[nsx_23]

*Could someone move this to the appropriate forum? thanks

Packaging:

The H320 comes in a big box, and it includes a leather case, a charger, USB cable, a standard non-LCD remote (LCD remote is optional), line-in and line-out cable, an excellent mic, USB host cable and Sennheiser MX300 headphones. Overall, the packaging is pretty good, but the little cradel that carries the 320 tends to scratch the player, so watch out.

The leather case included has a belt clip, and it is very well built. The bad thing is, the case is very thick, and it limits access to the volume down button.

Size:

The 320 is quite thick for a modern HDD player (the 340 even thicker), and can be quite bulky for some people. Personally, i don't bother with the case, since it simply makes it too inconvenient to carry around in my pocket.

Controls:

The menu system is easy to use, but browsing through folders with a large number of files could be a bit tiring.

Operation:

The H300 series has a battery life rated at 16 hours. However, most owners are getting more than 16. I'm currently getting about 20 hours of battery life, though this does shrink if you watch VIDEO. THe 320 is also excellent for recording stuff, and the player has a built-in mic which is quite sensitive, but you're better off using the included external mic, since it doesn't pick up the noises the hard disk makes when recording.

Sound quality:

The sound quality is very good overall. You can choose from 4 pre-set EQ's, or simply make your own setting in the menu. Also, the 320 has SRS, and there is 4 settings for this: SRS, SRS trubass, WOW preset, WOW user.

The 320 has a very good bass output, and the midrange isn't too bad. The trebel could be better, but it's acceptable. the output is also excellent, and is quite powerful for a MP3 (or should that be MP4?). As there's a line-out port, two people can listen at once without sharing headphones (useful on long car trips).

I listen to a lot of different music, and its when i listen to classical music (music exams, so don't ask) that i wish the 320 had a bit more "depth" to its output. But, for everyday use, i reckon it's better than an iPOd.

Video quality:

The h320 can be used to view videos, but you need to upgrade the firmware to do so. The screen isn't quite big enough for proper video viewing, but it's good enough for what it is.

Overall:

The 320 is quite a feature-packed player. The USB on the go function is quite handy for transfering photos from your digital camera when you go on holiday, and you can also view these photos on the player as well. The color screen is very sharp (better than iPod photo), and the 320 can be customised as well. Soudn quality is also very good, and it's very powerful as well.

Most importantly, it can play videos. Useful for long car trips on on the train/bus

However, a lot of people might be put off by the size of the thing, but if you want a feature-packed player, than the 320 is a good choice.

Refer to www.misticriver.net for more info

 

[Inter]

How do you get 16-20 hours? I get perhaps 5-6 at most. Granted, I don't use playlists and tend to just shuffle tracks and it's a mix of .ogg and .mp3 but still.

I am very dissapointed in the battery life of the H320. Other than that, the player is fantastic.

Thanks for the review!

 

[micaela]

I use ogg files & sometimes watch videos & get way better than 5 or 6 hrs. Even when watching videos I get closer to 8. Maybe your battery has a problem.

 

[dr4g0n]

I don't have a H320 but I did quite some research on it before buying my YH-J70. On misticriver it was said that specific firmwares can cause an acute decrease in battery so my advice would be upgrade your firmware to the latest version. 1.28 I think.

 

[nsx_23]

The most current firmware is the 1.28 version. However, if you buy a h320 in America, they have their own firmware, which can support music downloaded from music providers.

Don't compress your files if you want to get good battery life out of the 320. I rip at 320kbps, since that's the limit of what the 320 can support. Also, use the MP3 format, as it is less compressed than .ogg or other file types, and thus take less power for the player to decompress.

You must update the firmware before it can play video, since that function was added later on by iRiver.

By the way, Rockbox is an alternative firmware currently being developed for the 320. They have already successfully put it on to the h100 series, and are working on the software to load it onto the H300 series.

 

[st5150]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Inter How do you get 16-20 hours? I get perhaps 5-6 at most. Granted, I don't use playlists and tend to just shuffle tracks and it's a mix of .ogg and .mp3 but still. I am very dissapointed in the battery life of the H320. Other than that, the player is fantastic. Thanks for the review!

I get the same battery life as you---- but it's on purpose. I leave the screen on all the time. I use the EQ. Play ogg files and to top it off, I constantly skip tracks forcing the HD to spin up (a big spike in current draw).

 

[nsx_23]

If you're only getting about 5 to 6 hours of battery life, than its time to send it back to iRiver or to git a new battery.

People on misticriver have said that a 1st gen iPod battery can be used, and can also give slightly more battery life. If you can find one, the ionity batteries are worth the money. They can give the iriver 25 hours of battery life

I love my iRiver!

 

[austonia]

i owned the H320 for 1 day before returning it.

pros:
- colorful, hi-res screen
- FM radio
- WMA DRM compatible

cons:
- all plastic construction
- control pad too small
- gui badly designed (for instance, main menu has icons so large that only 4 menu options fit on the screen at one time. with a 220x176px display, they could easily have fit everything on one screen)
- USB Host function nudered from international version

(just the main things that stuck out in my mind)

 

[Febs]

Quote:

Originally Posted by nsx_23 Don't compress your files if you want to get good battery life out of the 320. I rip at 320kbps, since that's the limit of what the 320 can support.

This is not true. Since 320kbps files are significantly larger than files using lower bitrates, the player has to spin up the hard drive far more often to decode 320kbps files than it would if you use a lower bitrate. Your battery life would be worse with 320kbps files than with lower bitrate files.

Quote:

Also, use the MP3 format, as it is less compressed than .ogg or other file types, and thus take less power for the player to decompress.

Ogg Vorbis uses a different encoding/decoding scheme than MP3. Decoding Ogg Vorbis is significantly more CPU-intensive than MP3, which is why Ogg Vorbis is less battery-efficient. It has nothing to do with whether Ogg Vorbis is "less compressed" or more compressed than MP3.

 

[nsx_23]

cool. thanks for correcting me.

what Austonia said are the main reasons why not many people buy the 320. However, it's been out for ages, and there's a mod to get the USB OTG function back.

Go to misticriver.net

 

[Inter]

Quote:

Originally Posted by st5150 I get the same battery life as you---- but it's on purpose. I leave the screen on all the time. I use the EQ. Play ogg files and to top it off, I constantly skip tracks forcing the HD to spin up (a big spike in current draw).

There's probably the reason then. I use the Rock setting on the EQ, play .ogg files and I skip tracks all the time on shuffle.

I suppose I have to bite the dust and make some playlists. Bah!

Thanks for the comparison, it's probably my habits causing this, not the player itself.

 

[st5150]

Inter- If you also leave your screen on all the time, we found the culprit. I actually did some measurements a while back.... skippnig tracks (forcing the HD to spin up), caused a huge spike in power consumption, nearly an amp. The display was the second biggest draw, while not nearly as big, it's a constant draw.

This is the playlist editor I use: http://www.cyberguest.net/playlist/download.php it's very small, so I just leave the .EXE file in the root directory of my iriver so I can use it on any microsoft PC I connect my player to (If they have .NET framework installed).

With that said, the playlist support on the iriver is WEAK. You can't browse or skip ahead on playlists. For example, if you have a 100 song playlist. You can't look ahead to see what song #34 is. And if you want to play song #50------ yup, you have to press 'next track' fifty times! I'm praying the awesome rockbox guys get the H300 port working for us so we can have gapless, but more importantly REAL playlist support.

With that said, an external battery pack, like the one in my sig will give you some very very good battery life---- up to 150% of what you're currently getting.

 

[Albert705]