Toshiba Gigabeat MEG-F20S 20 GB Digital Audio Player Silver
By: Toshiba Average Rating: 4.0 Total Reviews: 12
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 On: 2008-03-13
The original firmware is crap. Plain and simple, this is a great set of hardware hampered by a crap UI. There is an easy way around this: RockBox it! The firmware can be replaced with RockBox and this unit will become the ultimate jukebox, limited only by its storage capacity.
I have the 40GB unit [was $20 from a friend that was fed up with it] and was about to throw this thing out of the window until I installed RockBox. The process was much easier than expected, although the first time you power up the newly RBed unit, the fonts will be tiny. In no time, you can change the fonts, even the whole skin. After several months, Im still finding new exciting features, and newer builds of the firmware continue to add little refinements here and there. I can even use the remote and the dock! Of course, the rip to cd button does nothing, and neither does the usb 1.1 port on the dock.
I would further recommend a media jukebox for your pc called media monkey, because the only downside caused by RB is that Windows Media Player will not see your GigaBeat anymore. Files can be copied over with Windows Explorer [The GB shows up as an external HDD], but this is tedious if your music collection is larger than your drive. I use Media Monkey because it allows me to regain the sync capability that WMP 11 no longer gives me. An upgrade to the paid version gave me auto-sync, including transcoding to different formats and bitrates so that my 50+ GBs of music fits on my Gigabeat with room for a few video podcasts [RockBox allows the GB to play video very well, just use the free downloaded utility on their site to convert any video in any format to the appropriate format and resolution for the GB]. The combination of a Gigabeat F, Media Monkey, and RockBox have let me move on from my Rio Karma [RIP]. The last hurdle to overcome is finding a good case for my RBed GB. Wrangler makes great cargo pants, however, that have a slit above the main pocket. The GB fits perfectly in this slit. My cell phone [Nokia 6682] fits very well on the other sides slit, although it can slide out it if sitting in a chair or a car.
If anybody knows of a good case or skin for the Gigabeat, please include info in a reply to this comment.
 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: 2006-10-21
Toshiba has created a great line of Mp3 players starting with this one. Ive had mine for over a year and i have dropped it multible times, left in humid areas, and left it in 100 degree heat and it survived. Its screen is tough and scratch resistant. The unit goes plenty loud, and holds alot for its size, but there is some small things i did not like about it. Starting with the menus. The menus are basic, and dont have many features, and if you use LimeWire, The artist has to be spelled exactly the same for every song or it starts a new group. It is case sensitive. and also the earbuds that are supplies are extremly uncomfortable. This model also does not have FM radio.
Overall, if you dont care about video, or radio, this is a great unit. its small compact and you can carry it wherever you go
On: 2006-09-26
So far, I havent had any problems with any of the electronics Ive bought. The Toshiba Gigabeat is no exception. I bought this product during the summer of 05 and it hasnt given me any problems yet. Just by looking at the design of the box, I knew the quality of the product was going to be excellent. Although inputting MP3 into the device and working with the controls took some time of getting used to, it actually worked better than expected. At the moment, the controls are very comfortable, and inputting MP3s are easy. Also, what I like about the MP3 player is its durability. Ive actually dropped this device three times exactly, and although it has numerous scratches and dents, it is still playing flawlessly without any skips or errors. The casing itself feels much more durable than the IPod videos. Also, I like the photo feature of the product as I can input pictures of my family and friends into the device and view it in my leisure. Also, the photo feature allows the user to have album covers show up on the screen when playing their favorite cd. Now, although it doesnt have video viewing capabilities, it is still an excellent MP3 player, and I highly recommend it to anyone who is considering on buying an MP3 player. Its also cheaper than most players today.
 On: 2006-06-17
There isnt too much that hasnt been said already, but heres my take on the Gigabeat...
software- dont be scared of the Gigaroom. I figured it out in a few minutes, and I havent had any problems with it. In fact, Ive found it to be simple and deceptively clever.
build- VERY sturdy. Ive dropped mine twice onto the cement sidewalk, nearly had a heart attack both times, and theres not even a scratch to show for it.
headphones- owwww, very painful after a length of time. My $10 Target ones sound better and are more comfortable. (and less bizzare looking- theres a reason they dont show the earbuds in the picture.)
appearance- better than I was expecting. Its a lot smaller that it looks in the picture, and the aluminum-brushed part isnt as ugly either, but a lot more subtle. And you can change the layout on the screen so it doesnt look as busy. I took off the ugly ball thing and made the album art bigger. (If you dont have any album art, a little music note shows up.) The screen is beautiful, and Ive had a lot of fun putting my own digital pictures on it as wallpaper (works best if you crop the pictures to 240x320 first.)
battery life- amazing- I get 18-20 hours on a three-hour charge.
sound- 95% of my songs sound crystal clear without any extra effort. A few sound a little muffled, but it could be the song, not the player. I tend to keep it on SRS WOW 1, but if you play around with the equalizer settings, youll find that some songs sound best on other presets (the other ones I use a lot are vocal 1, rock 1, and loudness, as weird as that is.) You can also make your own preset with however much bass and treble you want.
