iRiver America reply about a few things.....

[Odie]

Original E-mail
-----------------
Sent: Saturday, December 27, 2003 6:57 AM
To: Customer Service; support@iriverameric a.com
Subject: iHP-120 Bugs / Complaints
Importance: High

I would like to bring to your attention the following issues I am having
with the iHP-120. (Purchased in the UK, running firmware v1.7 E)

1. Remote 'ticking' issue. I am sure you have heard about this before,
what I would like to know is if iRiver is working on this problem, and
if they will be providing a fix for free, or will customers have to pay
for it?

2. "Shuffle" mode. Also, I am sure you have heard about this issue as
well, the shuffle mode is not random, files are played in a certain
order. What I want to know is if iRiver are working on fixing this
issue?

3. Hard drive spin-up issue. I'm not sure if you have heard many
complaints about this, so I will try and explain in as much detail as I
can so that you can pass the information on to the firmware programmers
to find a fix:

Please note that this problem does not always occur when you do the
following, but it does occur regularly, and it is a bug (hopefully one
which can be fixed via firmware)

If you start playing a track which is not in the buffer memory, the hard
drive spins up to load it into the buffer (and the red light comes on),
this part is normal.

While the red light is still on, scan through the song (fast forward).
Then let it play again. When the red light goes off, you can hear the
normal tick of the hard drive heads parking. BUT, sometimes the hard
drive keeps spinning, even when the red light has gone off. The hard
drive keeps spinning indefinately, until you skip to a new song which is
not in the buffer, then the buffer refilling occurs and the hard drive
switches off at the same time as the red light.

The same hard drive spinning problem also occurs sometimes when playing
a track, and then going into the file explorer menu. Even if the song
being played is in the buffer, the red light comes on when you go into
the file explorer menu and then goes off after a few seconds (This seems
to be normal, to load the file listing into the buffer as well), BUT
sometimes after the red light goes off, the hard drive keeps spinning.


Please look into this as I think it is a very serious bug and it
increases wear and tear on the hard drive if it is spinning when it
doesn't need to be, and also it probably reduces the battery life as
well.


It would be a good idea if iRiver would make a post on their websites to
tell users what bugs and also new features they are working on for
firmware updates and roughly when they plan to release the firmware,
there are many users that don't even recieve replies to their e-mails
informing iRiver of bugs.

The ihp-120 is meant to be the top-of-the-line iRiver player, and people
have payed a lot of money for it (I have payed over US $600), but iRiver
don't seem to have it as a top priority to fix the problems. (The beta
v1.2 firmware does not address *any* of the issues I have mentioned in
this
e-mail.)

Please reply stating which (if any) of these problems iRiver is
currently trying to fix, and what the status of a new firmware is for
the ihp-120 (not just the v1.20 if it is just going to be released the
same as the beta, because the beta version does *not* seem to include
many useful additions)

Regards,
- Omar

P.S - I have sent this e-mail to both the iRiver Hong Kong and iRiver
America tech support e-mail addresses to make sure I get a reply on
these issues.

iRiver America Reply
------------------------

Thank you for contacting Support at iRiver America.

1. We HAVE NOT HEARD of remotes ticking during use. Could you offer a
little more details regarding this issue?

2. We HAVE NOT HEARD of any issues regarding the Shuffle feature. There are over 5 version of the Shuffle feature. Please refer to page 36 of
your Manual and ensure that you are following the
Directions for incorporating either the Repeat / Shuffle features.
Should you still have an issue, please offer as much details in a
concise manner.

3. You issues regarding the drive have been passed onto our developers.

For further supportive information, please visit our new F.A.Q. section
which offers technical details / support for all of our media players
at: http://www.iriveramerica.com/support/

Best regards,

[Odie]

Ok, the reply to number 3 is fine..... but they haven't heard about 1 and 2 ???

[sweetspot]

Thanks alot Odie. That is truely amazing, and once again goes to prove that they are NOT paying attention to anyone ! I'm not totally supprised, as this was pretty much my suspicion all along. Still, this is very disturbing to say the least. If it's true that they're this out of touch with their own product AND the people who buy it, they NEED to join us more than ever. IF THEY CARE.

[Odie]

I've just finished writing and sending a very length reply that describes in detail the first two issues (with supporting references to threads on the iRiver internation forum)

My only hope is that they read and reply to my response. (Although my previous e-mails to iRiver staff have never gotten past the first reply )

I'll keep you updated if I hear anything back from them.

- Odie

[profingersk8er]

wow...they have not heard of of ticking and shuffle issue?
what's the international message board for then?

[sweetspot]

wow...they have not heard of of ticking and shuffle issue?
what's the international message board for then?

