Product Description

Toshiba's new MEV30K Gigabeat (V series) video player puts all of your entertainment in the palm of your hands. With a large 3.5 inch LCD screen you'll enjoy crisp and bright feature length movies without interruption. It's massive battery capacity allows up to 8 hours of movie enjoyment between charges making it perfect for long trips or frequent commutes. Enjoy movie and TV download services on the go, or take your MP3 collection with you as well with a up to 30 hours of audio playback for the 30 GB hard drive. You don't need to be a technical whiz to load your media onto the MEV30K either. Using Microsoft's PMC (Portable Media Center) software it's as easy as drop and drag and you're ready to go. Use the extra large storage to download digital pictures from you camera as well with no PC needed.

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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #29646 in Consumer Electronics
• Brand: Toshiba
• Model: MEV30K
• Dimensions: .80" h x 4.90" w x 3.00" l, 1.00 pounds
• Hard Disk: 30GB
• Display size: 3.5

Features

• 30 GB digital media player with Portable Media Center (PMC) interface for movies, photos, and music
• Supports WMA Lossless, WMA, MP3, WAV, WMV, and JPEG formats
• Built in speaker, and TV output connection for external display
• 3.5-inch QVGA display with 320 x 240 resolution; supports wide range of music and video download services
• Plays approximately 8 hours of continuous video playback; approximately 30 hours of continuous audio playback

Amazon.com Review
It seems that every electronics company has its own version of a portable media player on the market these days. If it's not a video iPod it has to fight for whatever piece of turf is not already ruled by Apple. The Toshiba Gigabeat is a worthy contender in this category. Its high-tech look and features, portabililty, and ease of use make it a great choice for all lovers of Windows Media Player looking to go mobile with their music, photos, and video.

Crisp video in the palm of your hand.

What It Does
The Gigabeat MEV30 synchronizes with Windows Media Player on your PC via USB cable to its 30 Gigabyte hard drive, allowing you to bring your photos, video, and music with you wherever you go. Depending on the type of camera you have, it is also possible to connect directly to you digital camera when you out and about, so you can view, share, and store your photos without having to hook your camera up to your PC first. With the included audio/AV cable you can also watch video or slide shows on your TV.

Design
With its shiny silver and black finish, and small and sleek design (4.9 x 3.0 x 0.7 inches (W x H x D)) the MEV30 looks both high-tech and sophisticated. It's a little too big for the pocket of your jeans, but fits nicely into a jacket pocket or purse. The front of the device is dominated by its 3.5-inch diagonal LCD screen, which supports 320 x 240 resolution and up to 65,000 colors. While a a 640 x 480 with support for millions of colors would be better, the display is still bright and crisp. The widescreen format is also very welcome and gives it an edge over the square screen of the video iPod. To the right of the screen you'll find the buttons that let you interface with the device.

Logical controls and a user-friendly interface.

Chief among these is the small joystick that lets you quickly navigate lists in four directions, and make selections by simply pressing down. Just beneath, there's a Home button displaying the Windows symbol, and a return button. Volume controls and a small speaker round out the main controls. Along the top are buttons to control the video player, as well as a sliding lock and power button. The left side is responsible for input/output and charging. This includes USB, a single jack for audio and video, and the AC power adapter. On the bottom are two tiny holes that allow you to reset the device or switch off the battery for storage.

Setup
Aficianados of Windows Media Player will find it a snap to the get the MEV30 up and running. The device itself is powered by Microsoft Portable Media Center Version 2.0. It comes formatted and ready to go right out of the box, and no additional software is needed for your PC beyond the free Windows Media Player. We had no trouble all using WMP 11 to load photos, video, and music onto the device. To move photos onto the device,

The joystick is all you'll need for most tasks.

simply drag and drop them into the synce window within Media Player. For video and music it's important to remember that since the MEV30 runs only with Windows Media Player you can only add content allowed by Windows. Try to sync an album you bought on the iTunes Store, for example, and all you'll get is an error message. If you can create playlists, organize video and photos, and generally get Widows Media Player to do what you want it to do, you will have no trouble at all using the MEV30. If Media Player is new to you, however, you will need to spend some time working with it before attempting to go mobile with your media.

