RCA Lyra RD2780 (20 GB) Digital Media Player
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- Number of Songs: 5000
- Usage: Music Video Photo Viewing
- Interface: USB
- Screen Size: 3.5 inch
- Main Storage Type: Hard Drive
- Expansion Slots: CompactFlash Card
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Disappointing audio quality and very slow
Pros
Nice specs, full set of accessories, cables, case, etc.
Cons
Horrible sound quality, hard-to-use interface.
Recommended it?
No
The Bottom Line:
Get the AV320 if you want one of these today, otherwise wait.
Nice looking package that disappoints in several dimensions. The worst feature is the very poor audio quality. I listen to quite a bit of classical music, and it all sounds like listening through broken glass - especially pure strings, or woodwind. These are files I encoded myself at 400Kbps/VBR, and they sound great on my PC, on the Archos AV320, and on various other MP3 devices.
The interface is very clunky. At the top level there are Audio/Video/Pictures/Files/Setup choices. Once you've drilled into one of those categories, the only way to the top level again is with a hidden "menu" button on the side. Again, once you've started playing an audio track, you can't back up to another folder for another track; you have to reset all the way back to the top level and drill down through your folders again. If you have the obvious grouping of artist/album folders, that many keypresses. Especially if you are looking for a middle-of-the-alphabet artist (long scrolling time). Lots of people have written about the "feature will be provided in a forthcoming release" message that you get when you press many of the buttons... Finally, the thing has a really irritating habit of declaring "Preparing disc for saving settings" at apparently random intervals. This takes about 1 minute - which is a very long time.
Video quality is OK: kind of VHS level. Recordings are fine, and play back well. The recorded files are .afs files, which play back on a PC, but not on most other devices without translation. If you want to encode your own video, you are kind of on your own. I found Dr.Divx is a credible tool - but you are out another $50 for that.
The device has a 320 sized display, which is a tad smaller than the 352 of the Archos - meaningless in reality EXCEPT that Dr.Divx has a setting for 352 pixel video encoding, and getting 320 sized video is an extra hassle. Whether recorded or encoded, the video loses the smooth motion of 60 frame interlaced - it looks like the interlace is taken apart, and you get essentially 30 fps video (at playback it looks like the even and odd frames are the same). Only really noticeable on a large screen with fast smooth motion. But you didn't buy this thing for DVD quality video!
The padded case is neat - but funky. Unlike the AV320, there is an impressive set of features, including a car power and cassette adaptor, as well as all the cables. The AV320 comes with a remote control, though, which is missing for the Lyra.
The flash-card slot on the top of the device is cute - but actually putting a flash card into it requires much force and feels really bad. And there appears to be no interface for creating new folders into which to copy your digital pics; so they all end up at the same level under "Files" unless you pre-create folders from the PC before you go on the road.
The interface is very clunky. At the top level there are Audio/Video/Pictures/Files/Setup choices. Once you've drilled into one of those categories, the only way to the top level again is with a hidden "menu" button on the side. Again, once you've started playing an audio track, you can't back up to another folder for another track; you have to reset all the way back to the top level and drill down through your folders again. If you have the obvious grouping of artist/album folders, that many keypresses. Especially if you are looking for a middle-of-the-alphabet artist (long scrolling time). Lots of people have written about the "feature will be provided in a forthcoming release" message that you get when you press many of the buttons... Finally, the thing has a really irritating habit of declaring "Preparing disc for saving settings" at apparently random intervals. This takes about 1 minute - which is a very long time.
Video quality is OK: kind of VHS level. Recordings are fine, and play back well. The recorded files are .afs files, which play back on a PC, but not on most other devices without translation. If you want to encode your own video, you are kind of on your own. I found Dr.Divx is a credible tool - but you are out another $50 for that.
The device has a 320 sized display, which is a tad smaller than the 352 of the Archos - meaningless in reality EXCEPT that Dr.Divx has a setting for 352 pixel video encoding, and getting 320 sized video is an extra hassle. Whether recorded or encoded, the video loses the smooth motion of 60 frame interlaced - it looks like the interlace is taken apart, and you get essentially 30 fps video (at playback it looks like the even and odd frames are the same). Only really noticeable on a large screen with fast smooth motion. But you didn't buy this thing for DVD quality video!
The padded case is neat - but funky. Unlike the AV320, there is an impressive set of features, including a car power and cassette adaptor, as well as all the cables. The AV320 comes with a remote control, though, which is missing for the Lyra.
The flash-card slot on the top of the device is cute - but actually putting a flash card into it requires much force and feels really bad. And there appears to be no interface for creating new folders into which to copy your digital pics; so they all end up at the same level under "Files" unless you pre-create folders from the PC before you go on the road.
