Customer Reviews

Rio Forge 256 MB Sport MP3 Player

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(19)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(9)
1 star:		(36)

 

 

Like anything, this just takes a little getting used to. It's my first MP3 player and I've overall been really happy with it.

An anecdote - one thing I noticed on my player was that you really have to push to get the headphones in all the way. I thought the player was broken as the sound quality was tinny and metallic - I was scouring the internet for hours to see if anyone else had experienced the same problem - I was about to send the thing back. Turns out I simply hadn't pushed the headphone jack in all the way. My friends still haven't let me live that one down...

Pros:
- Extendable memory
- Looks great
- Stopwatch
- FM Radio
- Easy to use menu
- Good display
- Good battery life
- Software easy to install and use
- Armband is good

Cons:
- Headphones are cheap (good enough for running with though as they hook nicely over your ears)
- Stopwatch only shows last two laps and takes a bit of getting used to
- Carry clip needs to be bent into shape otherwise the player will fall out
- USB cover will get lost after two minutes of owning it
- Designed for righties
- Only plays certain file types (it won't accept a lot of the RealPlayer formats - you'll have to use Windows Media format or MP3)

I bought a 512 rio forge for my wife in December. It was great, and I bought a 256 for myself in January and another for my son in February. Then the problems started.

I am not sure what problems my son had, but I know he sent his back for warranty work once and then got the seller to take it back and let him buy another brand.

Then my wife's 512 stopped working -- It would only turn on momentarily. Customer support told her to send it back, which she did.

Three days ago, mine stopped working. It will not turn on at all. While I was talking to the customer support two days ago, I asked about my wife's. The tech said it was on the way back, but then realized they were returning a 256 instead of the 512 she sent in.

But not to worry. Since my 256 had to be sent back, I should keep the 256 they were sending, and they would return a 512 to me. And to make up for my trouble, they would e-mail me something I could use at UPS to send it back at their expense.

The e-mail never came. When I called back this morning, I was told it was going out today. If so, it did not arrive. I left a message with the woman I was dealing with this afternoon -- she was talking to someone else -- and told her I wanted to get the the thing repaired as quickly as possible, was willing to pay the mailing costs, and asked her to call back and tell me who to send the machine to. She didn't. And no e-mail arrived.

The 256 they exchanged for my wife's 512 arrived today. It does not work. She cannot turn it on.

In sum: three buys, three duds; a 100 % failure rate and very poor customer service.

****

A few days after I wrote the above, and after I voiced my complaints to the company, I received two new working Rio Forges in the mail, and they are have worked nicelyh ever since. I should not have had to have gone through the frustration, and I don't know why I had such a run of bad luck, but it all seemed to work out in the end. The machine is great when it works, and the two new ones have worked for about two months, now.

Before I graded the firmware to 1.33 (properly), the player was almost unusable (very poor FM reception). Unfortunately the upgrade instruction from the downloaded firmware file is INCORRECT. Just when I was ready to return it, I called the support line and got the CORRECT instruction to upgrade the firmware which made a HUGE difference. Now the FM reception is as good as my Sony Walman (which is acceptable). Here is the instruction:
1. remove the battery for 20min to drain the power, then reinstall.
2. press and hold the menu button while turning on the power. The display should now show "upgrade".
3. Connect the USB and run the upgrade program.
4. After the player shows "Idle", disconnect the USB. It will now turn off itself.
5. Turn on and reconfigure the player.

Note: this upgrade procedure will erase all user settings.

It gets a 4 star, because it still shuts down from time to time. Hopefully it won't get worse. (...).

This is my second Rio. I liked the first one so much I bought the Forge for the USB 2.0. I bought a refurbed unit for about thirty bucks. I love the thing, guess I'm one of the lucky ones.

I'm surprised to see all of the negative reviews. I guess buying a refurb unit paid off, maybe they fixed it. For what it does I don't see how you can go wrong. I've owned my Forge for about six months, I use it constantly for running. Occasionally it has rebooted on me when I skip songs. This is the only flaw I've found with it. It's happened 3 or 4 times.

