 iRiver H340 vs. Apple iPod Photo |
| Review Date: December 2, 2004 |
| Reviewer: S. Shah, Connecticut, USA |
First I'd like to say I'm more than impressed by iRiver's latest HD based music player. I researched several products to find which had the most to offer. I wound up purchasing the H340 and have had it for about a month now. Here's what I found vs the iPod (I'm using this as a benchmark product since everyone asks "is it better than an iPod?")
The H340 has the following features:
The H340 supports MPEG 1/2/2.5 Layer 3, OGG, WMA, ASF 8Kbps ~ 320 Kbps (OGG: 32Kbps ~ 500Kbps) ID3 V1, ID3 V2 2.0, ID3 V2 3.0
The iPod does not support OGG and some of the new ID formats.
The H340 has a built in multi-region FM tuner with presets (with autoscan), the iPod does not.
The H340 is firmware upgradeable which is very important. If a new format for music comes out or they want to tweak something upgrading the firmware is a cheaper alternative than buying a new device. If you search around the internet, there is a firmware upgrade that will let you play video**. Yes real video. **However, upgrading to a non-US version may void your warranty. I've tried it myself and it works for me. The iPod does not play video, yes that includes the new iPod Photo. There is a hack out there for the iPod where video is crudely played using a 1 picture per second playback but that is not true video!
The H340 functions as a portable hard drive the iPod does not. (That is without the help of additional software the Ipod cannot store files directly like the H340) You can store not only music, photo and video files on the H340 but you can keep your documents and any other files on there as well! And unlike the iPod you do not need software to plug the device into another computer. Plug it into a USB2 port and it will show up as another hard drive!
It has a really high quality voice recorder with built in mic the iPod does not. Also, you can record radio, voice or anything from the line directly to a MP3 files using only the H340, no software or PC needed!
The screen sizes on the iPod Photo and H340 have the size, 2inch color. However, the H340 supports 260k colors vs. IPod Photo's 65.5k colors. The screen on the H340 can be so bright and clear I sometimes need to turn it down to the lowest brightness setting!
As for sound quality, absolutely incredible! The H340 comes with SRS WOW 3D sound technology built in. It also has equalizer presets to chose from or create your own settings.
The unit can be charged in 3 to 4 hrs via USB or the power adapter and battery life is 16 hrs! The iPod Photo takes 4 to 5 hours to charge
The Cons...
The iPod is thinner and a tad lighter, but it's like comparing a pack of cigarettes to a pack of playing cards (iPod). I don't mind the H340 being a little thicker.
The iPod has the brand awareness, so if you're looking for the instant recognition factor, iRiver is not yet there. Form (iPod) vs. Function (H340)!
The slideshow feature on the iPod Photo is better as it shows more thumbnails of photos, but keep in mind this may be fixed on the iRiver via firmware if iRiver chooses to do so.
In summary, the H340 offers FM playback, firmware upgrades, picture playback, video playback** (See note above as it does not ship with this functionality!), voice recorder, MP3 encoder for recording directly to it, color screen capable of 260k colors, incredible sound fidelity, is a portable hard drive with no software needed to use, awesome battery stamina and costs less than the iPod 40gb Photo version. As with anything, do your own search and see if my opinion matches your own.
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Fantastic - if you're a geek
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| Review Date: November 22, 2004 |
| Reviewer: Simple Simon, Mars |
My wife has an iPod which she takes with her everywhere. I used it several times, and I liked it for what it was: a dedicated mp3 player. However, when the time came for me to get one, I decided to go with the iRiver H340. I bought it about 1 week ago, and have been tinkering with and using it from morning to night ever since. Here's my take on it.
Warning: If you buy an iRiver H340, prepare to don your geek beanie. Here's why:
1. Button commands need to be memorized. It took me all of 20-30 mins to go through the manual and figure things out. There's a directional pad and 5 buttons, but the buttons have multiple functions depending upon whether you push them quickly, hold them down for a while, where in the menu tree you are, etc. I personally found the learning curve relatively easy, but this is no iPod (which practically anyone can use right out of the box). As for me, a 20-30 minute up front time investment is no big deal, and I like having the extra controls (e.g., almost 10 different shuffle and repeat commands).
