the quality of encoding. It does produce a decent VHS like quality for HQ captures played back on standard TVs.
Rating: 
Summary: Great Concept. Not quite ready for prime time.
Review: I picked up one at the local Circuit City. Noboby in the store had any knowledge about the product so I made sure I could return it if I didn't like it. I thought the price, ... was very good considering the feature list. I especially liked the small size and the built-in CF slot which would be handy since my digital camera uses CF. I am sorry to say that my initial excitement about this really exciting product has been dampened. I give the people who designed this a lot of credit for such an ahead-of-the-pack effort at producing a truly slick and capable product in such a portable package. When I first opened and tried it, I was truly impressed. Now, there is finally a single, small unit has all the entertainment capability I want on business trips and more. I can record hours of Video, hundreds of MP-3's and even use this as the central storage unit for my digital photos and even use it as a mass data transfer device at work and home.
Sadly, though, the unit broke after about two hours of noodling. I was being gentle since this device does feel a bit delicate (like a fine instument. One of the little four-direction control pads broke, completely falling out of the unit with little metal parts falling into the housing, so I couldnt even continue to use it if I wanted. POSITIVES: 1. Sound quality seems very good.
2. Recording video was easy (I used the video out from my VCR to record off cable) and gave pretty decent playback on the little screen. The 3.5" TFT screen, incidently, is very sharp & bright with excellent contrast.
3. The unit has a good amount of really nifty features within it's farily intuitive little operating system. Unfortunately, many of these features aren't actually implemented yet. Attempting to use about half of the features results in a dialog box: "This feature will be available in a download soon."
4. The unit comes with a very generous array of accessories including a car kit complete with power cord and cassette audio adaptor. A pretty clever little protective case is included and all cables.
5. For the price, this is a tremendous amount of functionality. NEGATIVES: 1. Biggest minus, by far, is the two very poorly implemented control pads. These are flimsy, tiny, slippery and fragile, with virtually no tactile feedback, yet they are central to navigating the system. I was constantly ending a file when I actually wanted to ff or rewind.
2. The screen is actually very decent, but a bit smallish for these old eyes. If a future version could somehow manage a 4.5" or 5" screen that would be nirvana.
3. The documentation is practically nill. You are told to go to a web site containing some PDF files, but the site is apparently not operational yet. RCA/Thompson actually has VERY LITTLE INFO about this product available on either the marketing or support sides.
4. Here is a minor complaint: Why on earth would you use a shiny chrome finish on the face of this unit? The reflectiveness is certainly not helpful when tring to view the TFT screen. It also makes the unit feel very slippery. SUGGESTIONS:
In a future version, The addition of a microphone and a tiny speaker (even if it was tinny) would make the total funtionality of this item truly magnificent. PDA designers, afterall, manage to fit these in their tiny designs. My conclusion: I'm bringing this one back for a refund, but with a tinge of remorse. I may well purchase this one again in a few weeks or months if they get the web site working and/or include the features that are promised. By then, I hope they will have fixed the control pad problems too. This thing is the future! I'm guessing several other companies will be offering similar devices and they will sell briskly. Now just imagine for a moment if Apple does this and applies the same incredible engineering that they have in the ipods. That would be something. That really would be something.
Rating: 
Summary: I like to use the things I buy!
Review: I went to the local retailer to purchase the Lyra 40 GB Jukebox which I had researched on the net. Then I saw the Audio/Video Jukebox and decided to fork out the extra money and give it a try. I didn't get to give it a try. I spent all day trying to download the product manual from the internet. Everything on RCA's site appeared to be working, except for the manual I needed to get up and running. The only instruction that comes in the box is the Quick Start guide. The software CD does not contain a copy of the manual. I don't care what kind of technical problems RCA might have been experiencing, I spent way too much money on this thing to not be able to use it. So I took it back within 24 hours of purchase. If I were an RCA rep I'd think twice about selling a product that doesn't include an instruction manual, etither in print or on CD.
Rating:
Summary: do we expect to much ?
Review: nothing is perfect,are you happy with a 50%? may be yes may be not it's up to you, it's your choice, your style .
about this machine: looks very good, bold design,easy to handle, smart ideas, but they are going cheap, may be " corny " esp. the interface ;let's go a few... the screen: cheap construction,you must be twisted to look at it, different views if you look from the left or the right ...not crisp at all,just flat.
in a small video product we expect a screen " near " perfect... what else...you can't record a part of a movie, to watch later on ,may be on the plane,in your cabin in the wood,etc because copyright laws,what they expect with this, you are going to make a competion with all major brands, and so on...selling movies such bad quality ?
this is a limitation esp." human bean restrictions" .
beside the unit will freeze" eventually",yes, so be ready with to reset it, have a paper clip handy.
next:in our new age when the storage media are a few to many, this one come built in with the CF, (eventual download from you camera/music transfer) why ?, it's also limited, older cameras may be ...well.!.
next it's not possible to adjust the sound when you are listening a piece of music, stop and go back with all the process ( this unit is pretty too slow to move),also i did not see any bookmark just in case you are lessoning to a " audio book " or a opera...
the audio files are ok, so far.( but stick with mp3 128kbs or VBR).
what else?...i must pass.
the unit is pretty good for simple usage of every day with a medium budjet ,again the brand speak for themself, is it a "french competition " archos/ thompson ? why the demos video are so bad ? it's to much... i just tested another unit,another brand, a little more expensive, it was just more cool ! just be organized and it's perfect.
for sure i am not going to keep two machines, and a 40G is much much better.
adios amigos! another time...joliemadame
Rating:
Summary: Great Idea. Poor Result. A "Video MP3" Player that Wouldn't
Review: Imagine buying a MP3 player that will not allow you to record/playback copyrighted material. Well that is exactly what RCA has released- a "video MP3" player that will not allow you to record any copyrighted material. I thought it would be great to record some of my DVD's to this device so that I could watch them on the road just like I listen to my CD's on the road with an MP3 player but witout that capability the Lyra is useless to me and I imagine most other people. I did however record some shows off of the TV as a test and the results were very acceptable although the picture would freeze on occasion. Also the user interface is very clunky. I am sure other manufacturers will improve on this idea in the near future.