Um....useless and immature flame fests and whitless banter ? Just a guess.

[divad6719]

wow...they have not heard of of ticking and shuffle issue?
what's the international message board for then?

Well, going by the replies to odies e-mail. It looks as though it's just a launching ground anytime iRiver decide to release something new. Maybe their focus has now turned to the MS thing, with the rest being low priority.

Not a great confidence builder anyway.

Cheers

[Odie]

In my reply, I also repeated my question asking about a firmware release date, let's see if I get a reply

- Odie

[Odie]

Today I recieved a reply from iRiver Hong Kong (cs @ iriver.com)

It's the same person that replied to my questions about the buffer sizes of the ihp-100 and ihp-120 a few weeks ago.

------------------------------------------------------------------

Dear Omar,

Thanks for your email. Regarding your enquiry,
1. The accessory has 3 month warranty, iRiver can arrange replacement for you within the warranty period.
2. Could you please provide more information? What shuffle mode you are using ( SFL all/dir/1)? Can you tell us what is that certain order for shuffle mode to play?
3. We will pass your situation to our engineering team for checking.

Our engineers is now working on the endusers request and problems reported. iRiver hopes that we can satisfy what our users want.

If you have further enquiries, please feel free to contact us again.

Thanks and Best Regards!

-------------------------------------------------------------
iRiver Global Customer Service Center
E-mail : cs@iriver.com
Our Web Page : http://www.iRiver.com
-------------------------------------------------------------

iRiver wishes your days be filled with peace, prosperity and happiness in the New Year and always!! =)

------------------------------------------------------------------

I'm typing up a reply, similar to the one I sent iRiver America, hopefully I'll get a response from one or the other in the next few days. The general feeling I get is that iRiver GCSC have more 'clout' when it comes to these sorts of things than iRiver America.

- Odie

[Big D]

The problem with the fixed order bug is that it 'changes' dependent on the number of songs on the player. Unfortunately once it is loaded and set then you are stuck.

[Odie]

Ok, I've just sent off my reply.

Again, I've asked directly about a firmware release date, and also provided a link to the thread on IHP bugs.

I'm pretty confident that I'll get a reply from this person since they were quite helpful last time.

- Odie

[PYROTAK]

i think the ticking issue is only a problem with high efficency or low impedance headphones since they are more sensitive than normal cheaper ones?

[Odie]

I've tried many different earphones and headphones, and I get the ticking issue with all of them:

MX300
Panasonic earphones (unknown model number)
MX500
Sony EX70
JVC headphones (cheap, hi-fi type)

Some people say they do not have the issue, so hopefully it's just an issue with some of the remotes, so I will try to get a replacement and see if it solves the problem.

No second reply yet from either iRiver America or iRiver GCSC

- Odie

[fatso]

it sure would be nice if they'd release an upgraded firmware

i'm waiting on buying a hard disk player until i can get one with decent recording capabilities, and if they can fix the problems this one has with recording, i'm buying one for sure.

[Odie]

Just a small update: Still no reply, so it now looks unlikely that I'll be recieving one.

- Odie

[JaysonG]

Have you tried phoning them?

[Odie]

JaysonG, unfortunately iRiver don't have an official office here in the UK, and I doubt iRiver America would be any help in this situation.

And to think I was actually getting somewhere with these e-mails

I'm very disappointed with iRiver's attitude about this whole thing.

- Odie

[Traveller]

Originally Posted by PYROTAK

i think the ticking issue is only a problem with high efficency or low impedance headphones since they are more sensitive than normal cheaper ones?

I've done extensive testing with a few audiophile tracks, with & w/o remote attached, and I have never heard this ticking. See my post on this iRiver thread for more info on the audiophile tracks used.

[austonia]

the hard drive spins constantly on my ihp-140. drives me nuts. i have used 15 other DAPs and none of them spin up as often as this thing. Spin, spin, spin. Whether it affects the battery life or not, what I'm concerned about is the platter getting damaged. It's more prone when its spinning, so to have it spinning unneccesarily is retarded. While browseing the file/folder tree it spins indefinately. I'd definately say it's a BUG and I'm thoroughly unimpressed with iRiver's support. No firmware fix in the months I've had it.


it's just one of a hundred little things that bug me about this player. Mine's for sale, btw

[sweetspot]

And the stupid thing Austin, is that it is an extremely easy thing to fix, with just a few keystrokes in a revision of the firmware where the instruction to the HD are concerned.... Not exactly great programmers over there. But I will say this, I think that Iriver has recently aquired an outsourced programming team to take over as far as the firmware and software goes. Now if only they'd get rid of that stupid INNO design team...I mean hell, they design toilet seats and refrigerators !