Customer Reviews

Toshiba MEG50AS 5 GB Jukebox Digital Audio Player

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

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.

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!

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.

I bought this because it uses a removable 5GB PC card (pcmcia) hard disk to store the music. I just wanted the hard disk. Bizarrely, in the U.S. Toshiba has been selling the 5GB disk alone for the same price as this device (in the UK, I believe, the hard disk alone was a bit cheaper). Well, it all works; you don't need to create mp3 files using any particular software, as another reviewer said. Copying the mp3s to the player, however, does require the use of Toshiba's software which encrypts the files so that they won't work when copied to other PCs. Depending on your CPU's speed, that can slow down the copying process substantially. That's a little bit annoying, and the fact that this ties you to Windows (no software for Mac or Linux) kills one of the stars for me. Otherwise I think it's great.

i got this item from a customer who didn't want it. it was brand new, but he didn't give me the software. no big deal, just plug in the USB wire and open My Computer. A new Disk will appear. that is the toshiba. just open it and drag and drop any songs you want. it doesn't convert mp3's this way. and you can also transfer back to other computers in the same way with no problems. just don't use the software that comes with it. no reason for that.

PROS:

1.REMOVEABLE PCMCIA Hard Drive Card, Sound Quality, Battery Life, Size.

2.REMOVEABLE PCMCIA Hard Drive Card. Can't emphasize enough on how important and handy that feature is. The 20GB Nomad i had earlier just froze on me and i could not get it to boot even with tech support help. Fortunately i could return the player and i had not deleted the backup from my PC. Imagine the damn thing freezing on you after you had downloaded close to 15GB of songs...you would have lost it all...and by which time it may be a little too late to return it.
Accidentally drop a Nomad or an iPod..and your collection of music could die with your player.
Ever since my experince with Nomad, it was very clear in my mind as to what to look for...REMOVABLE HARD DRIVE...and what could be a more convenient form than a PCMCIA hard drive.

3. Forget the USB 2.0 port. Simply eject out the PCMCIA hard disk and insert it into your PC/Laptop to move your music into it. I have also used it as a temporary store for mass data..

CONS:

1. Only 5GB of hard disk. Need to get another card when that's done. I'm OK with having to carry an extra card to have a total of 10GB of music. A small price to pay, when compared to the risk of losing 10GB of music with any other player .

2. Required the use of Toshiba "Audio Application" to encrypt your music files in order to be able to listen to it.

3. The interface to Navigate/Browse your collection is not all that great.

Overall the best out there...take my word for it. I would only compare it with another PCMCIA Hard disk player, in case i do plan to upgrade to something new.

Excellent implementation of a removable drive mp3 player. Sound is beautiful, portability is outstanding. The only "gotcha!" is that you HAVE to use the proprietary software that comes with it - a major tradeoff in terms of flexibility. Oh well, it's a relatively new device/app and maybe things will improve shortly. Buy it - you can't go wrong!

Got this for my girlfriend. It sounded great, and I didn't mind having to convert my MP3s to play them. Unfortunately, it began having problems almost immediately. First, it kept giving an error saying that the hard drive door was open--it wasn't. Then, it kept saying that the hard drive wasn't inserted--it was. Now it only powers up intermittently and will only play one song at a time, if that.

We've called Toshiba and gotten pretty good support (a real, English speaking person!!), but nothing they suggested worked. Now I have to pay to mail it back to the company. To be honest, given the cheap door and hard drive mechanisms (I couldn't believe how flimsy these were!), I'm not confident that this will EVER play for any period of time.

I might just buy a Rio.

I own this player for 2 months .it seems to work well.The sound quality is good .Most of all the removable harddisk is a great feature.you can store any type of file from your notebook into this harddisk and transport it.But its a little bit heavier than an ipod,also when the player is in pause mode it switches off in less than a minute.the battery life is really good.Also toshiba properietery software is a headache ,For the MP3 its like one way traffic,once your store the Mp3 files into the player with toshiba software u cant play them again in any other player or computer.Overall its a good player with few problems.i hope this review is helpful to you.

The Toshiba mobilphile is a one of a kind mp3 player. Not only does it have a retractable HDD PC Card, put it also has good quality and easy transfer between files. The 5 GB hard drive is "real getter", and it can store about 1000 songs based on the compression settings. Good mp3 player! I have no trouble with it!