Toshiba Gigabeat MEG-F20K 20 GB Digital Audio Player Black
By: Toshiba Average Rating: 4.0 Total Reviews: 21
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by: Anonymous On: 2007-02-01
I just got a toshiba gigabeat F20. it is awesome. the screen is big, the controls take a little getting used to but are awesome. the plus sign control completly beats the iPod click wheel. its software is alright but i kinda hard to use. but who cares?! once you figure it out, its a piece of cake. wonderful mp3 player. i cant find anything wrong with it except that lack of features. no fm radio, no voice recorder, no line out.. but its good anyways.
 On: 2006-12-09
I will never buy any product from Toshiba ever again. I have two gigabeats (one for me one for s.o.), well now I have one because the other has completely ceased to function. I obviously bought them at the same time because no one would get a second once youve seen these. These are shoddy untested prototypes sold as working models, for example: if you ever let the battery charge run fully out, it forgets what time it is and has to have the time painstakingly reset, and the controls go haywire (in my case any time it needs recharging the button gets stuck on "up" so if I want to do anything at all other than turn the volume up really loud, like play a song for example, I have to put the gigabeat on hold and use the remote to control it - if it cant be done on the remote it cant be done on my gigabeat). The gigabeat room software routinely crashes or freezes in mid transfer, and system monitor shows it using 99% of my CPU when it stalls so its obviously a bug. To make matters worse Toshiba has made it nearly impossible to contact them in any way about your gigabeat, and when you do speak to someone they are hands down the worst tech support I have ever seen for any product anywhere, both in complete technical incompetence "you should probably reinstall windows if gigabeat room is crashing" to general condescending screw the customer attitude.
On: 2006-04-07
Overall Im extremely happy with buying the toshiba gigabeat. The toshiba gigabeat takes a while to learn how to use, but the flexibility of the device is great and allows a high level of customization.
The player has an amazing amount of flexibility and settings, being able to chooose different screen settings (horizontal/vertical), different wallpaper settings, power up settings/battery settings, play settings, goes on and on. I really enjoy the amount of customization that can go into setting up the device, and being able to show photos is handy as well. I also found the button and menu system easy to use... after learning and messing around with how the system works.
Battery life is fine... once I learned how to set the player to automatically turn off the screen after 40 seconds of non use.
The main problem is simply learning the ins and outs of the device. Once you spend some time with the software guide book and device instruction book, I find the devices functionality to be great (for both transferring music and other files). I dont consider the problem a reason to lower the rating however, because some time spent with the device has provided enough familiarity with the device that using the device has become a simple process.
Many of the device commands are also intuitive and easy to remember after learning how the commands are set up for the device.
Being compatible with the Napster music subscription service helps a lot as well, and it may sound silly but seeing a color screen is rather nifty.
On: 2006-04-06
Ive had my Gigabeat for 2 weeks so far. Its heavier than the Ipod, but that makes it feel more solid to me. Im not a big fan of the controls, but I may need to get used to them. The program isnt as awful as everyone makes it out to be. I wish Media 10 worked with 2.0 uSB, but that is no fault of Toshiba. The nice feature on the program is MusicID, if you have any songs in your library with any missing info, the program finds it and fills it in. There is also a great feature for downloading CDs directly to the player with the press of one button. Put the CD into your computer, press a button on your players cradle, and in about 2 minutes the CD is on your player. Very Nice, great bang for your buck.
By the way, order the Belkin Portable Music TuneCast II FM Transmitter. I play my Gigabeat through my trucks radio and cleaned out the clutter of all my CDs in my truck.
On: 2006-03-22
The Gigabeat is an awesome mp3 player for the price. 20 gigs for $200 is not bad. The program that comes along is akward and confusing to use, but you can use windows media player or my computer to manage the song. The guide for the player is terrible written, it took me 2 days to figure how to get to the main menu to pick a different (hint, press the power button once and it pulls it up). If you use random the songs take a while to pull up sometimes. The earbuds that come with it are ok, but they sit farther out ear, so not as noisy as the iPod. If you are use to the iPod it may take a while to get use to. It is a great buy, and it has serveral ways to charge the mp3 which is neat. I personally feel like it is less likely to get stolen than an iPod. good price, guy it!!!!
On: 2006-03-18
This is an excellent mp3 player. It has a beautiful interface(much nicer than the ipod). You can change the background of the player with any picture youve added to the player. The screens resolution is way better than the ipod video(and i have an ipod video). So overall this is an excellent mp3 player, some people might complaint about the software, but just read the manual, once you understand it its so easy youre gonna want to kick yourself! i definitely recommend this player if youre not interested in video playback.
