Toshiba MES60VK Gigabeat 60 GB Portable Media Player (Black)

I can't really give a review yet on the battery performance or say much on all the features as I have only had this 1 day so far, but I like what I see so far... I should mention that I bought the Black 60 GB model...

I took it out of the package and set it up to charge, it took the 3 hours that it says it needs to fully charge. I went to install anything to my computer (laptop with windows XP MCE 2005), and it says to install mediaplayer 10, even if you already have it as the install would also install a few other items that the player needs to work with the Gigabeat S. I have the latest version of Media Player 11 on here, and I didn't need to do anything else (no installations of any kind) to get the Gigabeat working with my system and Sync properly. I also already had the latest updates for MCE 2005 and so I am assuming that if you have the automatic updates turned on, that you would have everything needed as well.

I had never used Media Player for anything but music before (used it to sync with my -now old- Dell DJ 20 (2nd Gen)), but it was nice to see that it would take my files (video and tv) and automatically convert them before transfering/syncing them to my portable. I love the portable's MCE style, and it's great to use in combination with a MCE computer, though I think anyone with even just windows XP would find it pleasant to use (very easy, as you can't go wrong with "My tv", "My music" etc) even without ever having seen the menu system before.

If you are like me and have your MCE using a TV Tuner to record TV shows/movies, then you will love the nice easy way that MediaPlayer 11 (can't say about 10 as I never used it much and only for music) takes control and adds your files to the player, converts them for you if needed, and then syncs them, and the visual quality is quite good. I am sure that it could be better, but I was able to watch a "dark" show on the gigabeat with the brightness at 3 (out of 5) and it was not half bad, much better with the brightness up higher though but then you also will have to deal with the added battery loss (just turn it back down after you are down watching to help save battery power again). And might I add that my TV Tuner has an Antenna Source, though I tend to forget it most of the time (except for anything recorded on FOX as it is difficult to get in clear where I am) as the TV tuner does a great job and it shows in the conversion as well. So if you have a bad quality file to start off with, there's probably not much that can be done about that, but otherwise, considering the device and size of the screen, you really couldn't ask for much more (well, you could, but you wouldn't need much more).

I have been constantly syncing and adding new items to my Gigabeat in the past 24 hours, and I have only had 2 music files show up with an error and that couldn't transfer. I took these 2 files, converted them from mp3 to a higher bit rate WMA file (used a free trial version of some program downloaded from CNET) and on the next sync, they managed to transfer over as well.

The audio sounds great, though I am using a previously bought pair of Sony earbud headphones (the kind with the round rubber removable earpieces that fit into your ears for a nice fit) instead of the ones that come with the gigabeat, and these are great to use as they will bring out that sound quality for you to enjoy, are comfortable, and keep the sound going into your ears and not other peoples... So I would suggest to get these or something else a bit better quality (than the basic ships with ones) if you don't already own some decent headphones.

So I really haven't said much about the portable player, and I will do so after I get a real chance to test it out, but as of now, it seems great to me, and I have not been having any of the problems that some of the other people were having, and with the prices coming down so much... as low as ($260) even for the 60GB model... I would say it is worth it to get it and try it out. I would recommend buying from a place that has a good exchange policy, as even though it ships with a sheet saying to not return it to a store, if you do have problems and don't want Toshiba to just "fix" it for you, you can always return it (to Amazon if bought here).

***Edited on 11/20/2006 @ 12:53 AM***

So I have now had my Toshiba Gigabeat S for just over a month and a half (it seems like it has been so much longer, like almost 3 months) and all I can say is that it is great. I haven't had any more problems with transfering songs (though the re-coding into another file type did work nicely for those stubborn songs that just don't want to transfer on their own) and I have had no problems with the battery life (when compared to what it's specs should be, not by what I would like it to be...) and people should remember that there is that little switch to turn the battery on or off (for if you are not going to use it for a good amount of time and don't want the battery to drain during that time it is turned off). Turn the gadget over, look at the back, down on the bottom... See the "BATT" with "On Off" below it... Look on the bottom edge where the USB plugs into, it is next to that, to the right, above the little screw. Hold player so you can see the back of it and the bottom edge, the "On Off" show where you need to switch the switch (hah) to turn the battery on and off - the "hole" in the plastic piece is your current position...

Again, the battery life could be better but is pretty much standard for most players, the audio and video qualities are also standard, if not more so... Just remember, you need decent/good quality ear/headphones to be able to hear the *real* sound quality from the player, and you should also watch out for the type of media format you are using (listening to) as this has a big impact on the overall quality as well (I try to stick with wma formats as they can get *much* better quality into a file of approx. the same size as a lower quality mp3. If you LOVE sound quality and don't care that it takes up more space, always convert to wma 128 (MIN) or up to 192 -or is it 196? Dealing with too many numbers, though whatever setting that is around 164 makes a great common ground for size and quality, and this is usually set at 44,000Hz - or is it MHz? Again, forgive my tech details as it is late and I keep getting things mixed up in my head).

Overall, *still* great after 1.5 months and counting. Maybe some people got bad products, it does happen, or ones with faulty batteries. Also, check your music files, to see that they aren't what is causing you problems, and keep it simple.... Stick with Windows Media Player 11. Newest version is non-beta now and I have no problems with the software at all and it is the easiest way to sync your files and Auto Convert those video media files if you haven't done so before hand.

