Customer Reviews

Toshiba MET400-BL Gigabeat 4 GB Portable Media Player (Blue)

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

 

 

The Toshiba gigabeat T400 is a little portable media player that runs Microsoft's portable media center software. Weighing 2 oz. (58g) and measuring 3.37"x2.12"x0.39" (54mm x 85.6mm x 9.9mm), it feels like it's not even there in my hands. It can play audio files in the following formats: MP3, WMA, WMA 9 Lossless, and WAV. It can play WMV video files (more on this below), and it can display JPEG pictures.

The T400 is coated in stylish black glossy plastic, with colored accents decorating the plus pad (which works like those 4-way D-pads in Nintendo's portable game consoles) and the back rim. It looks stylish and sexy from every angle -- this is definitely something you have to see in person to believe. I got the orange version, with an orange-colored earphone set.

The T400 has 4GB of flash memory (3.73GB as reported by Windows); you cannot expand it. Fortunately, MP3 files are not big; if you encode as the typical 128kbps bitrate, you get 1 minute per MB, so the T400 holds about 62.16 hours (=3730MB/1MB/60) of audio; that's roughly 932 songs at 4 minutes per song, or 62 CDs at 1 hour per CD. While it may not be able to hold your entire CD collection, it can more than hold your favorite songs, even if you encode at a higher bitrate. (I have a mixture of lossless classical tracks and 128kbps pop tracks.)

Where the T400 really shines is its beautiful color LCD screen. Even though it measures only 2.4" diagonally, its QVGA (320x240) resolution actually looks very sharp at this size. (In comparison, my gigabeat V has the same resolution displayed on a 3.5" screen, and some Pocket PCs display QVGA on 4" or 4.5" screens, which start to make the pixels look coarse.) The screen is well made and is very bright at the highest of 5 levels. (I set it to the 2nd lowest level to conserve battery; it looks good indoors and looks adequate outdoors at this level.) While the screen is not as bright, level-for-level, as my gigabeat V, I think it still compares really well with the screens on other portable media players in this size class.

The beautiful LCD screen can be used to view JPEG pictures (up to 9000x6000) and to view videos in the WMV (Windows Media Video) format. This means that if you have MPEG, AVI, DVD, or other video files, you'll need to convert them to the WMV format. In fact, even WMV files will be converted to optimize the final file for the player. (For example, I have a bunch of hi-def WMV files for 720p and 1080p HDTVs; when I download them to my gigabeat, they get trimmed significantly in resolution and in file size.) Luckily, as long as Windows Media Player, which is used to sync with the gigabeat, can play a format, it can also convert it to WMV. It may take some time, but it's relatively transparent to the user.

(Sidenote: Windows Media Player can play almost all the video formats, except QuickTime and Real, which owners refuse to license the codec to Microsoft or other third parties. If your WMP cannot play a video file, go to WMPlugin d0t com to see if a codec is available, for free or for purchase. My WMP 11 installation plays DVD video, MPEG, MP4, DivX, Xvid, WMV, AVI, and other formats, all without my paying for anything.)

The T400 has a single USB 2.0 port, which is used to both recharge the player and to sync. Sync can be done with either Windows Media Player 10 or WMP 11; in the case of WMP 10, you might need to install the necessary drivers from the CD-ROM that comes with the player. BTW, the T400 comes in a very small, cute-looking box. In addition to the CD-ROM (which also contains the PDF user's manual), you get a color-matched earphone set, a USB cable, a couple of free trial offers for MP3 downloads, a get-started guide, and information about the 1-year warranty.

The T400, like previous gigabeat models, utilizes Microsoft's "Windows Mobile for Portable Media Centers" software. This tongue twister is just the mobile counterpart of the wildly popular Windows Media Center software. (It's actually based on WinCE, but sports the same interface.) The T400 has a Windows button; this is used to call up the "my music," "my videos," etc. menu. A back-arrow button leads you back to the previous screen; this, sometimes, can result in weird things but most of the time is intuitive. An OK button is used to select items as well as to toggle different screens during music playback, while a play/pause button lets you play/pause media files. The color-accented plus pad is not touch-sensitive; it clicks four ways. What it does depends on the display orientation (portrait or landscape) of the player; it's pretty easy to get the hang of it.

