sdblair wrote:

Uh-huh. My Shuffle was roughly twice the cost of this. And it is 512 megs. My 60 GB iPod Photo OTOH... but now you are comparing apples & oranges. You're an idiot, so stick with that.

... and for roughly the cost of this (grand total: your shuffle) you can get a 1GB SD card. or 2 512MB cards, for a grand total of 2.5 times the capacity of the shuffle. The point here is that this thing is both inexpensive and expandable. You're out $44.99 (for one) today, and you get to decide later on whether to upgrade with the ever-cheaper flash memory. Sure, ipods are okay, but they all freakin' look the same. I wonder if you guys all drive VW's?

p.s. two ipods? Ouch! My condolences.
What's the expression? "Fool me once..." (insert GWB clip here)

nolipie wrote:would this be good enough for an 8 year olds first MP3 player?

Sure. If it survives, you can add an SD card to it later, if it doesn't, consider it disposable at $40 apiece.

rayn wrote:
depriving them would be giving them a good book to read (anyone remember those days?)

Wow. I actually do remember reading books on the school bus. I had amost forgotten completely about those things....

Wish I could get just the FM modulator! I hate my car kit (the cassette player rejects it all the time with this horrible grinding noise) but I also have no use for another music player. Anyone thinks I can get it separately for a few bucks? Also wondering if the cigarette lighter plug acts as an adaptor for a media device (say an mp3 player) as well as for the modulator itself.

mbuchman wrote:Anyone know if you are stuck using MusicMatch with this thing? I am in the market for a small portable music player, specifically to modify for use in a pool.

-Matt

I agree with you about musicmatch, the program can be a big pain. If you are an iTunes person then there is a plugin that you can download which will sync any mp3 player. You have to keep in mind that if you buy a lot of iTunes purchased music then those will not work, but who does that anyways nowaday ;)

http://www.connectedinternet.co.uk/blog/_archives/2005/11/16/1408050.html

If you tune the radio on your car, the FM modulator and the FM tuner on the MP3 player to the same frequency, turn them all on, will it create Armageddon?

yos9694 wrote:Wish I could get just the FM modulator! I hate my car kit (the cassette player rejects it all the time with this horrible grinding noise) but I also have no use for another music player. Anyone thinks I can get it separately for a few bucks? Also wondering if the cigarette lighter plug acts as an adaptor for a media device (say an mp3 player) as well as for the modulator itself.

No, you can tell by the connector that the FM modulator will not power the MP3 player. Also, if you just want the FM Modulator, why not buy the woot, and sell the MP3 player on e-bay? The MP3 player solo is going for $69.99 on Amazon, so you should be able to get almost all your money back, and have a free FM Modulator.

Yee-haw! First woot! (I'm one of the few people who's never had an MP3 player, and this seemed like a nice one to try.)

Thanks, Woot.

Anyone know of a good SD Card I could pick up cheap? I bought this for my girlfriend who has never had an mp3 player before. I figure she will stay within the 256 MB for about, oh, 12 minutes, and then she will need more room.

I saw a 1GB card worked in it, but I don't think she needs that much. I have a 2GB Phillips MP3 and I only have 70 songs on it right now. I don't know why anyone would need 20 or 40 GB iPod with accessories that are outrageously priced (unless you really look, you can't find many things for the iPod under $20).

Anyway, any good cards you guys know of (256MB-1GB)? Thanks.

RbZomb5 wrote:Anyone know of a good SD Card I could pick up cheap? I bought this for my girlfriend who has never had an mp3 player before. I figure she will stay within the 256 MB for about, oh, 12 minutes, and then she will need more room.
Anyway, any good cards you guys know of (256MB-1GB)? Thanks.

I think right now Costco has the cards on coupon and the 2 GB cards on coupon online. If you go to the Costco BM you'll have to ask them for one of the coupon handouts, and those things only last about a week.

Thanks to everyone who posted good info on this player. It suits me just fine and I'm happy with everyone who is sharing what they know about it. As for the apple folk, I'll carry around an Ipod the day you send me one giftwrapped. But my bro has had no end of trouble with his, so I'm not buying one.

Here is the link to the SD card I just got.

VERY good price.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820211309

First-time WOOT'er. First-time MP3 owner. We do exist.
This should be perfect for the gym and working around the house.
Does anyone know if I'll be able to download Limbaugh podcasts to this thing?

Bendit wrote:Here is the link to the SD card I just got.

