I've settled on an H10 as a replacement for my busted 3g iPod. I've read the reviews and scoured the internet for any and all info I could find on it. Unfortunately, most of the info on the net is dated from the end of december, so it might be dated by now. Also, I haven't been able to find a clear answer to some of these questions, so I'm asking here:

1) When first released, it was reported that the H10 played songs alphabetically instead of by track number. Does this only occur if you choose the songs via the 'browser' section, or when you choose to play an album as well? Has a fix been released for this bug yet? Basically, is there a way to play an album and have it play the songs in track order?

2) Is there any way to update the firmware for US H10's yet? From what I read, iRiver Plus was not compatible with US players, but that info was at least a month old.

3) How is the FM reception (specifically, in the northeast US, new jersey/new york area)? Are there headphones that you can't buy if you want to utilize the radio, as the headphone cable is the antenna?

4) There were conflicting reports as to whether the H10 would be compatible with Macs (since it uses a drag and drop functionality for moving songs). Anyone know for certain whether or not it works with Macs?

Thanks for any help, and feel free to share personal experiences too.

1) Browser mode just displays the filenames, so if your files have the track numbers in them theoretically it should play them in order. However, all the songs have to go into the same 'Music' folder AFAIK, they can't go into their own album folders, so you'll have to scroll to the set of songs you want to play. ATM, the only way to play songs in the right order is by re-tagging your mp3 titles with 01, 02 etc in front of them. I used Mp3/Tag Studio for this..

2) Not yet. iRiver Plus only works with players that use MTP, which the US ones do not have currently - again, only AFAIK.

3) FM in my area is good, but I'm in the UK so I can't really provide any good info here.

4) "(new) Mac OSX support - Just tried the Korean H10 on a Mac. Worked beautifully, fully plug and play, drag and drop compliant." From misticriver.com. Unsure about the EU or US H10's though, don't have a Mac to test it on.

Hope this helps

1) The albums will play in alpha order through album mode and there is no fix for it yet. As for browser mode, it will display in alpha mode as well, but you can have your filenames numbered (1 songname.mp3) so that they will appear in album order.

2) iRiver Plus is still not compatible with US versions, but it does seem as if iRiver will implement some type of firmware upgrades.

http://www.iriveramerica.com/support/hd/h10_5gb.aspx

3) FM reception is good. MUCH better than my Zen Micro.

4) The US version will only be compatible with Windows XP with WMP10.

Overall, I am very happy with this player. The player is quirky about playlists and your main interface will be WMP10. I'm very happy with WMP10, so YMMV.

Hmm. I would think that the inability to play songs in track order is a pretty big drawback. Plus, I read one review that said even if you name your songs "01 - ABC" and "02 - AAB", track 2 will still play before track 1.

this kinda sucks that it isn't fixed yet.

Get an iPod

all the rest is less good (IMO)

can you explain your reason behind this? you mean the iPod mini?

He tried iPod already and is looking for the other ones.

If you're recommending iPod mini or H10, you better look at my comparison chart.



Shaded cells indicate the winner.

In other words, H10 kicks iPod mini's a$$.

Dammit, can we please NOT get into this? I'd prefer a mod just delete those last two posts, just to keep this thread on topic.

Anyway, if anyone can confirm or deny the track naming/playing issue on US versions of the H10, I'd appreciate it.

Yes at the moment the iPod mini is a better choice, but as soon as the H10's firmware is updated to smooth out all these bugs it will be the superior player.

Well Apple (iPod) is the starter of the whole MP3 player with HD in it. And I have an iPod 3g (20GB) and I'm very glad of it. And I think all the rest just mimic the iPod...
And an iPod is more stylish then any other MP3 player (again IMO)
iPod has a geat service and the software is free and Rocks!
and..
and ...


But hey the other MP3 players are OK to me but iPod is so superior

It just shows how ignorant you are.



Please show me one music player that you need a non-free software.

And please look at my comparison chart above.

So far I haven't encountered any problems with track order by naming tracks with 01 02 etc in front of their title, but mine is not the US version. I believe the US version also comes with the V1.06 firmware which should be exactly the same as my europe v1.06 firmware.

FYI: Actually the Creative Nomad Jukebox was the first HD-based MP3 player. Apple did not start this but they refined the size, shape and ease of use that other manufacturers would soon follow.

And my iRiver iHP-120 smacks your iPod around with battery life, sound quality, codec compatibility,FM radio, voice recording, the ability to record from optical and analog sources, the ability to use it as a USB hard drive and being able to transfer songs and files without any special software. Oh, and the LCD remote that comes with it also looks at the crappy non-lcd iPod remote and laugs.

Much love,
-Tom

Ow shhh

get back on topic

no you are right I'm brainwashed by iPod ...


@smapdi you are richt Creative was the first one. sorry for the mistake. But you have to admit that almost every mp3 player is based on the iPod.
Just look at the name iPod iRiver, iRiver even copied the name ! (I know that apple hasn't a patent on the "i")

[Make peace no war, and get back on topic]

I just checked my player and it seems to put tracks in order of last modification, which is odd. So there is no other way to make your songs play in order other than to make playlists. I agree, I do hope they fix this problem soon. Personally, this is a non-issue for me... I just wish they would implent syncing in both directions (song ratings).

