The GUIDE to USING the RCA LYRA
By Miro
The RCA LYRA is a portable personal digital player. It is the descendant of the Thomson Lyra player. There are different varieties and “flavors” to it. The European version :
PDP2201, which is the equivalent of the US RCA RD 2204 (64MB, no radio);
the US RCA RD 2201 (32MB, no radio)
and the RCA Lyra2 - RD 2211 (64MB, radio)
All players share the same basic functionality and internal architecture. They are all pretty tough – I own a Lyra2, and have dropped it numerous times on various materials (even tiles) without any damage to the player. They all use external Compact Flash memory cards – very durable themselves. Now for the use:
1.
MY MP3s WON’T PLAY!!!!
The worst feature of the player is that it would not play MP3 files. If you try to drag and drop any MP3 files in Explorer to the Compact Flash card, then take the CF and put it into the player, all you will hear would be screeching noises. This is because of an encryption protection that converts your MP3 files to MPX files and then transfers them to the player. The Lyra only plays MPX files not MP3 files! This conversion could be done by the MusicMatch JukeBox software on the installation CD. Thus, you HAVE to install it to use your Lyra. The other software that could transfer files to your Lyra successfully is Real Player. However, support for the Lyra has been dropped in the newest Real Player – Real One, so you are out of luck there. If you have Windows XP you are in luck – if you install a plug in for Windows Media Player for XP, you could transfer files successfully (convert them to the MPX format) to the Lyra CF. So what is MPX? Well, it is no different in compression or quality than an MP3 file. In fact it IS an MP3 file that has been encrypted. It is encrypted in a way that includes the serial number of the CF card and thus the MPX file WILL NOT play on other players or your PC. It will only play in YOUR Lyra. Furthermore, in order to transfer the MP3/MPX files successfully to the CF, you NEED to use the provided CF reader from RCA !!! If you try to connect you CF via a PCMCIA card (very convenient if you have a laptop), you will fail to encrypt the MP3s properly to MPX and will hear just the screeching noises. Here are some links (drivers for the CF reader and plug-ins for the transferring software):
http://www.lyrazone.com
(go to the downloads section).
2. Man,
that SUCKS! Don’t I have a choice?
YES! There is a much more graceful way to deal with the encryption. USE .WMA – WINDOWS MEDIA FORMAT. The Lyra supports the .WMA format. It provides much better sound quality at higher compression rates – this means better sounding smaller files. It sounds VERY WELL compressed at 64kbps.Real CD Quality at 128kbps. A 64kbps .WMA file is supposed to sound as good as 128kbps .MP3 file and it is 2 times smaller in size. I have found that the 128kbps .MP3 still sounds better, but the 64kbps .WMA comes REALLY close – it DOES sound very well. So, there is your solution – just convert all of your .MP3s to .WMA – you can convert them as you transfer them to your Lyra CF, or just convert big batches of them and store them on your PC (or burn them on a CD). The benefits are that:
1. you can drag and drop .WMA files into the CF in Explorer => no need for stupid conversion software.
2. you can use anything to transfer the files to the CF – a CF reader from another manufacturer, a PCMCIA adapter card…
3. you can play the same .WMAs on you Lyra and on your PC
4. WMA DOES sound better at higher compression rates
5. The conversion software that converts MP3 to MPX CANNOT transfer to the CF files encoded higher than 128kbps -> all such files are converted to 128kbps MP3 and then to MPX and then transferred (wastes a LOT of time when transferring); with WMA, you do not have such a limitation.
NOTE: DO NOT ENCODE the .WMAs lower than 64kbps or higher than 192kbps
To convert to .WMA -> the BEST software (which is free) is: dbpoweramp:
You can also use Windows Media Player or your favorite Winamp to encode MP3s to WMAs.
ALSO: You need to have the WMA.exe in your PMP directory (SEE FILE STRUCTURE BELOW!!!)
3. Now
to have some FUN with the Lyra
Well, don’t you hate that boring startup logo? YOU CAN CHANGE IT! To do that you need to download bitviewer.exe in the DOWNLOADS section of my webpage. Here is how to use it:
VISIT http://www.interbug.com/lyra/ !!!!!!!!!!!!!! (I can not give a better explanation)
ALSO: check out my own Lyra startup logos (in the DOWNLOADS section of my webpage)
4. FILE
STRUCTURE
The “Systems” directory (like Windows or WINNT on your PC) is called PMP. Here there are 3 very important files. You need all of them to use your Lyra. If you lost accidentally delete these files you are screwed. However, you can go to the downloads section of my webpage and download PMP.zip – unzip it on your CF card.
ALSO: The Lyra DOES support directories within directories (folders). So, you can put all of your .WMAs from one author in a separate folder on your Lyra. However, the Lyra only reads two sub directories down.
HINT: If you want your files to stay in the order you put them in, just create a sub directory (folder) and put your files in there and they will remain in order.
5. Power/
batteries
The Lyra really EATS batteries. If you own one, chances are that you are using rechargeables. However, you can charge them in the Lyra itself without having to use the “proprietary” RCA batteries. Here is how:
1. You need NiMH batteries – NO!!!! NiCd, Li Ion, or Alkaline !!!!!
2. You need a charger: here are the specs: Output: (to the Lyra) 4.5V DC 600mA; the original charger model number (from Thomson): PC611
3.
You need to modify your NiMH batteries: Since the rechargeables need three
points of contact with the charging device ( +, -, and a third, used for charging)
you need to cut off the plastic covering of your battery about 3-4 millimeters
from the negative pole up.
You need to have 3-4 millimeters of exposed metal body of the battery at the negative end! Make sure it (the exposed metal body) touches the little extra connector in the Lyra battery compartment (just below the negative pole connector).
LINKS:
http://dslshark.50megs.com/lyra.htm
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/rca-lyra-mp3/
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/lyra-sdg/
