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Your previous post which linked information from 2006, this was prior to 2006, it did not work.

Wanna bet? http://www.digitalnetworksna.com/itunes/ You lost. You so fucking lost it completely.

Clearly making a good mp3 player wasn't enough to sell a good mp3 player. My first mp3 player was a Rio Nitrus, which I thought was a better player than the first gen iPod. It had less storage, but a better form factor in my mind. Unfortunately, it never got enough market share. Rio brought out the larger capacity Carbon, but the much-anticipated Chroma, never made it out the door, and my next player was an 80GB iPod.

Apple had the manufacturing capacity and capital to keep bringing updated iPods to market on a regular schedule, the same as they are doing with the iPad. I'm waiting to see and handle the Playbook, because I'm a Blackberry user, but I'm afraid that RIM has missed the boat bringing a first gen product into competition with Apple's second gen iPad. Having owned enough orphan hardware in my life, I will probably wind up with an iPad3.

Microsoft is the whipping boy. Microsoft does get undue flack in certain areas, but their history is what does it to them. They just love to copy stuff, ranging from source code to general hardware designs. At the same time, their innovations aren't given a due chance or are ignored as game changing.

Some oddness in my psyche when I approach Microsoft and Apple OS features: When Apple does the copying, I picture it as them trying to make things more comfortable for switchers. When Microsoft does the copying, I picture it as a way to stop bleeding market share.

Okay, about the Rio: What are you talking about? It doesn't even look like they have color screens, let alone a touch screen.

• Rio
• Zune
• iPod Touch

I also seriously doubt if Microsoft was separated away from Apple they would have made a touch screen Zune when they did. If you say so, though.

With the xbox, MS managed to bring networked gaming to the masses. But they somehow managed to create a controller that reminded a lot of people remarkably of the GameCube controller. Especially the S version. Sega managed to create much more original designs in general, and Sony did have their own controller. What happened to Microsoft? :-/

"I wish someone would manufacture an mp3 player with better analog output circuitry designed not for headphone / earphone listening but for hooking up to hifi components."

The Rio Karma was as close to a audiophile digital audio player as you could get when it was around. It has RCA line level outputs via its dock which is nice for hifi hookups (not to mention it also had a 5 band parametric customizable EQ): http://www.digitalnetworksna.com/shop/_templates/item_main_Rio.asp?model=261

If you want to learn a little more about ReplayTV's current owner (who also owns of couple of other little brands called "Denon" and "Marantz), check out this web site... It ain't disappearing any time soon. :-)

FrostWire is a Peer to Peer (P2P) information sharing client for the Gnutella network.

Aqua Data Studio is a database query tool and administration tool that allows developers to easily create, edit, and execute SQL scripts, as well as browse and visually modify database structures.

Maple is a leading Computer Algebra System

Columba is a very nice email client

Rio Music Manager is and iTunes like app that comes bundled with every Rio mp3 player (can be downloaded for free too)

MagicDraw is a very impressive UML modeler.

Well, from their own website requirements...
http://www.digitalnetworksna.com/dvr/whatdoIneed.a sp
They state you NEED both..Only the internet conneciotn is listed as OPTIONAL.. Tivo also needs a land line (only once) for initial setup - this is just a stupid, stupid, stupid requirement these days...

ReplayTV leads the DVR industry in groundbreaking innovations aimed at providing consumers with unmatched power and control in maximizing their TV viewing experience with the best performance and best value.

First to put consumers in total control with QuickSkip® 30-second advance and other features
First with built-in networking allowing consumers to watch any show from any networked ReplayTV DVR in the home
First to allow consumers to program their DVR via the web from anywhere in the world
First with genre-based recording allowing consumers to track their favorite team or find their favorite actor
First and only to offer network recording which directs requests to available networked ReplayTV DVRs with sufficient capacity
First and only standalone DVR with Progressive Scan and Digital Audio Output for state of the art performance

I had a unit that did not have a number to call to get guide information

Really? Because both my Replays are humming along nicely, pulling their Guide information down off "the Internets". Maybe you've heard of it. My Replays were and are just plug and go. I even pull down Replay Guide info onto my PC using DVArchive, and can then view, schedule, and reschedule recording info from any web browser. Moral of the story: even if you have some ancient Replay from the 90s that must use a phone line you can still get guide information. DNNA rolled the guide service in to its $3000+ Escient product line so it seems like it will continue to run for a long time.

