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Rio Karma User Review
Despite living in an urban area, I had a little trouble tracking down a retailer with the Karma in stock. Best Buy was sold out, but Circuit City had them (for full price, boo hiss). I was impressed with the solid feel of the device, and promptly started setting it up. Since I currently only have Linux machines at home, the included software was useless. Fortunately, the Karma also includes Ethernet connectivity through the docking cradle. In minutes the cradle was connected to my Linksys router and a static IP assigned using the Karma's joystick interface (not fun).
Once this was done, I connected via web browser to the Karma's IP address and was greeted with a nice splash page, and a couple of links to download the Java-based transfer software and to visit Rio's Karma page. I initially had trouble with the transfer software, but eventually found the developer's site on the internet; he has improved the software greatly from the version that ships with the Karma.
The docking cradle also has stereo line-level RCA ports, which is nice for integration with a home stereo. I ended up buying a 20' CAT-5 cable to give my Karma a permanent home next to the stereo. It's pretty wonderful to select 4 hours of random music for the evening, and not have to worry about changing CDs. Later, I also bought an RF adapter for use in the car, which works by broadcasting on an FM frequency you simply tune into.
The Karma is not bad to walk around with either. It is a little bulky, and I would prefer a narrower body, but it fits ok in a loose-fitting pants or jacket pocket. As with any hard-drive based player, jogging/running/biking with it is probably not a good idea.
Lockups: the Karma has taken a lot of flak for locking up, and I can't say that it's not justified. The player has locked once when I was loading music on it, in which case I simply reset with a bent paper clip and it was good to go. However, several days ago I was walking with it, attempted to change songs midstride, and it locked hard. Since I was on my way to work with no paperclip in sight (and the unit won't turn off when it locks up), the hard drive spun and seeked for 40 minutes until I got in the office. At that point, the unit was warm to the touch and had drained half the battery. After reset, the unit would not power up properly. Going into rescue mode showed that it was having trouble reading the disk. (crap!) After reading some message boards where others have experienced similar problems, I decided that I had little to lose and smacked it flat down on the desk. The Karma made a little grinding noise and booted up! It has worked perfectly since then, but I'm somewhat concerned about my purchase. Rio only offers a three-month warranty by default, so I would recommend going with an extended warranty if you decide to purchase a Karma.
Scary lockups aside, this has been a great little player. I believe it is Rio's first HDD-based player, and I'm looking forward to seeing future revisions of the Karma.
Thanks to FuzzyBad-MoFo for the review!
After reading the review I don't know that I want one of these. The reviewer discusses the negatives: size, lockups, ect. but does not really go into the upside of owning one of these.
http://www.busyweather.com/
This is a terrible "review"! You paid full price (your own fault), and it was a pain to enter the IP address. Yeah, it has a dock. You had problems with the OS, but didn't mention any firmware upgrades that might help solve the problem. You did something stupid that could have broken it. Great.
/.'s front page.
What about the sound quality? Battery life? User interface? Build quality? Most importantly, given the audience: why would someone purchase this over an iPod? Those are the things we care about, not your anecdotal experience. This would be fine posted on a review site where more information is readily available, but it's certainly not destined for
P.S.: First on-topic post?
The belief that, at our present level of knowledge, we cannot know whether or not an OS exists. Fair enough.
REM Old programmers don't die. They just GOSUB without RETURN.
Karma: Terrible (mostly the sum of user experiences)
sulli
RTFJ.
I think I'll stick with my ipod. Easy to setup and use. Gives me all the features I need (sure there are others i want). It is reliable. These articles keep me hapopy with the choice I made.
Evolution or ID?
I'd like a linux-oriented product comparison article. iRiver vs iPod vs Rio Karma etc. And yes, audio fidelity, perhaps the most important feature, shouldn't be ignored.
.nosig
Except of course, the iPod didn't meet his needs. It's right there in the first paragraph. Or did I miss something an Apple now has Linux support and support Ogg Vorbis?
