Rio was a line of digital audio players and related audio products. Its first release, the Rio PMP300 digital music player (also known colloquially as simply the "Diamond Rio"), released by Diamond Multimedia in 1998, was one of the earliest notable and commercially successful devices in its category. It also became known as the target of an early lawsuit regarding the legality of such devices. Following the PMP300, various music players were released under the Rio brand name by a number of companies until the brand was retired in 2005.
History
Rio was originally a brand of California based Diamond Multimedia. Rio Audio was best known for producing the Rio PMP300 model that was the impetus for a lawsuit in 1998 by the Recording Industry Association of America. That lawsuit eventually failed, leading the way for the portable digital music industry to take off.
Diamond Multimedia merged with S3 Graphics in 1999 - the resulting company was renamed SONICblue. Rio, Inc., a subsidiary of SONICblue, was formed in 2000. The company referred to itself as Rio Digital Audioin later years this changed to simply Rio Audio. During this time, Rio's president was Jim Cady.
On March 21, 2003, SONICblue filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and then sold off its main product lines; Rio Audio was sold to Japanese firm D&M Holdings, which owned audio brands such as Denon, forming part of their Digital Networks North America subsidiary. Rio Audio was based in Santa Clara, California. Its president from that time until March 2004 was Jeffrey Hastings.
Like some other competitors in the digital audio player business, the Rio brand was unable to compete effectively against Apple's dominant iPod series of audio players. In August 2005, D&M Holdings announced the discontinuation of its production of audio players, after it had licensed its digital audio software technology to chipmaker SigmaTel the month before. The Rio brand and trademarks were retained by D&M Holdings.
Products
Rio USA Portable digital audio players Release Year Player Memory typeMemory spaceDisplay backlightWMAFM radioVoice recordingBattery typeNotes1998 Rio PMP300Flash32 MB + SmartMediaNoNoNoNoAA1999 Rio 50064 MB + SmartMediaYesNoNoNoAA2000 Rio 60032 MB/64 MB + "Backpack"YesYesNoNoAA Rio 800 (incl. 800 Extreme)128/256 MB + "Backpack"YesYesNoYesLi-ion2001 Rio One32 MB + SmartMediaNoYesNoNoAASilver PMP300 design with updated internals2002 Rio 900192 MB + "Backpack"YesYesNoNoLi-ionStripped down Rio 800Rio S1064 MB + MMCYesYesNoNoAA Rio S50128 MB + MMCYesYesYesNoAA Rio S30S64 MB + MMCYesYesYesNoAAASports-orientedRio S35S128 MB + MMCYesYesYesNoAAASports-orientedRio RiotHard disk20 GBYesYesYesNoLi-ion2003Rio FuseFlash128 MBYesYesNoNoAAAKeychain styleRio Cali (Sport)128/256 MB + MMC/SDYesYesYesNoAAASuccessors to the S seriesRio ChibaYesYesYesNoAAA Rio Nitrus (incl. Nitrus-S) Hard disk1.5 GBYesYesNoNoLi-ion Rio Karma20 GBYesYesNoNoLi-ionAlso supports Ogg Vorbis and FLAC playback2004 Rio Carbon (inc. Carbon Pearl)4 GBYesYesNoYesLi-ionUpgraded Nitrus with faster driveRio ce2100/ce21102.5 GBYesYesNoNoLi-ionSimilar to Carbon, but no microphone Rio Forge Flash128/256/512 MB + MMC/SDYesYesYesNoAAASuccessor to the Cali/Chiba. Also has FM radio recording.
Portable CD players
RioVolt SP50 RioVolt SP60 RioVolt SP65 RioVolt SP90 RioVolt SP100 RioVolt SP150 RioVolt SP250 RioVolt SP350
Home audio players Rio HT-2030 Rio Central (aka HSX-109) Rio EX-1000 Rio Receiver
Car audio players Rio Car (aka Empeg Car)
Rio Japan
Rio DR30 (OEM BeatSounds EVR150) Rio SU10 (OEM A-MAX Technology PA30A) Rio SU30 (OEM i-BEAD i-BEAD100) Rio SU35 (OEM AVC Technology Si-100) Rio SU40 (OEM i-BEAD i-BEAD200) Rio SU70 (OEM M-CODY MX-100) Rio Unite 130 (OEM M-CODY MX-250) Rio SU15-KJ (OEM AVC Technology) Rio Si-200C (OEM AVC Technology) Rio Si-300C (OEM AVC Technology) Rio LIVE air Rio LIVE mini Rio LIVE gear (OEM Foster)
Rio OEM models Nike PSA Play 60 Nike PSA Play 120 ESA S11 Motorola M25 Motorola M500 Dell Digital Audio Receiver
References