2. The user interface is NOT elegant (for elegance, see "iPod"). There's a bit of a half-finished, work-in-progress feel to the H340. For instance, you can't view pictures while listening to music. It's strictly either-or. The music search function is in no way as easy to use as iPod's, either. There's a default file tree, which is essentially Windows explorer function. You literally search through folders and filenames (e.g., "beethovens5th.mp3") to get to songs. I still haven't been able to get the artist/album/genre/song search functions to work, so I can't comment.
3. Weight/size. The H340 is about the same length and width as an iPod, but it's perhaps twice as thick and somewhat heavier too.
Not that we got the bad stuff out of the way, and scared off the iPodders, let's get to the stuff I like.
1. Fantastic array of functions. The voice recorder uses the external mic built into the H340 to give you stunning recordings. There's more recording options and settings than you can shake a stick it (although I have seen some reviewers rue the lack of some advanced functions - but it's not like I'd know what they were in the first place). The Photo Viewer is crude but handy. There are some file size restrictions you have to observe. Also, unless the pictures fall into a narrow range of dimensions, the picture will not fill up more than 50-60% off the LCD screen. It almost makes you wish for a zoom function. Still, I like it just fine (again, not iPod level, but good enough). And the LCD screen is gorgeous, with high resolution, contrast and brightness. It's perfectly readable in daylight. The Text Viewer is nice, but is limited only to .txt files. I don't plan on using it a lot, but it's nice to have. I'm sure iRiver will come out with additional functions in future firmware releases. The Browser function allows you to use the H340 as a storage drive.
2. Plug 'n Play. You just plug'n'play this puppy into any computer. No CDs or drivers to mess with. It goes right into the USB port of any computer and Windows will automatically recognize it. BIG PLUS in my book. And loading music into the unit is as simple as copying and pasting or dragging 'n dropping files from the computer right into the unit. The H340 just appears as another drive on your desktop, folks. This was critical to me, because I plan to use the H340 as much more than a mere mp3 player; i.e., I'm a lawyer, so I will be using this to record witness oral statements, take digital pictures and plug my Nikon camera right into the H340 to download the pics and view them (USB on the go rules!). Note, you have to install and use 3d party software in order to extract music files from the iPod.
3. Great hardware. Fantastic sound (beats the iPod by a MILE, came with Sennheiser earbuds too!). The LCD screen is gorgeous, as I mentioned above. The hard drive storage is more than most people will ever need, whether 20 or 40 gigabytes. The hard drive runs nice and quiet too. The battery life isn't the 16 hours advertised, I've been getting around 9-10, but I figure the battery just needs to be broken in. It still beats the iPod by a mile.
Ok, I gotta go, but I hope this helps people. If I have time, maybe I'll come back and expand on this review.
IN SHORT, I love this unit. It's perfect for me and does everything I need. People who are just looking for an mp3 player only should consider iPod. If you want power, awesome sound quality, battery life, large array of functions, and are willing to put up with some minor inconveniences, then get this. |
One MP3 Player that will Rule them All
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| Review Date: December 17, 2004 |
| Reviewer: T. Chariya, USA |
| I am writing this review as I listen to U2 - Hasta La Vista Baby album on my iRiver H320...the sound is amazing. I have owned an eDigital Treo 15, then upgraded to a Creative Labs Zen Jukebox 20 w/FM Tuner. When I decided to upgrade, I took over 4 months researching for my next generation 1GB+ mp3 player purchase. What I was looking for was something that had storage space, on-board FM Tuner, recording capabilities and most importantly great sound. I considered Rio Karma, Creative Muvo2 w/hack 2GB CF card, iPod Mini, iPod, iPod Photo and a slew of other mp3 players available outside of the USA. I know some of my considerations didn't have all of the above, but I would have sacrificed space for sound, functionality for looks...etc. But just in the last few weeks, I came across this website www.misticriver.net . It is _THE_ user forum for iRiver products. I considered their mp3 flash devices, but not their hard drive based device, until I read their thread on how the H320/H340 can play video if you flash the bios with the European or the Korean or the Japanese bios upgrade. My jaw dropped! And it is still dropped...and I'm still drooling. You have to understand....I'm a closet geek. I like my electronic toys, I do my research and I recommend the heck out of products that impress me. I