On: 2006-03-11
The Toshiba gigabeat is an excellent product. The rugged aluminum casing has withstood quite a beating on my last snowboarding trip. It is an excellent companion at the gym. Works will with Napster downloads and has been an all around good product and I dont believe that I utilize it to its fullest potential!
Thanks,
Ed
 On: 2006-03-04
Overall this is a pretty good mp3 player. It has nice quality sound, the delay between songs is very short, and the picture quality of the screen is great. The player, although small, is also built very though with a strong chassis.
Downsides, the headphones that come with the player are horrible and uncomfortable. The software is a little difficult to use at first, and it could use some features to be able to apply album covers to multiple songs. You also can only get USB 2 speeds with the Toshiba software, and not Windows Media Player. And for some reason, some of my albums that I put on the player with Windows Media Player dont show up in the Toshiba software.
Also when I first received my player, it would freeze up often. The customer service was great, after trying a format they told me to send it in for repair. I got my player back 3 days after their tech support received it. Since then the player no longer freezes.
This is a great player for the money, but I would recommend buying a pair of headphones to go with it.
On: 2006-02-28
Yes the software is not the easiest to work with, but the other features "take the cake". I have teamed up my 20 gb gigabeat with a set of shure e2c headphones. I am pleased with the results, I operate heavy equipment so music has been out of the question. The sound isolating e2c set and the srs wow feature make it possible to listen to tunes at well under half volume. This allows me to whistle while I work.
 On: 2006-02-26
Pros:
+ The music quality is excellent. Better than the quality that comes from my computer speakers and better than my Stereo, because with headphones on you can hear every instrument in the orchestra, and the volume changes and everything, its great.
+ It has a few nice features, like you can put pictures on it and view them on the screen and show your friends, and thats cool. And it has several neat play modes in the menu including: "Play All" which lets you choose the song you want, "Play Random" which chooses a random song, and "Repeat One" and "Repeat Album". Kinda arbitrary considing you could just hit the left button right before the song ends and repeat the song, it would be easier than finding that option in the menu. Theres a "bookmark" option, i would imagine thats to tell the player to play one song more than the others when random is on. Again, slightly arbitary (- why not just choose the song yourself?). An "Intro feature" that will play the beggining of the song for you, (maybe to find a song you like?).
+ Sleek look, much better than those darn IPods, and less trendy =).
+ There seems to be external hardrive (sorta) support. It appears that i could perhaps boot a game off of this. I have not been able to try this though. You can store files other than music files on it. The files are not found when you turn on the player and look for them, but when you plug it into your computer you can drag them off the player onto your desktop, so its basically a USB device. Im not sure why Toshiba didnt advertize this ANYWHERE in the manual or online, its insanely useful.
Cons:
- I think there are probably better MP3 players out there. I think before Toshiba put the extra photo feature on this player they should have worked out the playing music for more than 6 hours part first. What if i wanted to use this on a long plane trip overseas? It wouldnt last.
- The battery power is terrible. Its roughly 6 hours in normal, slightly chilly, conditions. I think the box said ten. The box lied.
- It also gives weird errors sometimes, or randomly shuts off for no reason after you turn it on.
- Toshiba seems to have forgotten the "back" option sometimes. You press the power button to pull up a menu with options like "Album" and "Artist" but theres no back if you want to get back to the regular playing song mode or you want to go to a completely different Menu such as the "Menu" option with Play mode and Skin mode. So you have to turn the player off and on to get rid of the menu, or choose a different song and have it play for a few seconds.
- The "ok" button doesnt really exist. Yer supposed to press in the middle of the + sign that the scroll pad makes to say "ok" but that doesnt really work work very well because its just as likely that the player thinks you are hitting right or left and thats annoying because then it changes the song youre on. And sometimes you have to hit right or left to say "ok" and the times when you press in the middle and the times that you hit right or left are arbitrary.
-There are a lot of options on this player i do not understand and will never use, and i just put some of them above. Its not that i dont know what they do, its that i cant imagine why anyone would want the function they provide.
- The touch pad they use is either too sensitive or not sensitive enough. The middle could be far more sensisitve and the ends are too sensitive. And the whole touch pad thing anyway is rediculous, there should just be buttons to avoid the possibility of scrolling down way farther than you wanted (IPod is notoriously bad at that with their new scroll bar things too). What happened to buttons?!??! An "ok" button and a "left" and "right" button would be insanely better.
On: 2006-02-01
I recently purchased the 20 gig Toshiba gigabeat and I have to say that I am very happy with it so far. This is my first mp3 player since owning the orginal Nomad from Creative Labs. Wow! Quite a step up.
The Gigabeat is very stylish and has an amazing screen for its size. The ability to use it as a hard drive is a definite plus. The player capabilities are more than adequate with plenty of different EQ settings that I havent even touched yet. The included headphones seem to work well (even though Ive been using my psp headphones for both recently).