Operation
Once you are synced up, the intuitive interface makes it easy to find what you're looking for. The main menu lists media by type: tv, music, pictures, and videos. You'll also find a "settings" feature that lets you adjust functions for all media types. Moving through these menus is a snap with the four-way joystick; simply point and click. The photo viewer plays slide shows and also allows you to zoom in on a picture and pan and scan to see exactly what you want up close. The video player is simple to use and does everything you want--one click on the joystick pauses, a push to the right lets you fastforward, and a push to the left rewinds. The music player likewise contains most functions you would expect from a serious media player: shuffle, equalizer, support for playlists, repeat, and time display. Here it would be nice to have a few other options, such as alarm and sleep timer functions, but as a basic music player it is functional and easy to use. One click on the menu button returns you directly to the main menu.

To sum up, the Gigabeat MEV30 faces stiff competition both from the iPod, as well as from Microsoft's new Zune media player. If you are looking for a fully-functional and sleek portable media player that uses Windows Media Player, however, you won't go wrong with this device.

Pros

• Easy to setup and operate.
• Multi-functional: video, photos, music. A/V out lets you watch on tv.
• Sleek and stylish design.
• 30 GB hard drive lets you store lots of pictures, music, and video.

Cons

• Only works via Windows Media Player. Knowledge of WMA required.
• Higher resolution would be nice.

What's in the Box
MEV30K portable video player, A/V cable, USB cable (A-miniB), USB conversion cable (miniA-A), headphones, AC adapter, CD-ROM (software, owner's manual), and quick start guide.

Amazon.com Product Description
Feel free to take all your entertainment with you. The Toshiba MEV30K gigabeat V Series Portable Video Player puts all your favorite videos, music, and digital images in one convenient, powerful, and highly portable device. With a big and bright 3.5-inch diagonal LCD screen, the MEV30K lets you enjoy up to eight hours of feature length movies. Weighing in at just under half a pound and measuring 4.9 x 3.0 x 0.7 inches (W x H x D), the MEV30K is extremely portable, so you won't hesitate to bring it along wherever you roam.

Getting movies to enjoy on your MEV30K is easy. You can subscribe to movie services such as Vongo, or record videos on your PC. However you choose to get your entertainment, Toshiba's newest member of the gigabeat family offers a great way to enjoy entertainment on the go. The large screen supports 320 x 240 resolution and up to 65,000 colors, while a 30 GB internal hard drive stores your media. The device is powered by Microsoft Portable Media Center Version 2.0 Software, and it's compatible with videos encoded for Windows Media Player 9 or 10 (WMV). All that's required is a PC and the included Windows Media Player 10 software. The MEV30K features a USB 2.0 interface for lightning-fast transfers of video files between your computer and the device. There's even a TV-out connector so you can view your videos on a larger screen.

If you're like most folks, you don't have time to print out all your digital photos to show to your family, friends, or colleagues. With the MEV30K, you can just take all your digital stills with you. Simply connect your digital camera via the USB input and all of your images will download onto your gigabeat--there's no need to connect to your PC, either.

And then there will be those time when you might just want to sit back, relax and enjoy your favorite music. The MEV30K also lets you download your favorite music from subscription sites; buy your music from music sites such as Napster, eMusic, and Rhapsody; and even rip your favorite CDs. Again, thanks to Microsoft's Portable Media Center platform it's always quick and easy to get your content. The MEV30K supports playback of MP3, WMA, WMA Lossless and WAV audio files, and you can also view album cover artwork. The device even has a built-in speaker so you can share your music with your friends.