Rating:
Summary: Pretty nice
Review: I managed to snag a couple of these from a national chain store and it is pretty good. The LCD is fairly bright and crisp and the build quality is pretty good. Recording is a fairly straightforward task also and file organization is intuitive (although it may be problematic when you have a lot of files) Also, there are some available on auction sites if you need one NOW!
Rating:
Summary: Archos Av300 is a better product
Review: I have owned the Archos AV340 for about 4 months. Today I purchased the RCA lyra 2780. I got it as a gift for my girlfriend. I did not want to get the Archos for her because I read how the RCA would support more audio formats and More video codecs. For the past five hours I have been playing around with the Lyra. I have tried out every function and feel I have a good feel for what it does and doesn't do. I read some of the early reviews for both products. The lyra just came out this weekend 11/16/03, so I am not sure what some of these people were reviewing. Any one who gets their hand on both and think the Lyra is a superior product must work for RCA. I don't want anybody to take my word for it, before buying either one, go out and test both product. Do a side by side comparison of video quality, sound ( please bring your own headphones, the RCA ones are good, but the ones Archos provides SUCK) Compare the operating system and play with the controls to really get a feel for each product. After doing this myself I am almost convinced I will be returning the Lyra. THE ARCHOS IS HANDS DOWN A BEETER PRODUCT. The lyra is suppose to support more video formats codecs, but so far its seems to have problems playing most of the video files I have tested on it. The archos only pays DIVX files in simple format. Basically unless its encoded that way you have to convert the files using a program called virtual dub. The latest version is much easier to use than when I owned the Archos AV20. Please don't buy the Av20 you will be very frustrated using it. The lyra does support more Audio formats but Archos claims they will offer Firmware upgrades that will support more audio formats. The lyra main screen looks much better than the Archos but that seems to be the only thing better about the interface. The archos is easier to understand and works better. The controls for the lyra are scattered and feel so flimsy I don't think it will stand up to everyday use. Video quality on the Archos is much, much better. Even the demo video that comes with the Lyra is painful to look at. I tested video file downloaded from the web and recorded a video tape. The Archos is near DVD quality, the Lyra is near VHS. You see a lot of pixilation on the Lyra. The archos screen is better and can be viewed from more angles. The difference is very obvious. With the lyra you don't need a separate module to record video. Both products have almost the same plastic feel, the archos feels studier. The lyra comes with more goodies out of the box. (a nice case that allows acces to all the scattered controls) a car adapter and all the cables you need. The Archos comes with the video recorder module and cheap headphones and all the video and audio cables you need. The archos will eventually do much more when the Camera module is finally released. I have called archos several times to try to get a release date for the AV cam and so far every date they have given me has come and gone. Archos is not very good a keeping its own announced release dates. Please note you must update the lyra from RCA website to use some of the features. The Archos firmware must also be updated but you can use almost all of its features out of the box. I had great expectations for the lyra and I am very disappointed. I will continue to play with it for a while. The Archos is a MUCH, MUCH better products.
Nov 19th
OK, I've had this for about five days and I am returning it this weekend. To many problems and a lack of out of the box functionality. Its frozen on me several times and I had to reset it. The reset fuction does not seem to work the way its suppose to. Worse of all YOU CAN'T RECORD COPY PROTECTED DVD'S. I've recorded a few DVD's I OWN!!! to take with me on trips with the Archos av340 and they always look great, If archos had their act together they would rule the PVP market. The Av300 camera just came out today, months late, when I've recieve it??, I will post a review. I am still trying to decide if I will get the Archos for my girl.
NOTE TO THE PEOPLE AT ARCHOS: LETS GET OUR ACT TOGETHER. YOU HAVE THE MAKINGS OF A GOOD PRODUCT, BUT YOU NEED TO SUPPORT MORE VIDEO AND AUDIO FORMATS (WMA WOULD BE A GREAT START SO I CAN PURCHASE SONGS FROM NAPSTER, BUYMUSIC, ETC. I HOPE TO SEE SOME NEW FEATURES I FUTURE FIRMWARE UPGRADES.
Rating: 
Summary: A device that is revolutionary
Review: This might be thoght as a imation of the archos products that have been out for years but its not, think of a Ipod, a TiVo, and microsoft word, powerpoint and spreadsheet all in one. The reason thing is thought to be different not be having less features but better by having more features. I have been studying the different players for months and thing player is truely top of the line. The things better about thing new lycra are that its battery life is longer for bolth video and audio. Plus the audio of the archos is only mp3 there is no WMA which stands for windows media audio which is one of the major types of music files. Then there is the price the price of the lycra is only 400 dollars and most of the 20 gb mp3 players are 400 dollars (the archos av320 is 100 dollars more!!) and if you can get video files too for free thats just icing of the digital cake, yeah that sounds kind of lame but trust me I know my stuff. I will have the player by the end of nov and I cant wait to see it in person. Ps. Please take my advise when I say that the world of mp3 players dont get much more advased than this.
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