UPDATED - Does Videos, too? SHH!
Written: Mar 23 '05 (Updated Sep 05 '05)
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Pros: Plays by folders, Play lists, FM radio, excellent voice recorder
Cons: HD Spin bug, short battery life, difficult to navigate in some conditions
The Bottom Line: If you are a techie looking for a DAP, this is the one for you!
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| nad_masters's Full Review: iRiver H320 (20 GB) MP3 Player |
After weeks of using the iRiver H320 (and going through other MP3s to get to this point), I believe I am ready to give an informative review of the endangered iRiver H320. Endangered because iRiver seems to have stopped support for it, and seems to be focusing on their new mini-sized hard drive players, the H10 series. Though still not officially discontinued, the US version of the H320 firmware is old and stale, and have less features than the H320s overseas. What's the difference? No USB2GO and video playback. USB2GO is a way for users who have any UMS (USB Mass Storage) device, such as digital cameras; USB thumb drives, and card readers, to be used on the H320 directly. This lets you copy the contents onto the massive 20 GB hard drive. Video playback is self-explanatory.
My main attractions to the H320 that the other two players (Creative Zen Micro and Rio Karma) lacked were FM receiver, voice recording, and (most importantly) play-by-folders. The H320 has it all in spades. Thankfully, if you turn on the database feature, play by metadata (such as by artist, genre, album, year, etc) is still fully functional on the H320, making it very universal for both methods of navigation.
Enough with the chit chat and lets get on with the details.
In the Box
It's not as attractive as Apple's way of packing, and it doesn't try to imitate either (like Creative's Zen Micro). It's also not as cheesy as the plastic enclosure that Rio used for their Karma. It's a box that is carefully packed with folded cardboard - nothing fancy about that.
Inside, you get a relatively complete set of accessories except for a docking station (though it seems that the oversea models have this included).
iRiver H320 Multi-Codec Jukebox (the player itself)
Sennheiser MX300 headphones
AC Adaptor
Leather Carrying Case
Microfiber cloth
USB-mini-B to USB-A cable
Line in/out mini jack cable
Manual
Driver/Software CD
Registration Form
Setting it up
When I first got it, there was a demo MP3 already loaded on the hard drive. iRiver - Catch the digital flow!.mp3, a 49 second, 16-bit, 44khz, 320 kbps MP3 file that is an excellent demonstration of how the H320 will sound with a wide range of frequencies, and stereo separation.
There are two USB jacks on the H320 - they are marked "DATA" and "MEDIA". DATA allows the H320 to be a UMS for pretty much any OS (Windows 98 and earlier will need drivers included on the CD or downloaded off iRiver's site). UMS allows the H320 to act like a removable drive, which lets you transfer your music or data files.
This is the quickest way to transfer your music collection (and my personal favorite way). The MEDIA jack (which overseas is the USB2GO jack) is the MTP jack, which pretty much allows for "PlaysForSure" compatibility. This allows Windows Media Player 10 to sync with the device if you are used to this method of transferring (which I tear my hair out trying to use this on the Rio Karma and the Creative Zen Micro). The DATA port is USB 2.0, while the MEDIA port is only USB 1.1, forcing the people who prefer this method of transfer to wait. It is good to note that while the iRiver H320 can play all of Microsoft's WMA DRMs (including the new Janus, which Napster-to-Go uses), it does not have the "PlaysForSure" logo anywhere on the packaging or manual.
I completed the transfer using the DATA port, and will NEVER use the MEDIA port. I am sorry for those who rather use the MEDIA port and want my opinion on using it (does "it sucks" sums it up for you?) on the H320. I'm sure it is going to be slow-going, and just as frustrating as using it on the Karma and Zen Micro (except more so, since it's much slower).
Using the folder structure, you can structure it any way you want. I personally made a folder for MUSIC in the root directory, and under that a FULL ALBUMS (MUSIC/FULL ALBUMS) folder for all albums I have.