"I'd rather be a lightning rod than a seismometer." -Ken Kesey
I bought a RIO nitrus and had it's hard drive fail within 2 weeks of purchase. I had it replaced 3 times over the next few months and none of the models lasted more than a month when all they did was ride in my back pack as I walked to class. Recently I bought one of the new Rio Forges and it also has problems. Despite being sold as a "sport" model it shuts down regularly during use and Rio refuses to admit any problem with the design despite several pages of experiences just like mine on their forums. I strongly discourage anyone from buying Rio products without an extended warrenty. Here is a good forums to read about Rio products: http://www.rioworld.org/yabbse/index.php?board=16
These things are crap... Everyone I know who bought one has returned it at least once because of the 1" HD "hard locking". One friend has been through 5 units so far, with the average lifespan being 7-10 days per unit.
I haven't heard similar things about the iPod (anyone?), but I suspect it's the 1" HDs that are to blame, rather than the design of the unit housing them.
I own one of these beasts too.
The number one thing that I love about this device is the Rio DJ - Entertain me! function. What it does is looks at the most played tracks in a certain time period (15 minutes to everything on the Karma) and then plays a random mix of them. Awesome!
The second best thing is the crossfade feature under the Equalizer function. It basically makes a nice seamless mix of music that fades in and out of each track.
Battery life is great! I regularly get 10hrs of music out of it.
The only downsides I've discovered are that the little stick selector is flimsy, and the ethernet port is very flaky when it comes to working with switches. Neither my D-Link or Netgear 10/100 switches work with it, so I have resorted to loading the Windows software to load music.
-- The problem with troubleshooting is that sometimes trouble shoots back.
Going into rescue mode showed that it was having trouble reading the disk. (crap!) After reading some message boards where others have experienced similar problems, I decided that I had little to lose and smacked it flat down on the desk. The Karma made a little grinding noise and booted up!
This is probably the most telling sentence in the review. The firmware for this device is not capable of even a REBOOT when there's a hard drive error. NO recovery, NONE. The *only* recourse was a "smack it flat down on the desk," indicating that the firmware had quite obviously tried to get the hard drive to perform some physically impossible task... and banging the HD juggled the heads enough to produce either a good error or knock the firmware out of its loop and find the data it needs.
Firmware issues... yuck. Wonder if I can convince my web guys to drop their 1U server boxes on the floor when they're being slow to help jiggle those hard drives into compliance???
Hewlett-Packard (HP) is second-sourcing the iPod. So, if you buy an iPod, you get the combined support of 2 American companies: HP and Apple.
I also got a Rio Karma within the last month. I had been looking at these things for about a year but was waiting for someone to make a case for the sang things prior to buying one. Now Vaja leather has a 75$ case (nice looking) so I took the plunge. Right when I got the thing I updated the firmware, say what you will about Rio at least they keep the updates comming. The sound quality is great and the software is very nice. It supports MP3, OGG, WMA and FLAC formats (the Windows software includes rippers for all formats) somthing that no digital audio player sporting more then a gig should be without (FLAC format with 20GB storage is great). Battery life for me is around 12hours, but I've not yet fully conditioned the battery (you need to fully charge and discharge it five times says the manual). The dock is interesting, but without a way to controll playback via the net I dont see the point since USB 2.0 is faster then 100base-t for transfering songs. Have I said that the audio quality is stunning? Well it is, the five bad EQ qorks great and with +-95db range music sounds very good for a portable system (the packed ear buds suck). This feels like the audiophiles MP3 player.
"Have you ever thought about just turning off the TV, sitting down with your kids, and hitting them?"
I've had one of these for almost a year now. I use it exclusively for playing oggs and exclusively with Linux. It works really well. I've got about 1300 songs on it, almost all encoded at 360kpbs. Sounds fantastic.
I have had a couple of freezeups and various glitches but they all have been minor and have been resolved by either a reset (the paper clip) or powering it off and then on.
