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"Great MP3 player, not so Great PVP" on by BlaZeNHaZe85
Pros: User Interface is one of the easiest to use, more colorful than the ipod, great sound and volume, album art shown on various menus, sleek and sexy design, back is very durable, extremely fast processo
Cons: Horrible video conversion process, radio quality is horrible, Screen abmormalities, no organizartion for movies, TV output equivalent to VHS quality or worse, no recording, no 5-band eq
Summary: I have the TOshiba Gigabeat S60 (60 gig) abour 5 weeks ago and I am proud to say that I am somewhat indifferent to the Toshiba Gigabeat S.
First off, for all those people who claim that the Toshiba Gigabeat is a do-it-all player which can play videos, Id like to say that it is rather an MP3 player rather than a PVP.
The reason being the hassle for video conversion and the video quality. The Toshiba Gigabeat supports WMV ONLY. Even if your video is WMV, the gigabeat will not natively support this video. SO even if your video is in the format of the gigabeat, it will still need to convert it. If you have an avi file which you want to transfer to the gigabeat you might as well get a third party converter since any divx or xvid file converted by WMP 11 will have frame-skipping issues. I downloaded King of Queens xvid video and i needed it to convert to WMV before converting it in WMP 10. In other words you will need to convert xvid and divx videos twice in order to play them on the gigabeat.
Another issue in the gigabeat is video quality. I cant believe no one ever mentioned the crappy viewing angle. Daytime scenes are alright but night-time scenes will constantly cause you to turn your gigabeat around. Color abnormalities also occur during dark scenes. Because of the gigabeat's 62K color screen it lacks the ability to smoothly display transitions of color in dark areas. Therefore color does not correctly blend in the darkness.
I will not mention the audio portion of this player, because i thought it was perfect. Clean, fast interface and 95db of sound which allows it to get really loud without distorting sound. It displays album art next to album list and can show it full screen. If you want to break away from apple mundane interface gigabeat is for you.
However, radio is a useless feature to the gigabeat. Not only can you not record radio, but the quality is garbage as well. I am not joking when i say the quality is equivalent to a manual tuner radio. There is so much static on the radio that it makes listening to the radio unbearable. And this is just outside, its worse inside.
My gigabeat was sort of messed up as well. It constantly froze up and said the gigabeat was out of battery and about to turn off, and this was after a full night charge. In addition to this when i tried to sync videos it would always get stuck converting at 0%. Then all of these error messages would show up.
Bottom Line: I would recomend the gigabeat if your main purpose was to listen to music although the battery life is only 12 hours. If you want to watch videos and play music as well, this device is not for you. Its horrible video quality and lack of native video support makes it a hassle to play videos. It took me an hour to transfer one 20 min video and i have a duo core processor. For all you video fans I would recommend the Creative Zen Vision: M which has native support for AVI, WMV, Mpeg 1,2,4, DivX 4,5, and XVid. THe sound quality is better as well. -
"Dont be like everyone with an Ipod. Be better!" on by TheBlueCat
Pros: Windows friendly, Genius interface, lossless
Cons: Video Res. and format. Side buttons,
Summary: I didn't want and Ipod cause everyone has one. I have been waitting for a Mp3/video player and when I saw this on CNET I bought it that very night.
I have the 60gb (black) and I'm writting this reveiw after owning it for about 2 weeks.
Pros.
IF it can play with windows media player it can play on this player!! Divx hint hint.
Connects perfict with windows media player and Media center Pc's.
The USB cable charges the unit so I leave this at the Pc all the time and the powercable I just leave at work.
Navigation is so simple you can hand the unit to anyone and they will figer out how to find what they want in seconds.
Small size for a unit that can hold tens of thousands of songs and pictures as well as a library of your favoret movies.
Screen resaloution is very good but not excelent.
Turning it on is practicly "instant on".
Connects with Xbox 360. Listen to your music while playing a game and navigate with x's controlers.
Album art can be displayed full screen.
Suports WMA lossless a very high quality audio codec that audiophiles love.
TV out.. Play your music and watch a slide show of your vaca on your TV. Watch movies.
Radio Turner.. extra bonus for when you want something differnt or hear a beasball game.
Unit comes with A/V cables.
Scratch resistant case.
TIVO and Media center Pc TV recordings compatable
I loaded many differnt Dvix formats AVIs on the player and they all work perfectly.
Cons.
Buttons on the right side seams to be silly placement.
Sreen color Res. and well as TV out is not at full capasity its good enough but not amazing.
No way to change screen format for widescreen movies.
Some pictures are misplaced even though they are all loaded on from the same folder.
Some files.. even though I rename them then load them on still retaine there original name.
Very limited accesories available.. Waiting for a good set of powered speakers.
