over 65 mb mp3 players

Just purchased the iHP-140 from Amazon.com recently, after 2+ months of researching for the BEST mp3 player out there for the money.

I won't go into very technical details with this review.

POSITIVE ASPECTS..

FIRST..It has the LONGEST BATTERY LIFE out there. 16 hours based on "normal" playback. Takes 3 hours to charge from a COMPLETELY discharged state. (Much less time if battery still partially charged.) After I researched iPod and ALL others, this was the longest battery life you could get. Has an internal rechargable battery with no memory effect.

SECOND...Some people say that there is a long "learning curve" to this player. Actually, if you can move files in Windows Explorer, you can drag and drop files directly. AND with the USB 2.0, its a flash to drop files... virtually NO waiting. I've become the queen of copy and paste my files to this player.

THIRD...You can use it as an extra, external Hard Drive for storing or exchanging files. (a big plus if you need extra HD space)

FOURTH...Has a GREAT FM Radio! No, you can't record directly from the FM Radio to the player, but...I haven't done that in years, so this is an UNimportant aspect.

FIFTH....Recording operations are numerous..YOU CAN RECORD FROM OTHER EXTERNAL AUDIO SOURCES. Just plug in something (like someone's CD player) into the optical jack. OR.. I can use the EXTERNAL MICROPHONE to the LINE IN jack. It can be a DIGITAL VOICE recorder (just talk into the thing while recording voice, just like a separate DVR unit).
OH... it comes with all the stuff to record from these devices.

SIXTH...Compare the price to the 40GB iPOD???? OUCH!! iHP-140 sure does win over that one!

SEVENTH...Media player compatability is the BEST. It is not just pigeon-held to only MP3 types of media. It is compatable with SEVERAL file types (see product specs). AND the firmware is upgradeable! So future upgrades are a big plus. This unit will still be great in the future too.

EIGHTH...you can plug this puppy into a car radio, via a "purchased separately" cassette thing.

AND there are many more positive aspects to this unit if you like to customize your music, playback options, equalizer, sound, etc.

NEGATIVES........

*Cost can be an issue for some people. I paid a grand total of $400.00 even. CHEAPEST anywhere! All on Amazon.com!!! Trust me, I've looked EVERYWHERE, (ebay, used, new, retail, wholesale etc.) Amazon had it on sale, with FREE shipping, and $30.00 off for opening up a credit line with them. So, got a great deal.

*The earbud earphones are uncomfortable for me. So they supply a special adapter jack for other types of earphones if the ones you like don't fit the units earphone jack.

*The unit is slightly heavy, I just weighed it on a postage scale, with the case its about 8 - 10 ounces. Not for joggers, but bikers and for regular people, its great.

FINALLY..I just wanted a digital player because my cd's were constantly getting lost, scratched or "borrowed" from my teenager. I just wanted to listen to music without the hassels of changing a cd, or carrying around a cd player. With the 1200 hours of music I can store on this, I'll never have to search for a cd again! AND ... it won't be outdated in 6 months! I wanted to have this be the first, and possibly last digital music player I would ever need.

WELL WORTH THE INVESTMENT. :-)

I will caveat that I bought my wife an i-Pod last year and she loves it. This was the one rare time that electonics worked as a gift for the wife. Luckily, I was able to use it quite a bit and got a good feel for how it and HD players operate. Anyway, I'm not an apple hater or anything, but a few things bothered me about the i-Pod, so when I went in the market for a HD player, I wanted to see what else was out there. I've owned the iRiver H140 for over three months. Although I wouldn't exactly give it 5 stars, it definitely deserves more than four. I've outlined pros/cons, with some inevitable comparisons to i-Pod.

