A few H340 Questions....

[NikonDude]

Hi there,

I'm looking at getting the H340 and just have a few questions that I'm hoping someone can answer. Keep in mind that I've only ever owned a MiniDisc player, no MP3.

1... What happens when the internal battery dies? Will Iriver replace it (for a price of course) or is the unit useless after that?

2... When playing a song and the title is too long to fit on the screen does it scroll? Is there a limit to how long it can be? (I know about the 53 character filename limit)

3... I can see how to access the music files in folders by navigation... but is there a seperate section to keep playlists?

4... Can I connect and transfer music from my computer with USB1.1? I know this would be painfully slow but it's all I have at the moment.

That's all the questions I have for now. I hope to own one of these beautiful gizmo's soon

Thanks
Paul

[NikonDude]

[kevpuk]

Hi,

1 - Don't know about this, but I would imagine that the internal battery can be replaced - and don't forget that the H340 comes with an external battery pack option included....
2 - The title etc. does scroll - you can even adjust the speed - but I am not familiar with any length restrictions other than the 52 characters as mentioned......
3 - Although there is not presently the facility to make on-the-fly playlists, the H340 can accept .m3U playlists from Winamp etc.
4 - You will still be able to transfer from your PC with USB1.1, albeit slowly, as USB2 is downward compatible - perhaps consider buying a USB2 PCI card for about £7 and then wacth the speed increase !!

The H340 is a funky machine (from another MD convert) and has more to offer still........

Kevin.

[NikonDude]

Well..... I'm sold

When you say it has 'more to offer still....' do you refer to firmware updates?

Thanks for the info.
Paul

[jeff]

Welcome NikonDude! Please take a look at this thread and check out the videos. They will give you some insight into the H340. There is also a review posted on the main page of the site.

http://www.iriver.us/index.php?name=...pic&t=3323

[damagician]

I too was an avid fan of the Minidisc. I've got a MZ-N1 which is a great little machine but, after spending the last couple of weeks reading up on the H340 I realise that it is definately the way to go and so I ordered mine on friday. Looking forward to recieving that package in the mail any day now. As far as your questions go I'm just guessing here but:

1. I read a post where someone had actually removed the battery themselves and swapped for a battery which is now giving them more than 25 hrs usage per charge. If they can do that then i'm sure you will be able to get another one fitted. Although I'm sure the supplied battery will last a few years before this is needed.

2. Not sure but I think that considering the screen has 26 characters across and 10 lines down then the song name if too long to fit on 1 line would be displayed over 2.

3. I'm pretty positive that there is an icon specifically for playlists.

4. Also pretty positive that you can transfer with the USB1.1 as well as USB2.0

Have you had a look at Jeff's video review?? I was teetering on wether to take the plunge for the H340 but after watching the vids and seing how small and 'cool' the unit was I just had to have one.

Hope this helps and goodluck in your decision.

[kevpuk]

With regards to 'more to offer still.....' there are a several things behind this.....USB on-the-go (albeit a little flaky at present in the compatibility stakes !), picture viewing, text file viewing, raft of recording functions, ogg support, firmware upgrades (ooops !! swearing there, sorry......) and the delightful colour screen......for me, the unit is awesome and surpasses my minidisc unit of old......
iRiver bundle a vast load of goodies in the box with the H340 as well, a nice touch, and even the supplied headphones are Sennheiser and pretty good to boot (although I would recommend a spangly pair of Shure E2/E3 if your budget will stretch.....)

Now, if I can just get my MemoryStick PRO Duo to be recognised.........

[Fluidity]

I also had a MZ-N1 although wasn't quite so enthralled with it since it decided to break on me just outside of the warranty period and the quality reduction when using LP generally made it unusable, plus my old laptop was so underpowered it would take hours to convert and send all the data to the unit. Needless to say it chose to break at a time just out of warranty and a mere week before my new laptop arrived so I never really got what I would call quality use out of it. Anyway, ATRAC is dead or dying so that was it for my minidisc collection.

People complain that the iriver isn't intuitive, but i certainly find it a lot easier to use than my old net md.

I wouldn't worry too much about the battery, its lithium polymer which should last for a long time and although not user friendly to replace, it should be possible if 3 years down the line you need to replace it.

You can choose how you want the text to scroll across the screen so it either shifts along or scrolls up and down so no worry about it not displaying the whole name like the ipod fails to.

The player users your filetree as you copy it from your pc so you can search within folders in exactly the same way you would do on your computer, tag searching is also possible if you can put up with long startup times!). All your playlists, however and wherever you distribute them across your player show up in one big list which is only accesible when the player is stopped and on the root screen. It works well enough but it would be nice if they were also dis played in the folders they are located in wo you could select them more easily. I have one playlist for each artist on my player (Thanks TDT!) and thats a 400 strong list so it take a while for me to get the playlist I'm looking for by scrolling down one big list since there is no increase in scroll speed with time, just one continual (fairly slow!) scroll down the list.

As stated above USB 1.1 will work but it will take you an age to move gigs of music about where as you can fill the entire player with USB2 in about 2 hours. If you have a desktop machine, adding USB 2 is easy and cheap. Belkin make a USB 2 PCMCIA card if your laptop only has USB 1.1 but be careful as it requires a reasonably recent operating system to be installed, I tried it with win 98 and it didn't work as I think it needed second edition to work properly, still, the amount you'll be spending on the player I reckon it would definately be worth investing in USB2.

Fluidity.