I really like that I can use it with Linux and that it uses ethernet connectivity. (BTW: It's not that bad setting a static IP address - takes about 2 minutes)
One question: Where's the "developer's site on the internet" for the java transfer software? Would it be so hard to include a link?
Are you kidding me? No matter how great the rest of the features, "scary lockups" are not something most people will just ignore - especially when they cause the hard drive to seek for 40 continuous minutes, draining the battery. I'll keep my iPod, thanks very much, and when I want to replace it, this Rio will not be on my list for consideration.
Definately hasn't convinced me to change the "My New iRiver" sticker on my penny jar.
I have had an Archos for about a year and have been very happy. The open source Rockbox software is great..
I don't see much point in the Karma. It is expensive.. somewhat unstable.. and like most proprietary products, will be End of Life'd soon enough.
What I would really like to have is WAV recording capability. Though the MP3 recording on the Archos has worked well and I have sourced at least one concert using it with the line-in and good mics.
Good recording capability is lacking in most products.
The Rio Riot was the first HD unit by Rio. I own one myself, and it was a terrific audio device until a mishap with a homebrew car docking cradle fried the system board. I attempted to fix it, but when it was apart, I accidently tore the thin plastic LCD connector (which had its "grain" perpendicular to the conductors, and thus tore in a way I can't repair). I really miss it for music, but the good side is that I now have a decent battery for "projects" and a 20-GB harddrive which I am trying to mate with my Sharp Zaurus SL-C860 PDA.
Sonic Blue, however, is horrible with support. They released very few software updates, and the device only worked with MusicMatch Jukebox. But the interface was awesome, and the sound quality was quite good for a portable unit.
--- At my sig, unleash hell.
Myself and 2 friends all have the Karma, and have all experinced the scarry lockup. But amazingly, they seem to work fine in spite of this strange phenomenon (I've had mine for almost a year now).
The sound quality is great, that's the main reason I went with the Karma. I believe the signal/noise ratio is 95 (higher than iPod). Just make sure you play Oggs and Flacs to take advantage of it. This also was the only player that supported Flacs at the time I purchased.
...Linux friendly... is OS-agnostic...
Since I currently only have Linux machines at home, the included software was useless.
So, was it or was it *not* linux friendly? Seems like linux friendly, especially with java-based software, would mean that the included OS-agnostic, linux-friendly software would both be included AND work. What's the deal, man?
I love my Karma. Would I trade it for an IPod? You betcha. But I am a technology whore, so discount that.
Pros:
Good sound. Nice equalizer function. Easy to use PC GUI. It fits great in my hand. The controls are very easy to use. It's cheaper than an IPod. Jog dial makes life easy. Big, easy to read screen. Long battery life.
Cons:
Can hang or crash on occasion if you put it in your pocket and you walk fast like me. Battery is non-replaceable. Faint, slight hiss in the background (regardless of format). No random per band or per album. Flaky ethernet port.
I do not regret my purchase. I can live with the cons.
-- "You can lead a yak to water, but you can't teach an old dog to make a silk purse out of a pig in a poke" - Opus
An iRiver iHP-120 (20GB) is also about $299 and works fine in Linux and plays Ogg files. It also has optical in/out instead of RCA for integration with a home receiver. The only thing missing is FLAC support. It fits much better in the pocket and is much more reliable. I've had one for maybe 5 or 6 months now with no lockups or hard drive problems. I use it in my car every day.
Must've been one of those analog CD players then.
I did plenty of research into MP3 players over the summer, and arrived at a purchase of an iRiver H120 (previously IHP-120) instead of the equivalent iPod or Karma units. It has a 20GB hard drive, inline remote with full functionality, microphone for recording, fm radio reception, supports MP3 and OGG, long battery life (16 hours or so), works as a mass storage device (no iTunes or other custom software to upload music, can be used easily as a file transfer unit), and pretty decent firmware. Essentially, it's the best hardware on the market, although I'm not sure if they're being sold anymore - iRiver seems to be pimping the H300 series now instead. Comparatively, the iPod has a severe lack of functionality, and the Karma was getting a terrible reputation for hard drive failures, so my choice was pretty clear.