To keep the entertainment going, the MEV30K comes with a rechargeable lithium ion battery that allows for up to eight hours of continuous playback for your favorite movies and videos and up to 30 hours of continuous playback when just enjoying music.

What's in the Box
MEV30K portable video player, A/V cable, USB cable (A-miniB), USB conversion cable (miniA-A), headphones, AC adapter, CD-ROM (software, owner's manual), and quick start guide.

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Customer Reviews

Not Just Better Than iPod...
Wow. I am thoroughly impressed with this. I love it, almost everything about it. Let's start with the simple things.
The Windows it runs, Windows Mobile, is brilliant and simplistic. It is better, and easier to use, than the operating system for the iPod designed by Mac, and so far, the best I've used.
The buttons, though more numerous than most players, actually makes it easier to use, for example, individual volume, play, fast forward and rewind buttons mean that you can do any of those actions without going to some 'now playing' screen.
About the screen. It is beautiful, crisp, and almost never tones down the quality of the picture. One of the few complaints I have about my Gigabeat is the the album cover pictures are a bit pixellated, which I think is because of where they are sourced off of Windows Media Player.
Yes, it uses Windows Media Player. Have all your songs on iTunes? Changing them is no problem. The one problem with Media Player is that the image files don't automatically synchronize with the ones on programs like Photoshop, Shutterfly, and Picasa. As a result, you have to be careful about naming (if you like your files nice and organized like me).
Most likely one of my favorite things about my Gigabeat, hardly mentioned when I read user and website reviews, is the external speakers. If no ones around, I don't have to use headphones, I can just unplug them and use speakers. The speaker is built in, and small, but it is crisper, more compact, and louder than the ones you have to pay extra for on your iPod.
The video is a problem and a solution, which I'm sure, to you, makes no sense. It only supports .wmv. For anyone who doesn't understand what a problem that is, very few videos are .wmv format, and to change it, you either need professional or illegal software. BUT there is hope. Vongo (you get a free trial with your Gigabeat) is a ten dollar a month service that gives you unlimited movie downloads. AND it's in .wmv. Personally, an answer to my prayers. The selection is limited, but there are enough movies to keep you occupied. They have all the James Bond movies, for example (except really recent ones like Casino Royale).
Now I know you're not sold on Vongo, I wouldn't be either, but the Gigabeat has got a huge, and I mean mammoth ace up its sleeve. Just like external speakers come free, so does a T.V. hook up cable. You can watch videos, pictures, and listen to music from your T.V. So with Vongo, you download the movie you want, put it on your Gigabeat, and take it to your friends house, and you can watch it. And you can carry a max of 60 movies (the file sizes vary). Imagine how many cases that would be.
Now, a problem I have with my Gigabeat is not its large size, but the fact that nobody, NOBODY, makes a case specifically for this model. I have searched all over, and all I can find are ugly generic cases. I had to get my grandmother, a tailor, make one out of velvet and satin (it doesn't look bad I must say.)
I searched for a while, but I settled with this. I searched countless brands-Apple, Samsung, Wolverine, iAudio, iRiver, Cowon, Archos, Microsoft (they make the Zune), just to name a handful. But this was by far the best. The best thing about it though, was not how ingenius it was, but for what price it delivers all of this. 165 dollars. ONE-HUNDRED AND SIXTY FIVE DOLLARS. Comparable players of this caliber are anywhere from 500-800 dollars.
All in all, I am pleased with my Gigabeat. Very pleased. Never before had I any faith in an MP3 player (excuse me, it's a 'portable media center') and now I don't need to, because I found one, and, as we all know, 'one is all you need.

Excellent hardware hampered by half-witted software
First of all, let me point out that you *CAN* simply drag-and-drop files from your Windows Explorer to the folders on the Toshiba gigabeat V. However, if you do this, you may not be able to get extra tag info such as album art.

Now the review.