PROS:
- Long battery life... They claim 16 hours and I've gotten pretty close to that. I-Pod gets about six.
- Plug and play... If you have Windows Explorer (or whatever OS equivalent), you can literally plug in the H140, copy in the tunes, and you're ready to go. I-Pod requires the use of iTunes software.
- Fast transfer... It takes me about 4 minutes per GB.
- Organization... You can organize your music however you want, since it uses a folder file system (like Windows Explorer).
- OGG support... Ogg is way better than mp3, especially for listening to live recordings (make up about 1/3 of my collection). It's similar to VBR mp3, but takes up less space. Also supports WMA, WAV, and ASF.
- Features... There's some good stuff here: built-in voice recorder, line in/out, optical in/out, .txt file reader, FM tuner, and more.
- Firmware upgradeable... They listen to customer feedback and apply some changes in the upgrades. Although it tends to take a while for the releases, at least it's upgradeable. There are two releases due out in the next couple months.
- Fully functional backlit remote... You can see this in the picture and really takes this product to the next level.
- Easy to use... Although people have mentioned "learning curves" and "difficult to navigate" on these reviews, it actually is extremely easy to copy files from your PC, turn it on, and play the music. Yes it's true that you will have to learn how to use the multitude of features, but I was able to read the entire manual online before I even got the player, so I already knew how to use most of it. If you know the difference between pressing a button and holding down a button, you will do fine.
- Big display... Nice 8-line display. The remote has a 4-line display.
- Value... at $379 for 40 GB, you can't go wrong. It's well built and sturdy (no plastic). You can find cheaper players out there, but that's what you will get. I-Pods (all Apple products) are expensive in general.
- Stable... So far I have had zero issues. The i-Pod has frozen up on us quite a few times.
- Stop button... Had to throw this in here because the i-Pod has no stop button and it p*sses me off.

CONS:
- Slower navigation... It's actually not that slow, but when compared to the i-Pod wheel it lags a little. If you can get used to scrolling up to find something near the end of the alphabet (i.e. Rolling Stones) you will be fine.
- Questionable case... it comes with a brown leather case that's kind of ugly and adds to its size, but at least it comes with it.
- Lack of accessories... there are not too many accessories made specifically for the H series. I did find a universal RCA car adapter (couldn't find the same one on amazon though) that works with 5V.
- No clock... this sucks mainly because you can't date your recordings.
- Can't record from FM radio... in case you do this.
- Slower startup time... Here is a big trade-off because the i-Pod starts right up (takes about 2 seconds) because it's always in "standby" mode, which is why the battery drains so fast. The iRiver shuts down to conserve battery power, but still only takes about 8 seconds to start up. There is an optional DB functionality that helps organize your songs by genre, etc., which makes for slower startup time (I've heard), but I don't use this.
- Tiny 1/2 second gap between songs... this sucks but they fixed it and will be released in one of the next two firmware upgrades.

So really what it came down to for me was the pros were big advantages and the cons were minor. I'm not saying this is the best player for everyone (again, my wife loves the i-Pod and I'm not sure how she would do with the H140). It defintely has more power functions than most, if not all, HD players.

I would greatly recommend this product to anyone looking for a HD player, *especially* if you are looking to buy an i-Pod.

From the official iriver forum on July 19,2004, I see someone has translated the Korean iriver's announcement of H Series firmware update schedule. (If it turns out that there are mistranslations/misrepresentations, I'll update/delete this review here as soon as I hear). In late July/early August, they expect to have these features/fixes: 1. OTF File Deletion, 2. Propriety Format Support, 3. Playback Speed Control (not as flexible as IFP series, but will be supported)4. Gapless 5. Unicode Support in DB, 6. OGG Support for DB, 7. Hebrew Support, 8. Sub-dir support for Text Folder,9. Enhanced Shuffle Mode,11. Line Automated Lyric Support 12. A bug that occured to the remote when NAVI button is pressed in the PLAYLIST... is fixed,13. Programmable OTF Playlist,14. LCD Screen Bug in Radio Mode Fixed,15. Reduced Noise on the LCD Screen While Using the Remote,16. External Battery Support.

Due in October they are claiming: 1. Volume Control in Record Mode, 2. Recording Without the Infamous "Pauses," 3. Mono recording Support,4. SAD Support 5. Auto Sync Support (??)6. Korean Menu Support

First, for newbies/potential customers, note that iriver easily supports OGG (I'm listening to an ogg file now). The " OGG Support for DB" mentioned above merely refers to the accompanying PC software which apparently doesn't catalog ogg files correctly. Second, let me mention that I can't read Korean, so I can't vouch for the translation. Also, the firmware is really late (and owners are getting exasperated). Still, all of these are significant improvements, and even if we assume schedule slip and the usual marketing puffery, these would be significant improvements. I'm happy to see that they are updating firmware regarding recording for the October firmware update. I would feel good if this second firmware update comes before Christmas. If it comes earlier, so much the better. People on the misticriver forum are speculating that the "external battery support" that either ihp will be offering a battery pack or at least allow thir d parties batteries to be used. Pure speculation.