*It will make some muffled grinding-type noises, because it is a hard drive player, dont be scared. (I hear your muttering, it did that before I dropped it.) Just take your time if you want to skip thorugh a bunch of songs.
**Dont worry if you shake it and hear rattling. A lot of people stress about that, but its only the exterior switches moving around. :-)
Ive only had my Gigabeat for two months, so I dont know how it holds up over long periods of time, but so far, so good! I love it and so does everyone that I show it to! A great buy, considering how much it holds for the price.
On: 2006-03-18
This has met all my expectations. It loads the music very easily and I can create playlists in any manner I want. I am not all that interested in downloading music, mostly loading it with my cds. My only complaint is that reading the names of some of the playlists on the screen can be a bit slow if the name is long. It scrolls by, but moves slowly. But overall I am very pleased with it. I keep expecting the hard drive to fill up, but it just keeps taking on more and more.
On: 2006-03-15
I have had my "Gigabeat" for a bit and I have to say that I have been pretty satisfied with it. The sound quality is good to great for most anything, and the ability to set E.Q. settings per song is something I really love. Really the only thing I can say against itr is that you must install the products software to get the full use out of it. All and all Id be hard pressed not to say I have been extremely satisfied with this product, though.
 On: 2006-03-07
Lets start off with the nice things first. It looks lovely. It sounds lovely. Its a decent price. Navigation is fine. Its not an iPod, so Im not a sheep. Yay! But what has it got me? A damned nightmare, thats what.
Where this player falls down on is actually getting your music on to the player. I have a mix of MP3s, and have joined Napster to Go so will have their WMAs too.
To put music on the player you can use Napster, Media Player or Gigabeats own software. However the former two only support USB 1. This is deathly slow, so I had to use the Gigabeat software (which supports USB 2) to put my MP3s on the player. Youll also need to use the Gigbeat software to put images on the player. But heres where the fun begins.
Put the files on with Gigabeats own software, and Media Player will just delete the music from the player (or in the case of today, start uploading a second copy). Why? Its totally random. Napster/Media Player also locks up a lot while trying to do its work.
The Gigabeat software is lousy lousy lousy. It wont let you select a hard drive of MP3s -- the music has to be in a folder. It helps itself to your images and puts them on your Gigabeat without permission. It then wont let you browse the images on the Gigabeat though, I had to get at them via Windows manually to remove them from the player. I can update files, tell the software to sync and it doesnt change the files on the Gigabeat. The Gigabeat has "empty" groups on the player after removal of files that it doesnt seem to want to get rid of.
So I am still struggling to get my MP3s and WMAs on the player, in a tidy fashion that my computer then keeps on top of. Its like a fight, a fight I have yet to win. Im not techno slouch, I do IT support and manage web servers. But Toshiba (and perhaps Microsoft and Napster are also partially to blame) have created this unfathomable system where I cant seem to get my files on to my Gigabeat quickly, and then not have them deleted or reuploaded or some other nonsense.
If you want a fight, get this player. Or if you have some very simple music needs (i.e. a few MP3s, or just Napster file) you may get on with it. But if youre like me, have a lot of music and want it organized properly, then maybe try something else.
On: 2005-09-15
I have had my Gigabeat player for about one-month-and-a-half now, and I simply love it. This is the first HD MP3 player that I have ever bought. Yes, like a lot of people, I was initially impressed by the iPod. However, since I dont use Apple products, I wasnt exactly keen on buying an iPod. Ive noticed that a lot of people out there have been given iRiver and Samsung a try as well. Since I absolutely refuse to buy any Korean electronic brands (iRiver, Samsung, etc), those brands were simply out of the question. After doing some research, I came across information about the Toshiba Gigabeat. Since Sony keeps mucking things up with their MP3 players, I was definitely intrigued with the Gigabeat. Ill try not repeat what others have written in their reviews, so here it goes. Overall, the sound of the Gigabeat is great. Yes, admittedly, there have been a few times when the sound seems to be "muddy" or "muffled", but most of the time the sound is fantastic. When this happens, its kind of like listening to a cassette copy of your favorite LP. Why this happens on the extremely rare occasion, I dont know. But then again, the RipRec software is just making a digital copy of the CD. The Plus Touch control on the Gigabeat is a breeze to use, so dont give any of the negative reviews of this feature out there any credence until you try it out for yourself. It only took me a couple of minutes to figure out. Its not that too difficult to use. The interface is rather easy and straightforward to navigate. The only flaw that I have with the interface is that you have to wait at least one minute from closing the photo viewer to return to see the current track information. A lot of people have written, mostly negatively, about the Gigabeat Room software. From my experience, the Gigabeat Room software is relatively simple to use in order to rip a CD onto the Gigabeat. The whole process only takes a few minutes. As far as not being able to share your MP3 collection