My Gigabeat: PC-Mag Reviews the Gigabeat S Series

Thursday, June 29, 2006

PC-Mag Reviews the Gigabeat S Series

PC-Mag gives the Gigabeat S Series a 4 out 5 score. The review is actually good and pretty much right on, in my opinion.

One interesting thing that stood out to me was that they mentioned that Microsoft is working on a fix for some ID3 tags not showing up on the Gigabeat.

"Some files' ID3 tags are not recognized even though they display correctly in WMP 10 (Microsoft is aware of the problem and is working toward a resolution)."

This sounds to me like there is a firmware update in the works already!

The reviewer also brags about the fast transfer speeds to the Gigabeat. I knew it was fast, but he proclaims that they are record fast.

"I transferred 412.5MB of content in Windows Media Player 10 from my IBM ThinkPad T60 in a blazingly fast 55 seconds. That translates to roughly 2 minutes 15 seconds per gigabyteÂa new record!"

Not sure what he compares too, but I would assume that he means the iPod and the Vision:M, since he refers to them in the rest of the review.

I like the review, and it I believe it is fair. He points many of the things we have discussed here; no custom EQ, short battery (music), 2GB limit on transfers from cameras (USB Host), cross could be used for more functions, and no Audible support. The good news is that he does address these issues, and hopefully Microsoft is listening.

My contact at Microsoft would not confirm a firmware update to PMC, but he did say that all issues and enhancements I mentioned to him are logged in their database.

What do you guys think?

Review over at PC-Mag

posted by Tomas @ 10:04 PM

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9 Comments:

Mike said...: Have to say i'm relieved if MS has taken notice of the id3 tag problem.

Question for you Tomas: Exactly what "issues and enhancements" did you mention to your contact. This could be very exciting...; Thu Jun 29, 10:50:00 PM 2006
Anonymous said...: The reviewer talks about the My TV working fine, but from what I hear, widescreen TV shows (16:9) are shown 'squashed' - they don't keep their aspect ratio - most of my recorded tv is in widescreen, so I hope any firmware update will address this.; Fri Jun 30, 01:38:00 AM 2006
Anonymous said...: I think a real test of the Gigabeat/MS partnership will be how quickly MS produces a firm ware update.; Fri Jun 30, 04:54:00 AM 2006
Anonymous said...: Looking forward to new firmware. All widescreen i watch doesnt feel the screen which is...annoying. You dont want black bars on a screen smaller than your hand really.; Fri Jun 30, 05:50:00 AM 2006
Tomas said...: I think the problems you guys have with wide screen isn't a Gigabeat problem. The program I use to rip movies lets me decide if I want wide or full screen. WMP never change that for me when I transfer the movie.

Not sure why a TV show would be any different. In my experience WMP will transfer the file in the same aspect ratio as the original digital version.

I'm using WMP 11 btw.

There is no way you can watch true 16:9 widescreen on the Gigabeat without the black bars on top and bottom. The Gigabeat screen is a 4:3 screen, so either you do wide screen, or get a software that lets you rip to 4:3. I prefer 4:3 since the screen is just too small to waste space on black bars and it's not like you will get the "big-screen" experience on a screen this size either way. :); Fri Jun 30, 11:10:00 AM 2006
Tomas said...: Mike: Some of the things I brought up where:
* Will PMC ever be skinable, or at least customizable?
* Play lists on the go? Quick list is ok, but it would be nice to be able to add songs to a current playlist or even create a new one. One quick fix would be to let us access the Quick list in WMP 11 when we sync.
* Audio book bookmarks
* FM recording

If you guys have any other specific requests, let me know. I stay on top of the forum here, as it is a good way to get a feeling for what most users want.; Sat Jul 01, 09:07:00 AM 2006
Mike said...: Tomas: Great additions there, all I would add would be codec support and a clock..; Sat Jul 01, 08:09:00 PM 2006
Anonymous said...: One specific codec I really REALLY want to see is audible.com! Other video codecs would be great too.; Tue Jul 04, 08:46:00 PM 2006
bmachine said...: Some ability to manage podcasts would be on my wishlist...this is a limitation with WMP11, too, though.; Tue Jul 11, 10:21:00 PM 2006