The firmware has a few deficiencies, like a lack of gapless playback and a true random shuffle, and the iRiver firmware developers seem to have other priorities. Rockbox has chosen the H100 series as its next toy, since the Archos boxes are no longer available, so hopefully we'll have some nice open-source firmware to play with soon enough. Rockbox has refused to touch the Rio and iPod because of the built-in DRM chips that have no published specs.
http://forums-riovolution.com/index.php?showtopic= 4109
Basically, you have to whack the unit hard enough that it turns itself off and restarts. Sure, it's unsettling and even embarassing if you have to sit there in a rush-hour subway train spanking a lump of plastic for ten minutes, but it works. And the strangest part of it all: each time you spank it into submission, it will be a significantly longer period of time before it crashes again. After the fourth and last spanking session, it hasn't locked up once in the past five months.
As for the upside, it has several nice features. The author of the review failed to mention one of the highlights of the Karma-dock's ethernet jack - that it can be used to communicate with any computer that can run Java apps. This turns out to be great, because while the management software can only be installed on windows machines, the Java applet that the Karma serves up via HTTP can be run on Linux and OSX machines. When I get into the office (which is a primarily Mac environment), I just drop it into its cradle, have it DHCP-obtain an IP address (an automatic procedure), fire up the applet from my Power Mac, and I'm free to manage it.
On the usability side, I've been extremely pleased with the Karma. I never quite understood why all of the manufacturers have banded behind Apple's design of placing the display above the main control cluster. It results in the center of gravity being above your hand, making the device much more likely to slip or be knocked out of your grasp. On the Karma, the controls are placed above the display, so that your thumb wraps around the Karma's upper edge and the entirety of its mass is cradled in the palm of your hand. It might look counterintuitive, but I think that's largely because all of the other players out there have the scheme reversed.
The firmware is nice, with three user-adjustable 3-band EQ settings slots that you can flip through to best suit the genre of music you're listening to at the time. The main "menu" button on its face can be customized to drop you at one of several menu levels. For example, if you tend to select music by genre, the main menu button can be set to take you right there instead of to the root level menu. The GUI is consistently themed throughout, and while not as minimal as the iPod's, is not aesthetically offensive. One feature I found very cute was the ability to set the play screen (which you'll be looking at 90% of the time) to be dominated by a pair of mostly useless but amusingly retro-styled VU meters. Unlike the iPod, the Karma *IS* capable of gapless playback, which is great if you listen to a lot of mixed compilations or live performances.
I have only two gripes personally with the unit:
1) The setting for "shuffle"/"normal" playback is buried several levels deep in the menu system.
2) The unit has a 4pin jack next to its headphone jack which is obviously intended for an in-line remote control, but no such item exists. Pooh.
HTH in your buying decisions.
"...is OS-agnostic"
...not hardly. It requires Windows-based drivers to access the device as a regular hard drive for non-music files (unless someone's hacked it for Linux).
Microsoft makes this a requirement for any device that is licensed to play Microsoft DRMed music.
Besides, isn't this review like, two years too late?
I've got the 40 Gig version, which you can now pick up for between 350-400 dollars.
Solid as solid can be. I threw it through a plaster wall (don't ask) and after removing it from the hole in the wall, it still plays perfectly, without a scratch on it. I think I'm on about month #8 without a single problem.
I have exactly one complaint about the device... no on the fly playlists. Rumored to be coming in an updated firmware update, but who knows.
The lack of FLAC in a portable device is no big deal in my opinion... I consider FLAC more of an archiving tool than something I need for my portable player.
Oh I guess I have a second minor complaint... the case it ships with is kinda bulky, but then again... it does ship with a case and a microphone, and a remote.