No mass storage mode. (no dumping a file and transfering it to another pc)
Unit dosnt not come with a small Lanyard. (strap for your wrist)
Ok so theres a few things that are not perfict about this player.
*The most important is Video color resoultion. Its been stated that it's 65k for the units screen and for TV out. For the units screen this is perfictly fine and most people wont be able to see the color abnormalities. The TV out on the other hand you will see the graduation of color change in places like the sky and dark back grounds. People who dont know what I am talking about it when you see each color separate in the transtion from darker to lighter. Though you only see this 10 to 20 % of the time. Watching video on a larger screen will make this problem more annoying. The only thing to do about it is ignore it and pay attention to the movie.. Also an important factor is the quality of the video your watching.. If you download a movie and the party who "ripped" the movie did a crappy job well that what your going to get.. a crappy looking movie. So look for high res. movies when downloading.
I have to say when veiwing pictures through TV out isn't nearly as bad. Its Very good.
*This isn't a fully portable HD. Your not going to bring your library over to your freinds house and dump your files onto his PC. (theres other ways to share music anyhow) But anyhow putting work files and spread sheets wont happen.
*Video format. Ok so the movie I am watching is in widescreen mode. The player dosnt have the option to add black bars to the top and bottom so the video is out of perportion. Though if I play the movie on the wide screen TV this isnt a problem.
Inprovments.
*Gray background. For audio a gray back ground is drab. Custumization would be best.
*Infared port. This in conjuntion with a small remote (that and be stored in the player?!) with same face button config for easy control over the device from across the room.
*SD card slot. Mini or mico or standard SD slot would make dumping camera photos easy. And would make the unit a limited mass storge device.
*Remove buttons on the sides. This is silly. Volume should be intergreted with the cross hair control.. I cant see why anyone could see this during the design process.. while I am listening to music and watching movies pressing right or left has a perpose but pressing up or down on the cross hairs dose nothing.. instead I have to look for the volume on the side.
*Color res. Audiophiles will love the lossless codec but videophiles will literaly puke.
*Battery life. I didnt place this as a Con cause its not bad at all. But a longer life is what everyone seeks.
*Accessories. I know these wont develop without sales but I think and hope this player dose.
*Reserved space. So I can put work files and spreadsheets in a reserved folder. Files that wonts be converted to windows format. So the device can store other personal data.
*Power point/ document veiwer. Would take this unit ever farther down the road to success.
*Games. This device has a cross hair controler. Why not develop some games.
I bought this player cause I wanted to have a PVP (personal video player) to bring to a freinds house and play videos, show pictures, and play music.. also some of my own movie maker files.
This device is the answer to the wish for an easy way to share a video or movie with a freind with out having to burn a dvd (which isn't a quick process with divx files)
Everything you load on this PMP (personal Media Player) is converted to its own personal format... And thats everything.. Photos, Music and Video are all changed before being loaded on the player.. Photos are resized.. not the huge poster quality that my camera takes but downsized enough to still have great quality when vewing on a large TV screen. This is to save space on the HD.
All and all. I am Very please with the Toshiba Gigabeat S. I would recomend it to anyone who wants a video/mp3 player. I know if this thing takes off there will be upgraded units. -
"Great product, but poor company to back it up" on by savedsun
Pros: Great screen size, beautiful color, very easy controls, HUGE storage capacity
Cons: Expensive, occasional skipping, screen pulls in dust, no options
Summary: I've used ipod, sandisk, creative, and iriver mp3 players, so am familiar with options and quality available in the market. I have used the Gigabeat MES60V for a little over a month now. Overall, it's a great product, but potential buyers should note the following:
1. The harddrive occasionally skips
2. The battery life is ~4-5 hours, not the Toshiba advertised 25hrs
3. The screen is negatively charged, and the power is positively charged. Thus when you charge the device, it creates a slight amount of suction around the screen, and results in sucking in dust. (I had my Phd friends confirm this for me). Mine sucked in dust at the top of the screen, and makes it very difficult to read the text.
4. Poor customer service. When I called in the dust problem, Toshiba does not cover shipping back to the repair facility, and does not provide a unit to use while in repair. They estimate 2 weeks for repair, which means I can't jam in the meantime
5. No options available. I guarantee you'll be in Best Buy or Circut City or wherever, and see a sweet speaker docking station "for iPods only". You'll go home and try to find Gigabeat docking stations online, only to find they don't exist. Toshiba dropped the ball on options.
In the end, I'd expect more backing customer-service wise from a product that is asking $350-450. While using an iPod would label me as a sellout, I'd suck it up and go iTunes simply because I wouldn't have to deal with the list of cons above. -
"Fantastic sound, easy to use, needs more accessories" on by Thonner
Pros: Sound, ease of use, looks
Cons: Accessories, documentation, software(lack of)
Summary: The Toshiba Gigabeat is a great player, there are some short comings however nothing that should stop you from choosing this player over an iPod.
