RCA Lyra Slider 8GB Digital Media Player (Black)

Comment: I bought a unit back in January. I waited to write a review until after I had a few months of use.

The first thing I noticed about the unit was that it was super light weight and kind of cheap feeling. The buttons are stiff plastic and make an awful heavy clicking sound every time you search through the menus or playlist. All I wanted it to do was play music, I didn't care about the features nor the bells a whistles. It did this fine with excellent battery life for about two months.

After a month, the unit began to experience quirks. While listening to a song, the unit would randomly shut down. The problem eventually persisted until I could no longer listen to a song all the way through. I mailed it back and after a month, I finally received a new unit. Not more than a month later, I noticed the same problem happened a couple of times. I waited and the issue did not get worse as it had last time so I chalked it up to an anomaly.

So then two months after I had my second unit, the screen shut down and went completely black. Yes it still plays music but you cannot read the screen at all. Since the only way you can play all of the music on your player involves navigating a series of menus, the unit is now useless.

What I thought would be a basic cheap user friendly alternative to an ipod turned into a very costly and infuriating paper weight.

Comment: This player is AWESOME in several regards.

1. The ease of use is ABSOLUTELY FANTASTIC. It is a plug and play device. Plug it into Windows XP, Vista, or higher PC and the computer knows how to deal with it, and gets the software needed from the ROM in the slider itself. No CD to misplace or lose. Would be PERFECT for someone like me that uses a Netbook without a CD or DVD drive

2. Porting MP3s over to the device could not be easier. Go to My Computer Log into the hard drive, directory. or thumb drive and select one or multiple directories click on the option "Send to" feature and choose the Lyra Slider as the destination, sit back and relax while the directories, files in those directories, and sub-directories are copied into the Lyra verbatim. I copied at least 90 hours of audio into the slider (14 hours of music, and five unabridged audio books. In other words I threw every MP3 file I had into it and only had it half full. the 2000 songs is a low estimate in my opinion.

3. The sound was amazing. The slider has the best and most comfortable ear buds I have ever used

4. The other reviewer is absolutely correct about the Lyra DESPERATELY needing the option to have multiple play lists. because when it starts it always starts playing the first song (unless you choose some files as favorites) If you turn off the player it goes back to the file you were playing. but multiple play lists would be VERY helpful.

5. Ease of use is a peach. If you want to delete a file for some reason you can do it from the player without the need to plug the player into the computer.

6 battery life is great! I have used it more than 2o hours in the last four days and have not seen a low battery indicator yet.

This player has three real down sides (the reason I only gave it four stars.

1. No multiple play lists.

2. I have not seen a randomiser or shuffle option in the four days I have used it.

3. The biggest downer for me is that every time you turn the devicce on it takes time you want to be listening to something to generate the current tracks in the device. They should only do this AFTER the player has been plugged into the computer.

Comment: My husband has a Lyra MP3 player and I wanted one bigger and better than his, so when I saw this slider (because I'm a sucker for sliders) I jumped on it. The sound is good, but if you like to make you're own playlist and control the player the way you want to, don't get this. Howeer, it does play/record great off the radio.

Options: All Songs, Artist, Albums, Genres (ect; basic) but when you create (and you can create your own playlist hooked up to the computer) it doesn't list them on the player (on your computer, but not on the player) so you cannot play your own playlist. There is a "Favorites" option, but only one list, you can't have multiple favorites lists.

It's a cool device for travel to just put all your music on for the family, put it on shuffle and go on a road trip. But for everyday usage, NO. Get something with more options. Software is no good either. Coping from the music library or music folders on your computer works better.