VERY good price.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820211309

I dunno much on the specs' of SD/MMC cards other than their memory capacity (ie. 16mb, 32mb, 64mb, 128mb, 256mb, 512mb, 1gb, 2gb, 4gb, etc'...), but www.Buy.com has a SD 1gb card for $25/SHIPPED (yes, there is a rebate)!

rrosales wrote:If you tune the radio on your car, the FM modulator and the FM tuner on the MP3 player to the same frequency, turn them all on, will it create Armageddon?

Yes, it can be worse then the "Death Ray" designed by Nikola Tesla 1930's

Thanks for those posts. I went to ecost.com and found some good ones, which one do you think would be best?

http://www.ecost.com/ecost/ecdm/shop/detail~dpno~594087.asp

http://www.ecost.com/ecost/ecdm/shop/detail~dpno~560141.asp

http://www.ecost.com/ecost/ecdm/shop/detail~dpno~594083.asp

http://www.ecost.com/ecost/ecdm/shop/detail~dpno~182034.asp

http://www.ecost.com/ecost/ecdm/shop/detail~dpno~295990.asp

I think I like ecost.com. Maybe.

gliot1 wrote:

The only thing I will say about Apple is this. Steve Jobs blew it big years ago by not licensing AppleOS to every flippin company out there. There would be no Microsoft today had Apple done that. The iPod is a very nice device, but be prepared as it will be shortlived as other manufacturers will rapidly catch up so you better have the next product/technology ready to go. These markets are tough and shortlived.

Actually apple tried to license its software in the late 1990s and there were a bunch of mac clones out there. However... the mac clones actually almost put apple out of business. I don't think the iPod is short lived. There are other MP3 players out there but the iPod is simply the best. Plus they have the whole iTunes music store thing going.. They aren't going anywhere! Don't be an apple hater! lol!

First Woot!!! While it's no ipod, I think it's a great deal. Since my car got broken into, and my after market cd player was jacked, I've missed listening to anything other than the radio and cassette tapes. Bad robbers, Good Woot. I can't wait!

I am very happy to get another Lyra I'm going to use this one and pass my other on to my Wife (notice the Capital W) the old one is a 128 meg without FM but it works great with a 1 gig card. I do a lot of long distance driving and can put several full length audio books on it. I rip them to MP3s at 64 or even lower since you don't need high quality for voice and it makes the miles go easier than music or the dredded talk radio. Even with XM sat radio I really enjoy audio books better. NOTE: with RCA players you do have a limited number of tracks that the system can keep track of. (oooo bad pun so sorry) With long files or MP3s at high bit rates (I like my music at 320) that is no problem. With my audio books I combine the short tracks to an hour length or so and the 240 track limit is not a problem even using my one gig card

Hurray! My first Woot! It took me all day to think about this, but you guys conviced me.

Does anybody have any experience with this things and podcasts from itunes? I'm not a music lover, but I am addicted to podcasts and Audible.

I couldn't decide all day. I told myself that if it was available when I got home I would buy one. Thank all of you who posted information about the product making the choice easier.
Thank you woot for having a decent quantity.
Plus I was able to see my ID for one whole minute as the "Last wooter to woot: " I am never going to be up late enough to be the "First sucker"

My first woot too! Lots of us on this one - must have been a planned woot...Told myself if there were any left at the end of my day, then I'd grab one. Hey, you can never have enough tech laying around...even cheep tech.

gliot1 wrote:

The iPod is a very nice device, but be prepared as it will be shortlived as other manufacturers will rapidly catch up so you better have the next product/technology ready to go. These markets are tough and shortlived.

Yeah, five years this October with now sign of slowing. The iPod will be out quicker than this rock n roll fad!

I am not a basher, now that has been established, let me bash! Actually, this seem like a nice deal, it has almost all the features I look for; standard batteries, replaceable batteries, FM, FM recording. But the fact that it HAS to have software (NOT “drag & drop”) kills the deal for me. I just do NOT want to learn another program to get my MP3’s to play. And I want the ability to go to a friends computer and have the ability to plug-in. I cannot phantom why manufactures require this when a much easier method (without software) is available. Anyone know? (Also this should NOT have cables, just a direct connection, much nicer)

escalante wrote:I am not a basher, now that has been established, let me bash! Actually, this seem like a nice deal, it has almost all the features I look for; standard batteries, replaceable batteries, FM, FM recording. But the fact that it HAS to have software (NOT “drag & drop”) kills the deal for me. I just do NOT want to learn another program to get my MP3’s to play. And I want the ability to go to a friends computer and have the ability to plug-in. I cannot phantom why manufactures require this when a much easier method (without software) is available. Anyone know? (Also this should NOT have cables, just a direct connection, much nicer)

Just to clarify - no additional software is required to use this device. You use the cable and connect to the computer and drag/drop your music to the device. Or you can use an SD reader to copy files to the device. There is a profiler on the device to organize your music; it's slow, but it does what it needs to do to categorize your music.