am going to do this now. First things first...go to the webpage above and read it for yourself. The H320/H340 plays converted video files. That's right!!! Convert your DVD's to AVI files; transfer then to your H320/340 and boom....play your videos on your MP3 player. The website tells you exactly how to do it. I addition to DVD's, I've converted several hour episodes of Stargate shows and have watched them on my H320. I've got a whole slew of them queued up for my 4 hour flight to LA. So with that amazing ability out of the way, I'll briefly review the H320/H340 for you. Out of the neat package comes a shiny black brick with a big 2" COLOR screen. It comes with earbud headphones, protective ballistic nylon case, AC power supply, USB2.0 cable, audio cord (line-out) and cd-rom and nice instruction book. IT DOES NOT COME with a docking station, LCD remote or the external battery pack...all of which you can buy from the iriver store. Charged the unit for 2.5 hours and plugged the USB2.0 cord into the slot labelled `data', it connected at USB2.0 speeds (the one labeled media is USB1.1 and is intended for connectivity with Windows Media Player). I first upgraded the BIOS to something that is NON-US. After reboot, the new bios took immediately. I lost the functionality of a clock on the H320, but that's ok...I have a watch. I lost the ability to manage my music with Windows Media Player....that is ok..I prefer to arrange my own music with other programs. But I did gain the ability to play videos and the USB1.1 port turned into a USB on the GO, which you can connect to other USB ported devices (like digital cameras) and transfer files from those devices-I haven't used USB2Go yet, but it does look promising. I quickly scanned over the Owner's Manual, turned on the H320. I connected as anoher hard drive device WITHOUT having to install any additional drivers. I proceeded to load MJ's Number Ones as my test music, since he has a variety of sounds to test the H320. Speed was fast. Unplugged the H320 from my computer and plugged in my Sony MDR-EX51LP (sound isolation ear buds for $40). Hit the ON button...then hit NAV to navigate to the mp3's I downloaded...and was amazed at what the stock sound from the H320 sounded like. WOW. So I tweaked the sound a bit..increased the base..it has SRS(WOW) settings, so you can tweak the low-mid-high ends of the music as well as increase the thump. Very cool. Even at the default level 20 (30 is the highest), it was pretty loud. Very very impressed. So then I loaded a `converted' episode of Stargate Atlantis and started to watch it; very very smooth video display as well as great sound. Anything can be converted to AVI for this player as long as you have CODECs for conversion. And then I loaded some of my pictures onto my H320, they weren't formatted for the h320 display so they weren't awesome, but good enough to show off! But when I reformatted my pictures for the H320 the pictures turned out awesome on the 2" display. Again the visual display is beautiful. ID3 tags (or not) show up nicely as well as volume strength display for both ears (a mini spectrum analyzer?) So navigating the device Set-up menu, you can set the FM-Tuner regions, LCD contrast, LCD brightness, LCD power off, ways of ID3 tag scrolling, sleep-stop-standby power down times, types of shuffle, repeats, random, set the study mode that allows you to fast forward through songs and videos and much much more! The battery time has been tested..if you play mp3's only with SRS off and very minimal LCD use, you can go to 15 hours. The average seems to be 9 hours, I've had mine on all night plugged into my home receiver through the line out port and playing. The rechargeable lithium-ion battery is replacable, take out a few screws and you are set. There is a HOLD button. Also it charges off of USB cable to your pc/laptop. There is a small learning curve to the buttons, and I must say its not as smooth as the touch pad of the iPods, but I prefer to have some tactile feedback when I hit the buttons. So, now I don't have to buy a media player for the plane, nor do I have to drag out my laptop to play dvd's..just convert them at home (which takes a bit of time..but lots of support online on how to do it right) and load them on my player before a plane ride. The H320 is bigger than the regular iPod but smaller than the iPod Picture. It fits nicely in the palm of my hand, doesn't feel flimsy at all. I haven't tried to record voice yet, but people say its pretty crisp and the default mic pics up everything. In addition, you can record from FM Tuner as well as record from Line In (mic or other audio devices). The FM tuner (with autoscan and store of stations) picked up 20 FM channels, my stock car stereo only picked up 14 channels. It can also read text files. I'm not sure where iRiver is going with that...could be interesting. So, the NEGATIVES (more like annoying to me) things about the H320/340. 