on the Gigabeat with others, well, that is the whole point. Yes, the files do have a special extension to prevent this. However, the whole purpose to prevent piracy. On the other hand, transferring photos from ones laptop to the Gigabeat player via the Gigabeat Room can be a little frustrating at times. There have been a couple of instances where Ive had to try to transfer the photo more than once, but it eventually worked. Like other people have mentioned, I, too, would like to see Toshiba work out the kinks with the Gigabeat Room. While not trying to belabour the point, the Gigabeats Photo Viewer is top notch. The quality of the image is absolutely amazing. The display language feature of the Gigabeat is also awesome since I just happen to listen to a lot of Japanese music. I love being able to see the song titles displayed in kanji as opposed to question marks. Finally, as many people have pointed out, the included earplugs do leave a lot to be desired. After about 30 minutes or so, my ears start to ache really bad. Believe it or not, I havent tried using either Napster or Windows Media Explorer on my Gigabeat. Im having too much fun using the RipRec feature. Also, I dont mind the fact that the Gigabeat doesnt have an FM tuner/recorder. With the Gigabeat, you should have so much music stored on your HD that you dont need any of those features. Overall, I am a very satisfied that I purchased the Gigabeat. I would encourage other people to check it out without hesitation. Keep an open mind and, who knows, you just might like it. As far as I know, Im the only person here in US Forces Korea that owns the Gigabeat. The PX here in Seoul only sells the Korean brands (iRiver, Samsung, etc. Restraint of trade, anyone?) besides the iPod for HD MP3 players. Anyway, given another chance, I would buy the Gigabeat without hesitation. My only regret is that I didnt buy the 40GB or 60GB player since I know Ill be ripping quite a few of 300+ CDs I own onto it. (I would have docked Toshiba a star for having the US version of the Gigabeat made in China instead of Japan, but since I am such a satisfied customer Ill ignore that fact.)
On: 2005-08-09
To be honest, Ive been waiting for this played to be released in the United States, and thus I held off with purchasing an ipod. I am so glad that I did, after testing and playing with friends ipods, rio karmas, and dell jukeboxes, I decided that I needed something better. Something roughly the size of the ipod, with a color screen for viewing photos, and not some ipod ripoff. Im glad that toshiba made a product that fits this bill.
PROS
1 The huge color screen (better quality than the lcd on my canon s410)
2 Audio quality
3 Gigaroom transfers with USB 2.0
4 Comes with cradle
5 It looks really nice
6 Cross navigation is suprisingly easy after a few minutes
CONS
1 Gigaroom is only software that can use USB2.0
2 The headphones are horrible (I picked up some Sennheiser MX-500 which sound so much better and were cheap)
3 Since this is a new product, very few accessories exist
OVERALL
I would definitly recomend the Toshiba Gigabeat to anyone looking for a DAP with somethign extra, a DAP that has the potential to compete with the trendy ipod.
 On: 2005-06-18
I was really looking forward to this Toshiba MP3 player. Ill get to the point.
Good:
1. The build of this device is very solid, very good.
2. Very nice color LCD.
3. Different background themes.
Bad:
1. Audio quality. You can hear distortion in the higher and lower frequencies. Making it a poor device if you care about audio quality.
2. Navigation is not as simple as some of the other ones in the market.
3. Poor software that comes with the device.
Outside of the device itself, I find the Toshiba Customer Support folks not to be very helpful. From the conversation, it seems they are aware of the audio problem but would deny it till the cow comes home.
I am torn on this device. I want to give it a five-star, but with all the problems with it plus a poor customer support team, I am forced to give it a three-star. Maybe if they fixed the audio problem, I would upgrade my rating.
On: 2005-06-10
Ive been playing with this machine for a few days, so far I like it a lot. The first, obvious thing is that its about the exact size of the 20G Ipod. It feels very solid in the hand, and looks great. You feel like you could throw it against the wall and it would still work. The screen is colorful and bright and the resolution looks pretty sharp to the eye. The side buttons are hard to press accidentally and easy to press intentionally. The + shaped touch pad is harder to use than the Ipod circle but once a few mins are spent with it its good. The sound is good and there is a ridiculous number of EQ presets as well as a bass and treble adjustment. As seems to be with these types of players the hardware is getting good but the firmware and PC software is still lacking. (Why Creative, Toshiba, and others dont use drive letter HDD PC access is beyond me, Archos does it and it fantastic.)
The menu navigation is awkward and there is no playlist making ability on the box, it must be done with a PC. I like on-the-fly playlists so its a big minus for me. You can use a crude bookmarking feature to play some selected songs but its quite cumbersome. I didnt try to use Gigabeat Room" the bundled software, instead I opened Windows media player and plugged in the USB... It worked! No drivers needed! I could use the sync feature to load songs on it very quickly from my PC hard drive.
This is a big plus! Im still forming opinions and will update the review.
I returned it, just didnt work for me, the playlist lack of feature was probably the deciding factor and the + control was just not fun to use.
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