The learning curve is really flat.

Yep, I'm another one of those weirdos that's never had an mp3 player....and yes, I too said if this was still available tonight I'd get one. Thanks Woot! At this price, I can figure this whole mp3 thing out, and then pass it onto my 9 year old when I'm ready to upgrade. Even if I end up screwing it up, I'm only out 44 bucks -- I can't lose!

This is a most excellent woot -- and a BIG thanks to all of you who had so many useful comments/experience/opinions to share with us clueless folks!

Wooters rock.

dllwoot wrote:

Just to clarify - no additional software is required to use this device. You use the cable and connect to the computer and drag/drop your music to the device. Or you can use an SD reader to copy files to the device. There is a profiler on the device to organize your music; it's slow, but it does what it needs to do to categorize your music.

The learning curve is really flat.

RbZomb5 wrote:Anyone know of a good SD Card I could pick up cheap?
<snip>
Anyway, any good cards you guys know of (256MB-1GB)? Thanks.

Other wooters have posted some great links - I don't think that you will beat the $25 for a 1G on buy.com.
But if you would prefer to shop local, in my area Office Depot has SanDisk 512MB SD card on sale for $25 after $11 rebate.
To see if it's available in your area, you can go to www.salescircular.com, which lists all the products advertised in the sunday ads, broken down by catagory. (The memory cards are listed under "flash memory")

escalante wrote:

---

Are you sure? In the manual on page 46, it says you “need” to use “music management software” to play MP3’s.

If you can “drag & drop”, I would buy this item.

http://www.rcaaudiovideo.com/NR/rdonlyres/CA8E68C3-4120-4B33-B176-4E51B82B73EA/0/RD2312IB.pdf

i have bought players that have great "drag & drop" like creative.

then i have bought others that need "firmware" upgrades for this, like iriver.

both now work great now, but i need to know that the product at least has this feature or ability to upgrade to this feature (many do not).

According to the Woot ad it does have drag and drop.

I looked at the page you were talking about in the manual and if you look at the Black NOTE section yiu don't need to install the drivers if you have XP(and a few other Op Systems are listed). The musicmath will rip cd files for you so they can play on the devices(in WMA MP3 etc...).

escalante wrote:

---

Are you sure? In the manual on page 46, it says you “need” to use “music management software” to play MP3’s.

If you can “drag & drop”, I would buy this item.

http://www.rcaaudiovideo.com/NR/rdonlyres/CA8E68C3-4120-4B33-B176-4E51B82B73EA/0/RD2312IB.pdf

i have bought players that have great "drag & drop" like creative.

then i have bought others that need "firmware" upgrades for this, like iriver.

both now work great now, but i need to know that the product at least has this feature or ability to upgrade to this feature (many do not).

To be honest, I've never used that software so I don't know exactly what it does. Maybe it's like iTunes or Windows Media Player or something. I usually try not to install software if I don't need it (it took me about 6 weeks to decide to install iTunes for my iPod).

Apparently, it has the profiler software built in to categorize the music, but RCA also provides a downloadable utility that you can use if you don't want to use the on-device profiler tool.

I've never listened to any Audible files so I don't know if the software is required for the DRM features. All I do is just copy MP3s to the device, profile (on the device, although it seems to take about 5-10 minutes vs on the computer) and listen.

The diesign makes it look like and iPod wanna-be o_O

rayn wrote:criticizing at bestbuy would be doing them a favor

friends don't let friends shop at betsbuy

Sure...go ahead and rayn on my analogy parade, whydontcha? ;-)

escalante wrote:

---

Are you sure? In the manual on page 46, it says you “need” to use “music management software” to play MP3’s.

If you can “drag & drop”, I would buy this item.

http://www.rcaaudiovideo.com/NR/rdonlyres/CA8E68C3-4120-4B33-B176-4E51B82B73EA/0/RD2312IB.pdf

i have bought players that have great "drag & drop" like creative.

then i have bought others that need "firmware" upgrades for this, like iriver.

both now work great now, but i need to know that the product at least has this feature or ability to upgrade to this feature (many do not).

