RCA LYRA Expandable MP3 Player for only $24.95.

[bman46]

I apologize if this is a repost but I looked around and did not see this awesome deal.

CompGeeks have a RCA LYRA MP3 Player for only $24.95 with coupon code. The MP3 player comes with 32mb of memory but is upgradeable to 256mb.

Features:
LCD screen that displays song titles
MP3 and Real Audio G2 Format Support
Upgradeable for future audio format compatibility
Compact Flash
Real Jukebox Software
and more.

I don't see how anyone could pass up a deal like this one. I don't post hot deals often so please be kind

P.S. The coupon code can be found at my favorite coupon code site!

Happy Holidays

 

[pxc]

link

(edit) n/m I found the coupon for the special price at the other deal site.

 

[maximo]

good find man.

 

[bman46]

It's not minus 10%, its minus $10!

 

[ReiAyanami]

refurbished, also is it parallel port? if so, not that hot
"CompactFlash External Drive Cables: Includes a Printer/Parallel/PS/2... "

 

[pxc]

The OP is right. There is a special code to enter that takes $10 off. I found it at the bulging pocketbook forum. But since it's not allowed here...

 

[bman46]

Even if its only parallel, I still think this is smokin hot!

 

[foolish501]

also if u check the compgeeks site, it says it has been tested to work with 1gb compact flash cards, but doesn't like microdrives.

 

[hallf]

Is the parallel port only needed to transfer music files? I don't have a parallel port on my machine, but I do have an 8 in 1 reader that'll do CF just fine (and faster than PP). For 24.95 I might bite.

 

[bman46]

I'm almost 100% sure that the parallel is just to transfer the music (possibly to update the system if they come out with updates) - The card reader should be able to transfer your files to the CF just fine.

 

[hallf]

Originally posted by: bman46
I'm almost 100% sure that the parallel is just to transfer the music (possibly to update the system if they come out with updates) - The card reader should be able to transfer your files to the CF just fine.

In looking at the users manual (link posted at compgeeks) it shows the CF reader that's supplied hooks to your parallel port, so I think I'm good to go with the 8 in 1 reader. I ordered one - the $7 shipping almost made me not do it though.

 

[cyberia]

Originally posted by: foolish501
also if u check the compgeeks site, it says it has been tested to work with 1gb compact flash cards, but doesn't like microdrives.

No, this is what it says: "Successfully tested with a 256MB generic CF card, and... is specified to accept CF cards (Type I or II) up to 1GB."

However, I was not able to find a reference to the 1GB capacity in the player's manual. It would be nice though to be able to pack that much music on it. Almost beats the capacity of those 1.5 GB HD-based MP3 players (and the upcoming new iPod models ). Large CF cards are pricey though.

 

[bman46]

The very large CF cards are a bit pricey, you are correct, but using this MP3 player stock or even with a small memory upgrade is great for working out or taking a walk. SOme people don't like the very large capacity players because they are only looking to hold about an hours worth of music. I personally think that for the price it would be great for those low demanding applications.

 

[BigSmooth]

Originally posted by: hallf

Originally posted by: bman46
I'm almost 100% sure that the parallel is just to transfer the music (possibly to update the system if they come out with updates) - The card reader should be able to transfer your files to the CF just fine.

In looking at the users manual (link posted at compgeeks) it shows the CF reader that's supplied hooks to your parallel port, so I think I'm good to go with the 8 in 1 reader. I ordered one - the $7 shipping almost made me not do it though.

Some of the users in the FW thread say that you cannot use a 3rd party reader/writer to put files on the memory card. Apparently, you have to use the parallel connection because the player can only read mp3s that are somehow formatted by the software (which only works with the parallel connection).

Even so, not a bad deal for $25... good for working out or something.

 

[widefault]

WARNING: THIS DOES NOT NATIVELY PLAY MP3s!!!!!

I have one of these. All MP3 files have to be run through RealPlayer, MusicMatch, or WMP(with a plugin) to have the files encrypted properly for playback. Not only that, but if you don't use the included card MP3 playback still won't work.

BUT it works EXCELLENT with WMAs, even plays back WMP9 encoded WMAs. Still, you have covert mp3s, which I'd guess most people wouldn't be happy with.