It's the perfect size and weight for running. You won't even notice it's on your arm. The arm band works great. The ear phones are junk, but what do you want for this price?

The buttons are easy to access. I've run in the rain and got the thing all wet, it still works great. The battery lasts quite a while for a AAA. Do yourself a favor and use rechargables. Even without adding memory it's enough storage. About 50 songs is enough for me, when I get tired of them I swap them for new ones.

I'd give it 5 stars except for the reboot problem, which is very rare.

Maybe buying a refurb is the way to go. It's not a do-everything player, but you'll love the Forge if you plan to use it for running or the gym.

So you're happy with your purchase and one day the S.O.B. doesn't power up or do anything? Only 90 day warranty?? Relax. Here's how to fix it. Take it apart and be careful not to lose the screws or buttons. Take off the top circuit board and use a pencil eraser or something non-caustic to clean the connectors that connect the two circuit boards. After you clean those contacts, the player will work again.

I've done way too much comparing and searching for the best mp3 player, I feel it is my duty to now write something down for posterity's sake.

You are like me if you don't want to waste over $200 on a music player. I can't understand putting that much money into portable music. Okay, I could spend more, but why? My computer holds my music library just fine, and I'm okay with swapping my music around. Not a problem, especially since I'm saving $100-$300.

Okay, here's the lowdown with this player.

Best Features:
1. Compatible with iTunes. Download all the new firmware updates and the new iTunes driver from the Rio website and your set. Oh, as long as all your music is in mp3 format. The iTunes default is AAC, but you can change that easy enough. Right-click the songs you want to convert and "convert to mp3." I'm doing my entire library right now (it'll be working all night). If you have your music in iTunes and want to keep it in AAC format, but don't want to pay more than $200 for a player, let's keep our fingers crossed that Apple will keep the price down for this new flash player that they're coming out with in a couple of weeks. Otherwise, AAC isn't used by any other players that I could find.

2. Radio. The radio works just fine. Yes, yes, I know that a million people have complained about how it has a horrible radio, but Rio must have fixed it or something because I don't understand what all the whining is about. I'm out in the Alaskan wilderness right now (no kidding), and I'm picking up all my stations just fine.

3. Expandable memory. Don't need to waste time on this too much, but I like it never the less. As memory prices come down, I'll add to my player.

4. Stopwatch. It shows total time, average lap time, and the two previous laps. Also, when you finish a lap it tells you how close you were to your previous lap (+2.02, -1.27). I'd recommend though, that if you are really into lap times then you rely on a wristwatch. The numbers are small and I can't figure out how to view more than two laps at a time. It's great for total time though, which is what I use it for. I wouldn't be able to see all the laps anyway, since I keep it on my arm.

5. Armband. Sturdy and works great.

Bad news
1. There's no random. {Never mind, I found it. Menu>Settings>Playback>Shuffle On}

2. The playlist feature on the player will not work unless you use the Rio software. iTunes playlists will not work.

3. Does not work with AAC format, which is the iTunes default. (read above to learn how to convert to mp3)

4. I wish that it was made out of higher quality plastic. I'm going to be rough on it, and I'm worried about the buttons breaking.

5. Difficult to navigate music using only one hand. If you use your left hand you can operate the play buttons and the volume with your thumb, but if you aren't careful you block the screen. I'm not sure how Rio expected the player to be manipulated.

Conclusion:
A solid middle of the road player. Looks cool, works as expected, very happy with it.

(((Update:)))
Returned it for an iPod Shuffle. Shuffle offers four times as much memory storage for the same price, can't beat that! And the iPod will work better with iTunes.

I've spent about 4 days with a 256mb Forge, and find the features better than any other player. I wanted an iRiver flash player, but have an investment in SD cards from my Palm T3. I like the quality and software that I've experienced with an iRiver and this is my first Rio of any kind. My final decision is why pay the same for an iRiver when this has the same memory, but I can add SD cards?

I wont go into the obvious details; the product description does that.

The contoured shape is interesting and sometimes I'm not sure how to hold it. The D-pad controls seem to be better than the iRiver, not having ever held the iRiver, but its very PDA-like. Running on a AAA battery, the unit is incredibly small and delivers a claimed 20hrs. Its a trade off for the iRivers AA battery claim of 40. I haven't needed to change the battery yet, but it is definitely on track to reaching that claim.