I first purchased the Gigabeat S30, however I had the player less then a week before having to replace it. Not because there was anything wrong with the player mind you, it was because my wife like the player so much she took it. So, for revenge I got the Gigabeat S60.
When I first received the player I didn't like the battery switch you have to enable with a pen or some other small pointy object. (I used a small finishing nail) The switch itself seemed fragile.
I was impressed that Windows Media Player took to the player right away and I had no issues getting music to the Gigabeat. It did take a bit of learning to manage the content but more on that later.
I did read a few reviews that complained about battery life. The first day with the Gigabeat I found out why. However, if used 'normally' the player has plenty of batter life. What this means is the first day I had the player I did not create play lists and was so excited about the new shinny player I had to look at the album cover at each song change. This causes the display to come on for at least one minute of each song. This drained the battery quickly. However, once I created play lists and just listened to the song and stopped fiddling with the buttons the batter lasted quite awhile. The Drive into work, all day at work, the drive home and a few hours once home. Plenty of time. Also, as the player comes with a AC charger and uses a standard USB cable that also charges the player, having it charge at work is possible with little issue however I have yet to have to do this.
The player comes with one month subscription to Napster. This is a nice music service that allows unlimited down loads for 15$ a month. And as one subscription works for up to three compatible MP3 players both my wife and I can use the same subscription. Managing this content is not well documented and required a bit of learning. At first I was using Napster to drag and drop the content to the player however some complete albums would separate into a separate albums for each track, yuck! I called Napster and they tried to claim that it was by design of the content providers (blame RIAA). The good news is that this is not the truth. First download the content to your local PC. Exit Napster, open Windows Media player and manage the music. By manage I mean make sure album art is present. If the album is separated into separate albums just drag and drop the separate ones into one and they will combine into one whole one. Also, use Windows Media Player to create your play list. Once the play list is complete drag and drop the play list to the Gigabeat and any songs in the play list not on the player will be synced over with the play list. Any already on the player will be skipped to avoid repeats. If you just want to copy the single song or complete album over just drag and drop in WMP and all is fine. I now have almost 6 GB of media from Napster, the subscription provides 192Kbps WMA files that sound awesome on this player.
Sound, the sound on this player is great. A co-worker have the 5th Gen 30GB iPod and his doesn't sound as good as this player.
Three key items make this player shine. One is the sound (with good headphones, not the standard junk all players are shipped with). Even in the car with a cassette adapter, the sound is so clear and crisp with an extreme amount of range. Second is the interface, so easy to navigate and get to what you want to hear, it is a please to use.
Third is the screen, big bright screen. Some reviews complain that in a dark video the screen pixilated a bit due to only running at 16K colors. I have yet to see this issue.
Things I think are nice include the side buttons. Much faster to click instead of some awaked navigation system just to fast forward or change the volume. I also think the side placement is idea as it keeps the front looking clean and allows for touch navigation with the finger tips with worrying about jumping into navigation menus.
Issues include a lack of accessories. I did manage to find a nice leather case for the players however I would love a car dock, an office dock and/or a small sound dock to listen to the player in the bedroom. The second issue is fining video content. The player only play MOV files. There is plenty of content out there however most is in avi format. This then requires a video converter, howeve,r what settings are required for conversion is not clearly defined and the converting software is not provided. WMP is supposed to convert for you however I have yet to have this happen successfully.
With some better documentation and video conversion software I fell this player would be perfect. I believe most people will be very happy with the play. I am even after buying two. -
"Best portable media player" on by bkm645
Pros: Works great with Media Center, easy to use UI, seamlessly integrated into Windows Media Player 11
Cons: Few accessories available, no line-in recording, no cross fade between songs, slow video and TV conversion, hold latch rattles
Summary: I bought the Gigabeat S60 on the day that it came out, and I have been very happy with it so far. I was replacing my iRiver h120, which was very outdated. I have always wanted to buy a Portable Media Center, but the large size and large price drove me away. When I saw this one at CES I knew I had to have one, I waited 6 months for it to come out, and it was very much worth it. The battery life works for me, I never used my old iRiver past eight hours, but if I have the mysterious Harmonics on my battery life is cut down to two-three hours.
The interface looks great except for when music is playing, there is a black/gray theme when playing music. The rest of the UI is blue and green, but the black/gray interface just seems to be out of place. Maybe with a new firmware update they will fix the interface.
Overall I have been very impressed with this media player, video and TV looks great , music sounds great, and FM reception is okay. I have always been on the anti-iPod camp, and this is the best iPod competitor I have seen. If you are looking for a media player, go for the Gigabeat S series.
Toshiba Gigabeat S MES60VK user reviews (60GB, black)
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