Oh, and you'd be remiss in mentioning the iHP's without noting they have 15 hour battery life... with replaceable batteries (requires a case opening)... and some of the aftermarket options are supposedly getting 20-24 hour battery life.
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.
I bought mine almost six months ago. Have not had a lockup in 4 months.
Battery life is excellent, 12 hours playing music opposed to some players that have battery duration of 12 hours starting from the moment you remove it from the charger.
The shape is great because it allows you to use it with one hand.
Plays several formats including Ogg Vorbis.
Rio DJ allows me to select predifined playlists based on:
* Entertain Me!: Generates playlist from most frequently played music. Mix can last 15 minutes, 30 minutes, 1, 2, 3, 4, or 8 hours.
* Play All: Play everything and automatically sort by album, artist, genre, or year.
* Top Tunes: Play the most frequently played tracks. You can choose from the top 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 100, or 250 songs.
* New Music: Play the most recently imported tracks. Choose from music imported in the last 1 day, 3 days, 1 week, 2 weeks, 1 month, 6 months, or 1 year.
* Memory Lane: Play tracks that haven't been played in a while. Choose from music not played in the last 1 day, 3 days, 1 week, 2 weeks, 1 month, 6 months, or 1 year.
* Sounds Of...: Play tracks from the 1940's, 1950's, 1960's, 1970's, 1980's, 1990's, or newer than 2000
* Forgotten Gems: Play old favorites that haven't been played in the last 1 day, 3 days, 1 week, 2 weeks, 1 month, 6 months, or 1 year.
* Déjà Vu: Play tracks that have been played in the last 1 day, 3 days, 1 week, 2 weeks, 1 month, 6 months, or 1 year.
* Random Mix: Generate a random list lasting 15 minutes, 30 minutes, 1, 2, 3, 4, or 8 hours.
There is very detailed review at:
http://gear.ign.com/articles/458/458401p1.html
Two months ago I bought a second Karma for my wife. I can say the karma is the best gadget I have bought in a long time.
Things I don't like about the Kharma is the software utility, it takes forever to add music to the browser.
I've got one too - and I have to say, I'm mainly very happy with it. I bought mine for the sound quality - it's vastly better than the iPod.
(The iPod has "issues" with Classical music with a large dynamic range at high bitrates which make the sound utterly excruciating - yes, this is a bug in the design, and no, Apple don't give a Monkey's).
All I'd like to see added is a way to remote-control it via ethernet (i.e. to actually make it start playing!)
Another nice feature - it's easy to disassemble. I took the back off mine so as to write my name inside it (in case of loss/theft) - and it uses *proper* screws !
Sort of off topic, but a Archos jukebox recorder can be had for a bit over a hundred bucks, 20gb, has digital in / out, mounts like a hdd under any o/s, charges off a usb cable or wall-wart and uses a standard usb cable (the mini b "camera" one). Oh yeah, it can record via a built in mic or an external.
.ogg, but why would I want to re-encode all my music?
It also has a open source firmware called rockbox.
( http://www.rockbox.org/ ) and you really can't find a battery powered portable 20 GB drive for the price.
My only bitch is that the randomize feature could use a little work. Kinda looks ugly, but to me (college student) spending $200 to get a nice white ipod is, well, better spent on food and liqour.
Can't play
1q2w3e4r5t6y7u8i9o0pqawsedrftgthyjukilo;p'azsxdcf
I also had a 110 (actually 110 + 1), and a 400 CD changer both of which had the random function. But, I didn't find it totally satisfactory. Most notably the noise when changing disks, and also the delay between songs.
I also have the Karma now (it was a gift), and I LOVE it! What maybe isn't clear in the original article is the user doesn't just turnn on the Karma in random mode and let it play for four hours. The Karma has a DJ "wizard", and you can ask it to generate playlists for you based on criteria. Some examples, but not limited to:
My CD changers served me well, but I welcome the change and improvement... (for example, it is really nice to be able to slip the Karma out of its dock, and go out and do yard work with the same selection of songs as what I had indoors. Additionally, even recording mp3's at 192K, I have a 2/3 full Karma with almost 200 CD's
Also, instead of a 30 lb. (fully loaded) changer taking up lots of space in my cabinet, the Karma is itsy-bitsy, and can be put anywhere.
