iRiver H320 and H340 H300 series Jukebox Information and Full Review

The iRiver iHP-100 series was top. How do these stack up?

Don't be fooled by the large colour screen: this is not a video Jukebox range. It is capable of doing lots of good stuff with digital pictures. If you have a digital camera that is classed as a "USB mass storage device" then you will get a huge amount of use out of your HP300, but despite the large screen, there is no video recording/ playback.

You expect this jukebox to be bigger than it is. Something about its dimensions belies the fact that its almost the exact same size as the iPod 4th gen.

Colour is one of the main selling points. Simple, pleasing-to-the-eye interaction and control in colour is better than mono or text. The colour screen telegraphs the fact that the GUI for the H300 series is capable of displaying graphics. The result is a much better look and feel than text based User Interfaces of some other models. Its not all good news though, but the good news is probably the best place to start:

Digital Pictures on the H320 and H340

Photos from digital cameras can be directly transferred to the player - without going through your computer, and without using your camera's memory card, as the iRiver 300 series supports the USB Host function: i.e. you plug the USB cable from your camera into the H300 and transfer you pictures directly from the camera to this jukebox.

That means that photographers in the field can now carry nearly 40GB worth of digital pix with them on this device. That is as near 'infinite' capacity* as most people will ever use. That certainly beats the 128MB that some of the digital camera's currently allow.

As most digital cameras are still USB1.1 this transfer can be a pretty slow process, but in comparison to messing about with memory cards and adapters (that you have to purchase separately) its a big big leap in the right direction.

You are not limited to cameras - the jukebox will connect to other 'USB mass storage devices' such as other jukebox models.

Music Jukebox

This is an accomplished music jukebox, like the iHP-120 (H120) and iHP-140 (H140) before it, the 300 series can play MP3, WMA, Ogg Vorbis and a new type of compressed music file called 'IRM', which is IRiver Rights Management, or restricted access/ security protected tracks made using iRiver software.

Standard features that all jukeboxes should be capable of are present: e.g. Repeat Play; Random Play, Intro Play. Guess how many of those the much vaunted iPod can do? Playlists, of course, (never thought we'd have to mention those again until the Sony NW-HD1 came along) as well as all the ID3TAG stuff.

Easy-to-use external disk with USB 2.0

One of the big drawbacks with some jukebox models is that you need to install a vast amount of supporting software before connecting to a computer. Not so the Archos models, or the iRivers, which are all recognised as an external HD, meaning they are effectively 'plug and play'. I.e. you can move music or data files from your PC to your mates, or your mates back to yours without having to spend 20 mins loading a huge amount of otherwise unnecessary software. Plug it in, and your computer (provided its more advanced than windows 98SE, or Mac OS 9) says "hello new hard drive" you drag and drop the music/ pictures/ data files. Boom - done. The way it should be.

Both photos and texts are supported. Now you can read texts on your jukebox too: notes that you have left for yourself for the photo shoot; directions to someone's house; shopping lists, downloaded lyrics, etc. All very handy stuff. Alternatively you can view images, but unlike on the latest model Archos units - the AV400 and the Gmini 400 that use full thumbnail-browse to display the images you are browsing through - the H300 series uses text mainly. They will allow you to view images as thumbnails, but you have to select which images you would like to see as thumbnails first.

The sound reproduction from this range is something that we should probably mention. Its pretty dam good.

Recharge is via USB cable, or via the included adapter if you are traveling. iRiver try using a Jedi marketing trick: "There is no need for an adapter any more ..." hmm, yes there is no need for an adapter any more. I'll just bring my PC with me everywhere. Oh, hang on, I'll bring the adapter.

So its all gravy, right? No.

What the hell are you thinking iRiver?

The buttons/ interface is annoyingly unintuitive. There are plenty of modern jukebox models that use multi-function buttons well. While the button layout on the H300 series might look quite slick, this range is not one of them. Explain, please, how the Record button can have so many different meanings depending on what you're doing? How come, for example, it switches on the radio? How come it switches on the random/ shuffle function? Its so non-intuitive. iRiver could have saved the headaches by not labeling that button "record" to begin with. Its not an isolated incident. You would, of course, get used to it all, but ... why? Logic works. Use it in your designs.

Keep Reading

Its not all bad news. Record is a function sorely missing when you have used a jukebox that has it and then revert to using one that doesn't. The iRiver H300 jukebox models are record ready, so you can not only listen to the stuff you want to, you can record stuff that you want to listen to from live sources: e.g. Teens do Rock, DJ in a club, bootleg a concert (don't bootleg a concert) whatever you can get access to the outputs for, you can record from using the cables and connectors that are provided. (As with all recording, for some sources you may need additional adapters).

There is also a Built-in FM radio receiver - a good one too. Normally you have to pay extra for an FM tuner and the very handy wired remote control it comes with. Its included with the price for the H300 series. What's more the Record function allows you to record directly from the built in radio - one of the few features sorely missing from the iHP 100s. In fact it was such a silly omission to have both record & radio on the same jukebox, but not allow the jukebox to record from the built-in radio that we thought it could. We even advertised it as being capable of doing so. Even when a customer helpful pointed out that we were wrong, it took us a while to get our heads around it. It caused quite a curfuffle. "Of course it does, I'll show you ... hang on."

No such trouble with this jukebox as iRiver have wisely stitched that hole up. Record direct from your built-in radio and never be without the latest music.

Direct encoding means that you recorded files are made directly into MP3s. There is no need to go via WAV, or reprocess the recording. Your jukebox makes an MP3 straight from the live source.

Voice recording is present and handily Voice-Activated when on. This is very useful for spy related activities. You can catch-out the crooked town mayor in his shady dealings by leaving the H340 recorder on in his office. When there is no voice to record, the jukebox records nothing, when someone speaks, the record function is activated. This saves battery power, and a lot of space on the hard drive. The Auto Gain Control means that the sound quality of the voice recording is better than earlier models as it will effectively record from distance as well by automatically tweaking the "gain" for you to improve the sound quality. iRiver say that this means the quality of voice recording is directly comparable to professional recording devices. It sounds fine to us. The units have an internal mic and an external mic is included as well.

*There is a maximum of 2,000 folders and 9,999 files on the 300 series. That shouldn't really cause a problem for music. A 40GB MP3 jukebox can hold about 8,500 MP3s

There is a clock and sleep timer too, of course.

Battery News

The battery is internal, which is not a good idea as we have mentioned many times on dukebox.com, as, if there is a fault with the battery, the whole unit is at risk. The external battery pack back-up - Hmm. This adds bulk and weight to the unit - 2 things that you do not want to do as a manufacturer! It's not only ungainly, it's unsightly. In fairness your average photographer is probably used to carrying around an additional battery pack, and additional cables, but your average jukebox user isn't. If iRiver were aiming for cool, then they stopped off at radio shack once too often with this battery pack. (You do not need to carry around the extra battery pack for normal day to day use).

iRiver have opted for a Lithium Polymer internal battery - that's a new battery technology that incorporates plastics into the chemical mix for added juice. Yes, we have also spent too long at radio shack. The internal battery will give approximately 16 hours of playback without recharge. We actually got 12 hours, which is a little shy, but still respectable.

Conclusions:

Our first impression was this thing rocks, then as we started to get annoyed by the way you move around the jukebox we sort-of fell out of love with it, but within a very short space of time we were back where we started. This jukebox rocks. It has something for everyone and everything for someone.

iRiver H320

iRiver H340