RCA Lyra RD2780 (20 GB) Digital Media Player

I have had the opportunity to play with BOTH the Lyra RD2780 Jukebox AND the Archos AV320 and finally draw my own conclusions as to the best product in my opinion. The Lyra wins the competition, but it does really depend on how you plan to use the device.

The form factor of the Lyra is good - it's thiner but wider than the Archos, and the screen is slightly smaller (3.5" vs. 3.8"). The Lyra has a "kick stand" on the back which allows you to set it on the table in front of you at a perfect viewing angle. The Lyra comes with a nice leather case which protects the unit without intefering with viewing the screen. The case allows access to all the slots and connections, and even the kickstand works with it. There is little reason to operate the Lyra outside of the case. The case also has a clip for hooking on to your belt, but personally I think it would be a little awkward for jogging...

Looking at the buttons, the Lyra has two joysticks on the front of the case - one for play/pause/fast forward/rewind, and another for selecting items on the screen and selecting. The joysticks have a bit of a loose feel, and because you use the same control for moving around the screen and selecting, it's easy to accidentally press the button IN (select) vs. moving the joystick around. Also, the Lyra decided to put the stop button on the top of the unit next to the record button, and the stop button also functions as the ON/OFF switch when held for longer than 2 seconds. On the top of the unit is a rocker switch for volume also. Finishing off the top of the unit is a covered slot for the USB connection, and a compact Flash slot. It's nice that both of these slots have covers which are attached so dust cannot get in and you cannot accidentally lose them.

On the right side of the unit, we have connections for power/charging, A/V inputs, A/V outputs and headphones. Also there is a button for returning to the menu (or a previous menu). The placement of this button tends to be a little awkward, but it does mean that it's hard to accidentally press it.

On the bottom, you have a 3 way switch to choose a control lock (to prevent accidentally hitting controls while exercising), normal operation, or output to TV.

Operation:

When you power up the unit, you get to the main menu fairly quickly (about a 5 second boot up). The menu allows you to choose Video, Audio, Photos, Files, or Setup. Setup controls the majority of features of the device, including screen brightness, appearance of menus, etc.

Choose Video, and you're taken to a list of the files and folders under the "VIDEO" directory on the Lyra. Audio and Photos allow you to access the corresponding directories also. You can set up play lists for video or audio files. You can also work with files, such as renaming or moving the files around, or deleting them. Note that you can also access a TYPE 1 compact flash card plugged into the top slot on the Lyra. It shows up as a directory under FILES. At the moment, you can view photos directly from the CF card, but to access music or video, it needs to be copied from the CF card to the hard drive. Also note that as of this writing, you can't move a whole set of files at once, but must do it ONE AT A TIME. I'm assuming that RCA will fix this feature in the future.

Note that personally I haven't worked that much with the photo and music abilities of the Lyra, since I mostly got it for playing videos. I have experimented with the audio features a bit, and I noticed that it takes about 5 seconds between songs to load the music from the hard drive. I cannot comment on music battery life, since I haven't really tested that aspect, but I would assume that it would last at least as long as video playback if not longer.

Note also that when you copy video or pictures to the device via the USB 2.0 slot, they are available for viewing immediately in the Lyra. Audio files, however, have to go through another step to "profile" them. They will not show up until you run a process which categorizes them once they're copied over. This is done on the PC with software they provide. Presumably this is done to add the songs and the song info to the database the Lyra uses while playing music. It doesn't take long, but it's an annoying extra step. Future firmware upgrades will allow you to do the profiling directly on the Lyra.

Note: One annoyance has been the appearance of the "Preparing Hard drive for saving settings" screen which has a tendency to appear once every time you turn the unit on - sometimes before playing a media file, sometimes after playing one. It seems to be random, and I've only seen it once per power up. It does, however, stay on the screen for 15-30 seconds before resuming what you were doing before. I am hoping that RCA fixes this in a future firmware update because it's annoying.

Playback of Videos:

The Lyra takes approximately 10 seconds to start playing a video once you choose it. The playback looks very good and is easy to see, even in bright light. Note that this is one of the main benefits of the Lyra over the Archos AV320 - in bright light, the Archos becomes impossible to see. One complaint about the video though - in dark areas, the video becomes pixelated. It's an annoyance, but not a show stopper, since this is parts of the video where there really is nothing to see anyway (it's only in the darkest parts of the video). Perhaps RCA will fix this issue in future updates.

Fast forwarding and rewinding of videos is slow at first, but eventually will get you to where you want to go. The scanning shows approximately one frame per second or two while ff/rew, and starts out moving at about 2x speed. Eventually after holding down the control for more than about 10-15 seconds it'll move at 60x (1 min per sec). This is much slower than the Archos at ff/rew, but at least you can SEE it while doing it. The Archos only shows a counter, not the video while fast forwarding/rewinding. One complaint - it shows a time index of where you are in the clip, but you have NO way of knowing how long the clip is, so you can fast forward right into the next clip.

If you press stop in the middle of a clip, it will set a time marker so the next time you choose that clip, you can resume from that point. It keeps a marker for each file, so you can keep your place in multiple video files. If you don't press stop before the end of the clip, it will start playing the next clip in the directory - an annoying feature that I wish RCA would fix. You should be able to set playlists of video if you want multiple files played back. I believe that RCA should go back to the video menu when a selected clip is done.