Any other miscellaneous music not a part of an album (such as individually downloaded songs) are under "MUSIC\MISC". Bill Clinton's My Life Audio Book is under "MUSIC\BILL CLINTON\CD1", "...\CD2, ...CD3" and so on. Yes, technically audio books are not music, but for me the MUSIC folder should hold everything that the H320 can play (audio files). File transfers quickly over the USB 2.0 port, and the hard drive itself can muster around 7 MB/sec (about 2 songs per second).
So setup? What setup? If you know how to install an external hard drive and basic file management, you're already there!
Where Everything Is
The size of the unit is actually pretty big for those who are used to the smaller microdrive players. However, it's not as big as the photos online make it out to be. It is as big as the first generation iPod (which my brother has, so I compared it), and the new iPods haven't really gotten any smaller (just thinner). The carbon-fiber look is very unique among the large array of players available on the market. And iRiver decided to go with buttons instead of fancy touchpads and joysticks (their previous H100 series used the joystick for navigation - so does Rio's Karma). Though the buttons are tactile, and firm enough not to be accidentally hit while in your pocket, the case it comes with makes bottom buttons harder to access (making me hit the center button "NAVI" on accident).
The top of the player has three mini jacks - headphones, line in, and line out. The headphones also have a proprietary jack next to it for the optional remote. Overseas, they get a much nicer LCD remote, while we only get the LCD-less remote (just buttons to control the player, but no way to check the status). There are many reports of having dust appear BEHIND the color LCD screen on the unit, and H320 enthusiasts pinpointed the jacks on top of the unit as the point of entry. It'd be nice if iRiver would seal jacks internally so that it is not wide open to the rest of the internals of the unit. Or, they uld also let us have rubber plugs for the unused jacks (cheesy way out). For now, most owners put tape over the unused jacks. I use a piece of paper so it won't gum up my expensive player, and letting the leather case hold the paper in place.
On the left side of the player, you get a very sensitive internal microphone, which picks up great! More on this later. On the right side, a mechanical HOLD switch can be found.
On the bottom of the unit, you will see the 5v DC adaptor jack, while the MEDIA and DATA USB ports share the same real estate. There are guiding holes for the optional docking cradle.
In Use
With the H320 snugly in your palms, you can manipulate every control with one thumb. With only 5 buttons and a directional pad, all the features jam packed into the H320 requires some of the buttons to do more than one job.
For example, once you turn it on and hit play (ON, Play, and Pause are the same button), it'll start playing your music from the start (top of the directory). You can hit the center button (NAVI) to go to the directory tree to find a specific folder or file to play. The same NAVI button can be used to go into setting menus if you push and hold it down. In this menu, there are many settings to go through, including recording levels, recording source, and bit rate. Display settings, sound settings, and a timer (when the unit shuts off) can all be set here as well.
The other button that calls up a menu is the REC button. This button causes you to flip through different play modes (shuffle, repeat, etc) when pushed normally while playing music, but goes into the MODE menu (Radio, Music, Pictures, Text, and Recorder) when held down.
The FM receiver isn't as sensitive as dedicated analog-based FM receivers, but is enough to satisfy you if you happen to need a break from all the music from your collection for talk shows (I personally listen to some of the morning shows). You can hit the record button to start recording. Setting the presets requires more reading, since it is not intuitive. Even still now, I don't know how to do it. I only read the manual, set it up once, and forget how to do it again if I was on the bus or at work. A small "help" function built into the player would be nice.
Speaking of which, why not create your own HELP text file and put it on the player? It has a text reader, so you can read it! If you wish, you can also use this function to store reminders and phone numbers. I'm not sure if you'd want to copy an entire book in text format to the drive though - not sure how large of a text file would the unit read. You can skip through the file by kilobytes though, if needed. This proves that the H320 was meant for the technically inclined (or at least this particular feature requires you to know that a byte = one character in a text file).