Not saying your changer isn't plenty good, but if you ever get the opportunity (fits your budget, a good friend gives you one :-), blah, blah, blah), go for it... you won't be disappointed.
No, from my understanding (I own a Karma, and I spent about three months reading pretty much every post on the Karma forums) the problem is with the hard disk; sometimes (rarely, it's never happened to me) surface tension can prevent the disk spinning up after a spin down.
Banging the Karma releases the surface tension. Rio deny this (they say they can't reproduce the problem) but if it's not a problem with the hard disk then I'd like to hear the alternatives (I don't buy your ideas that it "produces a good error" or "knocks the firmware out of it's loop", sorry!)
The Karma is by no means perfect but:
* The sound is great
* OGG, FLAC
* No DRM
* Nice DJ features
* Nice interface
* Ethernet
* Great battery life
* It's not a poncy, proprietary and expensive iPod.
If they could fix the stability issues, and add:
* USB Mass Storage support (for USB2 Linux connectivity)
* Remote control over Ethernet (sit comfy and control what songs play from my laptop or PDA)
* A record function
then
* Make it smaller
* Make it cheaper
* Fit an even bigger hard disk
it would be perfect.
Is that a better review than the story? Mod me up.
Yours Sincerely, Michael.
I believe it is Rio's first HDD-based player
:(
Their first HD-based MP3 player was the Rio Riot. I bought one of those a couple of years ago on eBay for about 2/3 list, and love it. However, I rarely use it any longer because of a) low battery life, b) absolutely impossible to get music onto the damned thing, and c) I now have XM.
Aside from the above-mentioned drawbacks, what I really loved about the Riot was the interface. It had the standard by song, by artist, and by genre selections. But you could also build your own playlists (we've done that on long trips, on the fly), it also can play random selections from your most-played songs, least-played songs, or even just fill X number of minutes with random music.
Unfortunately, it was only USB-1, and required a screwed-up version of iTunes or MusicMatch to get songs onto the unit. Right now I really want to remove all the music and start over, but it's just too difficult to bother with.
Even the iPod, from what I understand, doesn't do this quite "right". All I want is a fast interface (USB2 or FW), that shows up as a hard drive, and let me drag songs and playlists on/off as I like. let the box periodically re-index its database, rather than doing it as I transfer songs (as every other device seems to do).
Anyway, I just wanted to point out that this wasn't Rio's first HD unit. And that I still like their software better than the iPod's. Give me iPod-quality hardware with improved Rio software, and I'll go back to MP3s in a heartbeat.
I have one and it's not a firmware issue with the lockups near as I can tell - it's vibration! I have a riding mower, if I take my Karma on that thing for evena short mowing session it locks up. It cannot be shut off, it makes awful sounds, and you have to use the paperclip thing to shut it off. Just as the reviewer discovered - it will not boot up properly afterwards! The solution, as he discovered, is to smack it. I do this on edge in an attempt to help spin the drives as I believe the heads are somehow stuck. Sure enough this fixes it! So far I've only had to do this 2 or 3 times thankfully!
.