1) I must be a greasy guy, because I'm cleaning the finger prints from it a bit 2) coverting the videos to AVI can get time consuming at first, but once you get it right, its set-it-and-forget-it 3) I bought a 20GB one 4) the US VERSION doesn't play videos UNLESS you flash the bios to another region BIOS-Korea is the best here 5) it didn't come with a power/USB docking station, but you can get one for $30 6) the case/holder only protects. That's about it...just annoying things to me that can be quickly resolved with $$ or reading around on the internet. If you are already reading this far, you are doing your research and doing a little bit more reading at http://www.misticriver.net will give you all the information you would ever need to make an informed decision. I don't hate iPod at all, I'm a bit jealous for the styling, but now after XMAS 2004, everyone will have one; but not everyone will have a iRiver H320/340 THAT PLAYS VIDEOS!!!!!!! I would recommend you go to your local Best Buy and get a feel for it. The sales people at BestBuy will tell you to by iPod. They won't tell you anything about the iRiver and how you can flash the bios and play videos on it, and all of this for $300 for H320 and about $400 for the H340. I'm sorry this has been a long post, but I just can't stop talking about this thing. |
iRiver is perfect
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| Review Date: March 15, 2005 |
| Reviewer: Reviewer from Palo Alto, Palo Alto, California United States |
I don't own an iPod and I never did, because I am turned off by the hype and because I am naturally inclined in favor of the underdog. However, I have owned Creative Zen players, including the recent Zen Micro. Creative is so-and-so: not bad but far from perfect. My new iRiver H340 (I have had it for several weeks) is perfect on all accounts. I particularly like its Windows-like file-tree navigation. My MP3 files are arranged on the hard disk in artist/album hierarchy and the same hierarchy is mirrored on the iRiver screen. Therefore, file navigation on the iRiver is identical to navigation in Windows Explorer. When the unit is connected to the computer via a USB port, you see a new disc in Windows Explorer, enabling copying and deleting files with no need for special software. I use ID3-TagIT (a wonderful freeware downloadable from the Web) to automatically ID3-tag my MP3 files, and this tagging is being copied to the iRiver, so I can easily find songs by artist or album on the iRiver, if I want to.
The unit has other useful features such as FM radio, voice recording, image viewing, and text files display. Personally, I haven't used them, but some users may want to.
The unit feels comfortable to hold and appears to be rather robust (whether it is indeed remains to be seen; I haven't had long enough to be conclusive). Its bright, easy to read color screen is a big benefit. Its keys click nicely when pressed and won't be pressed accidentally, which is good (although it also has a hold key to prevent accidental pressing). Its battery usage time is reasonable (several hours). Contrary to others (Creative, for example), iRiver won't mislead you with false promises (Creative boast 12 hours for Zen Micro, which become 3 hours in reality). Furthermore, you can buy an external battery pack that uses ordinary off-the-shelf batteries (I haven't). You can also buy a remote control (I haven't).
The biggest drawback of iRiver H340 is its weight. I understand that iPod is smaller and lighter, but I can't tell you whether this difference buys you a greater convenience in everyday use. As for me, I continue to use my Zen Micro in "weight critical" scenarios (of which there are few).
Like all MP3 players, the iRiver comes with cheap basic earphones, so most people will use earphones of their choice, I guess.
In summary, unless you are one of those who are sold on Apple (and then you probably wouldn't be reading this review in the first place), give iRiver a serious considerarion.
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Pretty much perfect
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| Review Date: January 19, 2005 |
| Reviewer: A. Acharya, Seattle, WA |
| I bought an iRiver a few months ago. As a DJ I needed a replacement for my minidisc player that I use for both listening to music as well as recordings my sets. The iRiver is one of the only portiable MP3 players that provides recording functionality. I've been loving it so far. I haven't had any problems. The battery is amazing -- I recorded a 5 hour set last week on the battery without any problems. Another great feature is the way you can hook the device up to any computer and transfer music off/on to it -- no need for installing specialized software. The only complaint I might have is the size of the iRiver -- its definitely not as sleek as the ipod. Regardless, for what you're getting there is no alternative to the iRiver. The screen is beautiful and the playback volume is also excellent. |
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