Output to the TV is done through special cables which connect the 1/8" pin style connector on the Lyra to RCA cables for video/R/L. The output on the TV is directly related to the quality of the source material. In general it's very good, but you wouldn't mistake it for DVD quality. It's generally the same as the Archos. Input into the device for recording is done through the same cable (the Lyra comes with 2 sets of cables) into the LINE IN on the side of the jukebox. You can choose multiple levels of recording quality which affects how much disk space it will take up. Of course, with a 20GB drive, at lowest quality, you can store 80 hours of video which looks fine on the LCD screen. For output to the TV, you'd want to use a higher level of quality.

Battery Life:

In the brief tests I performed at medium brightness, I recieved approximately 3-1/2 hours of battery life before the unit shut off. It charges back up in about 4 hours, however. (In comparison, the Archos gets about 3 hours of battery life at the brightest setting to about 6 hours at the dimmest setting - but you need a dark room for the dimmest setting. The Archos also takes about 6-8 hours to charge).

Notes on Encoding:

This section is identical between the Archos and the Lyra. They both require AVI files stored in Mpeg-4 Simple format (DIVX okay) with mp3 audio. This is probably one of the sticking points about any of these devices. If you're recording directly on the unit it's not an issue. If you're taking video from DVD's or internet sources, you might have to do quite a bit of research on the tools to convert videos, since there are tons of different formats for video out there. RCA has chosen not to include any encoding software with their package, and they don't really talk about it in the instruction manuals either. I get the feeling that they're dodging the issue, as it can be a support nightmare. I've probably spent hours researching the tools for this. Basically, if you are trying to take videos from the computer that aren't already in the right format, you had better be technically minded and prepared to do a lot of research or know someone who is.

Note that the Archos comes with a shareware tool (Virtualdub) and instructions for converting videos, so they definitely get credit for trying, but even this tool doesn't handle a lot of formats (without fiddling).

All said, it's a lot easier to connect the RCA cables and use the device like a VCR to get the video on the Lyra. Note that the Lyra does detect macrovision encoding and will refuse to record it if it does. There are ways around this, but it's not the goal of this review to discuss them. It can be an issue, however, if you want to take the DVD's that you own and play them into your Lyra to take with you. Some might not work. I view this as a liability, since if I own the DVD, I should be able to take it with me (The Archos doesn't detect Macrovision).

Transfer from the PC:

If you have a USB 2.0 port on your PC, you're all set. Transfers happen very quickly - a 1GB set of files takes about a minute to transfer, so it's a viable alternative for storing other files also. The USB 2.0 connection has been very reliable also, with the drives showing up in my WinXP computer immediately. If you have a CF card inserted in the Lyra, it actually shows up as 2 drives in the computer: one for the hard drive, and another for the CF card. This makes copying a lot of files from the CF card easy also. Disconnection of the device from within Windows has not been a problem at all (some devices don't want to disconnect when you click on the icon to disconnect).

Summary:

Good:
* Battery life is good but could be better
* Screen is fantastic in bright light and easy to see from non-direct angles
* Love the ability to set bookmarks on individual video clips
* Fast charge times
* Includes just about any accessories you could need
* Great price compared to similar devices
* Kickstand to set it on a table at the right angle
* Inputs and outputs built in - no additional attachments needed to record
* Compact Flash slot for copying files/videos/pictures, etc
* Can watch video while fast forwarding/rewinding
* Reliable/speedy USB 2.0 connection
* Separate drive letter for the CF card slot

Bad:
* Fix the pixelazation of dark areas
* Controls can be awkward
* No software for encoding (but it is easy to find)
* Only available in a 20GB version
* Software isn't completely finished yet - major features are in place, but many still missing
* Can only copy one file at a time from the CF card
* Fast forward/rewind slow
* The "Preparing Hard Drive for Saving Settings" Screen
* No remote control

Reasons you MIGHT want to get an Archos AV320 over the Lyra:

(many people might have this question, so here's my take on this)
The AV320 does tend to respond a little more quickly than the Lyra and Archos has been producing these devices for longer than RCA has. RCA technical support has been horrible as I'm still waiting for answers to questions emailed to them weeks ago. Archos has a phone number to contact technical support and generally answers the phone pretty quickly. Fast forwarding/rewinding in the clip is very fast, but you can't see the video while you're doing it. The Archos also has a variety of attachments that let you hook up a camera to it, a compact flash reader, etc. To record video, however, you need an included attachment (which is built in to the Lyra). The Archos supports video input from a SVHS cable and also comes with a remote control so you can use the device like a VCR from across the room. The Archos battery can last longer, provided you use it on LOW brightness, which is hard to see unless you're in a pretty dimly lit room. The Archos also has a built in microphone, can come with up to a 80GB drive, and comes with encoding software.

However, the Archos software is easily obtainable freeware (Virtualdub), the screen gets washed out in bright light, has no case, and it costs 35% more than the Lyra.

Therefore, Lyra gets my vote.

UPDATE 4/25/04->
RCA/Thompson has come up with a few updates that address some usability issues. They have the ability to fast forward 30 seconds or 15 minutes with the press of a button which is nice, and you can set multiple bookmarks in each file. Also the amount of time the "Preparing Hard drive for saving settings" screen lasts has been cut down by about half (now lasts less than 10 seconds). Still don't know why it has to do it at all, but it's at least less time now. Still enjoying the unit.