That said - the unit is terrific when it's not being bounced around or vibrated. I use it on travel in airplanes and hooked to my stereo in the garage in it's cradle. Battery life is excellent on plane rides and in my garage I've probably put a couple hundred hours worth of playing into it. I've not yet come close to filling it's drive up but have also not taken much time slecting music (I've got over 130Gig). I do NOT like the interface software to the device, it's not a simple drive letter that I can copy music over to thank you RIAA. If it were I'd have already put much more music on it I'm sure. The software isn't bad, it's just not that great and it insists on indexing my music first which with over 100Gigs takes FOREVER and has caused the software to fail a time or two. My solution is to point it at a folder with only the music I want to transfer over - this multi-step process is why I have so little (about 2gig) music on it
I've not looked lately for software updates or firmware upgrades but their update process isn't too bad in my experience. What I'd REALLY like, but haven't found, is a WEB interface that would allow me to remotely control the device over the network. Perhaps I'm blind but it seems to me such an interface would be a really good idea considering the silly thing is IP enabled. I've just nto spent too much time loking and havespent more time listening to it I guess (lol). If anyone has found software like this or can point out a feature I've overlooked that allows this I'm all ears!
Build it, Drive it, Improve it! Hybridz.org
I think he's talking about those old-fashioned black vinyl CDs with the little hole in the middle, that used a needle for the R/W device. They had jukeboxes for those things that would hold even more than 110 of them.
What I'm listening to now on Pandora...
"Apart from a tendency to burst into flame and crash, the Hindenburg is an efficient mode of transportation with a luxurious ride..."
"The Tacoma Narrows bridge is a slim and elegant marvel of civil engineering, apart from a tendency to twist and shake in high winds..."
"But aside from that, Mrs. Lincoln, what did you think of the play?"
"How to Do Nothing," kids activities, back in print!
Pros
Cons The biggest issue with the Karma right now is that Rio is rather obviously get ready to release its successor (the Chroma) but they are being incredibly secretive. The developers have dropped out of the Karma forums for the most part and no new firmware has been discussed for a while. I think most everyone expects that once the Chroma is delivered, its firmware will be backported to the Karma to add MSC support, but there is no guarantee. The developers mentioned MSC in upcoming Karma firmware, so it's pretty safe to assume it will eventually come. The Chroma will probably look much like the Carbon (good bye nipple, hello d-pad) and hopefully will have a slightly lower-profile and tougher scroll wheel like the Carbon.I like the Karma a lot and am eagerly awaiting the Chroma. But I will compare it against the iAudio M5 and iRiver products. Right now, those come up a little short on the features I use the most, but they've been getting better each generation. If Rio doesn't come out with a next-gen soon, iRiver and iAudio will pass it by. iPod/iTunes is nice, but I don't want/need FairPlay/AAC or crappy MP3. I want my Ogg/FLAC!
The iPod is expensive and it is missing some features, but at least there's a reasonable confidence that a buyer will get at least a years worth of use out of it. The Rio may do gapless playback when it's new, but it seems owners can expect an extended and very quiet gap in its playback not too long after purchase.
I have a Karma. I have had it for a little more than 2 months. My first one had a bad hard drive, but my second one has been fine. I also have access to an iPod, so I will compare to that, as iPod's are very popular.
Plusses of Karma, wma, ogg, and flac support.
iPod only has mp3 and propriatary aac formats
Power on/off. Power on is slow to load the OS. iPod is instant on. Power off can be set at different intervals depending on usage. I set it at 15 minutes. Enough to run in and out of a store if in the car, or go to the can and grab a drink at work.
Battery live. Very impressive. 14 or so hours. ipod is at best 8.
Control. Good, menu button, control dial.
Bad, wheel. I haven't really found a use other than scrolling through a playlist.
Software. If you have windows, I like the Rio Music manager much better than iTunes. Better interface. Also, it does not auto synch like the iPod does.
Thats all I can think of off the top of my head.
My opinion of the Karma is this....buy an iPod.
I just had my third one die in the past 6 months. One broke falling off a chair on to a carpeted floor. It's flimsy. The damn scroll wheel tends to get pushed in, and it breaks.
My friend's OLD iPod has been dropped onto concrete dozens of times, and goes along on jogs all the time. Zero complaints on it.
Oh yeah, the Karma randomly locks up like crazy.
If you buy one, BUY THE EXTENDED WARRANTY
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Man does not BUY a 20 ft cable. Man goes into his closet and pulls 20 feet from his spool, whips out his crimper (which is in his back pocket) and makes his own cable.