My (really) old RCA Lyra had to have MusicMunch to play songs, but the firmware upgrade made it drag and drop. And I dumped MM (with glee). If that one works this one will, too.

johng333 wrote:
There is NO LIMIT ON THE SD CARD SIZE - use 1 Gig - 2 Gig or more

Well no that just ain't true. According to page 10 of
this manual

Which YOU were so kind to post:
"NOTE maximum size of the external memory card supported by this unit is 512MB"

Golly gee, did you even read it before you posted it?

bouncefactor wrote:

According to the Woot ad it does have drag and drop.

I looked at the page you were talking about in the manual and if you look at the Black NOTE section yiu don't need to install the drivers if you have XP(and a few other Op Systems are listed). The musicmath will rip cd files for you so they can play on the devices(in WMA MP3 etc...).

Does anyone know which playlists are compatible with this model? (I can't seem to open any of the PDF's on RCA's website...)

xoring wrote:Perhaps I should clarify. Who THAT SHOPS AT WOOT does not have an MP3 player? I can belive that one 9/10ths of Americans don't have mp3 players. In fact, I'm pretty it would take 6/10ths of americans an hour to figure out how to play music on an iPod. But of the community that regularly logs on at 12AM CST to check the woot, I would say 99% or more own at least ONE portable device (besideds thier computer) that can play mp3s.

Based on today's posts...quite a few! ;-) (It doesn't take long to read the whole forum if one just tunes out and skips over the pointless "my player is better than your player, so there!" posts...LOL.)

Do you have any idea just how many new people come to woot for the very first time, every single day...for the exact same reason we all came here the first time? Many of them DON'T have mp3 players. This site is not 'just' for the 99% of "of the community that regularly logs on at 12AM CST to check the woot." This may come as a shock to you, but there are more people here than just us. ;-)
New people come here looking for good deals on a variety of merchandise, especially any sort of technological device. For every wooter who has 1 (or 2, or 3, lol) mp3 players already, there's another new person out there looking for his/her very first mp3 player HERE.

But just b/c someone already has one, doesn't mean they don't need another....
I plan to, at some point, get a Creative Zen Vision 30GB w/Video MP3 Player. In the meantime, I have use for smaller/less fancy players. I already have an mp3 player (my first one)...got it here, in fact...but was in the market for an FM modulator. This woot suits my needs perfectly for many reasons:

• My current player is only 128mg and not expandable. It has no display. It fits a particular purpose for me very well, however.
  
• This one is 256mg and IS expandable. It has a display (with cool colors, imo.) It suits a different purpose for me very well.
  
• The FM modulator on this one is not as fancy as several I have shopped...but for the price, it's worth it to me to see if I will get good reception where I live before I plunk down more money for a better one at some point.
  
• I don't care what it looks like...*shrug*.......As long as it's small and functional (which it seems to be), how does its appearance matter? It's going to sit in my car, tucked away in a hidden spot when not in use for travel. No one is going to see it. Besides...if they do, I'd quite honestly rather have something a little different-looking than what's owned by everyone and her sister. ;-) I think the standard white, card-slim, rectangular player looks plain and boring. It's cool to be different and unique. Besides...if no one recognizes it as an mp3 player, it's not as likely to be stolen.

Exiled420 wrote:Well no that just ain't true. According to page 10 of
this manual

As others have pointed out, it's quite possible that manual was written before 1gb cards were commonly available. I've seen several products that take larger cards just fine, despite the size limitation stated in their manuals. So...it might very well be true.

We have two RCA Lyra's already in this household. One is a 128M and the other is 4G one. Both came with the dreaded MusicMatch software and the manual made it sound as though it would be the only software that would work. Actually the MM software is not awful, I just like the Media Player in XP better. I have uninstalled the MM and both still work great using Media Player to sync with. The only thing is that I haven't been able to get a playlist set up with Media Player that will work on the RCAs. If you aren't into playlists, you will probably never notice the difference.

Bosko wrote:

My (really) old RCA Lyra had to have MusicMunch to play songs, but the firmware upgrade made it drag and drop. And I dumped MM (with glee). If that one works this one will, too.

Exiled420 wrote:

Well no that just ain't true. According to page 10 of
this manual

Which YOU were so kind to post:
"NOTE maximum size of the external memory card supported by this unit is 512MB"

Golly gee, did you even read it before you posted it?

And golly gee, did you even read the many posts in this thread addressing (and refuting) that very point?