Oh, it works fine with a Simpletech 256MB card, but I've never been able to get it to playback an mp3 from this card. I think they have an encryption key on the included CF card which is needed when writing files.

And another thing, this is the parallel version. Yuck. Luckily I found a good Winamp plugin for the Lyra that will write WMAs from MP3s directly to my flash card reader/writer.

 

[hallf]

I did my research bass-ackwards...ordered the thing, now looking at what people say about it...

Looks like the included software has to at least "format" the CF card using the parallel port reader/writer...not format in the DOS sense, but it puts some software the LYRA needs (sounds like codec files) in a directory on the CF card...it sounds like once you have that set up, you can copy WMA files directly to the card using any reader/writer. But alas MP3s have to be converted to MPX format using Musicmatch or RealPlayer. I guess I'll learn more when I start playing with the device.

widefault - care to share any more info on the plugins you've found?

 

[widefault]

It does store the player software on the flash card, but it's only 3 files(5 if you have real and mpx/mp3 playback) and they're pretty small. 83KB for WMA playback. It also has a small boot graphic file(1KB) that can be modified with a few tools out on the internet.

I've just been using the WMA output plugin in Winamp. Set my playlist up, set up the plugin, then hit play and it'll write directly to the CF card in my flash reader/writer. There is a specific Lyra plugin for Winamp that does the same thing, but it doesn't allow anything but 64Kbit and causes my flash reader to lock up. That plugin DOES put the player software onto the card, though. To my ear the 64Kbit WMA sounds pretty damned close to the 160Kbit MP3 they're being created from. Plus, at 64Kbit I can squeeze almost 10 hours onto a 256MB flash card. I've also done some conversions using other software. I created some Windows Media 9 WMAs that sounded amazing at 64kbit, easily as good as a 192Kbit MP3.

And for reference, using the Winamp WMA output plugin I can convert and write around 18 minutes of mp3s per minute. That's on a 3GHz P4 box, and the plugin is multithreaded so the P4's Hyperthreading does help. Takes about a half hour to convert and write enough files to fill the 256MB flash card.

For the money I'm pretty happy with it. I'd be a lot less happy if I hadn't found the RCA Lyra group on Yahoo, that's where I found the WMA playback info.

 

[cmv]

I'm considering this player but I have a question about WMA files--how well does the format handle radio/audio book MP3s? We're talking lower bit rate. I'm mainly interested in size and quality. I've got some 15 mb MP3 files that are about 30 minutes a piece. If these convert well to WMA, then the player would work.

I'll go google around but I figured some of you guys were up to speed on WMA.

 

[jrichrds]

Originally posted by: widefault
I've just been using the WMA output plugin in Winamp....I created some Windows Media 9 WMAs that sounded amazing at 64kbit, easily as good as a 192Kbit MP3.

Too bad there isn't a WMA8 or WMA9 output plugin for WinAMP. They sound much better than the WMA2 files that the WnAMP plugin produces.

 

[widefault]

Originally posted by: jrichrds

Too bad there isn't a WMA8 or WMA9 output plugin for WinAMP. They sound much better than the WMA2 files that the WnAMP plugin produces.

That would be nice, wonder if there's any chance of one showing up?

 

[cmv]

Would this device eplay WMA8 or WMA9 files though?

 

[Cutshaw]

Got one thanks.

 

[widefault]

Originally posted by: cmv
Would this device eplay WMA8 or WMA9 files though?

Yes, worked fine with 64 and 128Kbit WMA8 and 9 files.

 

[XNice]

Originally posted by: widefault

Originally posted by: jrichrds

Too bad there isn't a WMA8 or WMA9 output plugin for WinAMP. They sound much better than the WMA2 files that the WnAMP plugin produces.

That would be nice, wonder if there's any chance of one showing up?

Can't you just use WMP 9 to convert your mp3 files to wma9 files?

 

[widefault]

WMP9 can be used, but it's got a couple added steps. The one thing I really don't like is that I can't continue to add things to the playlist as it converts and copies. It also copies the file name as is, where the Winamp plugin can change it to make it easier to use the files on the Lyra. And I don't care for WMPs method of converting, then copying the file to the flash card. Seems to give me a lot of problems with my flash reader/writer.