[fwumpbungle]

Strange how we all think alike! My H340 has replaced my well-loved and much-used MZ-N1, as well!

I can definitely tell you, I haven't looked back once yet... (I just feel sad every time I glance over at my N1 though... poor thing, it must wonder what's going on. ).

[damagician]

Since we're all previous minidisc users. Does anyone know how I can migrate my minidiscs to the H340 as I am no longer at the computer I used to transfer the files from in the Atrac format. I'm really scared that I will now have to transfer by analogue cable which is lowering the quality again.

Is there another way around this??

[Fluidity]

Nope, as far as I know there was never a way to send atrac files from a minidisc to a computer either, the silly check in procedure where it would delete it off your player and simply raise the counter on your computer back up one obviosuly didn't actually transfer data back. Darn sony and their copy protection. My advice woul either be re-rip if you have the original discs and even if you had the original atrac files, cross converting so they could be played by your iriver would also result in a loss of quality. If the worst comes to the worst, and you ARE legally entitled to the tracks you have on minidisc, I'd try and download them from kazaa or similar and then copy them to your player. Again this'll only really be a good idea if you have broadband!

I still find it funny how much the H340 seems to appeal to minidisc owners, weird huh!

Fluidity.

[Monty]

I was a MZ-R90, when it died I was a MZ-N1 owner... until someone stole it from the car So the iRiver relieve it. When I planned buying a MP3 or a MD, about 3/4 years ago,the choice had no doubt: MD, the only decent Mp3 was the 1st Creative juckebox (biiiig). This year the "MP3 vs MD" problem also had just one winner: iRiver

[damagician]

Pretty cool how we all convert to the iRiver. I should be getting mine in the mail in 1 or 2 days and i'm having sleepless nights at the moment. Pretty gutted that I can't get my files off the minidisc. I was in Australia when I copied my Cd's to minidisc and now I am in New Zealand it is impossible for me to get at the originals. I am currently a bit of a hobo and will not be returing to Aus for a few years.

A couple of the main things that drew me to the H340 was the battery life (although not as good as the MZ-N1), the storage capacity (40G's should be more than sufficient) and the USBOTG as it will be handy to transfer pics from the camera across when my memory stick is full. I am afraid that I will have to get a card reader as my Optio S is probably not supported but that is a small price to pay for such a beautiful piece of kit.

Hopefully these will be the same qualities that NikonDude is looking for in a player and considering that we have all converted to the H340 from the minidisc should say something about the player. My biggest gripe with the minidisc is the inability to transfer files between anything but the original computer I transferred them from which I will never see again.

[itreeye]

The thing about the H320 compared to my IHP-120 is that it won't redcord in WAV? Is there a big difference (between MP3 320kb and WAV) for someone who records just live acoustic music via external mics?
Any thoughts on this issue?

[Exo]

Originally Posted by itreeye

The thing about the H320 compared to my IHP-120 is that it won't redcord in WAV? Is there a big difference (between MP3 320kb and WAV) for someone who records just live acoustic music via external mics?
Any thoughts on this issue?

Hmmm, a good question.
I don't miss having WAV format on my H340 to be honest since I use fairly high encoding.

The best answer to your question is to get yourself a live acoustic CD, rip a track to both WAV and MP3 320kbps (Audiograbber is good for this), then listent to both and let your ears decide.
Most people wil not hear the difference, 320kbps is very good indeed.

The advantages of MP3 is file size too, you'll see what I mean when you rip to WAV.

[fwumpbungle]

I actually have a rack-mounted MD player (I know, Mr Fancy-Pants and his dated studio technology, huh? ) which has both analog and digital connections to my DAW - so the few things I had on MD and not on CD I've been able to rip this way.

Of course the advantage of the iHp1xx here is that you can just connect the MD straight to the unit over the digital connection, and direct record. (Of course it will work analog to analog on the H3xx? Sure you lose a little quality, but...). SO that's the only way to do it really - in real time. No way to ever directly transfer ATRAC... thanks Sony. (You know I was actually holding out briefly for the Sony HD Walkman - until I found out that would only be able to playback ATRAC aswell! ...Talk about backwards).

[NikonDude]

A couple of the main things that drew me to the H340 was the battery life (although not as good as the MZ-N1), the storage capacity (40G's should be more than sufficient) and the USBOTG as it will be handy to transfer pics from the camera across when my memory stick is full. I am afraid that I will have to get a card reader as my Optio S is probably not supported but that is a small price to pay for such a beautiful piece of kit.

Hopefully these will be the same qualities that NikonDude is looking for in a player and considering that we have all converted to the H340 from the minidisc should say something about the player.

These are exactly the things that attracted me to the player. I was sick of carrying around a load of discs and fumbling around to change them. 40GB is HEAPS for my music collection (currently ~7GB). Also I am a photographer in my spare time and the camera connection is a great bonus, as is being able to preview my photos. The things that won the iRiver over the Ipod for me was the battery life (ability to use the battery pack without paying extra), colour screen (coolness!!), OGG support (it's what I have on PC), upgradable firmware, USBOTG, text file viewer.... and many more.


I ordered the H340 at JB Hi-Fi today. Should be here in around a week.... *HURRY UP!!!!!!!*
NikonDude

[damagician]

Wicked man. Good to see you will now be getting a H340 as well. I got mine this morning and was so excited. I am having a prob though. I can't seem to get it to show up as external drive on my computer. I'm sure i've read something about this in the forums so I will look now but if anyone could help me out here i'll monitor this thread.