#263523 - 26/08/2005 12:36
The end of Rio
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 08/03/2000
Posts: 12338
Loc: Sterling, VA
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Matt
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#263524 - 26/08/2005 12:55
Re: The end of Rio
[Re: Dignan]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 30/10/2000
Posts: 4931
Loc: New Jersey, USA
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Not a surprise, but a shame that the Rio name means almost nothing nowadays.
EDIT: By meaning nothing, I mean that most people won't notice or care that Rio is gone.
Edited by robricc (26/08/2005 12:56)
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-Rob Riccardelli
80GB 16MB MK2 090000736
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#263525 - 26/08/2005 13:09
Re: The end of Rio
[Re: Dignan]
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enthusiast
Registered: 18/02/2002
Posts: 335
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#263526 - 26/08/2005 13:23
Re: The end of Rio
[Re: eliceo]
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pooh-bah
Registered: 25/08/2000
Posts: 2413
Loc: NH USA
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I would say no Rio chroma may be a more accurate statement.
-Zeke
(Meaning that most likely SigmaTel will not abandon the IP entirely.)
Edited by Ezekiel (26/08/2005 15:50)
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#263527 - 26/08/2005 14:23
Re: The end of Rio
[Re: Ezekiel]
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addict
Registered: 04/09/2004
Posts: 525
Loc: Oklahoma
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What is Rio chroma? faceplate?
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The only easy day...was yesterday!
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#263528 - 26/08/2005 14:51
Re: The end of Rio
[Re: Ladmo]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 18/01/2000
Posts: 5683
Loc: London, UK
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#263529 - 26/08/2005 19:33
Re: The end of Rio
[Re: Roger]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 21/05/1999
Posts: 5335
Loc: Cambridge UK
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It would be interesting to work out how many of the "coming soon" sneak previews at Amersfoort meets did actually come soon (or at all). I think that meet may be the kiss of death for Rio products  Rob
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#263530 - 26/08/2005 20:26
Re: The end of Rio
[Re: Dignan]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 23/09/2000
Posts: 3608
Loc: Minnetonka, MN
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When the empeg guys at sigmatel make a new player I hope we will hear what brand / model it is.
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Matt
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#263531 - 26/08/2005 22:59
Re: The end of Rio
[Re: Dignan]
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pooh-bah
Registered: 19/09/2002
Posts: 2494
Loc: East Coast, USA
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So sad. I always admired Rio for their efforts with the PMP300 and keeping in step with the MP3 player market for decent amount of time.
Hm, firesale anyone??
How nice would it be if SigmaTel gave a little nod toward the Rio brand name some time in the future. Releasing a player "The SigmaTel R10" or something. (I know, the wouldn't use their own brand name, but you see what I mean).
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#263532 - 27/08/2005 08:49
Re: The end of Rio
[Re: FireFox31]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 13/07/2000
Posts: 4180
Loc: Cambridge, England
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Quote:
keeping in step with the MP3 player market for decent amount of time
Rio did no such thing. Roku, Sonos, Olive, maybe even Escient, would never have existed if Rio had had the first clue in 2001 what it was they actually had. Instead they were so risk-averse that they barely noticed they were riding on a commodity flash-player market headed nowhere but downwards. Since the S10 Rio never released or even developed anything but portables. Some were innovative in their way -- Karma was the world's first gapless portable (and still one of very few), and the world's first portable to play a lossless compressed format (and still one of very few to play an open lossless format) -- but it's hardly "keeping in step with the MP3 player market".
Peter
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#263533 - 27/08/2005 17:54
Re: The end of Rio
[Re: peter]
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member
Registered: 09/03/2003
Posts: 121
Loc: Iowa
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Quote:
Some were innovative in their way -- Karma was the world's first gapless portable (and still one of very few), and the world's first portable to play a lossless compressed format (and still one of very few to play an open lossless format) -- but it's hardly "keeping in step with the MP3 player market".
Peter
Can't let this slide. The PJB100 from Hango (licensed from Compaq) was the first gapless portable in fact the first harddrive portable (if you don't count the Empeg). Release in 1999, it should have sold better but was not marketed well like the ipod is. It got great reviews in the Mags, but when the ipod and other harddrive based players came out they got great reviews too instead of being criticized for lacking key features the PJB100 had like gapless playback and user replacable batteries. Like the Empeg team they had a prototype for a even better unit, but Compaq was bought by HP and they canned the project. I would have bought a Karma but they never came out with the 40gig model and nowadays it's possible to put an 80 or even 100gig drive in a PJB.
Kelly
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#263534 - 27/08/2005 18:05
Re: The end of Rio
[Re: Gleep]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 13/07/2000
Posts: 4180
Loc: Cambridge, England
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Quote:
The PJB100 from Hango (licensed from Compaq) was the first gapless portable
With cue-sheet files only, though? Not file-to-file?
Peter
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#263535 - 27/08/2005 19:24
Re: The end of Rio
[Re: peter]
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member
Registered: 09/03/2003
Posts: 121
Loc: Iowa
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Quote:
With cue-sheet files only, though? Not file-to-file?
Peter
True, if you previously ripped an album to individual mp3 files, they did not play back gapless, but if you used their software (or EAC, Lame, using cue sheets) it would rip a CD directly to the player putting in Artist, Album, Title automatically obtain from freedb (used CDDB originally) and playback gapless and be able to directly play any individual track also with tag information (coming from their TOC (table of contents) not the ID3 tags. ID3 tags in files that contained them were read upon loading and put into the TOC). The end result was that it played back gapless. For proper playback of many albums this feature is ESSENTIAL and I can't understand how a person writing a review of an mp3 player who listens to albums (Pink Floyd - Dark Side Of The Moon for example) cannot know this and in good conscience not mention this serious design flaw in the player they are reviewing.
