GoVideo ARC5.0 Rave-MP 5GB MP3 Player (Silver)

by Go Video

Product Details

Product Manual [1.75mb PDF]

• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B00065ZK68
• Item model number: ARC5.0
• Average Customer Review: 2.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (24 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #207,210 in Electronics (See Top 100 in Electronics)

Product Description

Amazon.com Product Description

The ARC5.0 Rave-MP player from GoVideo puts literally days of music in the palm of your hand. The tiny player's massive 5 GB hard drive holds around 1,250 songs or 83 hours of your favorite music (4 minutes per song, 128 kbps audio). Its supplied rechargeable lithium-ion battery provides over 10 hours of continuous listening, and the player even comes pre-loaded with music tracks by up-and-coming independent artists so you'll have something to listen to the moment you take it out of the box.

A USB 2.0 Hi-Speed connection ensures lickity-split downloads and supports both MP3 and WMA audio formats from most online services (including WMA's Digital Rights Management). Also included is an FM tuner with 20 presets and the ability to record from FM radio or voice and other sounds via a built-in microphone.

Organizing and transferring music is a cinch since the player is designed to use the near-ubiquitous Windows Media Player 9 as its default jukebox. Accessing and playing music from the ARC5.0 is simple, too, thanks to the player's carefully engineered user interface and its sharp, multi-line, backlit, white-on-black LCD. A 5-band equalizer lets you tailor the sound to your taste or listening environment.

What's in the Box
MP3 player, headphones, storage case, armband, a quick-start guide, an installation disc, an AC power adapter, and warranty information.

Product Description

Includes: premium earbuds, carrying case, USB cable, power adapter for rechargeable battery, & more. Go Video Rave MP 5GB Digital Audio Jukebox - This thin and compact digital audio player features a large 5GB storage space. Letting you carry an entire music collection right in your pocket! It also has the ability to listen to FM radio and record the broadcasts, offering you a more varied listening experience. WMA 9/DRM Compatible Connects to a PC via USB 2.0 Unit Dimensions - 2.1 (w) x 3.7 (h) x 0.7 (d)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Out of the Package Experience, January 9, 2005

By 

Jeff R. Clow (Corinth, TX United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: GoVideo ARC5.0 Rave-MP 5GB MP3 Player (Silver) (Electronics)

I picked up the 2.5 gb version of this Rave MP3 player this past weekend and have been VERY impressed with its capabilities.

The smaller version cost me $159 (before a $20 mail in rebate) and - having owned a number of MP3 players previously (Muvo, Lyra, etc.) - I have always found something lacking. This particular unit's manufacturer seems to have listened to consumer's complaints before releasing the model, because it really is a top line product.

It works right out of the package - you can actually plug it in and listen and sync items from your computer immediately, although you'll have to wait a full five hours initially before you can get an 8 to 10 hour battery life as a stand alone device.

What I REALLY like about this unit is that it syncs flawlessly with Windows Media Player, Version 10. You simply plug it in - no software needed - with the supplied USB cable...and then you open Windows Media Player and use the pull down menu to sync items to the Rave player. You can have it do it automatically, or you can do it manually.

And yes - it works with stuff that you've downloaded from MSN music...or Rhapsody...or Napster. Very few MP3 players have the capability to do that with multiple music sources.

The sound clarity is fine, although I would suggest you invest in a better pair of ear buds. The supplied ones work ok, but there are much better units (try the Sony Fontopia series) available for around $25.00.

The radio tuner works as advertised...and you can store your favorite radio stations. All in all, a FINE unit and well worth your hard earned dollars.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars If this were free it would still be a waste of time..., March 18, 2006

By 

Steve "steve" (CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: GoVideo ARC5.0 Rave-MP 5GB MP3 Player (Silver) (Electronics)

The Rave Arc mp3 player is cheap but still not worth it. In fact, I can't think of any price point where it would be worth it. Maybe whatever an ugly paperweight costs...

The functionality is lacking, for example, you can't organize songs into lists unless you rename the album in the mp3 metadata to specify a list (I'd recommend ID3-renamer for this, by the way). Most users won't be able to figure this out.

The biggest problem is the battery. Mine worked fine for 95 days (until 5 days after the warranty expired), but the battery life suddenly dropped to approx 1 hour. I called Go Video and their parts department was closed for nearly a month, but they assured me that I just needed to buy a new battery. They said 1 in 100 batteries had a "fabric" problem.

After about a month, their new parts department opened (panurgyOem.com) which is an outsourced operation which I suspect is some guy in his living room. I left messages and emailed for a month (long distance, of course, since there's no toll free number), but they never called or emailed back. Go Video kept saying that it wasn't their problem now that they've outsourced their parts department. I finally got through to the parts department and they told me that the battery is not replaceable. When I started to question them, they hung up on me.

I called Go Video again and they said there was nothing they could do since the parts are outsourced. They suggested that I bring the old battery to Radio Shack to see if they have one that will work.

All in all, this is probably the worst product I ever bought manufactured by the worst company that I've ever dealt with.

If you can get one for $5 it may be worth it since I'll give you $10 for the battery... Otherwise it's not worth it.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Worst player and company on the market!, May 12, 2006

By 

G. Gonzalez "OwlMan" (San Antonio, TX) - See all my reviews

This review is from: GoVideo ARC5.0 Rave-MP 5GB MP3 Player (Silver) (Electronics)

I bought the 2.5 ARC player in March 2005. The second day it froze on me as I was listening to the FM tuner. The sound was not very good, and I had to pull the headphone jack out just a bit from the player so that the sound would not be muffled. The player worked fine until January. As I was jogging, it just stopped playing and turned off. A little spider looking graphic came on the screen and a face with three x's and a sad face came on, too. I contacted RaveMP about it, and they gave me an SA# to use to return the player. They told me it would take about 2 weeks after they received it to repair it. In MARCH I still had not received any word on the status of my player. I e-mailed Rave and I received a response from a customer service rep that their company was going through some changes and that repairs were taking about 4-5 weeks in order to improve customer service. (How does taking longer to fix somehing improve customer service?!?!?!) Finally, last week, after getting terrible automated responses, I looked up GoVideo in Scottsdale, AZ, and I called their number directly. I had to leave a voice-mail (a vioce mail!) and they called me back 2 days later. The guy said that basically GoVideo is going out of business and that they are not going to take any responsibility for fixing my player. He e-mailed me a company letter basically stating that GoVideo is dafaulting on all equipment repairs and is asking customers to contact the merchant from whom they bought the player. I contacted my merchant who of course said they had no responsibility anymore and that it was the responsibilty of the manufacturer to fix it. I was very upset! I mean I paid $150 for a piece of junk!!!! GoVideo is a fraud of a company. Do NOT ever buy anything from this company!!!!!!!