Rio 800 128 MB Digital Audio Player (MP3/WMA)

Rating:
Summary: Whoa.. top of the line? NOT
Review: So, I was very excited when I purchased this product... until it actually arrived. The feature list sounds fantastic! 128 MB, built in rechargeable battery, USB, support for mp3 and the superior wma formats... I could hardly wait! But alas, the bubble burst when the product actually arrived. I downloaded my running music on to the Rio 800, about 2.5 CD's worth in WMA format, charged up the battery and hit the road. Based on my previous experience with other Rio's I've owned, I was totally suprised when half way through the first song I heard a "skip". Then, in the next song it is "skipped" again and then immediately jumped to the next song. By the time it tried to play the fourth song (all songs have notable distortion and loud audible skips) the Rio 800 locked up and the only way I could reset it was to stop and pry the battery off the unit. So, in a fit of desperation I re-ripped my music library in .mp3 format and re-loaded my music on the Rio 800. This didn't help, and in fact may have been worse since the skipping seems to have increased and hard-locking now occurs at random. Safe to say this is not what I expect when I purchase something at the high end (arguably too high-end) of the personal mp3 player spectrum. I've been unsucessful at this point contacting tech support and fear that I'll be told that my only option is to RMA the unit.
Hope this helps someone make an informed decision on this unit. I certainly have learned my lesson.

Rating:
Summary: Failure out of the box
Review: I was so excited to get the Rio 800 and an extra backpack for some trips is was going to take. But the charger in the extra backpack failed. Then the origonal backpack failed and fried the player in the process. It was quite a dissapointment. It asside from the buggy audio manager the player was great... while it worked.

Rating:
Summary: Serious Recharging Problems and no support
Review: The product was wonderful for the first 3 months and the recharging socket broke. I could not get any support from their website, and had to dig throughout their site to get the phone support. They told me that the backpack was out of warranty. So I bought an 32MB expansion backpack. It was really cool at first, extra 32MB of space and it charged fine. Then 2 months later it quit charging. I called support 6 times. Twice they had no record of my calls, and I had to get 2 RMA numbers. They have been out of stock for 7 weeks now. No status. Impossible support techs that provide no help. Their email service doesn't respond but once every 10 days and it's of no help.

Rating:
Summary: A great player!
Review: I got my rio 800 and I love it. It has lots of memory and looks great. I used to have a rio 500 and it was stolen. I was so happy with it that I bought the 800. For those who have had problems with the player turning off, you might want to check "power saving" under the "prefs" on the menu. Your player might be turning off because you accidentally set it like that. Just set the power saving time to 0 and your rio shouldn't shut off. I haven't had any problems with this player and it has survived many droppings. This is the best player with 128MB. Does anyone know if there is a rio 600/800 Fm tuner remote?

Rating:
Summary: Sonic Black & Blue Rio 800
Review: I never spent so much money on something so worthless. I have had this for less than 2 months, and have only heard 8 songs on it. The battery won't keep a charge any longer, even though it indicates it is fully charged. If you need a decent door stop, this will suffice, but if you want to listen to music....

Rating:
Summary: Be Very Careful
Review: When you plan to spend more than US$200.00 on a portable MP3 Player you expect to buy the Top of the line, or at least one of the best. Incredibly the Rio 800 is the worst electronic piece I ever turned my hands on. First, when you download your music (even 128 bit) when you play it back you hear some jumpin' and sounds in your songs, when you check your originals they are 100% fine, so it's just the MP3 player. But that's not the worst, the worst is when it get halted, you have to take out the battery and put it again in irder to reset it. I take it to the store and they told me that it was ok, after 5 minutes it went halted again. A humble recommendation DO NOT BUY IT.

Rating:
Summary: Not dependable
Review: I bought this in August, it is now January and I have gotten less than 20 hours of use out of it. The battery never kept charge and it kept turning off. Now all it plays is static. The 1 year warranty is okay - but after spending $299 dollars, I now have to pay $30 to have a replacement sent. Then it took almost 6 weeks to get a response from the time I first emailed them with the problem - I eventually ended up calling tech support on my money. Now it should be sent 'when it is in stock.'

Rating:
Summary: Weak
Review: In short, weak battery, weak sound. I can never get more than an hour or two of play time from the battery after fully charging. Most recently, the earphone connection does not work. All in all, its just a light weight product.

Rating:
Summary: Important Must Read
Review: I don't own this player but I am getting one because my Rio 600 has stoped working. but one important fact that I must notify you of is that rio have issued a important notice saying that the charger supplied with the rio 800 and memory backpacks is faulty and could damage your player.
Hope this helps.

Rating:
Summary: don't buy this item
Review: I used it for 2 hour and this junk shut it down by itself and
cannot be turned on again.

lee