Tag : rca pearl, usb blue, radio direct, 2 gb, with fm, mp3 player

Company : RCA List Price : $49.99 Amazon Price : $42.40 Used Price : $34.99 Average customer review :

Accessoies

• Belkin F8V234-WHT-APL Headphone Splitter
• iHome IHM4S Portable Speaker Case for iPod and MP3 Players
• Belkin TuneCast II FM Transmitter for MP3 Players (White)
• MACALLY IceTune Stereo Speaker and Charger
• Maxell P-13 Stereo FM Transmitter

Features

• 2 GB of flash memory stores up to 600 songs or 8 hours of video
• Connect directly to your computer with the built-in USB for fast file transfers
• Included EasyRip software makes quick work of building and managing your music library
• Add more memory using the MicroSD slot
• Enjoy up to 35 hours of music playback with one AAA battery

Product Description

AAC - WMA - DRM9 / OLED Display / microSD Slot / Voice Recorder / FM Tuner / AA batteries / Flip Out USB

Customer reviews

Resume play works across power cycle after firmware upgrade
What other reviewers have not mentioned is a feature very important to me. I use the player mostly to listen to podcasts. When I turn the player off and on, I want to resume play at exactly the same point. A surprising number of players lack this feature. Out of the box, this unit would restart at the beginning of the MP3 file. Not good. There is a Resume option when playing music, but this option did not work across a power cycle. I found that the current firmware on the manufacturer's web site ([...]) has fixed this feature. Now the unit will resume play after a power cycle and even after new MP3 files are added to the Music folder.
Now the only deficit in the player is the lack of a lanyard to secure it around my neck. It is only retained by the headphone cables.
I haven't tried any of the other features such as FM, voice recording, Audible, etc., as they are of no interest to me. Nor have I used the bundled software.

Good for the money
I bought this because it is also an digital voice recorder. I have had no problems with it. It has performed well. The software is not user friendly, but works well with windows. I do use the mini SD and this increases my music catalog a great deal. I can pretty much take my entire CD collection in a small packet. I have nearly 600 CDs so, I get a huge variety. It's not perfect, but for under $50.00, it does fine. Sound quality is greatly enhanced by real headphones. Throw the ones that come with it away, or use them for emergency backup.

failed after approx. 1 month from purchase
I purchased this RCA MP3 player approx. 1 month ago; its useful life didn't even go past its first battery. I kept putting in different fresh AAA batteries to no avail; it failed to power up even with the MP3 player unlocked (there is a lock/unlock switch you can slide back and forth). I plugged the MP3 player into 3 different computers and none of the computers recognized its existence on the USB port. BTW, it did not ever fall to the ground or sustain any hard impact. I have two older models from RCA and they work fine. This newer blue RCA Pearl unit is far from being a jewel; ironically, it offers the most disappointment among my RCA MP3 players. My loyalty to RCA products took a hit.

basic functionality
The player did not work out of the box for me - I had to update the firmware first by going to the RCA website where they have downloads and upgrades. I was not able to do this on my laptop running XP SP2, but fortunately had no trouble doing on a computer running Vista Business.

Except for those initial 20 minutes of frustration, I have had no major trouble using the device which I've used for about 6 weeks now. The only other glitch is when running through songs sometimes the screen seems get stuck rotating between the same three song titles which can be a little frustrating. The whole scrolling thing is somewhat cumbersome. To save time, I tried putting my favorite exercise songs in favorites but that seems to get erased every time I change the battery.

I haven't really used the RCA included software. Windows media player (11) recognizes it and syncs fine. I have also transfered music manually (using it as if it were a USB flash drive) paying attention to the file structure.

I got it in part because of its expansion capabilities - its main advantage over similarly priced entry level devices - and I think it supports up to a 2 GB mini sd card. Works fine with that but having it in seemed to drain the battery much more quickly and it also increased the start up time the device needs to recognize it, so I ended up removing it since I haven't yet filled up the device. The songs on the SD card are integrated in the play list. I would actually prefer that they could be separated (especially given the cumbersome scrolling), but that's a minor detail.

The FM radio worked fine for me but definitely need to have headphones fully extended to get decent reception. I agree that it is not reliable enough to do recordings unless you find the optimal position of the device/headphones and don't move it. The Voice memo recording is a nice feature.

This is my first mp3 player so I have nothing to compare it to. I got it for $40 and was only expecting basic functionality and it has met my expectations. Sound quality is good. I chose the 2 GB over the 1 GB Pearl because it didn't seem that the 1GB has expansion capabilities (despite what Amazon describes - I actually went to Walmart to check out the devices and ended up getting the 2 GB to be sure.) It's perfect for what I use it for, mainly exercising at the gym because of its small size. The integrated USB is great - no caps to lose or wires to remember. If you don't like it as an MP3 player you can still use it as an expandable USB flash drive. Also like that it uses 1 AAA battery instead of proprietary ones. (I use rechargable ones - batteries do not last 35 hours on this device.) The main drawback is choosing songs (particularly if you have many different artists each with just a few songs) can be time consuming because all songs are in long lists in either the Artist, Album, Title, or Year categories. Overall though, I've been happy with it.

An entry level MP3 for an entry price.
I was looking for a budget MP3 player and found exactly that with RCA's Pearl. Let me start off by saying I never used the SD card reader so I can't report on that, but many of the problems listed in the other reviews are accurate. The main problems I have with it are:

1) It doesn't sort files very efficiently....or not at all.

2) The max volume is quite low in comparison to other MP3s I looked at.

3) When you do turn it off it has a habit of staying stuck in power down mode - roughly 80% of the time - and if you're unaware of it, your battery life (which is low to begin with) will be almost non existent.

O.K. with the bad out of the way, let's look to the good. If all you're looking for is an MP3 player this does an adequate job. It has sufficient memory (2GB) It is easy to load your favorite songs into the unit - just flip out the USB port and plug it into your computer, open the drive and drag your MP3s into the drive. Simple. Now that I think about it, that really is the only good point....oh well. If you want an entry level MP3 player for an entry price, the RCA Pearl isn't a bad place to look (or listen, as the case may be)