Rio Forge 256 MB Sport MP3 Player

Other products by Rio

Product Details

Product Manual [1.17mb PDF]

• Product Dimensions: 2.6 x 0.8 x 2.5 inches ; 15.2 ounces
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• ASIN: B0002UB2PU
• Item model number: 90260558
• Batteries: 1 AAA batteries required. (included)
• Average Customer Review: 2.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (69 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #14,145 in Electronics (See Bestsellers in Electronics)
• Date first available at Amazon.com: August 5, 2004

Product Description

From the Manufacturer
The Rio Forge is designed for people that like to play hard and use music to play even harder. Rugged and compact, the Rio Forge Sport player uses no moving parts and stays solid even when your body is moving fast.

The Rio Forge series is our latest generation of flash-based sports players. The Rio Forge is designed for people that like to play hard and use music to play even harder. The new design integrates the protective rubber grip from previous models with a stainless steel face plate for added durability. Up to 20 hours of battery life allows you hours of non-stop work out time. Comfortable Sport Clip earphones and a newly designed case with armband keep your player and music secure and accessible. Simple menus and intuitive controls make for easy one-handed operation. Stopwatch and Lap Timer make the Forge the ultimate gym or running companion.

Features

• 256 MB of memory stores up to 4 hours of music
• Sport Clip Earphones
• Sports Case with Armband
• USB 2.0 for Fast Transfers
• Stopwatch & Lap Timer
• FM Radio
• Audible Support
• Up to 20 hours Battery Life
• MSC Compatible for easy drag and drop of music and data files.
• Rugged Design Provides Skip Free Music
• Expansion Memory Slot Lets You Add up to 1 GB of Additional Memory
• Includes Rio Music Manager -- the most intuitive way to create and manage your digital music library

Box Contents: Rio Forge 256, Carrying Case with Armband, Sport Clip Earphones, 1 Energizer AAA Alkaline Battery, USB 2.0 Cable, Installation Disk, Quick Start Poster, Warranty Card

Choose your music. Choose your device. Know it's going to work. Look for the PlaysForSure logo if you're shopping for a portable music or video device and you want to make sure the digital music and video you purchase will play back on it every time. Match the PlaysForSure logo on a large selection of leading devices and online music stores. If you see the logo, you'll know your digital music will play for sure. The PlaysForSure logo makes it easy to find digital media stores and devices that work together. Choose from a large number of digital music and video stores, including CinemaNow, MSN Music, MusicMatch, MusicNow, Napster, Wal-Mart Music Downloads, and many more. Look for the PlaysForSure logo on a wide variety of devices including portable music devices, portable video devices, digital audio receivers, Pocket PC's and Smartphones. The checkmarks indicate if the device is capable of playing back audio and/or video that's been downloaded from an online store. Additionally some devices will be able to play back media that has been purchase through an online store that offers subscription or rentals.

Learn more about PlayForSure and how it works.

Product Description
Rio Forge 256MB Sport MP3 Player

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

37 of 38 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good Enough, November 11, 2004

By	Carter "Carter" (New York, NY USA) - See all my reviews

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)

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Three out of three ain't good.., May 6, 2005

By	David G. Karro (Falls Church, VA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Do the upgrade properly!, April 25, 2005

By	J. Qiu (San Diego, CA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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. (...).