The recorder is a very nice feature, and like the FM recording, will allow up to 44khz, 16 bit, 320 kbit recordings onto the MP3 format. If you choose the internal microphone as the source, you only get as high as 128 kbit for the bitrate, however. The internal microphone is sensitive enough to overpower the level, so you may need to adjust the gain manually (or leave it at automatic). It is also sensitive enough to pick up faint sources at a good distance. Low frequencies (such as bass lines at a live concert) may distort, however, so you may want to bring an external microphone if that is what you'd like to do. You'd want this anyways, because with the internal microphone, you will hear the hard drive kick on in the recording every so often to write to the hard drive (from the buffer). For voice dictation, this may not be a problem.
Now, everyone wants to know "but how does it play my music?". Well, in the MODE menu, you can change to the "MUSIC" function, and hit NAVI to go into the directory that contains your music or album, and hit PLAY. You can use any of the play modes (shuffle all, shuffle directory, repeat all, repeat directory, repeat single) to suit your needs. Using the directional pad, LEFT and RIGHT skip "tracks", and when held down, can be used to fast forward or review while playing. The UP and DOWN are used to raise or lower the volume. Simple enough, right?
Sound Quality
Though the H320 have SRS WOW and a standard treble/bass adjustment, I found the best natural sound is leaving everything off. The included Sennheiser MX300 headphones sounds great for a freebie, Sennheiser are well known in the audiophile world as one of the better headphone manufacturers. Makes you all warm and fuzzy inside, doesn't it?
Treble and mid range presence are accounted for, as well as the as-tight-as-you-can-get-with-headphones bass. Hooking this up to external speakers (such as my Altec Lansing 3-piece computer speakers) proved that all of the frequencies are there and accounted for as well.
However, when plugged into the AUX jack of my JVC KD-SH99 head unit in the car, it sounds a bit muddied. Turning up the treble and bass on the H320 solves this. My brother's iPod did not have such a problem using its standard flat frequency EQ, however, leading me to believe that the H320 may need some adjustments after all. After getting out of the car and putting on the same headphones, I found that it was definitely better than I originally had it before the EQ tweak. The bass have more presence, though the treble doesn't seem to be affected. My brother's iPod did not have this problem, and didn't require adjusting the EQ.
Flawless out of the box? Nope, but it comes close enough to fool me initially. At least you can fix it easily with some minor tweaks to the bass and treble settings.
During volume tests, I found that the maximum volume on my brother's iPod was much louder than mine (and at maximum volume, there is no distortion). Although the H320 also does not distort at its maximum, it is not as loud as the iPod, either. When it comes to sound quality and loudness, the iPod is still king.
Conclusion
If you are very computer-oriented (and computer savvy), this is the MP3 player for you. It has so many settings, tweaks, and features, you will have fun reading the manual for days on end. You won't need EVERY faucet of features offered, but it's nice to know that it's there when needed.
There is one glaring mistake on the firmware, however - the HDD SPIN BUG that everyone talks about. The hard drive keeps spinning under certain conditions (playing a song, then hit "NAVI" to go to the folders list, then going back to the "now playing" screen). The hard drive will be on until the next time it needs to fetch data (which will take a while, since it has a nice 32 MB buffer). This will lead to low battery life - I tested about 14 hours playing straight, but only 5 hours when constantly looking at folders and files. iRiver promised 16 hours, however. A simple correction in the firmware to turn off the hard drive when it is done reading the TOC of the HDD would resolve this, but the problem has existed since their first HDD player (H100 series), so LISTEN UP, iRIVER!!!
The other thing (major only to those who use their H320 as a professional recorder) is a VU level monitor. This will help you adjust the gain manually and not rely on the whoosy in/out effect of the automatic gain feature. However, the H320 has proven to work great as a MD recorder replacement when prepped correctly and paired up with a nice external microphone.
Otherwise, the iRiver H320 is pretty complete.
UPDATE (Aug 4, 2005):
Battery Life
The unit is still going strong! Being in use for about 3 to 6 hours a day, I am able to make it last about 3 days to a week (depending on how heavy my use is) before I need a complete recharge! The battery is going strong still, and as long as you don't fiddle with it much (be aware of the HD spin bug!), you will be okay.
