Rating: 
Summary: Don't buy the Rio 800
Review: It's all been said already, but I thought I'd put in my 2 cents.
I've gone through two of these, both would not charge (this after following the awful manual exactly). Not sure if it was a bad batch or what. The tech support left plenty to be desired (still waiting after 2 weeks for an email - long distance phone tech support booted me off). Save yourself the pain and choose another player.
Rating:
Summary: What a waste!
Review: I received my Rio as a gift and was really excited about it at first. After the calibration I went to work. The sound was great and the display is awesome, yet the battery indicator was all over the place. After another calibration I thought that the battery problem was solved. Wrong. After the charging the unit wouldn't even turn on. I received another battery (helps to have spares) and the unit worked again. I was in for a surprise when after another calibration the unit stopped working again...Which made me go online to view user feedback (was I the only one with this problem?). I was not surprised to find many with the same problem, yet some Rios do work fine (as my lucky cousin's). I am not going to take a chance and have the unit replaces, I'm off for another toy...
Rating:
Summary: JUNK!!!
Review: Exactly what other reviews have said. I got this for Christmas and was so excited. It worked for 1 hour then lost all power. I could not get it restored and tried EVERYTHING. I returned it to BestBuy and exchanged for the same model. The EXACT same thing happened....What a waste of time, money, and 3 ounces. Terrible product and even when it did work briefly, the sound quality of the WMA files was horrible.
I will now have to waste even more time returing this one for a REAL player.
Rating:
Summary: Defective problems?
Review: My brother and I each got one of these for Xmas.I followed all the directions including properly calibrating the battery. Mine worked for about 3 days and then it died. It no longer turns on. If I plug the player into the AC adapter, the power LED on the battery blinks but the unit will not turn on. I decided to take the unit back and order a new one (everyone appears to be sold out though). Now my brother said he recently had a problem where his unit wouldn't power on either until he turned it off and on 3 or 4 times. I wonder if his is going to flake out on him too. I really like this player, but it appears there may be a quality issue.
Rating:
Summary: I wish I'd read the reviews...
Review: You're taking your chances if you buy this one. I bought mine yesterday, and it is dead. I read the manual and followed the directions. The technical support guy, "Mike," sounded very surprised that I would have problems. By the way, it took 45 minutes of long-distance hold time to get through. He said I need to return it. What a headache.
Rating:
Summary: ...
Review: ... I have just wasted ~$... on this piece of junk. The battery won't hold a charge, I can't hook it up to my typewriter to "download" songs....
Rating:
Summary: Great product, great features -- if it only worked...
Review: When I was in the market for a digital audio player, the choice of a Rio seemed logical enough. First to market, well-known name, and I was unaware of any horror stories. Indeed, the Rio 800 seemed to offer everything I wanted, and more... Rechargeable batteries, great backlit display, simple menu-driven interface, logical controls. Everything went great -- at first. A full overnight calibrated charge cycle, loaded some tunes the next morning, and ventured out for a walk with it. Not 15 minutes later, the thing went dead. I tested the battery with a meter -- full charge. But the thing wouldn't come back on for anything. Plugged-in the AC adapter, and it came back to life -- for about 10 seconds. That was enough... It went back immediately. No wonder they're out of stock at every store in town, and as of late December 2001, out of stock here too They're all gone because people have been exchanging every other one as defective (if the reviews here are to be believed, that is). Truly, this is literally the ideal MP3 player for my use... If it only worked. And thanks to the reviews here, I won't be trying another one (or any other SONICBlue product either, for that matter). It would certainly appear that a more rigorous quality control program would do wonders for these folks. Meanwhile, I think I'll try the Intel Pocket Concert.
Rating: 
Summary: It's like a Cadillac with a extremely small gas tank.
Review: This product looks good, sounds good and is easy to configure. However, Like all the other reviews here.. The "10 hour" battery life is more like 1 hour. If you're lucky.. I calibrated battery correctly, even tried it twice. I had the most recent revised battery adapter connector that the company 'says' is the correct connector as per their docs. But yet, this product has turned into nothing more than a BUZZKILL to the person whom I bought this for, for Christmas. Yes, and "Customer Support" is the usual bad joke.
Obviously will have to just return the product to the store and try another product with the same features and specs. Seems like the Rio 800 series will do nothing more than increase returns for SonicBlue and sales for the Intel Concert. Highly disappointing product, don't waste your time. WCH
Rating:
Summary: Do not buy this product! (Repeat) Do not buy this product!
Review: This is the worst Mp3 player on the market. After I recieved the Rio 800 for Christmas, I opened the box and it was the worst thing I had ever done!! When I had finished calibrating my player,I loaded it up with music. Two minutes later my Rio had shut itself off and I could not turn it on. My Rio was ruined because the Company sends each Rio with a defective charger. I trusted Rio for a long time. Now I am very dissapointed. If you are reading this review,don't buy this product! If you do,you will be very sorry that you did!!
Rating: 
Summary: Bargain Player...better than you think
Review: The Rio 800 has had some poor press, but the problem is not the player but the documentation accompanying it. The battery seems to be a major problem until you figure out that it must be calibrated several times until the screen says, "the battery is calibrated" and not that there are 0 minutes left to charge. By the third time, I finally got 10hrs. playing time. The sounds tends to be a little "tinny" but that is a headphone problem and the sound can be adjusted on the device. I'm not a "tech" type, but you just need to play with this for a while to learn what it will do. Then, you'll be more than happy for the price.
| 