Commercial Products and Services:

ReplayTV: TiVo's ancient nemesis, it also 'just works'. I can't say whether it is more user friendly than TiVo, but it is far more customer friendly.

Windows XP Media Center Edition: Yes, them. Choose from multiple manufacturers but expect to face Microsoft Corp's version of the 'personal' computing experience.

Hardware vendors are now pushing DVD/HD Recording devices quite a bit. RCA, Motorola and Panasonic have products available.

Service Providers like Comcast and DishTV are now providing time shifting hardware and tv-on-demand solutions. Check with your choice of cable or satellite service provider.

Hobbyist Solutions:

MythTV: The Open Source, Do-It-Yourself DVR. Expect to build your own machine and play around a bit before it works the way you want. (Linux)

Freevo: MythTV, but not. (Linux)

MediaPortal: Who ever said Open Source was limited to Linux software? (Windows)

Meedio: It was a community based freeware product (myHTPC) that morphed into a commercial product without warning. Still a reasonable alternative to Microsoft for PVR function on the Windows platform. (Windows)

eyeTV: This Mac product has me seriously considering picking up a Mini-Mac to use as a media center. (Apple)

SnapStream (Windows)

SageTV (Windows)

Chris-TV (Windows)

ShowShifter (Windows)

On a personal note, I purchased the ReplayTV when it was first released and am entirely satisfied with it. Plus, by purchasing early I have never had to pay a subscription fee for data that is freely available elsewhere. If there had been a subscription fee I would not have purchased it.

Dan

"ReplayTV 5500 requires a broadband Internet connection or a analog phone line. A home network is required for room-to-room video streaming. A PC connected to a home network is required to store and view digital photos with ReplayTV. ReplayTV reserves the right to automatically add, modify, or disable any features in the operating software when your ReplayTV 5500 connects to our server."(emphasis mine)

Try this See this post for more info.

If ReplayTV was still developing new versions, I'd expect their licensing of MPEG-2 which makes Macrovision support compulsary would require them to make the same restrictions as TiVo does now.

If?!?

ReplayTV was bought from the failed SonicBlue by Denon/Marantz Holdings. ReplayTV then released the new 5500 series which does not include the same restrictions as TiVo. ReplayTV is doing pretty well these days.

In fact, even the new replayTV's are much better than TiVo in most ways (unless you dig DRM.) But the best systems are the original 54xx series ReplayTV, which you can still buy if you look hard.

Sorry for the reality check to the face there, but that's the truth.

For those who don't want to deal with wondering what TiVo will take from them next, but also don't want the hassle of building your own MythTV box, there is an alternative .

We are still very happy with our ReplayTV 54xx series (which is still available in some places, incuding eBAY, but have ben replaced by the 55xx series after Denon/Marantz Holdings bought ReplatTV from the failed SonicBlue.) A lot of people avoided these and went for TiVo a few years back because SonicBlue's future was uncertain. It's been a pleasure to find that Denon/Marantz has kept all of the existing features on old models, only removed auto-commercial skip from the new models, reduced the monthly guide fee, and actually improved on SonicBlue's already pretty good customer service.

A ReplayTV has all of the Tivo features except advertisements, control flags, and predicting what you want to record. Instead you can fully control what it records and when, using simple "themes" or search words that also will avoid re-runs for you. Plus, a Replay includes automatic commercial skip (no need to press any button, it detects and omits commercials -- or not if you disable that feature,) 30-second skip without a hack, and most importantly open source apps for getting recordings off the replay (no way for them to stop or limit this!,) sharing them over the net or LAN, full remote control, scheduling, or even making your own guide service. Plus the monthly subscription is cheaper ($0 if you make your own guide.)