I listen to recorded radio shows like Howard Stern and require the resume features in any player. The same requirement would be for Audible users I would imagine. The resume features are excellent. By default, it remembers the track and location at every shutdown. You can also create 10+ bookmarks for various locations.

The build quality is only OK. It looks good in pictures; solid, made of metal. In reality, its not the most durable handheld device I own. In addition, the flashy chrome looks good, but is distracting trying to read the already curvy, reflective screen. I find myself changing the angle to see the screen trying to avoid reflections. I'm also concerned the chrome will peel off in a few months.

The backlight is great; a nice even white while lighting up the controls in red. I like blue backlights, but this is a nice change for a modern look. The UI is great also, very much like my iPod, especially for such a small screen. Apple has forced manufacturers to make usablility much better.

I have had 3 issues so far:

1. Once it calaimed that my 512mb Lexar was full when it was far from it. I attribute it to the dual purpose use with a Palm PDA, so I formatted it for a clean filesystem. No problems since.

2. Occaisionally, it would reset itself, and lose my place in my track. I think is that the battery is not tight enough in the compartment, disconnecting power with a moderate bump. I stretched the spring a bit for a tighter fit. That should fix it.

3. It would not recognize the device on a Windows XP SP2 machine, but was recognized on a SP1 machine, so that may be a SP2 issue.

Overall, I would recommend it if you like the features. That is exactly why I'm willing to work through the small issues. There is nothing else that matches it feature for feature for the money.

Was really pleased with the player at first, especially with a 1 gb SD card. After three days, the battery died, switched the battery, and a few songs later the player completely died (hearing that this has happened to others and now myself, I recommend buy it some place where its easy to return). Before this, I saw the problem others have reported with the player unexpectantly shutting off for no reason, I fiddled with the battery spring with no effect. The FM player worked really well in L.A., but hardly worked in the bay area. I wish I could of tried the firmware, but the player died before I got the chance. Also, something to note, after only once running with the player on my arm the screen started to get the rainbow effect from too much direct sunlight. The bubble housing surrounding the screen I think focuses the light and ruins the screen faster than it would otherwise.

I've had this for about 3 weeks now and I think it a good mp3 player. It's not perfect, but the positives outweigh any negatives. I've previously owned an iRiver ifp 395t and used a iriver 799t. Overall, I prefer the Rio Forge. The iRiver players generally have better sound quality but the Forge seems good enough, I don't have super expensive headphones (sony) and not a crazy audiofile, but i think the Forge sounds fine. In my opinion, the key for the Forge is the expandable memory. This makes the Forge cheaper for the same memory size player and leaves the possiblity for future upgrades - i bought a 1 gb sd card. The iriver players dont have this option. Some people complain about the FM reception. I live in a big city and the FM works alright. I don't use the radio too much. Supposedly the recent firmware update improves this and fixes some other things i notices (faster startup time).

Pros:
- SD card expandability
- Small and light (fits into pocket easier than iriver)
- Uses AAA battery for ease of replacement instead of builtin rechargeable
- Pretty good user interface
- Better accessories included for active users (better armband and headphones for running vs. iriver).

Cons:
- USB connection cover is removable, this will quickly get lost (minor thing)
- Not the sturdiest build quality, but good enough
- Battery cover hard to remove

This is a good player, though not perfect, that i would recommend to anyone looking for a flash based player. i've had bad experiences with hard drive based units in the past.

I've had my Rio Forge 256 for 7 months. I only use it about 2-3 times a week no longer than one hour each use. Over the last couple months, I've been experiencing problems with my unit. More recently, it turns off for no reason. It sounds like a lot of people are experiencing problems with this unit. If you go to the Rio website, they have a Q&A of issues, I've experienced most of them. I'm still working with Rio to figure out a way to fix the problems I've been experiencing. This unit is made for active use and it doesn't seem like it's holding up very well. I'd recommend looking into a different brand if you're shopping for an MP3 player.