The T400 has very good sound quality. Not as good and rich as the much larger and heavier gigabeat V, but better than the Creative Zen MicroPhoto I had for a year and threw away in frustration. It can get very loud, so be careful there. BTW, you can play music and view pictures at the same time, and the player can remember where you paused each of your video files, so you can resume at the last point in the future. Very neat.

According to the specs, the battery is good for about 16 hours for WMA music and 5 hours (brightness set to the middle level) for WMV files. I've had this for a couple of days and haven't needed to recharge yet.

While the T400 does not have bells-and-whistles features like FM radio, recording, games, calendar, or even a built-in clock, it's very competent at its core tasks: playing music, videos and pictures. (It can also play back recorded TV from Windows Media Center.) The sound quality is very good, and the QVGA LCD screen is excellent. Whether you use it as your primary portable media player or use it to compliment a larger-capacity one, it won't disappoint.

I've had a lot of success with Toshiba laptops over the years and thought this would be a good player for my daughter who managed to lose her iPod Nano. She was determined that she had to have a nano, but this was a much better deal.

After looking at this for about 1 minute, she realized that it stacks up well to a Nano. It offers better music quality and has a bigger screen, plus the Windows media center software is pretty slick. Maybe not as nice as on the new Nano with the cover flow, but not far off.

The biggest factor for us is that it works with subscription music services, something Apple doesn't offer. We use Napster and for $15/month I can put any of 3 million songs on up to three PCs and three music players. No more does my daughter need to download songs illegally from LimeWire etc.

If you're looking for an affordable, nicely designed and durable music player, give this one a good look. It's a winner.

I bought this mp3 player for my father for Christmas and he absolutely loves it. I looked at it after he put on some of his music, and I was impressed by the beautiful screen, the very thin case, and the easy controls. Up 'til now the iPod has been my favorite mp3 player, but this Toshiba is in the running also now. Great video and music quality, and a nice windows-based menu. Perfect for the techy in your life.

I owned an ipod, a zune, and creative zen, this little thing killed the other mp3 by a simple solution: its audio fidelity is amazing compared to the three, and its equalizer settings are just perfect, I do not have to change it, and I tested the duration of the gadget and its about 15 hours. Though the memory is a bit low, but the audio fidelity blows its away. If you are into sound quality and not space, well, this would be the best pick out there, and great for running, and I exercise a lot, and this really helps out: small and compact. Thanks for a great product.

This is my first MP3 player and, like another reviewer, I now see why these are so popular. I've been transferring my CDs to it, taking it to the gym, and plugging it in to the auxiliary input on the car stereo. It's great not having to lug CDs on a trip. I really like being able to select Play All and Shuffle to mix up the tunes while driving.

Great device, very easy to use, great sound. I didn't think I would like earbuds, but they are very comfortable and have a good sound. The unit itself sounds even better with a pair of Jensen 'phones I use at work.

My only complaint is with the reviews I found on other sites that indicated the T400 had a line-in recording feature like the U202. I have a large collection of vinyl dating back to the '60's that I would like to transfer. If I can find a U202 on a closeout deal, I may pick one up so I can get started on that project.

I had purchased the Toshiba MET400-BL Gigabeat for myself and my husband to join the 21st century in technology. I now understand what the praise for the mp3 was all about. It is just great having all of your music in the palm of your hands. The clarity of the sound makes you feel like your inside the studio. If your of the older generation it is easy to use and easy to install the music. The screen is of good size so you can actually see the pictures. If you have been thinking about a mp3 you cannot go wrong with this item.

After two months of use, the t400 turn off when the battery still charge on my PC dell, the temperature turn high and not work anymore; sometimes start but the screen looks without light, I can't see any picture or video, and stop after play one song, don't start after the battery is totally discharge and charged.
I can't return the t 400 because the shipping from my country is most expensive than one new

The gigabeat leaves a bit to be desired. Overall though, for the cost, it's worth the money.

With the default settings for Windows Media Player the device tried to sync my 40gigs of photos into the 4GB flash memory. Thus the Gigabeat player, Windows Media Player and my computer locked up. I finally worked around this problem on my but the Toshiba tech support folks said it was a Microsoft problem, not theirs frustrating me to no end. They even said it was my fault for not changing my Windows Media Player settings. Not a good start. Even after I disabled the search of my photo files, synching takes a long time - we're talking hoursToshiba MET400-BL Gigabeat 4 GB Portable Media Player (Blue). Otherwise it is very cute and easy to handle but there are apparently few accessories for it, so could be easily dropped etc.