RCA lyra 1072a questions and (in progress) FAQ

 

New member
Username: Rapierdragon

Post Number: 1
Registered: Dec-05
I see a lot of people saying they have or had problems with using a SD memory card with their RCA Lyra player. I just purchased a 1072A recently and am looking to pick up a SD memory card. I know what the cards look like, and that they come in 128mb, 256mb, 512mb, and 1gb sizes by various brands, but am curious as to who has had what luck with what card or what cards have been problematic.

The two most common problems listed here I've seen are when Lyra doesn't seem to want to read all the songs off a 512mb or 1gb card or that some cards seem to have distorted playback.

As I find info I'll try building up a FAQ and posting it here. Please feel free to send in corrections.

rapierdragon
matsho@sympatico.ca


 

New member
Username: Rapierdragon

Post Number: 2
Registered: Dec-05
FAQ v0.01

CONTENTS:
1) contacting RCA/Thomson
2) song/playlist Q and A
3) sending files to the player
4) battery Q and A
5) memory card Q and A

---1---

Contacting RCA/Thomson
-problem: "I contacted (whoever) via their website and..."
-solution: Not much I can do about the company. I've tried contacting them myself over maximum size memory card the player would support. All I managed to get from them was some long-distance number saying to call during business hours. I am NOT going to call a long-distance number and get a huge phone bill just to find out that my player doesn't support memory cards over a given size.

---2---
SONGS / PLAYLIST

>>Program stalls or pauses during transfers to device or memory card:
>>solution: I find this is the most annoying part. My transfers stall if I try to transfer more than one file at a time. Unfortunately this means any changes to the play order require you to remove everything from the device or memory card.

>>problem: songs/tracks won't stay in order
>>solution: the easy-but-long way is to edit the file names so they all start with a common prefix using a letter and/or number combo. Then if files won't stay in order after doing a big transfer, all I can recommend is doing the above one-file-at-a-time transfer method.

>>problem: a given song/track refuses to transfer or always stalls during transfer
>>solution 1: it may be that you have an mp3 that has an unusual format. I've found
the best thing to do is to find out its stats (bitrate, quality, etc). Some mp3-players don't like mp3 files with a variable bitrate. I suggest changing the file to a constant bitrate with a conversion program.
>>solution 2: I don't know about the Lyra series, but some cheaper mp3's do not like
files over a given size (typically over 10mb) and tend to truncate them (cut them short). So rather than trying to load a 60mb album, break the file down into individual songs.

---3---
FILE TRANSFERS

>>problem A: I just deleted a 6mb file from my player, but the player only showed the freespace increasing by 3mb. What gives?
>>problem B: My player shows 10mb of free space, but gives an error or says there isn't enough room when I try to add a 7mb file. What gives?
>>solution: I'm not entirely sure, but musicmatch jukebox may convert some mp3 files if they aren't compatible with the system. This may explain why some files require more space than they would otherwise appear to need
>>solution 2: Just like a harddrive, a mp3's storage can become fragmented or suffer from file-table errors. The easiest way to fix the problem is to backup everything off the player to your computer and then either delete everything. Some players will let you format them, but some may be damaged if you format them. Musicmatch supposedly won't recognize some memory cards if you format them.

---4---
BATTERY

>>problem: the battery appears to drain faster when i have a memory card installed
>>solution: some memory cards require more power to operate

---5---
MEMORY CARDS

>>problem: what cards are compatible with my Lyra?
>>solution: a list for cards that work with the 1021 can be found here (others may searched too):
http://www.4allmemory.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=search.memorySearch&model=lyra&mo del_id=-3909%26model%3DLyra%2BRD1021
OR
http://froogle.google.com/froogle?hl=en&btnG=Search+Froogle&q=sd+card&lmode=onli ne&scoring=p

>>problem: I filled up the memory
>>solution: buy another mp3 player (probably a non-RCA one) or get a memory card. If you
go the memory-card route, you'd better consider the other common problems below.

>>problem: My computer won't recognize that there's a SD card installed
>>solution: some XP systems have problems with memory card detection. I can't really help you here; I have win98se.