Dealing with the HD Spin Bug
I've also found a better way to deal with the bug - if you do accidently (or need to) go into the Navigation/Browse files area and go back into the "Now Playing" standard play screen, just hit the Stop button, and then Play. Your song won't start over - it will play where it left off (as if it was just paused), but the HD will now spin down after a few seconds versus 10 minutes later, saving you a lot of battery life.
Firmware
The US version of the player gets no love from iRiver. The latest firmware version is still 1.03 (the same one that came shipped with my unit). However, though they say it is not compatible, you are able to flash the firmware with another region's player model (it is recommended to flash it with the Korean firmware, however).
There are US (which does not have a downloadable firmware STILL as of yet), Europe, Japan, and Korean. Korean is the best to get because there is no limitation on picture size (European restricts you to 2 MB file sizes), and the Japanese version does not have the ability to change radio frequency region, which renders the FM tuner nearly useless in the US. The Korean version has the best of both regions.
Why flash to a different region firmware? Part of it is because of a more stable/updated firmware code. Mostly because the other region players can play VIDEOS! Also, the newest version (1.28 KR/JP/EU) allows for playback of uncompressed WAV files. Too bad iRiver still does not allow us to record in uncompressed WAV files, as the recording fucntion of this unit is excellent!
There is only 3 cons when flasing to another region's firmware, which may or may not affect you personally:
1) You will not be able to play back DRM WMA files (pretty much all of the legally purchased music from Napster, Rapsody, etc.) And when you re-flash it with the US firmware, you will not regain this ability.
2) You will loose the WMP (the Media USB port) functionality, since in the international version, it is used as "USB to Go". However, because the US version's hardware is slightly different in this area (made to interface with Windows Media Player), USB to Go will not function either with the "import" firmware.
2) You will (supposedly) void your warrantee (though users still say they were able to get their flashed US players serviced under warrantee).
Does not really affect me. I thought it would at first, and did not flash it until now. I was worried that I would eventually be forced to use services like Napster. But this is not the case - CDs will still be here, and if I were to purchase music, I rather buy the physical CD that is (relatively) unprotected for fair use versus a compressed (and therefore quality is sacraficed) audio file that is heavily protected and does not guarantee that I can play them in the future. So DRM and WMP compatibilty going out the door won't affect me. I don't care for USB to Go (would be nice to have), either, so won't affect me either.
The warrantee may affect me, but since iRiver doesn't really care if you flashed your player or not, I am not that afraid.
I have not tried the Video function yet, but I hear it will play videos at less than 30 fps (but still very viewable).
All this info (and more) can be found on www.misticriver.net (a fan site and forum dedicated to iRiver players).
Oh, one tip I read there (that I will share with you here): If you do not use the DB function and just play via files and folders (as I do), you can speed up the booting of the player (when first turn it on) by backing up the entire player on your computer's HD, formatting the player, then use a command line (DOS box) to xcopy everything back. This eliminates fragmentation, which causes the player to take a while to scan when it first turns on.
A simple defrag does not work well it seems, and neither does using a Windows Explorer drag & drop method of copying.
Happy playing!
UPDATE (Sept 5, 2005):
I finally had the time to play with the video part of H320, and I was pretty impressed. It is not as polished as (say) a dedicated video player such as units that uses Microsoft's portable Windows Media Center. However, it gets the job done.
Firstly, it plays videos as if they music files, so you must be in Music Mode. There is no Video playback mode, which made me scratch my head for the longest time until I figured this weird fact out.
Secondly, it plays back videos at 10 FPS at 220x176 with an MP3 encoded audio track. The video should be encoded with DivX.
The display was crisp and detailed for being such a low resolution. There is very little motion bluring, and the low framerate is barely noticable. The physical screen helped out a lot in this department.
However, the screen does have a small bad thing: viewing angle. A few degrees off kilt in either direction, and the colors will start to look strange.
Other than that, video playing is very possible, and they did a good job on the firmware - viewing videos will not turn off the display after the set amount of time.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 275
Recommended for: Athletes - Lightweight and Portable, Perfect for the Gym
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