MythTV is cool, but it's not a good solution for my parents or grandparents. ReplayTV is.

For those who don't want to deal with wondering what TiVo will take from them next, but also don't want the hassle of building your own MythTV box, there is an alternative .

We are still very happy with our ReplayTV 54xx series (which is still available in some places, incuding eBAY, but have ben replaced by the 55xx series after Denon/Marantz Holdings bought ReplatTV from the failed SonicBlue.) A lot of people avoided these and went for TiVo a few years back because SonicBlue's future was uncertain. It's been a pleasure to find that Denon/Marantz has kept all of the existing features on old models, only removed auto-commercial skip from the new models, reduced the monthly guide fee, and actually improved on SonicBlue's already pretty good customer service.

A ReplayTV has all of the Tivo features except advertisements, control flags, and predicting what you want to record. Instead you can fully control what it records and when, using simple "themes" or search words that also will avoid re-runs for you. Plus, a Replay includes automatic commercial skip (no need to press any button, it detects and omits commercials -- or not if you disable that feature,) 30-second skip without a hack, and most importantly open source apps for getting recordings off the replay (no way for them to stop or limit this!,) sharing them over the net or LAN, full remote control, scheduling, or even making your own guide service. Plus the monthly subscription is cheaper ($0 if you make your own guide.)

MythTV is cool, but it's not a good solution for my parents or grandparents. ReplayTV is.

MP3's can it hold compared to this Diamond http://www.digitalnetworksna.com/rioaudio/default. asp?cat=35

No.... they closed because they are not making the boatloads of cash they wanted to. http://www.digitalnetworksna.com/company/press.asp ?ID=610 Biz plan 101 . It's a shame when the bean counters can dump a fairly profitable business due to the fact that the profit margin isn't 100%.

http://www.digitalnetworksna.com/shop/_templates/i tem_main_Rio.asp?model=266 Looks like it's still available for sale from this place. Great for running.

People JUST want to listen to the music. Nothing more.

In a word: I wouldn't worry about it.

I personally have a Rio MP3 player. Called the Rio Karma. It's small, functional and does something most MP3 players don't. Supports the Open Source OGG format. When comparison shopping OGG was a requirement, since I didn't want to re-rip most of my music collection. iPod, Sony, RCA, and Creative MP3 players don't support OGG/Vorbis, Rio and iRiver do, and Rio has more features on the player, such as the DJ which can play your favorite (most played) songs from any Genre you want. Or have it select songs for you from all genres. It even *Attempts* to go from heavy music, to slightly "lighter" music and then build back up so you're not going from Slayer to Goo Goo Dolls back to back.

I have never understood why TiVO is the PVR that gets all the press. I have two PVRs from ReplayTV that I really like. I don't have ads popping up and I can jump (not just fast-forward) past commercials. ReplayTV did try a pause ad for a while a couple of years back, but cancelled it after users complained. The only ads they have now are an occasional (about 2/yr) ad for a ReplayTV sale or contest.

the shitty 8-track like sound quality of an iPod ...

Awww; still pissed you spent that c-note on your 32MB Rio?

Sorry, man ...

(btw - try an iPod with different headphones next time ... it really is near audiophile-quality.

Would management be pleased that their employees were using the Rio's or any of the other mp3 products out there? Is this because Microsoft has some displeasure of it's employees using a product that were not made by Microsoft? If that's so is the MS I-Pod killer that far around the corner?

Seriously, it's an I-pod. Get over it. If it was effecting their productivity that would be one thing but I doubt it's the case. And get over the fact that MS employees are using I-Pods. They're as much a consumer as you are.

I just ordered myself 2 of these babies. Self charging USB2, driverless, 5GB, ultrathin and very sexy.

http://www.digitalnetworksna.com/shop/_templates/i tem_main_Rio.asp?model=267/

What are you, nuts? A phone that just happens to have a 3GB hard drive and the ability to play music as competition with a full-fledged music player? I'd look more towards things like the Rio Karma for iPod competition, myself.