>>card fix: some people report the Sandisk SD card (with blue and red Label) works fine in the 1072a and the Kingston 512MB SD cards in the RD1028


>>problem: lyra won't power on or access the memory card, or the card makes the battery drain faster
>>fix: some Lexar memory cards require at least 2.7v to operate. Some Lyra models only use a single AA battery (1.5v). This MAY mean the mp3 player doesn't have enough power to run the card (depends on if RCA used the right parts to temporarily boost the internal voltage to 3v through a booster circuit or capacitors). This may vary between models and even between different releases of the same model.
>>ALSO: This may explain why you can hook the device up via USB and send/receive files to the card fine but then have problems after you disconnect (a USB wire can provide some amount of power. My previous nexxtech player would actually turn on without a battery when I plugged the usb wire in).

1gb kodak card
>>problem: lyra not recognizing full card size, or won't allow more than x-mb of songs if loading songs to card in player via cable
>>ALSO: if card placed in a card reader and filled, lyra won't recognize beyond a given number of songs or given size in mb
>>fix: formating the card to fat16 or fat32 may help or may make things worse, depending on your model and what system you have
 

Unregistered guest
>>problem: my lyra will not load off of the card it "insists" on reading the normal hardrive of memory which has no songs even though the memory card is in place.
 

New member
Username: Rapierdragon

Post Number: 3
Registered: Dec-05
Sorry about the late reply. I'll go through what I've read for you.

>>problem: my lyra will not load off of the card it "insists" on reading the normal hardrive of memory which has no songs even though the memory card is in place

Possible sources of your problem:

>>IF you are using an EXTERNAL CARD READER
(common to most older lyra models) if you are using an external card-reader to load songs onto the sd-memory card and then find the lyra won't detect the card when its inserted, it may be that the card-reader is using a different fat-format to store the info than the lyra is set up to use. Some lyra's will display that a card is inserted but won't list its contents, or will have distorted playback, whereas other lyra's just won't display that the card is inserted.
SOLUTION: re-load the card's contents via lyra and whatever software was provided for your lyra.

>>IF LYRA DISPLAYS THE CARD AS INSTALLED BUT WILL NOT LIST ITS CONTENTS WHEN THE IN-BUILT LYRA MEMORY HAS NO TRACKS:
If your pc recognizes that the sd-memory card is in the lyra when you connect the lyra to your pc, but then the lyra won't detect the card after disconnecting the lyra from the pc:
This has something to do with how some lyra models calculate the total number of tracks. Lyra may or may not display that a card is inserted.
NORMALLY: lyra's are supposed to use the formula "t=x+y" where "t" is the total number of tracks, "x" is the number of tracks in lyra's in-built memory, and "y" is the tracks on any inserted sd-memory card. UNFORTUNATELY some lyra models were programmed rather crudely. Using the above example, if you checked their programming you'd notice that the "x" variable was set in such a way that if "x=0" that lyra assumed there were no tracks whatsoever and simply displayed the total storage capacity available without checking to see what the "y" variable was.
SOLUTION: most common fix: load at least one track into lyra's in-built memory. Because this means "x=1" lyra then scans how many tracks might also be loaded on the sd-card and should display the correct total number of tracks.

>>MY LYRA WON'T DISPLAY THE "CARD-INSTALLED" ICON WHEN A CARD IS INSTALLED
TYPICALLY: the sd-card isn't installed quite all the way or has a bad contact or dirty contact. The card is easy enough to clean. The slot on the lyra can usually be cleaned just by blowing into it, or, if really dirty, cleaned with a q-tip or cotton-swab that was moistened with some rubbing alcohol.
IF IT ISN'T A DIRT OR CONNECTION PROBLEM:
RESULTS MAY VARY. TEST AT YOUR OWN RISK.
Its up to you if you want to try this as some lyra manuals say this can damage your unit: some people have reported that their instructions say to only insert or remove the sd-memory card while their lyra is off; but find that instead the lyra only detects that a card was inserted while the lyra is on. Some even say that inserting the card while their lyra is on causes their lyra to stall, but that after turning it off and back on it not only works fine but also detects the card.
RESULTS MAY VARY. TEST AT YOUR OWN RISK.
 

WtF^
Unregistered guest
i lost the CD for the RD 1072A so my Windows Media player wont' recognize it. Do you know anyway or anywhere, where I can download the software or a codec?
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