E100:Review: Iriver E100

Posted on Tue Mar 11, 09:23 by josep, Menorca
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Thanks for your review!
The only question I want to ask you is where did you get the firnware update?
I just buyed it and it's firmware version is 1.02, and iriverplus says that it's the latest version.

Posted on Tue Mar 11, 10:22 by Cutkillavince, MI Manager, KR, FR, NL
Home Page: http://cutkillavince.wordpress.com/
@Josep: Which firmware are you referring to? I didn't update it as well, still using the 1.02

Posted on Tue Mar 11, 01:11 by josep, Menorca
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Sorry I was confused when you sayed in their latest update I assumed that you were referring to a new firmware.
Previously I found these which are more ancient:

http://nyaochi.sakura.ne.jp/iriverupdate/

Thanks!

Posted on Tue Mar 11, 07:02 by Heath, IT, Tokyo
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What do you mean by video autonomy???? I am guessing this is just a bad translation, since I doubt the E100 wants the right to govern itself!

Posted on Tue Mar 11, 08:23 by Daimaou, Survivor, Tokyo - Japan
Home Page: http://www.akihabaranews.com
Autonomy in Video Mode (Minus) = Bad / Low autonomy while playing video

Posted on Tue Mar 11, 08:55 by Heath, IT, Tokyo
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That didn't answer my question whatsoever. What do you mean by video autonomy??? This makes no sense in English!!!

Posted on Tue Mar 11, 10:13 by sousuke
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AMOLED screen or not?

Posted on Tue Mar 11, 10:45 by Heath, IT, Tokyo
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Per the spec sheet on iriver website: 2.4" TFT LCD QVGA

Posted on Tue Mar 11, 11:29 by paloverde, sydney, australia
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Just got the E100

disappointed the video was not that great quality. Lost to Samsung P2

However the sound is really good.

Unable to get album art for songs.

Posted on Wed Mar 12, 12:54 by Cutkillavince, MI Manager, KR, FR, NL
Home Page: http://cutkillavince.wordpress.com/
@Heath: Just change Autonomy by Battery Life

Posted on Wed Mar 12, 04:30 by Pablo, IT Consultant, London, UK
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Do you have to use the supplied software to transfer music/video or can you just drag and drop.

Posted on Wed Mar 12, 04:36 by Cutkillavince, MI Manager, KR, FR, NL
Home Page: http://cutkillavince.wordpress.com/
@Pablo: Drag and Drop works fine the software is to convert video to the right format

Posted on Wed Mar 12, 09:56 by josep, Menorca
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Also I want to add, that it works perfectlly on Linux with Amarok.
Refering to the album cd covers, it's still a bit of mistery for me, in some of them are shown, but not in others, I don't know if it's Amarok, I haven't used iRiverPlus3.
For the video conversion on Linux I use Avidemux, I only have to resize videos to 320x240 (the ones which are bigger), and also it worked with the Xvid codec.

Posted on Wed Mar 12, 03:59 by Kamil, Graphic Designer, Toronto, Canada
Home Page: http://www.ungraphic.com
I have a few specific questions about the E100:

1) How fast does it 'fast forward' through MP3s? I have many livesets which are sometimes nearly 3 hours long (usually between 60-120 minutes). Ideally, an iPod works best in order to skip through the time, all Sony mp3 players do reasonably well too (pausing and then holding the FFWD button skips about a minute of the mp3 per second held). It would be great if the iRiver could skip through tracks real quick as well.

....continued

Posted on Wed Mar 12, 04:00 by Kamil, Graphic Designer, Toronto, Canada
Home Page: http://www.ungraphic.com
....continued


2) I've heard that the D-Pads configuration is set so that the up and down buttons act as next track/previous track (skip)? Is this true? If so, is there any way to change it in a settings menu? I would imagine this would only apply if viewing movies while holding the player horizontally.

3) Is there a customizable equalizer? If so, how many bands?