If you're looking for a portable FLAC player.. look no further than the Rio Karma from RioAudio.com ;)

P.S. For those who are partial to OGG, it also does them!

I think this is far better than the iPod mini.

http://www.digitalnetworksna.com/shop/_templates/i tem_main_Rio.asp?model=267&cat=72/

5GB
20 hours battery!
under $200
just as small as ipod mini
looks ok aswell
optional software, you can drag and drop if you want.

seems like a better deal to me...

iPod iMini iIs iDead

/ Sinserely yours, Rio Carbon

Rio Karma: ogg and flac support, 20 GB

I've managed to rip my entire (along with a few samplings from buddies, but don't tell the RIAA) music collection of about 300ish albums. It's much less time consuming than you apparently think.

Cdex or EAC are the two apps I'm most familiar with (stay away from MusicMatch, it's bloated beyond belief) and I'm sure someone else can offer even more options. Both of these programs will rip/encode (into FLAC, LAME MP3, or Ogg Vorbis)/tag in a single click of the mouse. As long as you've got a web connection they'll look up the tag information via CDDB and even set up your ripped files into a directory structure (artist/album/ or year/artist/album or ... well.. pretty much anything) to keep all those MP3's organized. Heck, even if that fails there are programs like The Godfather that can help you mass edit and identify those tags you forgot to get the first time..

I don't know if it's any harder to transfer these files to an iPod than the AAC's you get off iTunes, but I haven't heard any complaints about it so I'm sure it's intuitive enough. Personally, I prefer my Rio Karma for its vorbis/flac support as well as gapless playback (even on MP3's, which don't natively support gapless playback).

Heck, most players (not my Karma, but I digress) are recognized as external USB hard drives (via MSC, so they should even work on Linux) nowadays. All you have to do is drag and drop your MP3's onto the disk (possibly a specific directory, but still no big deal).

Anyway, I'm rambling.. Bottom line is, ripping your CD collection is terribly easy, and with hard drive prices what they are, you really have no reason NOT to back up your collection (FLAC is best for archiving purposes, once again keeping in mind that storage is dirt cheap these days).

The Rio Karma has ogg and flac support plus ethernet, but it's an HD-based player. I want one real bad, but even at $230 it's out of my price range (to say nothing of the $500 40GB model).

I have to admit, though, I have a 128MB MuVo and my wife has a 256MB MuVo TX. The Exact Audio Copy and LAME programs work really well, and MP3 is okay when I'm not in a purist mood. :)

I think Creative's problem and the problem of all manufacturers is going to be the click wheel. I have used a lot of MP3 players over the years dating back to the Rio 500 and I have never seen a superior user interface. As long as Apple holds the patent on the touch wheel idea I don't think they are in any danger.

I have looked at the Zen Touch and Zen Micro and they might rate a distant second place but the click wheel is still by far superior. The Rio Karma is fine but not in the same class as either product. My advice to anyone looking to purchase an MP3 player; borrow a friend's G4 iPod for a day. If you are still able to consider another MP3 player after that I will be very surprised.

1. Why are you using the fast-forward button? Why not use the commercial-skipping forward button? What do you mean TiVo don't have one?

2. Okay then, why not use skip-ahead 30 seconds button or random-access? Oh, TiVo doesn't have that either.

This is why I have a ReplayTV. Actually, I have two of them. I can skip commercials with a single button press. This works 90% of the time. Also, I can skip ahead or back any amount or go any point in a program instantly. Plus, a lot more.

Also, check out the ReplayTV forum at AVSForum

MythTV plays my OGG's just fine, as does my wife's Rio Karma. Given the openness and Freedom of OGG (not to mention quality) versus MP3 and AAC, any new device I am going to use must be able to play OGG. I regret that I got my Aiwa MP3 car stereo before I knew about OGG, but at least it has a line in for things like the Karma. Or, I might just replace it with a Linux based deck.

