Toshiba MES30VW Gigabeat 30 GB Portable Media Player (White) Review

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(More customer reviews)After being introduced to the Gigabeat by a family friend, I read a lot of customer reviews since I did want to replace my 2 Gb Apple iPod with something a little larger, and decided to go for the MES30VW, which I've had for a little over a week now.

It literally does everything, although I haven't yet tried to download videos but will soon...anyway, on to the features...

I'm not a computer techie or particularly knowledgeable on electronics, but after a couple of perusals of the manual (the FULL manual - not the Quick Start Guide!) it all made a lot of sense.I like that it uses WMP 10, which I already had on my computer anyway (though it needs to be reinstalled for files specific to the Gigabeat) and the whole thing wasn't foreign to me.

Ripping songs from my rather large collection of CDs is easy, and synching them to my Gigabeat is just as easy.

For whatever albums where the information doesn't show up immediately, I can search and there it is...album cover, song titles, artists, everything.At first I didn't know this and spent a lot of time manually typing in that information, but most of the time now I can get the information with a couple of clicks of my mouse.Even ripping CDs I've compiled myself is pretty easy, as screen will come up asking for album name (whatever you want to call it) and the songs, artists, and composers...no more "Unknown Artists" or "Unknown Albums".

Setting the FM tuner was fun, if only because I'm thrilled to have something that not only plays downloaded music, videos, and displays photos, but also gets FM radio just in case having a couple of thousand of my favorite tunes isn't quite good enough - ha ha

At first I was a bit nervous about all those moving parts (not the same as the iPod) and afraid I would disconnect it at the wrong time, but as long as the "Connected" screen is visible, it can be safely disconnected from the PC. A couple of strange things happened while trying to charge on the adaptor, but I took a chance and turned off the internal battery for a few seconds, turned it back on, and all was fine.

While we're on the topic of the battery, I have to say that I wasn't all that happy with what seemed to be a rather paltry battery life...I was only getting a couple of hours of play/transfer before getting notice that it needed to be charged again, but I did go into my Settings and adjust the backlighting from one minute to 15 seconds, turned off the Sound Effects (clicking and dinging when scrolling) turned down the screen brightness, and turned off the Harmonics. I really believe that will help conserve battery life.

Even with reduced brightness, my photos look real good, and even without Harmonics the sound is decent for a portable music player, although I really hate earbuds, but the ones that came with the device aren't too horrible.If you want symphony hall sound, spend a couple of thousand bucks on a huge home system...

I hope my description has been helpful, and if I think of anything more as time goes on I'll give an update.

One rather interesting point here is that hubby got rather envious after a few days and bought a Gigabeat just like mine and plans on also using it in his truck with an adaptor instead of juggling CDs all over the place.

We're both well over 50 years old, and it's kind of funny to see us walking around the house hooked up to our own personal music...so if two "old farts"can understand how to run the thing, it can't be all that hard.

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Product Description:
Aiming to make a mark as one of the market's most powerful and sophisticated portable media players, Toshiba's Gigabeat MES30VW doesn't disappoint. The device employs Microsoft's intuitive Portable Media Center (PMC) software to play your favorite digital movies, music, and photos,

Microsoft's intuitive Portable Media Center makes it easy to play all your media. View larger.

You can also see the device in detail. with support for WMA Lossless, WMA, MP3, WAV, WMV, DivX, and JPEG formats. The Windows Media Player application even transcodes MPEG-4, AVI, and MOV formats, making it far more versatile than most video-compatible players. Meanwhile, the MES30VW's 30 GB hard drive is capable of holding a ton of digital media, including about 7,500 songs (more than 500 complete album) at 128 kbps, a robust 15,000 songs at 64 kbps, and a still-impressive 850 songs, or 57 hours, of CD-resolution WAV files.
The PC-only device is also PlaysForSure-certified by Microsoft, which means that it will operate with any similarly designated management software or download service, such as Napster, Rhapsody, and Wal-Mart Music Downloads. Users can also subscribe to movies or TV shows via MTV/Microsoft's Urge, TiVo to Go, Starz Vongo, and a host of other sites. And because the MES30VW is automatically recognized by Windows Media Player 10, you won't need to install drivers of any kind.

Controlling the device couldn't be easier. View larger. The MES30VW's defining feature, however, is its 2.4-inch QVGA display, which offers a resolution of 320 x 240 (65,000 colors) to ensure elite video and picture quality. Viewers who want to enjoy optimal resolution can switch to landscape mode, or they can output the signal to a full-size TV for group viewing. And serious music fans can download and view album covers on the screen, search for their favorite tracks by scrolling through the album covers, or even set a favorite album as a background image.
The device is prepared for future developments as well, as it's one of the first media players that can be connected to and controlled via the Xbox 360's interface. Finally, the MES30VW serves as a USB host, letting you connect a digital camera to the unit's USB port and then transfer and view the pics immediately--no PC required.
Additional features include a built-in FM tuner with 30 station presets, a docking cradle for charging, and a pair of headphones with an integrated remote control. The MES30VW, which offers roughly 20 hours of music playback per charge, measures a compact 2.38 by 3.94 by 0.62 inches (W x H x D) and is backed by a one-year warranty on parts and labor.
What's in the Box
MES30VW portable media player, AC adapter, AC adapter cable, earbuds, USB cable, USB conversion cable, AV cable, software CD-ROM, and quick start guide.