I am not interested in a walkman reviewed by the eyes of a woman.
I compared both the iHP-120 and the Rio Karma myself before buying the iRiver product, and I am very very happy. Both play oggs, both are 20GB, both have great battery life, but the iRiver has more. First and foremost it uses the USB Mass Storage interface. No need for silly Java software, you just connect it to a USB-enabled computer and can transfer files natively, in Mac, Linux or Windows. That includes non-music files, too, unlike the Karma.
Secondly, no lockup issues. If a hard drive is making grinding noises and slamming it makes it work again, that sounds very much like a head crash to me. Uh. That's bad, by the way. Expect the life of that player to be low. If there really was a head crash, it probably scraped some shavings off the disk. Nevermind the fact that that part of the disk is probably ruined, you've now got little metal shavings whizzing around inside your cleanroom-environment-sealed 4200rpm+ hard disk. A head crash is eventually fatal to the drive in most cases.
Compare this to the worst complaint I've had with the iRiver, which is that the built-in microphone will record some prominent harddrive noise if you fill the in-memory buffer while recording, which makes long recordings useless for anything but personal reference. Which is generally fine. The external mic doesn't have this problem, of course.
Anyway, very happy with my iRiver. Even moreso now. Thanks!
Random and weird software I've written.
Can you say Head Crash?
I'm sorry, but to me having to do that to something you've just paid almost 3 bills for just screams INTRINSIC DESIGN FLAW and is absolutely unacceptable...even if it plays OGG and Gapless.
I'll stay w/ my 20 GB 4G iPod thanks and my iPod Mini thanks. Both have NEVER frozen up just from being jostled around (ie. Running or Walking, and yes, we do run with ours regularly with no problems in the like 1-2 years we've owned iPods, including a 3G one).
Sheesh,
DaveC
There are no stupid questions...just stupid people.
damn, I wish I had mod points...
I can't believe how many posts there are at +5 Insightful and +5 Interesting talking about how the owner has had the same problem and whacking their expensive hard drive based player really helps. We used to have monitors with green guns going out that when you whacked them they would come back on, but eventually the gun would stop firing again, and you'd be left with a pinkish screen. Of course, maybe if I tried to sell them here on slashdot to a Rio owner.... I could even include a troubleshooting guide for handling "What to do when my screen turns pink..." you know, just in case!
I recently traded in my Karma for an iPod (yay for the Best Buy extended warranty), so I have some experience using both the iPod and the Karma under linux. Remember, the Karma is not "officially" supported under linux either! Rio Music Manager Lite is okay for usage, and the author updates it often, but honestly, I've found gtkpod much much better (stability-wise, feature-wise) for transferring to and from the ipod.
...but bear in mind that like many buyers, I wasn't aware of the issues when I first made the purchase. My position is that of, "well, I already paid for it, so here's my opinion on the device over-all". And the truth is that it suits me just fine, despite the fact that my heart sank when it froze for the first time. Since a few months back though, I haven't had a single problem with it. I honestly don't know if the issues have since been resolved over at Rio.
That this alone should be reason for me to be sterilized makes me wonder how many people you must tell every day to not breed. Perhaps yours is a world inhabited by people of a much higher calibre than ours. If that's the case, then I envy you deeply. But seriously though, it was a funny read.
MP3s are not designed to be gapless. There's only two frame sizes, and you're screwed if the end of one song doesn't coincide with the end of a frame... the encoder will have guessed as to what the rest of it should be filled (probably silence).
There's basically one way to handle it. You encode the exact length of the decoded song in samples into extended ID3 tags. LAME started doing this and all the major software players and the Karma (specifically) can read these tags, and thus know exactly when to cut that last frame short and stick in the first frame of the next track.
All the other formats define the handling of this detail in the format itself.
THIS THING CAN TURN ON A DIME, MACROSSZERO STYLE ALSO FUCK BETA, ~NYORON