Prices are cheap, when I bought mine, the price dropped the day mine shipped, and then dropped *again* 2 days later. Amazon was nice enough to give me a refund credit for the $54.19 that was the difference. Now you can find the Black 60gb one for around $254 or so from some of these Amazon 3rd party Merchants... So go ahead and try it, if it has a problem, just return it to Amazon (if bought here) and either give up or get an exchanged product and if that second one is still not working for you, return it, get your money back and buy something else. If the product is not giving you problems, then you should only find slight disappointment with some areas of it, which I am sure you could probably live with. If you are not sure about the style/menu/etc, try and find a store that has a working model (as a sampler/tester) to check it out first. I don't think Toshiba has a interactive working model online (which I think they should have), they might have something that shows a bit of the product, I used one of those for my Sony Ericsson cell phone that I bought, and after using it 2 times in 3 days I fell in love with the phone model (the K750i -unlocked International version) and ended up buying it 2 days later from TigerDirect. So always look for online interactive models, where you can click on the different parts to mimic you using it, or at least watch a video clip of it if they have one on the website as you will get to see more of what it looks like through the menus, etc.

***UPDATE***

Seems this product is now old enough to not be readily sold (as new) on Amazon... I have had this product for almost 2 Years now, 1 yr 9 mo. I think. While I actually no longer use this item (I bought an Archos 705 Wifi back in December 2007), I did give it to my roommate/friend to use (like I do with so many of my other "old" and unneeded electronic gadgets), and he has been using it constantly since then with absolutely no problems or issues of any kind. He uses the device with his Windows XP Home desktop computer, using Windows Media Player 11, and everything has been smooth. He doesn't use it for video much, and I only used it for a while with video (Amazon Unbox items worked totally fine on it, just like my Tivo Transfer items), but it *has* gone through most of it's capabilities/uses just fine other than the odd now and then error due to a corrupt file, and the battery life (while it was never REALLY great to start with) has stayed quite good over the past (almost) couple of years...

A great place to get a case for it, especially the silicone ones which are great for products like these, is with one of the Amazon 3rd party stores ("Bestpricecenter" if I can remember correctly and they actually show the name for me), and it was about $10 if I remember correctly about this too. This is where I got the black silicone case for the Toshiba Gigabeat S right before I gave the product to my roommate (when my Archos showed up). He can be quite klutzy at times, and this "case" has been good to him and the Gigabeat S (it still works which can't be said for some other items he has received in the past)...

So if you are looking to buy this item new or used (or refurbished), I would say that this would be a great item to get, *as long* as you do not get one of the "bad" inventory items that someone might sell to you (like the ones that most people who gave a bad review of the item must have gotten). So I would say it might be better to purchase "Refurbished" from a reputable store etc instead of through ebay or craiglist for example, just to give yourself a better chance of it working correctly and for a decent amount of time.

I purchased this item 3 weeks ago and can honestly say that I am very pleased with my purchase. I was a little hesitant after reading some of the mediocre reviews about battery life and loss of files. Well I already experienced the later issue with loss of files. This occurred on my second day of use with the player. I was attempting to sync with WMP 11 and the computer would not connect to the player. I then clicked "reconnect to the device" and when this completed all my files were gone??? Well I never did figure out why this occurred and I have not experienced this issue since.

Now on to battery life... I have not had any issue with battery life. So far I have received continuous playback for over 6 1/2 hrs and 8 1/2 hours during a trip from NJ to VA and back. After the 6 1/2 hr trip the battery indicator was only 1/4 of the way down and after the 8 1/2 trip back it was 1/2 down. The player was connected to my car stereo, via cassette adapter, and the volume was at level 10. (I can't rate how much more I got out of the battery after the trips because I used the player to show off video and pictures, which uses much more battery) A very important thing to remember about getting optimal battery life is to limit the amount of time that the backlight on the screen is used. Prior to my trip I created a playlist of music that would last over 11 hrs and then shuffled the music and hit the road. I'm a little concerned that everyone who rates the battery at 4-5 hrs or less are manually changing songs, using the screen and draining the battery. The unit ships with the backlight to remain on for 1 minute, this should be changed to 5 secs or 15 secs at the most. There is a reason that the player only gets 2.5 hrs of video playback and 12 hrs of audio playback, but to get the benefit of 12 hrs audio you cannot continually use the screen. I'm not saying that there are not defective units, just trying to keep expectations in order. By the way, the sound quality on this player is incredible and once a song is done the next song is started without delay. (My old MP3 player would take 3-4 seconds to start the next song)

Other features.... Now here is the great thing about this player. WMP 11 makes it so easy to add music, video, tv, pictures (takes a little while to get used to)(even better if you have Windows XP Media Center Edition). Video and pictures on this little guy are very impressive and look extremely sharp. It's great for sharing video taken with a digital camera with friends and family.

Overall, I am extremely pleased with this purchase. The only thing that concerns me is that if all the songs disappear again. I have over 30 gigs of music, video, and pictures on this and would be very disappointed if I would have to sync again. By the way, music transfers are less than a second per song, very fast.

I've had my unit for about a week now and I am very happy with. I didn't have to learn anything new. It's Windows Media Center interface! I have loaded all my music (about 10k songs) and my playlists into it and about 3 tv shows I recorded and I still have about 20 gigs left. Ear buds are just decent. Will probably replace with better ones soon. One complaint I have is there is no case for it. Not even a cheapie one. And of course, it being so new, there are no aftermarket accessories for it yet. Also, Toshiba said 20 hours of battery. LOL. It doesn't even come close. But overall, I love it.

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