I hope it's my last correction in this thread.

iRiver came before iPod even existed.

Please......

But it doesn't change the fact you're carrying around something that looks as nice as a brick!

HAHAHA

You people SUCK. Can't you go 5 damn minutes without infecting every portable audio thread with a damn iPod argument? No one really gives a damn about your preference, especially in this thread. you're all hopeless.

/throws up hands, walks away from his own damn thread....

//and an extra 'damn' for good measure

*Holds up hands in innocence.*

But I believe the fact is that in ALL mp3 related posts, at least 1 ignorant person trolls especially that "ipod is the best" or some other craps that they can think of.
Ok, back to topic.

Buy an H10, it's so sexy and super high quality. I'm going to pick one up as soon as Best Buy recieves the red one. The firmware stuff will be fixed in no time, and it already plays really well. You have to create playlists if you don't want it to play alphabetically. Alphabetical is default if no playlist is imported. It will work with macs, it just might require some software instead of being just PNP. Any problems should be quickly worked out by iRiver. Check out Mistic River for more information.

No... track 1 would play first. Because it is:

01
02

it ignores the AAB or ABB part because the numbers came first if it was:

01 - AAB
01 - ABB

then yes, it would go to the letters and play the AAB first, but this is not the case with 01 and 02.

I understand the concept of alphabetical order , but I'm saying that I read a review that explicitly stated that even if you add the track number to the beginning of the filenames, the H10 ignores the numbers and plays them alphabetically according to the song name. that's why i was hoping for someone to clear that up, and it seems that adding the track number to the filename DOES indeed work.

Rock on. I completely forgot that all my songs are already named "XX Song Name", XX being the track number...so that's not even a problem now.

And my local Best Buy has them in stock.

And I just got approved for the Best Buy credit card, meaning I have 3 months to pay it off.

Guess there're no reasons left for me not to get one today.

As I stated previously in this thread, all my songs are named XX Song as well and not all albums are showing up in the correct order. Some of the albums look to be in some random order but are probably sorted by the modification date.

Ok, just to clear things up for anyone else who might find the info useful:

I have my H10 now (it rocks ), and here's how song orders works:

In the 'Music' Section, where you can browse songs by artist, album, genre, etc., songs are ordered alphabetically by the 'Song Name' tag.

In the 'Browser' Section, where you browse through the folder hierarchy, songs are ordered alphabetically by filename.

So, if your song filenames have the track number in front (which most people do now), then they will show up in the correct track order in the 'Browser' view. If you want them to show up correctly in the 'Music' view, you have to alter the ID3 tags to include the track number at the start of the 'Song name'.

Other than that, this is one sweet little player. I was truly surprised by the quality of the FM reception, and by the overall sound quality. I've made arguments that only a freaky audiophile would be able to tell the difference between an iPod and an iRiver (given the same file and same headphones), but the first thing out of my mouth when I played the first song was, 'wow'.

Any chance you will post a review on Neowin?

Congrats!

What version firmware do you have?

Already started. It'll be up this weekend sometime.

Right now, v1.00 is all the US customers have. v1.10 for the UK version came out about two weeks ago, and iRiver says they're working "frantically" on the US firmware update to fix these issues, so we're keeping our fingers crossed for a firmware update by month's end.

OK. I put V1.10 on mine a few days back and it fixed a few problems like the screen not turning off properly etc, but no fix for the alphabetical tracks yet. I seem to be having trouble with the database on it, the other day it became completely corrupt and wouldnt show any songs at all, I had to use browser mode Only fix was to delete the database from iRiver+. Oh, and random tracks are still disappearing from the menu. So let's hope what they're working on will be released soon!

This was extremely useful to me, as this issue has been driving me crazy - I really think the H10 is so cool, an since I prefer it to the Ipod for my own personal reasons, not dsaying one is better than the other - but a radio, more space, and I think its just a cool looking - but this fundamental inability to play an album in order is a show stopper for me. I realize that a lot of folks don't seem to care what order they get their music in, or they are OK with the inconvieience of creating everything as a play list, but as a musucian I fine this lack of attention to the order of an album to be very depressing - I am just an old fart I guess, but I remember when an album really meant somthing. For that matter, if you are listening to classical (not my main thing), your MP3s will be per movement of a particular piece, so it really matters. ENOUGH of my PREMABLE being said (this is my first post) - here is my humble thanks for your clear and accurate explainantion - I did not even bother to check in Browser mode. The instruction for this unit are a joke, so forgive me for asking what may seem like obvious questions on basic funtionality, but I do not understand the featue of Browser mode - seems like I clicked on one song and it played the whole album (yes - in order, I renamed my file names as per the Iriver site recomendation, pretty easy in Musicmatch) - played the whole album - this is whatI wanted, but what if you jsut want one song? I hope they fix the software so that you can do this from the Album view as this would make it easier to navigate the system by album - duh. Meanwhile, your assitqance may be just enough to keep me from retruning this otherwise perfect little gem.

Aaaaactually, iRiver has been around for longer than Apple has been making the iPod, iRiver used to OEM the RioVolt line of MP3 CD Players back in the day, and that was a considerable while before the 1G iPod was released.