4) Is the software provided absolutely necessary to play xvid videos on the unity? Can it play a downloaded xvid movie at a resolution of, say, 700x300? Or is it unable to handle that resolution thus requiring all mp4 videos being encoded at 320x240? If this is the case, can the videos be encoded by a different application (I am on a mac).

Thank you!!!

Posted on Wed Mar 12, 06:15 by Heath, IT, Tokyo
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@ Cutkillavince, Thanks!!! Battery life on my Clix 2 wasn't so hot with video either.

Posted on Wed Mar 12, 06:37 by MicroDesign, Webdesigner, Den Haag
Home Page: http://www.microdesign.nl/
Very good review! To bad I own a Cowon D2, because this looks supergood. It's just a flawless design.

Posted on Wed Mar 12, 08:39 by Heath, IT, Tokyo
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@ Kamil, my iriver Clix 2 works just fine with my iMac and my macbook. It sees it as an external drive. I have played video that is 720 x 480 on it with no problems. I am guessing that the firmware on this device is almost identical to the Clix 2 and you should have no problems. I use visualhub to convert videos for use on my Clix 2.

Posted on Thu Mar 13, 03:05 by Cutkillavince, MI Manager, KR, FR, NL
Home Page: http://cutkillavince.wordpress.com/
@Kamil:
1) you can change the settings and choose the speed for the fast forward (x2, x4, x8, x16...)
2) Indeed, up and down buttons control the previous and next functions, not sure if we can change it, I need to check.
3) Yes, there's a customizable equalizer, User EQ (5 bands) and Preset EQ (7 bands)
4) For sure you can use other conversion software for the video
Hope this helps

Posted on Thu Mar 13, 05:50 by achieman
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Ive been waiting for this ! Question: Have you tested the microphone externally? which bitrate/codecs does it support when recording.

Posted on Thu Mar 13, 02:21 by Kamil, Graphic Designer, Toronto, Canada
Home Page: http://www.ungraphic.com
Cutkillavince: thank you so much for the info!!!

Heath, thank you as well for application tip!

Looks like I got myself a winner here and a superior mp3 player to the ipod. Open standards is what I've been looking for since my first (and last) iPod years ago. *I* should be in control of how my music is organized in files and folders when put onto an MP3 player, *I* should have the right of taking it back from it. That and the fact that it does a whole lot more.

Thanks again guys!

Posted on Fri Mar 14, 06:37 by Katie
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e100 needs to format the battery? like the old phones? or u use it normally n then when the battery is low u charge it normal?

Posted on Mon Mar 24, 05:59 by Cutkillavince, MI Manager, KR, FR, NL
Home Page: http://cutkillavince.wordpress.com/
The new firmware 1.04 is now available, the E100 is now able to recognize tags for OGG, FLAC and WMA files

Posted on Sun Apr 20, 08:29 by PoisonShroom
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~250 USD for 8GB?
I mean, thats ridiculous.
The features are amazing... But I bought a 32GB flash memory Creative Zen, which has a few less features, but has 4x the space and is only 50 USD more.

Posted on Tue Apr 22, 04:20 by Cutkillavince, MI Manager, KR, FR, NL
Home Page: http://cutkillavince.wordpress.com/
@PoisonShroom: The 8Bg version is priced at 159.99$

Posted on Tue Apr 22, 10:36 by jandm
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i also want to know what bitrate it does while recording.

Can we choose?

Posted on Fri Apr 25, 08:12 by Adamister, Gamer, Singapore
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The file size per minute varies with recording quality.
Low: Approximately 480 K / Middle: Approximately 720 K / High: Approximately 960 K

from iriver e100 manual

Posted on Tue May 06, 04:36 by dexxx, Sdudent, Ukraine, Kiev
Home Page: http://escort-models.kiev.ua/en-index.html
Very good review!

Posted on Wed May 07, 01:30 by celtic, Germany
Home Page: http://www.hardwarejournal.de
Hi, thanks for this short Review. I like this clean design of the Iriver Player, looks very nice. Also TXT extension is an nice option...