Odd that none of the 4 articles mention the Rio Carbon mp3 player. I just got one a week ago, and love it. It's a 5gb HD based player, smaller than the iPod Mini with more space, and the battery lasts up to 20 hours. Plus, you don't need to use iTunes / MusicMatch type software (although you can if you want to) - I just plug in the USB 2.0 and copy files to it.

It seems the Rio Karma hasn't had a feature bump since it's introduction last year. Sure, it's pricing is on par with the 20 GB iPod (and the Karma comes with a dock, featuring an ethernet port, not to mention native support for Ogg Vorbis and FLAC), but I think Rio can do even better. =)

Rio Karma

That is not true. The features were removed from the 5000 series. All 4000 series ReplayTVs still have these features. Commercial Advance was replaced by Show|Nav in the 5500 series. Basically the same as Commercial Advance, but you have to press the button on the remote first.

ReplayTV just lacks any features that makes them stand out

Can a TiVo do this:
Resume a Show Anywhere: Start watching a movie in the living room, and if you feel yourself nodding off, pause it, and resume watching right where you left off, in the comfort of your bedroom.
Read about ReplayTV's features http://www.digitalnetworksna.com/dvr/5500/features .asp

"that's not enough!

it needs to be able to sync to your itunes library automatically when you plug it in."

You can interface with iTunes if you have a Mac...

http://www.digitalnetworksna.com/itunes/Web_Instal ler_OSX/install_OSX.asp

While the unit does have a history of locking up, this was both a problem of between the Hitachi drive's firmware and the Karma's firmware. As of FW 1.25 (I believe) Rio believes they have completely solved problems from their end. Thus, if you have a fully updated Karma and the drive is still flaking out, it's probably Hitachi's fault (still Rio's fault for choosing Hitachi, but at least you know what's going on).

Firmware upgrades are regrettably only upgradeable through USB using Windows. However, once you update the firmware yourself, Rio Music Manager Lite (the java version mentioned) works perfectly fine through Ethernet, and is quite nice actually. The latest firmware available is v1.68, obtainable from the Karma support site. As a review though, this kinda sucked because it doesn't mention other niceties of the Karma. Battery life is rated at about 15 hours (12 if you use oggs exclusively). Gapless playback is possible with LAME-ripped MP3s and all Oggs. The karma is perfectly capable of using DHCP, not sure why the reviewer wanted to go through the hassle of a static assignment.

Riovolution is a great site for Rio owners, containing FAQs and a useful Forum. In fact, Rio employees post on the website from time to time, though obviously in an unofficial manner. That site was the originator of the "smack your karma" solution if you ran into the same problem as the user above did (short reason: sticky hard drive. Check the FAQs).

Personally, I love my Karma. I got it at Bestbuy with warranty in case it died, so I don't have to worry about that. I have yet to experience ANY hard drive issues (upgraded the firmware as the first thing I did), and it's been working great so far. I've been using it for about 5 months now with no problems. My personal rating of the product would be 6-7/10 because of the reliability issues with the product (new units don't seem to be bad, but it's hard to get accurate numbers). Without reliability problems I'd give it a 9/10.

The Rio Karma supports FLAC and Vorbis as well as the usual MP3 and WMA. And a docking station with Ethernet.

I'm enjoying mine quite a bit.

The Rio Karma organises its lists of all the artists, albums and tracks on the device in just the way you describe. Better, because while selecting an initial letter you can see the first six or so artists/etc starting with that letter.

Or... you could just buy an ethernet-ready, autoconfiguring ReplayTV for around $400 (lifetime) or less from eBay, boot up the free software Java-based DVArchive (works on Windows 95/98/Me/NT/2000/Xp, Linux, Mac OSX 10.2.3 or later, Solaris, etc), and schedule, share, and distribute your content over your LAN or across the Internet at will. In this context, the ReplayTV box works like as a really very loosely coupled capture device with its own extensive on-board command set that can be driven remotely by the DVArchive program, either at a console or using a web browser. And unlike the Tivo's inferior HMO option, the DVArchive system costs nothing and is unemcumbered by DRM. Some select ReplayTV models even feature automatic commercial skipping (using associated XML content metatags) and let you download content from a library of several tens of thousands of shows stored on a wide distributed ReplayTV network. More info here or here.