Kelly
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#263536 - 28/08/2005 05:25
Re: The end of Rio
[Re: Gleep]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 08/06/1999
Posts: 7868
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Quote:
Like the Empeg team they had a prototype for a even better unit, but Compaq was bought by HP and they canned the project.
I'm pretty sure the project got shutdown completly by Compaq. While the HP merger was announced late 2001, it didn't happen until almost the middle of 2002. And it still took a good year or two after that for the changes to trickle down internally. The PJB was one of many cool projects the R&D labs were working on before the big cost reduction movement in mid 2001.
Even if the project hadn't been cancelled, I can't imagine the successor to the PJB being successful. Compaq had no interest in actually selling the PJB, and that was likely to stay true for the next unit. Internally, people really didn't even know of the PJB, and that would have been the first group to share it with. Get the techies in Compaq talking about it, then get marketing going and so on.
Looking back, Apple launched the iPod in October of 2001. But really it didn't become popular till mid to late 2003, with it exploding around 2004. One thing stayed very consistant. iPod. Not Apple Music Player model 1a, then 6b then Kitty, then Aspen, then some other unrelated name, but always iPod. They have had the advantage of building up one name in marketing, even when the product has changed, expanded, and evolved. That I think is the important lesson any other company needs to learn if they intend on even scratching the iPod market share.
I just hope that with the empeg folks finally get to stretch a bit under Sigmatel. The talent they have is still amazing, and it is a shame the Chroma, among other things never saw the light of day. If anyone has a beta unit they would like to sell... :-)
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#263537 - 28/08/2005 20:05
Re: The end of Rio
[Re: rob]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 25/06/1999
Posts: 2993
Loc: Wareham, Dorset, UK
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Hugo, now they are dead, can't we see photos of the development models seen at Amersfoort 2005, even if it is only to kiss them goodbye?
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#263538 - 28/08/2005 20:45
Re: The end of Rio
[Re: schofiel]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 17/01/2002
Posts: 3996
Loc: Manchester UK
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I've just seen a PC World TV advert for a rio player too, first time I've ever seen one.
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#263539 - 29/08/2005 03:05
Re: The end of Rio
[Re: andym]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 17/12/2000
Posts: 2665
Loc: Manteca, California
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I was just using Froogle. They have that recent search list on their home page. After refreshing it several times I noticed Rio popping up quite frenquently.
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Glenn
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#263540 - 29/08/2005 16:34
Re: The end of Rio
[Re: eliceo]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 08/03/2000
Posts: 12338
Loc: Sterling, VA
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I'm not sure how many of you saw this over the weekend.
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Matt
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#263541 - 29/08/2005 18:21
Re: The end of Rio
[Re: Dignan]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 21/05/1999
Posts: 5335
Loc: Cambridge UK
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..or several weekends ago as might have been the case for fifty or so empeg enthusiasts.
Rob
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#263542 - 29/08/2005 22:57
Re: The end of Rio
[Re: rob]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 05/01/2001
Posts: 4903
Loc: Detroit, MI USA
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Just because Rio is closing shop doesn't mean those details could be released does it? Seems like the technology could have been sold to someone else who wanted to market it.
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Brad B.
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#263544 - 05/09/2005 02:23
Re: The end of Rio
[Re: JaBZ]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 23/09/2000
Posts: 3608
Loc: Minnetonka, MN
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I was guessing at the end of the month when Scott was done they just shut it off.
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Matt
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#263545 - 05/09/2005 22:25
Re: The end of Rio
[Re: msaeger]
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addict
Registered: 08/08/2001
Posts: 452
Loc: NZ
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Nice way to treat loyal testers, not even informing them..
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#263546 - 06/09/2005 08:15
Re: The end of Rio
[Re: JaBZ]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 15/08/2000
Posts: 4859
Loc: New Jersey, USA
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Well, there was one or two threads on this topic (and others) on the board before it went down. It was assumed that it would just go away at some point. After Scott's message, I had not returned, so I assume they just shut the box down.
What hurts most is that my next portable might have to be <shocked gasp> an iPod. Ick.
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Paul Grzelak
200GB with 48MB RAM, Illuminated Buttons and Digital Outputs
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#263547 - 06/09/2005 08:27
Re: The end of Rio
[Re: JaBZ]
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addict
Registered: 10/11/2000
Posts: 497
Loc: Utah, USA
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Well, Scott did post a "so long and thanks for all the fish" type post on his last day that seemed to indicate that the site could go down anytime. Sure enough, I think it was down the next day. Quote:
Nice way to treat loyal testers...
So did you guys not get the severance package? You know, the one with finished versions of all of the new 2005 players, and about 40 pounds of selected older players, including 2 empegs and a Central? Was that just me, then?
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#263549 - 06/09/2005 12:20
Re: The end of Rio
[Re: pgrzelak]
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enthusiast
Registered: 18/02/2002
Posts: 335
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<shocked gasp> an iPod. Ick.
Exactly ! Or having to suggest the samething to others.
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#263550 - 06/09/2005 13:05
Re: The end of Rio
[Re: eliceo]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 15/08/2000
Posts: 4859
Loc: New Jersey, USA
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Sadly, I have already had to recommend the iPod to others multiple times. The writing has been on the wall for some time, and if it was a novice or remote user I would recommend the iPod because they could get more "peer group" support.
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Paul Grzelak
200GB with 48MB RAM, Illuminated Buttons and Digital Outputs
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#263551 - 06/09/2005 14:12
Re: The end of Rio
[Re: pgrzelak]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 19/01/2002
Posts: 3584
Loc: Columbus, OH
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Or if they were planning on using it in a vehicle, the complete lack of accessories for the Karma constrained me to recommend iPod's too.
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~ John
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