Rio to try marketing/ start selling this player again? I regret selling my RioCar with my car. Along with all the other things I sold along with it, it's the only thing I really got a lot of enjoyment out of. It amazed everyone and was awesomely easy to navigate.

Anyhow, I haven't been on RioCar.org in a long, long time and was wondering how the community in general is doing? Strong? Any rumors? Talk of a new player? Last I heard, some other company had licensed the player software and was integrating it into an OEM vehicle. Scrapped?

If anyone could shed any light on anything, I'd love it. Prices on storage and other advances seemingly would make it a great idea to put these back out on the market (OLED, cents/ gb, etc). But then again, I'm probably not saying anything new, huh?

The problem is that the Rio company no longer exists. There's no one to petition any more.

Although the IP descendants are at Sigmatel, and there was a post not too long ago that implied that there might be a new car player in the glint of someone's eyes. Can't find the post now, of course.

Truthfully, I see the future having two components:

1. OEM'ed music systems that come from the factory pre-installed into the car.
2. Ipod or at least aux-in interfaces for factory and aftermarket stereos.

I don't think any amount of petitioning Sigmatel or anyone else is going to change the market from moving in that direction.

To answer the OP's question about the community: The community is still going strong. The existing owners of the players are still doing stuff with them. You can still buy them used.

Well, it's good that the community is strong but odd that something that works so well failed. I think it's idea was just poorly placed (in time). In today's market I think the Empeg/RCM1 or 2 would fare very well. then again that's just speculation on my part, however, MP3 is household word now, and MP3 playback is a standard option in most vehicles today. I know that iPod is where most of the market is at, but not everyone, myself included finds carrying around a separate MP3 player a nessecity. My MP3 player is built into my phone, which I do consider a nessecity.

People come up with these "do everything" devices all the time for the car. Something that is easy to load with music that is easy to navigate is all many people need. I like Alpine's view of things... give a rock solid base to build on, then add additional features a la carte, but sweet lord, their navigation through folders is archaic.

Anyhow, you make it sound like you can just pick up a used model just anywhere. I can find a single unit, for $1000 on ebay. Now, I know just what it can do, and i know why the price is set that high, but it's used. I would pay that for new this day in age. Maybe. I can appreciate what people have paid in the past for units, but, my crap, how can I possibly justify $1k for a used device that may or may not be in the order they say.

I knew I should have cleaned out the 20GB stock when the RioCar division of sonicblue went under. *sigh*

Insert something witty about 20/20 vision and hindsight here.

It was and still is an excellent device but unfortunatley it died for a few reasons (IMO)...

1. The price was set too high. Those who knew what it could do could see past that but it was way too much for the average user to gamble on.

2. Rio killed it by simply never bothering to market it. I found it by total accident. Again, your average user would never have seen it.

3. It aimed for a niche market before the market was ready. 6/7 years ago there wasn't the huge talk of mp3s the way their is now. Their was geeky me and Napster! Like you say, it would do well now.

I'd love to see an alternative but really all I've seen was the Dension unit that is now dsicontinued. Sony and Pioneer did make a HDD player but they were woeful. Alpine's looked ok but again too pricey.

A headunit that I could flip the face down and insert a Nano though... that'd be sweet.

Oh and keep checking the for sale section and eBay. $1000 is about 4-5 times the norm.

The place to find an empeg/Rio car player, is in the For Sale section of this very forum.

Just in the past week there have been two units offered there for under $350.

-ml

The $1000 dollar Empeg was first spotted here in November last and it's still hanging about, so don't take it as a guide to Empeg values.