iRiver iFP-190T 256 MB Digital Audio Player

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Manufacturer: iRiver
Price at amazon.com: $123.00
Usually ships in 24 hours

Used & new from $95.00

List price $129.99



Product Features:

• 256 MB built-in memory
• Supports playback of MP3, WMA, and ASF music files
• Integrated digital FM tuner with presets and built-in voice recorder
• Record to player directly from FM tuner
• Comes with Sennheiser MX300 earphones, neck strap, AA battery, USB cable, and printed manual

Product Description:

You'll never leave home without your tunes and with 256MB of internal storage, that's up to 8 hours of music. The iRiver 256MB Portable MP3 Player with FM Tuner also has an integrated FM tuner and a built-in voice recorder. Features: 256MB internal storage; MP3, WMA, and ASF compatibility; integrated digital FM tuner with presets; 4-line graphical text display with bright backlight; record to player directly from FM tuner; built-in voice recorder; iRiver Music Manager for simple music transfers; USB connection; can be used as portable drive to transport any file type; Sennheiser MX300 earphones; neck strap; PC installation CD; USB cable and a printed manual.

Average Customer Rating:

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Comment: Does more than you think... Rating:
Pros - MP3, WMA, records FM radio and voice, UMS (USB Mass Storage*), user-friendly GUI with green backlight, FM tuner with 20 presets, Duracell AA battery included, "Hold" switch to prevent accidental button-pushing, small size

Cons - Lanyard that comes with the MP3 player is stupid, memory cannot be expanded, uses USB 1.0 (slow if you're used to 2.0), FM Tuner recording quality is sub-par.

I received the iRiver iFP-190T as an early Christmas gift. At first I was hesitant to open it, since I had read reviews about how you had to use iRiver's proprietary software (iRiver Manager) to transfer files and how you could not transfer MP3 files from the player to the PC.

However, after a quick Google search, I found that you can install a UMS driver for Win2000/XP (not sure about the others), and the UMS driver also allows you to easily convert the .REC files created to .WAV format. Just go to the iRiver web site and do a search for UMS for your player. The directions on the support site are easy to follow as well. Note that you must format your player as FAT in order to configure UMS, so you will end up deleting any files you already have on the player.

One thing to note is that if you install the UMS drivers, you won't be able to use the iRiver Music Manager. That's fine for me, since I can now transfer files by drag-and-drop. Again, this is on the web site.

After installing the UMS driver on my Win2000 host, I was able to drag-and-drop MP3 and WMA files easily to/from the iRiver. If you make a recording, copy the .REC file to your computer, then right click, and you should see an option to convert your .REC file to .WAV. It's so easy!

So far, the sound quality is pretty good. The voice recording was good quality too, but I was recording with the mic pretty close to my mouth. However, the FM recorder seemed to be of pretty poor sound quality. The quality is definitely not as nice as hearing the FM tuner real-time.

I use this MP3 player when running, and it works great. I don't like to hang it on the lanyard, but if your shirt has pockets, it fits into the pockets nicely. The "Hold" button also helps prevent accidental button-pushing.

*For non-techies out there, UMS allows you to see your iRiver as a removable disk in "My Computer" in Windows. It acts very similar to the floppy disks of yore. You just plug it into your computer's USB port and turn it on (after you install the drivers, of course.)

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Comment: Well i tried twice Rating:
ive have 2 iriver mp3 players. Both had the same problem. after about a year, the buttons would break. i did not press them hard or anything, they just broke both times i had an iriver mp3 player. other then the button breaking, the iriver is just an insane product, with all these extra features, the radio tuner, record on the radio and recording in general its definatly a keeper, id get a warrenty plan because they are bound to break but none the less its a great mp3 player.

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Comment: Top Performance, Rock Bottom Price! Rating:
This unit is really something!
I'm not only impressed, but this is the first electronic device I've bought in quite some time that made me excited, like a kid again. Finally, a player with no moving parts! I've been waiting for this particular unit to drop in price (into my range) and it did.
The signal/noise ratio is excellent, just as it was touted to be. The FM radio works well, but outside better than inside.
The voice recorder isn't the best in the world, but I didn't expect much concidering there is no room in this tiny lighter-sized unit for much else, let alone a high quality mic.
The only thing I wish it had is a mic/line input, but again, no biggie. The controls were intuitive, even though many reviewers said they had issues with it, I had no problems learning the controls.
The only problem I forsee with this player is ease of destruction. It's only plastic, even though it looks like chrome/metal. If someone sat on this, I'm sure it wouldn't survive. But, at nearly half of what other players cost, you can afford to be careless. Not that I can afford to be.
I bought this unit from Amazon and the reviews from this site and other sites helped me in my decition. Cnet was most helpful, too.

Posted at November 11, 2003 07:24 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)