Reviews for iRiver PMP-120 20 GB Hard Drive Portable Media Player

Great Device Overall

Strengths: Good sound quality (with headphones), great screen that's viewable from all angles, excellent contrast, easy to use controls.

Weakness: Poor sound quality (without headphones), does not play DVDs, a little too bulky to fit in your pocket and walk around with.

This is an excellent device, but like everything else, it has its good points and its bad points. For one thing, the workmanship is fantastic. It is not cheap and flimsy like some other video/MP3 players. Its 20 GB hard drive also holds an astounding amount of data, video or otherwise. It is great to record TV shows on so you can watch them later. One of the bad things about this multimedia player is that it too big and bulky to be carried around like a strictly MP3 player. It is better suited for sitting around and watching videos, or viewing pictures and videos on the Metro going to work. Overall, however, this is an excellent device that I would recommend to anyone. One thing that you do have to watch, though, is being overcharged for it. Prices have gone down dramatically in the past months, and you can find it new for as little as $181 (plus shipping) in some places.

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Go go go Iriver

Strengths: Just as good as Ipod Video, a lot of features and better sound quality

Weakness: a little bulky

Just used it for a few days and love it. I owned some Iriver products and their sound quality is awesome. Koreans have improved their products tremendously and the last few years and exceeded many expectations.

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Good product, terrible company

Strengths: Low price, decent battery life, light weight, easy to hold

Weakness: Screen scratches easily, bulky, video files needed to be converted to a smaller resolution and compatible format (takes up to 2 hours for a single video) using WMP, poor viewing angle

I had my iRiver for about a week before the internal hard drive crashed back in July. After going through iRiver's tedious RMA process, I was finally able to send the player in for replacement in September. It's now mid-December and I still haven't received anything back from them. They have told me they are no longer manufacturing these players and they're currently waiting on replacement parts. I asked for my money back but they have refused to give it to me. It's been over four months now and I have no idea when or if I will ever get anything back.

Worse yet, I have filed a claim with the Better Business Bureau. They have not responded to any of their letters. iRiver obviously does not put their customers first.

Calling iRiver's technical support line is a joke. Someone rarely picks up the phone. I've been on automated hold for hours without any answer.

I strongly suggest you put all this into consideration before purchasing an iRiver product. I paid $400 for a product that broke that I probably won't be getting back because the company has made it clear that they do not care about their customers. If you decide to buy an iRiver product I wish you the best of luck because if anything ever happens to it you are out of luck, my friend!

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Be warned - you will NOT get a broken device repaired

Strengths: When it does work, it is great.

Weakness: Some parts are poorly designed - very frail. Device subject to random crashes, reboots, and even loss of all data.

After about 6 months, the device stopped working, including having the frail tab that holds the battery fall off. But even so, device would power up and then reboot.

After 4 months (that is not a typo) that included about 40 phone calls, emails and faxes, with NO response from iRiver America support, I researched and found the company doing their promotion. Contacted them, told them about this fiasco, and the next day was contacted by support. Finally got an RMA, sent it in -- and got it back 10 days later in same condition. They had literally done nothing but put it back in the mail to me.

Now, 7 weeks later, and several dozen calls, emails and faxes (including two talks with "Johnny", who is the support manager), still no RMA. Johhny told me a week ago I'd get an RMA "within the hour" -- nothing. They could not even find any records of the prior RMA they'd issued, even though I provided that RMA number.

Their phone system is unworkable -- you can be on hold for 30 minutes, only to have it suddenly say "Good bye", and hang up. Their tech support people are unable to help. No matter what they say, they do nothing (and 3 of them said they'd be "right on it").

Be advised -- the warranty is worthless if you have a problem. I would strongly recommend buying devices from them only if you consider the income truly "disposable", along with the device, in the event of a problem.

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iriver PMC-120 Portable Media Center

As a gadget it ticks all the boxes, but do we really want to watch movies on a 3.5in screen?

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