Looks like you're boned on this one; I've just RTFM and there's no mention of a similar feature.

Oh, right, because we all need a mp3 player that gets an IP from a DHCP server... I for one like having a mp3 player that connects to the same ports that every other external device on the planet connects to.

"2) No support for Linux..."

shit!! so it only supports 99.9% of Operating Systems in use?!? The Horror!

"3) No OGG-Vorbis support"

crap!! No support for a music format that only 0.01% (mostly geeks) use? What is Digital Networks thinking?!?

p.s. the Rio Carbon is the upgrade for the Rio Nitrus, not the Karma, so it kinda makes sense that it wouldn't include all the features of a Karma, now doesn't it?

A shameless ripoff of an iPod box

The Rio Carbon "iPod Mini Slayer" has been available in black for over a year now; it was actually released months before the iPod mini albiet at 1.5GB.

It was one of the first "mini" players to offer everything the iPod offered and more ... in a small thin case to boot. With no iPod Mini in sight the player actually had no competition. So why didn't it sell?

Marketing. The early adopters had already bought their players so the only market left was the masses. The masses are easily influenced by style. Stylish ads, stylish interface, stylish software, stylish player.

Reviews of the black Rio Nitrus were luke-warm at best. Most people agreed that the player itself was stylish, but the interface was clunky, the software was garbage, and there were no stylish ads to say otherwise.

Lets face it, every player plays MP3 ... The masses don't really care whether or not the player has OGG support or lossless audio support. So when all things are equal the style factor kicks in.

This new Rio Carbon is a true testament to the success of Apples approach to marketing style. They have duplicated it right down to the box.

Unfortunately by doing so there is really no good reason for the masses to jump onboard. When mom or dad is buying an MP3 player for Christmas and they have to choose between the $249 5GB Rio Carbon or the $249 4GB iPod Mini which box do you think they will reach for?

The Rio Carbon "iPod Mini Slayer" has been available in black for over a year now; it was actually released months before the iPod mini albiet at 1.5GB.

It was one of the first "mini" players to offer everything the iPod offered and more ... in a small thin case to boot. With no iPod Mini in sight the player actually had no competition. So why didn't it sell?

Marketing. The early adopters had already bought their players so the only market left was the masses. The masses are easily influenced by style. Stylish ads, stylish interface, stylish software, stylish player.

Reviews of the black Rio Nitrus were luke-warm at best. Most people agreed that the player itself was stylish, but the interface was clunky, the software was garbage, and there were no stylish ads to say otherwise.

Lets face it, every player plays MP3 ... The masses don't really care whether or not the player has OGG support or lossless audio support. So when all things are equal the style factor kicks in.

This new Rio Carbon is a true testament to the success of Apples approach to marketing style. They have duplicated it right down to the box.

Unfortunately by doing so there is really no good reason for the masses to jump onboard. When mom or dad is buying an MP3 player for Christmas and they have to choose between the $249 5GB Rio Carbon or the $249 4GB iPod Mini which box do you think they will reach for?

I had a Nitrus fail after 93 days...They wanted to charge me to replace the drive - price was close to the price of the original unit...

I didn't realize they only had a 90 day warranty on their products when I bought it...Now, I will never buy another one of their products again. I mean really, a 90 day warranty!? I'll stick with someone who makes a product that has good enough quality that they can stand behind it for at least one year, preferably 3 years. What good is a product if it doesn't work after 3 months?

Side note: they don't mention the warranty duration in their userguide...And I couldn't find anything specific on their site about their warranty on this new product other than: http://www.digitalnetworksna.com/support/rio/warra nty.asp?logSup=USA