The Toshiba gigabeta V is a portable media center player; "portable media center" refers to the platform Microsoft has built for devices that can play video, audio, pictures, recorded TV, etc. The V competes with "full-sized" media centers from Creative and Archos, and it's *not* a slim, feather-weight media player like the latest iPods. On the other hand, it's got a biggish, very bright LCD screen (QVGA resolution) and a 1.8-inch shock-mounted 30GB (27.7GB reported by Windows) hard disk. Because the hard disk appears as just another external storage to Windows, you can use the V as a portable hard drive.

The buttons on the V are pleasant to press and are quite intuitive. The placement of the skip and play/pause buttons (on the top) is unconventional. The V has a monoaural speaker, which I love because I can enjoy music-on-the-go together with my toddler Charlie. (I play lots of classical music to him.) The sound quality on the V is just excellent: a lot of range, and a lot of volume.

With the battery, which lasts around 18 hours playing back 128kbps-encoded MP3 files in real life (and Toshiba claims up to 9 hours for video playback), the unit weighs in at 7.7 oz, so it's not lightweight, and its bulky physical size makes it just okay to fit in a men's trouser pocket, or in a jacket pocket. The styling is neat, though, and it's not something you'll ever feel embarassed about showing to your friends.

What's not so good about the package is the Microsoft software that drives the thing. The portable media center on the device itself tries to be friendly and, for basic operations, it's not too bad. But when you try to do anything beyond just play/pause/power off, it gets annoying. For example, it's almost impossible to use playlists. Also, it's impossible to delete files on the device; you'll have to use Windows Explorer or Windows Media Player. Speaking of the latter, the manual says you should install the WMP 10 on the enclosed CD-ROM regardless of what WMP you already have on your PC. I already have WPM 11 on my XP computer, and no file was installed: the V played well (or as well as it could play) with WMP 11.

Of course, Windows Media Player is not a totally user-friendly piece of software, despite numerous UI improvements over the versions. Sync'ing can still freeze the program, and the most annoying part of WMP is it tries to pull all media files on your hard drive together, including temporary internet files you may have downloaded. Editing tags is still a pain in the butt. After you sync, it's not entirely clear, at least not at first, how you manage the files synced to your V.

But if you're willing entrust your library of music, videos and pictures to WMP, you can probably avoid worrying about the sync details. If you, like me, want to have some control over which and how files are sync'ed, you'll run into a lot of frustrating moments.

Overall, the V is a good media player -- and I really like the built-in speaker feature. It lacks some features found on other players, like FM or recording, but it has a decent TV-out feature that lets you play video and audio on a TV set. The screen is gorgeous, and that makes the overall UI experience a pleasure on a day-to-day basis. Oh, did I mention the V has great sound quality? (I know it because I'm a classical music lover and demand the highest audio quality.)

BTW, the V has been discontinued, which means you can find it at great prices.

Not as big as you think...and can be charged through USB port
I may have overdone my research before I bought this player. I was afraid that it would be really large and thick...yes it is larger and thicker than most HD players; but, not by much. In fact, the size makes handling the device a lot easier. The controls are placed nicely so that virtually all buttons are within reach of your fingers. You do, however, have to be right handed or be willing to learn to use it with your right hand.

BTW, I bought a Zune recently and found it to be a nice device; however, I couldn't find 30 gigs of stuff that I was willing to tote around. I tried using the Zune to carry regular files; but, it was not possible without a registry hack. Even with the registry hack I could not use the Zune as a simple external hard drive. It appears Microsoft has done an excellent job of dumbing down a perfectly great media player. For those wondering whether the MEV30K can simply mount as a hard drive the answer is a resounding YES. BTW, there is a weird "reserve space" function for non-multimedia files...don't bother. The entire balance of the hard disk is available for your use. [Update: I love the MEV30K so much that I returned the Zune.]

One really neat discovery...you can charge this device through USB port if you have a USB cable that terminates with a power tip. I used the cable that was for my now dead HP iPAQ PDA/phone. Charging takes a lot longer than 6 hours; but, it is possible!