iriver H120 20GB MP3 Jukebox

I'm using an iRiver iHP-120 with OS 10.3 on a Powerbook G4. I've had it for about 24 hours, and its interaction with the OS is an absolute disgrace.Connecting to the PlayerThe computer recognizes the player about 1 in 10 times that I plug it in. To copy files to it, I have to spend 20 minutes randomly plugging and unplugging the cable and turning the unit on and off. It came with version 1.17 of the firmware, and I upgraded it to the latest beta, 1.20, to no avail. When the computer does recognize the player, it shows up as a hard drive and you can simply drag files to it. It doesn't interact with iTunes, but you can drag your iTunes folder to it.FilenamesThe player doesn't like the characters in many of my filenames, so the OS throws up error messages in the middle of copying files to the player and then stops its copy. Nowhere in any documentation does it mention which characters are taboo. So far I've found that it objects to question marks and quotation marks. There is no rhyme or reason to which files are copied before an error message comes up, so I had to download a file synchronization program to finish up the job. My strategy with filenames that it objects to has been to remove the file from iTunes, rename it, then drag it back into iTunes.ID3 Tag DatabaseThe player can filter songs using the fields in ID3 tags. In order to do this, it builds a database of ID3 tag information. You can only do this from a Windows computer. Files with long names or in folders with long names (more than about 48 characters) cannot be indexed. All the files can be found using the Windows Explorer-like directory structure if you wish to locate a particular one, but I prefer to simply play everything randomly.Battery LifeOstensibly, the battery will last for 16 hours of play. I have not gotten to test this due to OS X's refusal to copy random files with names it didn't like. I did charge the battery fully and then take the player to work without the charger to finish copying files to it. I figured that given the long battery life, it would last long enough to copy the remainder of my files (about 4 hours) even though the battery would drain faster because the hard drive would be working constantly. Not so much; it died after 3 hours.SoundI've played it in the car once; my stereo has a line-in, so I used the included cable to hook it up. It sounded very nice, and my car is not known for having great speakers.ButtonsControl is mainly through a joybutton (think joystick but shaped like a button). Pressing it or pushing it up/down/left/right accomplishes most operations. It's finicky about how it's touched. I have small fingers, and it sometimes misinterprets the direction I pushed it in. I'm adjusting and getting more accurate.The Bottom LineOnce I have my library all copied over and I only need to hook it up from time to time to add new songs, it would be feasible to copy files to a Windows machine for transferring (for me, as I happen to have a few laying around on my network). I chose the iRiver over the iPod because of Apple's evil battery replacement scheme, but I cannot recommend that anyone else do this. Don't plan on returning it if it you don't like it -- you have to destroy the packaging to extract it.

Ok, first let's get this straight: look NO MORE for options. This is the one you need, or maybe the 40 GB version. But it's iRiver the right choice.The great things about this product are: excellent quality of audio, extremely great battery life (about 16 hours), it has a FM radio that works really well, it appears as an external hard disk drive in your computer (you don't need any software to install, just drag n' drop music files into it), it's software upgradeable, handles WinAmp playlists and it plays OGG, MP3, WMA! Also it comes with a really cool leather case.A feature that I really like is the Line Out feature. It has dual output: analog and digital output. And since it's used as an external hard drive, I use it to transfer any data file to one computer to another, it's a removable HDD! iRiver H120 also has a database feature if you want to browse your music through the artists, albums, titles, genres, etc. (I personally don't use it, I like the files and directories browsing).But of course it has some flaws: right now with firmware "1.60 US" the shuffle is not "that" random and some people complain about the gap between songs (1 or 2 seconds gap between songs). I don't really care about the gap but there are some people out there that listen to live albums and hate it with a passion. I listen to live albums too but to me it's not that bad. Those are the only flaws I have found in about 2 months.Anyway iRiver agreed to solve these problems (BOTH: gap and randomness) in a future firmware release, nothing to be worried about for too long. People will get their bugs fixed in no time. I registered my product in iRiver site and I sent an email about these bugs, they answered it the same day. If you register your product you'll see iRiver's support is just great.Don't worry: iPod has its flaws too, go read the reviews.The only thing I would suggest if you get this product and want the best of it is to get good headphones. I got some Isolating Sound headphones (kinda expensive) and I know I can't get a better sound than the one I'm getting now with my iRiver H120. The iRiver headphones are ok but I hated the short cable (the remote has a long cable but I like to put my remote in a belt strip).Why would you choose an iPod instead of this one? I haven't find an answer yet. iRiver is not only way cheaper than the iPod: it's BETTER. Some people only have to say: "iPod looks cooler", and you're gonna pay a hundred dollars more just for THAT? get REAL!