Now, the fun part! There are a couple of negatives I have found with thegigabeat.
First, the is no skip function within a song. I listem to a couple of long podcasts and it would be nice to be able to skip through parts.
Second, for some reason the gigabeat will not accept individual files over about 4.5 gigs. I keep getting a disc full error even aftermaking sure it was empty.
Overall, I am very happy with the Gigabeat and I would highly recommend this player to:
A. Someone who wants to get on the MP3 bandwagon with a quality but doesnt need a big money video Ipod.
B. Someone who has a need for a good size portable hardrive that can play music and display pictures.
On: 2006-01-30
I have three different computers and I was not able to get the Gigabeat to work on any of them. Each computer had its own unique problem with it. I finally gave up and bought a creative zen photo and it works flawlessly.
On: 2006-01-30
The price, sound/image quality, and portability of this player are all great. The gigabeat is a good size and tough enough (mine has survived a few drops on concrete w/out huge scratches). The quality of the sound is very good--lag time is also minimal. Pictures look awesome on the large screen. The touch pad control takes some getting used to, but works well enough.
The interface with the computer and software, however, are terrible. The gigabeat can only be connected to the PC with the included USB cradle (I would prefer the option of using a USB cord). Toshibas included software (Napster and Gigabeat Room) are incredibly lacking. I have not used Napster becuase of its subscription-only use. The two other transfer alternatives (gigabeat room and Windows Media Player) have been limited to USB 1.1 speeds (for no good reason), so data transfer much slower. Gigabeat room also is usually unstable and laggy, even when simply changing track information. Files transferred to the gigabeat are not saved as normal .mp3 or .jpg files, but as strange .sat files (only readable by the gigabeat). Therefore, files cannot be transferred back off the gigabeat onto another computer and still be playable.
Once youve overcome the cumbersome software/interface, the gigabeat performs well.
On: 2006-01-21
This is my first dive into the MP3 world, I just received my gigabeat today. I have been wanting to get one for a while, more for a toy than anything. I looked at others, but the price on sale at amazon and the prior reviews made me pick this one. I have to say I love it. Im listening to it right now with the included earbuds and it sounds great. After charging the battery I started right in adding my CD collection with the gigaroom software. It is very easy to use and CDs load in minutes. The screen is really clear and it is easy to navigate the menus. 2 manuals are included that are straightforward. Ive already gone through both of them to get to know all the features. Looking forward to adding the rest of my cd collection and purchasing a set of portable speakers. The only reason I didnt give it 5 stars is because I have nothing to compare it to.
On: 2005-12-10
The overall look and up-front performance of the player is well above average. The earbuds are really good, when adjusted with the equalizer and SRS. However, the included software, and its function, is leaving much to be desired. WMP-10 is not working any better right now either. It all looks easy to use, but does not work very well at all. I keep having to clear out the entire players library and start over. I am still learning its intricate ways, and so I am not giving up on it yet. The player is getting lots of "oohs" and "ahhs" from my friends. The big color screen is an eyegrabber, for sure.
On: 2005-08-28
I just bought this MP3 player a few days ago and Im finding that I need to work out a few kinks. The player itself looks amazing and has a brilliant and bright color screen which is extremely sharp and eye catching and neon blue buttons which are also eye catching. The standard earphones left something to be desired. They have absolutely no base and the sound is just completely flat. These are earbuds so they go inside the ear but the ear piece is way to big to fit inside the ear compfertably, so I tried to use my earphones for my old CD player which are Sony earbuds (MDR-E828LP). Theyre cheap, but they seemed to work okay with my CD player so I figured theyed work with the MP3 player. Not so, they sounded a little bit better then the earbuds that came with the player but not musch better. The bass is still very limited and the music sounds very naisely. So I tried it with the full big earphones that came with the CD player (Sony MDR-027) with work great. I need earbuds. I wonder if Ipod earphones are like this.
I bought this system because it could upload music from places like buy.com and yahoomusic.com where Ipod only accepts music from imusic software and Toshiba Gigabeat also allows you to upload all of your cds so all my cds are on my player. I dont know if you can do that with Ipod. I also wanted to be able to upload music that I already downloaded to my laptop.
Another thing that I noticed was that the music is a better quality if transfered from a cd to the gigabeat then from a pc to the gigabeat. I dont know what thats all about. Overall it is a very good MP3 player with a very sharp and highend look. Toshiba really needs to make better headphones for this player.
