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gigabeat

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The gigabeat is a line of digital audio players by Toshiba. Currently, there are six versions of the Gigabeat: All version except S series use Gigaroom to transfer music to Gigabeat.

File:Gigabeat g.jpg
Gigabeat G40

Gigabeat G

The Gigabeat G series was first exhibited during the Japanese WPC Expo in September 2003. The player features a 5/10/20/40 gigabyte hard drive, USB 2.0, support for MP3, WMA and WAV sound files, and integration with Windows Media Player 9. The device features a 160x86 pixel monochrome screen with blue backlighting. The battery life is specified as 11 hours.

There was also an updated version, which was called G21. This upgraded version offered some new features such as LAN addressing.

The G series was never released outside of Japan.

Gigabeat F

File:Gigabeat f.jpg
The Gigabeat F Series

The Gigabeat F is the second generation of the Gigabeat line designed and built by Toshiba. The Gigabeat F series was released on September 2004.

The player was sold in four different variations—with 10, 20, 40, or 60 gigabytes of hard drive capacity. It features a 2.2 inch QVGA screen (260,000 colors) with a resolution of 240x320 pixels. Toshiba claims the player has a playback time of up to 16 hours. However, many users have mentioned that it easily surpasses 16 hours, with some reporting up to 19 hours with the backlight set to 5 seconds. It supports the playback of MP3, WMA (also with DRM) & WAV.

The player offered a new controller called "Plustouch" which is a touch sensitive control system on the plus-shaped pad.

In November 2005 Toshiba released the v.3.00 Gigabeat Room software upgrade to Japan and Australia. A US version was released in March 2006. It is not available for download. You must order the free CD by calling Toshiba at 800-631-3811, M-F 8a-7p CST. You'll need your model # and serial #. The fansite My Gigabeat has posted many hacks around the 'region-code', which allows Gigabeat F users to install a Japanese or Australian v.3.00 firmware onto their Gigabeats. By doing this the support for subscription-services is removed, due to the different time zones of the areas. It is also unnecessary due to the availability of the US firmware.

The new firmware is greatly appreciated by the Gigabeat community, as it fixes up the faulty Gigabeat Room software's image transferring problems. The new firmware also adds an innovative set of equalizers. The new equalizers are balanced and their distortion problems have been fixed. The overly-complex opening menu of the Gigabeat F has also been patched up, now only featuring 4 submenus: Audio, Photo, Demo Music, and Setup. Although many users are happy with Gigabeat Room's upgraded edition, new problems have arisen: many users report lags and the same crashes (although not as buggy as before). Also, many users are disappointed that Toshiba decided not to add video-support.

Rockbox, a multi-platform, open source firmware project, is stable with sound support for the Toshiba Gigabeat F Series, as well as the X Series, but is still being developed to include features that aren't working. [1]

Gigabeat F-21, F-31, F-41

This was the update to the F-series. The F40 and the F60 editions featured a 3mm protrusion in the back of the Gigabeat. The F-11 and F-21 had nothing updated, other than Toshiba releasing new colors. The F-61 was never released, with only the F-41 to compensate by removing its protrusion, making it the same size as the F-21 and F-31.

Gigabeat X

This was the update to the F-series, additions being the dropping of the 40GB version for a 30GB version. The X-series has a larger 2.5" screen, yet has a smaller form-factor. It is not available in the US, but it is available in Australia and Asian countries.

Gigabeat P-5 & P-10

The Gigabeat P series players are Toshiba's first attempt at entering the flash based Digital Audio Player market.

The player features a 1.1 inch 96x96 pixels 65,536 colour screen and comes in two different capacities. The P5 is available in two different colour variations and is the 512 MB model, whereas the P10 is only available in 1GB in black. The player only features a limited codec support for MP3, WMA and WAV. It also has an integrated FM Radio.

There also is a version called the Gigabeat P5S Nana; however, it has no connection to the flash memory players by Apple. There are no special features compared to the Gigabeat P5; the only difference is the design. The color and design themes are that of a popular Anime series called NANA. The P5S is scheduled for release on 7/7 and 8/8(Two designs released on both days)

File:Gigabeat s.jpg
The Toshiba Gigabeat S

Gigabeat S

The Toshiba Gigabeat S Series was released in Japan on April 28th and in the United States on May 31st, 2006.

The Player was first presented at the Consumer Electronics Show in January 2006 in Las Vegas by Bill Gates in his CES keynote. The Player uses the Portable Media Center (Version 2) Operating System by Microsoft and the Gigabeat S closely integrates with Windows Media Player 11 and Xbox 360.

The player offers a 2.4-inch QVGA LCD (320x240 pixels with 65,000 colors) and storage capacities of either 30GB or 60GB. It also has an integrated FM Radio and support for MP3, WMA Lossless, WAV (PCM), WMV and WMA. Other video formats such as MPEG-4, AVI and QuickTime are only supported through transcoding. The Gigabeat S also offers support for DRM WMA 10 Subscription services (such as Napster to Go or Yahoo! Unlimited), Tivo To Go and Media Center recordings. It will also support the upcoming Vongo and URGE subscription service, which are already available to the public as BETA versions.

The device also features a USB Host for downloading images directly off digital cameras without the need of a computer. It is also possible to connect the player to a TV through the use of a composite TV-out cable.

The player has 12 hours of battery life for music and 2.5 hours of battery life for movies and a MSRP of $299.

Problems:

Some users have encountered a problem where the Gigabeat S reformats its hard drive after being disconnected from USB sync with a computer.

See http://www.mygigabeat.com/forum/messages.cfm?threadid=02B104E3-3048-2906-EAA548C395B5B8F8

and

http://www.mygigabeat.com/forum/messages.cfm?threadid=FEDA92F2-3048-2906-EAE4CC9B9A4EA047

Microsoft's Zune is based on the Gigabeat S hardware, but since it has a re-worked firmware, does not suffer from this issue.

Toshiba has failed to respond to this issue, as there have been no firmware updates since the release of the Gigabeat S.

Gigabeat V

The Toshiba Gigabeat V Series allow users to listen to audio, view images, and watch movies. However, the key feature of this series is that it allows users to watch the Digital TV service, OneSeg, which was made for TV viewing through cell phones. It can also record the TV to watch again, and can schedule recording up to 24 hours in advance from a generous choice from 72 different channels. Only one program can be recorded at a time, and it will record up to 4 hours of TV. Also, the limit to the number of TV recordings is 100. It is has a 3.5 inch QVGA TFT Screen, with up to 7 hours battery life for TV. The 30G HD will hold up to 130 hours of recorded TV. This product is currently sold only in Japan, since other countries do not have services such as OneSeg. the Toshiba Gigabeat V has been released in the U.S by the name Toshiba Gigabeat V30 MEV30K it is the same device minus the tv tuner it was released for $400 but then a week later was dropped to $300

"1089" and The Zune

Microsoft and Toshiba worked together on developing the Zune. The Zune is largely based on the Gigabeat S. The player appeared as the Toshiba 1089 is a FCC filing. "1089" was simply a name used while the player was in development.

Official Gigabeat Sites

Reviews

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