Toshiba MEG50AS 5 GB Jukebox Digital Audio Player

by Toshiba

Product Details

Product Manual [1.40mb PDF]

• Shipping Weight: 5 pounds
• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B000071X5D
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #337,636 in Electronics (See Top 100 in Electronics)
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

43 of 47 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Could have been a contender to the throne....BUT..., December 6, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Toshiba MEG50AS 5 GB Jukebox Digital Audio Player (Electronics)

1. This is NOT a 20GB Jukebox as listed by Amazon.com. It is in fact only 5GB.

2. Even though Toshiba touts the USB 2.0 interface, music transfer is painfully slow because of Toshiba's attempts to assuage the record companies' concerns about digital piracy. First you'll have to rip your tunes using Windows Media Player, there is no flexibility there. Then you cannot even copy the files directly to the unit. You must use the Toshiba "Audio Application" to encrypt those music files. If you attempt to bypass the "Audio Application" to leverage the USB 2.0 speed, the music will not be playable in the unit. So you are basically worse off than using USB 1.1.

3. Background noise is about 9db higher than an apple iPod and the frequency range is about 12% less.

4. The backlight is way under-illuminated

5. Navigation for song selection is horrible.

This unit showed a lot of promise and I was very excited about the possibilities. The size and shape was very appealing even if its slightly bigger than an ipod. However, I would much rather go for 20GB of unfettered access to my music collection. Even at the amazon.com price you are better off getting an iPod or a Nomad Zen.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Impressive...most impressive, November 22, 2003

By 

Fritzo (Toledo, OH United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Toshiba MEG50AS 5 GB Jukebox Digital Audio Player (Electronics)

I was really surprised at how good this unit was for the price.

The PCMCIA hard drive is an awesome idea. It can function as a portable 5GB USB or PCMCIA hard drive (no drivers needed in Win ME, 2000, or XP). It will play MP3, WMA, and WAV files created from ANY program (unlike a previous reviewer stated). Sound quality is top notch...the bass enhancements really work well.

Now, the main complaint is the encryption software that's needed to transfer music to the player. I'm not sure of the purpose of this encryption since you can copy all the music files you want to the hard drive and store them there, you just can't play them. The transfer application is small and looks exactly like Windows Explorer...you just copy and paste your music from your hard drive to the Toshiba. If you have a 1 Ghz or higher PC, the encryption shouldn't slow you down much, if at all. I have a 3Ghz PC and was able to fill up 4 gigs in about 15 minutes, so I find that very reasonable. The menu system on the player is very basic and intuitive. Everyone in the office was able to pick it up and operate it right off the bat. Not sure what one of the other reviewers didn't like about it, it's easy and accessible, what more do you want? It's very sturdy unit, made out of brushed aluminum, and the controls are easily accessible (I like the position of the volume controls...the recessed buttons are unobtrusive yet functional).

In a nutshell, I think this player is one of the best values for the market. I've owned a Nomad II, a Nomad Jukebox, and a 5GB iPod (which died), and this seems to be the best of the group so far. Enjoy!

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Helpful Specification Info, December 1, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Toshiba MEG50AS 5 GB Jukebox Digital Audio Player (Electronics)

Sorry, this is not an actual review. But just in case you wanted to know some specifications without downloading the .pdf manual, here they are.

Dimensions:
72.5mm x 22.3mm x 112mm (WxHxD, including projections)
approx 2.85in x .88in x 4.41in

Weight:
Approx. 180g(player) 235g with HDD card (that's about .5 lbs.)

It plays MP3's, WMA's, and WAV's

Sampling Frequency: (in case you know what this is ?? )
22.05kHz-48kHz

Bit Rate: (yeah i don't know what this is either)
15kbps-320kbps

Maximum Recording time: approx. 83 hours

Continuous playback time: approx. 18 hours (varies with
different play options)

Storage medium:
-Supplied 5GB TypeII PC card HDD Model number MEHDD50A
-TypeII PC Card HHD 2GB Model number P3079U-1PCC
-TypeII PC Card HHD 2GB Model number MK2001MPL
-TypeII PC Card HHD 5GB Model number MK5002MPL
(as of June 2002)

AC Adapter: Input power conditions 120V AC, 60Hz
Rated output 5V DC, 3A

All said information was taken from the downloaded pdf manual for this product, excepting the approximate measurement conversions I made. My rating is based off of my cummulative opinion after reading all reviews.

I hope people find this information helpful.