I bought one of these at Best Buy for $329, and brought it back the next day. The sound quality just isn’t there. Sure, you get tons of storage and and beautiful display, and a great navigation system, but Toshiba missed what is really important in an MP3 player. This unit distorts way too easily.
Thank god it is not an iriver 
This thing is cool but no video not for me
Whats wrong with an old Nintendo controller?
I already have an iRiver H20 so I am content!
Does Toshiba still encrypt their files on the player, so you still have to use some funky interface to put music on it? That was the downfall of thier previous players.
Does anyone know if thiw works with Musicmatch, like the Iriver H10? I never even bothered to install the WMP software that came with my Iriver, and if this would also sync right up with Musicmatch, a purchase might be in order. Also, does anyone know if I can use it like a hard drive, under “My computer?”
Nice, but comparing Apples to oranges on that one. No pun intended. A better match would be the current 30GB Color or Video iPod. Less storage space, but more comparable features.
I own one of these and I cannot wholeheartedly recommend it. Quality-wise it’s very solid – metal where a lot of players are scratch-prone plastic. It’s a very durable piece. Of course, if you’re looking for something very thin and light weight, this isn’t it.
Also, the functionality isn’t that great. It’s difficult to create playlists on the fly. For example, when you’re listening to a few tracks you queued up and want to add tracks to the queue you’re listening to at the moment. I’ve tried everything (including reading the manual – yuk!), but haven’t found a way to do that. All you can do is “bookmark” tracks, but there’s only one bookmark queue, so you have to start by deleting everything you bookmarked the last time. I could go on . . .
If I had to rate it, I’d give it a 3.5 out of 5.
Amen Brother!
That or wait till someone buys a doPi for you
If you spend $25 bucks for a program called Anapod you can. Best money i’ve spent on this dumb iPod yet. Well that and the logitec mobile speakers I bought here on w00t a while back
The screen is beautiful, the colors and resolution is amazing, it also displays album art which is pretty cool. However, the navigation is the most awful navigation I’ve ever used besides the Sony HD player. It’ll take you forever to get from one song to another. I’ve used the Rio karma, ipod, iriver H10, and Toshiba gigabeat. And I’d have to say the best UI belongs to karma, then ipod, then H10, and finally gigabeat. The UI totally kills it, especially when it’s got a huge HD. The H10 that came out several days ago was much better though.
Yes, the MP3’s are re-coded or “encrypted” on this player. You can’t d’load from the player back to your computer – you can only delete them from the Toshiba. There are a whole host of odd things about this player (and the sucky software it comes with) that are only evident after you get it home and start digging into how it works. I kept mine for 2 days and took it back. The CSR at Costco said that a lot of them were coming back.
I’ll take it, it will at least hold my entire music collection. Maybe a few GB left over for new stuff, too!
One other thing to note – If you use Room to take advantage of USB 2.0 speeds, it converts everything to a Toshiba proprietary format, which is incredibly slow. I don’t recall if WMP10 transfers were also converted. I received a 60GB GigaBeat for Christmas and took it back after a few days of slow, painful transfers. Capacity’s nice, but convenience and functionality come first for me.
I’m seeing several people on other websites say that if you connect directly via USB cable and not the cradle you can drag drop like it’s an external hard drive and that doing so doesn’t encrypt the files. For myself, I only buy mp3s from eMusic and those are VBR MP3s that are DRM free, so hopefully no grief. I’ve never liked those specialized music transfer programs anyway. Gimme good ol’ Windows Explorer anyway. Also, does anyone know what version of the firmware these will ship with? I’ve read 3.0 is much better than its predeccesors.
Reviews on Amazon indicated external HD-like functionality http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0007U0INM/ref=pd_kar_gw_1/104-1628330-4222312?_encoding=UTF8&v=glance&n=172282
Has anyone seen my life? Here I am again up at midnight to see what crap they’re selling that I don’t need. Oh yea, now I get it. What a relief. Now I can quit looking for my life because I obviously don’t have one. Goodnight fellow losers.
This is a great deal, if the mp3 player is good quality. I just a got a new Creative Zen Microphoto, so I’m passing on the Toshiba (which by the way would probably still be better than an ipod!).
Ah geez, and I just got my iRiver!
I’ve got the 20 gig model, paid over 200 about 4 months ago. Works great, does everything it says it will. Nice screen.
However…the post saying it uses usb 1.1 and not 2.0 with Windows Media Player is correct. You can fix this by using the software it comes with, but I don’t recommend it. I just let it sit there that first time uploading all 10 gigs of music of mine for a couple hours. After that, i never had to upload more than a few mb at once, so you don’t really notice.
Overall…Definetly worth it. I mean 40GB? I love mine and use it all the time, and I’ve just got the 20. Go ahead and buy it.
I can hook up my Iriver and manage files under My Computer, like an external hard drive, even copying tracks and moving them to other computers from the player. Can I do that with a Toshiba? Does anyone know? it’s literally the difference between a purchase and no purchase.
I was in the market for a player with more storage (currently using an old Archos Jukebox Recorder 20, 2nd gen), and this looked tempting.
But the thing about needing to use Toshiba’s ‘room’ software to get actual USB 2.0 speeds is a deal-breaker. Bottlenecking a 40gb transfer with USB 1.1 transfer speeds? Ouch! (The “reencodes to proprietary format” thing is bad too - takes me back to my nightmares of the Sony MP3 CD players. ATRAC3 anyone?)
I guess interface and ease of use still do count for something these days…