On: 2005-07-27
PROS: Great screen, lots of included accessories, easy to use, low price, and stylish
CONS: Bad software (will hopefully be fixed in future)
Ive had this player for a few weeks now, it is my fourth hard drive based mp3 player (previous: iRiver H120, Dell 20GB Gen 1, Creative Zen NX) and I can easily say that it is the best one. I looked at the iPod photo but found its lack of accessories and it being very common (I dont want something the same as everyone else, I want my mp3 player to stand out) deal killers. So I decided on the Gigabeat.
The player uses a plus-touch system to navigate, mainly this functions as if it were 5 buttons, 4 at the corners and one in the middle with a handy grid at the bottom showing you what each point will do at that certain menu position etc. This makes it much easier to use at first, without the grid you would find yourself having to read the manual for some help. However, there are times when you can use more than just the button functions. For example when you are playing a song, sliding your finger from right to left will get you to the part of your library that you are currently listening to making it easy to select another song from the same album or selecting a different album from the same artist. Also, at any point, if you slide you finger from left to right you return to the now playing screen, bottom to top returns you to the main menu. These added functions of the plus touch sensor make the player very easy to use once you know them.
The one feature I am most surprised about of this player is the photo viewer. I bought this player just wanting the nice and easy to read display, I had no intention to try the photo viewing features out. I was pleasantly surprised when I did try them as the quality of the display with photos is fantastic. The photos are very sharp and looking through them is easy as even the thumbnails are very easy to see. Also, the speed at which the player will scroll through the photos is very fast making looking through vast collections of photos a breeze.
The screen is what makes this player so great, the now playing screen can be customized in many different ways from showing vibrating speakers to simply showing album art, of course this is in addition to track and album info. To really appreciate the screen though you have to see it for yourself.
Navigating the library is very simple, organized by artist>album, album, genre, or playlists. Playlist can be created on the fly by using the bookmark feature and then when connected to the computer you can convert these bookmarks to playlists.
This gets me onto the software, Gigabeat Room. The software is a pain to use, it consistently hangs when doing anything more than scrolling through songs but once you have everything sorted on it all you have to do in future is connect the player to the included dock and press the syncronize button, this will transfer any new songs or photos from your designated folders. Getting album art organized is also difficult as it will take any image from the folder, using a separate album art program I found on the internet I got all of this sorted out.
The value for money with this player is good. It is cheaper than the iPod with all of the same functions except for a bigger screen and lots more included accessories. This player comes with a dock, AC adapter (yes a way of charging your player without a computer which iPod owners now have to pay extra for), USB 2.0 cable and some earbud headphones.
Overall this player is great, it is very stylish, the buttons on the side light up a nice blue, and of course, the large bright screen sets the player apart from others. Only a few problems with the software (you can use WMP10 but Toshiba have limited it to USB 1.1 speeds) which can be fixed if Toshiba work on it a little stop the player from being perfect. Great battery life, fantastic screen, very good sound quality and lots of accessories, what more could you want from a player??
On: 2005-07-21
For $294.99, I have to say this HD player is pretty good. The sound quality is the same as the ipod (I cant tell the difference). The added feature of SRS WOW lets you enahce the sound quality, but its not that great. I suggest setting it to SRS2 for optimal listening. The size is perfect compared to other HD based players in the market and the color variety is cause for pause. The software is reportedly a bit shaky and crappy, but so far I have not had any problems with it (been using it for two days, so dont take my word for it). In my opinion the software is for advanced users, you use the file directory method to get music into the player (and alot of people I know are only drag and drop fans. In essence this is one good mp3 player for those who want something besides an ipod. The F20 also has a photoviewer, and in my opinion it is THE BEST i have ever seen. Sharp picture quality and stunning detail, its the best feature of the F20. Heck, the gigabeat is nothing compared to the the ipod when it comes to ease fo use, b ut overall if tech doesnt scare you, this baby is for you.
By the way the Plus touch control thing on the front takes some getting used to, took me about 30 min. The CD transfer button on the craddle is a blessing too.[...]
happy mp3 hunting!
On: 2005-06-25
i had an 4genaration ipod and this is soooooooooo much better the ipod doesn;t have much battery life it crashes all the time it doesnt have colour and they have the battery problames buy this not the ipod the ipod is horrible compared to this
On: 2005-06-15
i got one a little while ago, and it is better compared to my old 4g 40gig ipod. the interface takes some getting used to, but with a little logic it makes sense. the software it came with wasnt the greatest, but who buys a player to use its software? worked fine with winamp. fast file transfers, great quality, and the srs effects are great. overall the only thing it lacks is an FM reciever/transmitter, but its still great.
 On: 2005-06-10
This item seems like a nice alternative to the ipod but its not. Its basically just a copy of the ipod. The controls are very hard to use and it takes a while to learn all of its ins and outs. The software is okay. Itunes is much easier. So bottom line if youre thinking of buying the gigabeat dont, get an ipod. they cost the same.
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