Creative Mp3 Player 30Gb

Review by T. Jacobs "VT Hokie" : Big and Beautiful

I bought this media player as an alternative to the ever-popular ipod, and as a previously satisfied customer with Creative products from their great sound cards. So far, I am very pleased. Since 80% of the market is ipods, I'll pit this player against them. The thing you will read most is, "It's too big and bulky" or "Too heavy". It's what the ipod lovers fall back on when they have no other ammunition against this media player. They're just jealous because the beautiful screen the Vision W has is well...as big as their entire ipod. It really is. The Vision W is about an inch longer, half an inch wider, and 50% thicker than your average ipod. I think it's the perfect size. It will fit in my pocket, and carries well in your hand. The buttons are small, but I'd rather have the screen take up 85% of the side of the media player instead of the buttons. The screen is equivalent in size to the sony psp, and looks much better in quality than the screens on the ipod. It's perfect for watching any video without losing details, like you do on smaller ipod screens. The internal speaker is suprisingly loud, and is great for sharing with friends. Speaking of sharing, it's possible to share files with friends on the zen, unlike the ipod. When you put files on your computer via iTunes, they are locked in a vault transferable only to your iPod. It is a HUGE hassle to share music or video files with anyone using iTunes, necessary if you have an iPod. With the Zen, you are freed. Drag-and-drop copy/paste works just like an external hard drive, and it supports most file formats. The few files you need to convert for playback is easily taken care of with creative software. Cliff Notes: PRO's: -beautiful, large screen -good battery life, considering above -flexibility of supported file types and file transfer/sharing -internal speaker?! -sound quality you only get from creative -good FM tuner -loads of other random features -"wow" factor from everyone who sees it CON's: -transfer speed is relatively slow -you won't be trendy because you don't have an ipod

Review by Old Guy Steve : Excellent Player

First of all, I'm not computer savy, I'm over 54 years of age, and this is my first MP3 player. It is a beautiful player that is very easy to use. I had no problem loading the software on my computer. Music and pictures downloaded with ease. The clarity and vibrant colors on the screen are exceptional. The radio works well as does the built in microphone. I loaded videos last night with out a hitch. It's great to drop and click and the software did a format conversion to the videos before loading and all was well. The player is fairly simple to navigate and it's fun to try out all the options. The player takes pitures from a compact flash card very easily and efficiently. For being a non-computer geek, this player is the best and is just a joy to operate. The ear buds aren't the most comfortable so you might want to change these out.

Review by D. Truong "Duke of New Mexico" : Great Device but not perfect

The first thing you'll probably notice about this player is it's gorgeous widescreen. How big is it? Well, technically speaking it's 480 x 272 resolution, 4.3 inches wide diagionally, and capable of displaying about 262,000 colors(same as Zen M). For those of you who now own a Zen M, to illustrate how big the screen is on the Zen W: You can lay an entire Zen M on the Zen W, and the entire area of the Zen M is about the size of the screen of the Zen W. For you Psp owners out there, the Zen W screen is exactly the same resolution and size as the screen on the PSP. Although, the PSP screen is actually more advanced and can display over 16 million colors. Though both of these screens are much better than the screen on the video Ipods(which is only 320 x 240, and only display 65,000 colors). The screen on the Zen W does the job very well, and you can adjust the brightness levels. Even at %50 brightness, it's adequate. Though it outshines the Zen M in screen size, I noticed that it's not quite as sharp and the colors are not as vivid as on the Zen M. Also, I noticed that while playing Divx video, the Zen W doesn't play the video as smoothly as on a computer. The video frame-rate seems to look more jerky and less smooth. Although the pre-installed videos looked fine in Xvid, so this may only apply to Divx videos. Some other great features about the player are it's built in FM radio, voice recorder, custom sound equalizer, built in speaker, and Compact Flash slot. The built-in speaker can get surprisingly loud and is adequate for watching videos... But if you're an Audiophile, it's not good for listening to your music. It's sounds quite tinny and is only a single speaker. One huge improvement over the Zen M is that you no longer need to carry a stupid adapter to charge or upload songs or media. The mini-usb power, and A/V out ports are already built in to this player. Also the magnesium casing seems much sturdier than the Zen M's plastic casing... and probably not as prone to scratches. The thing looks and feels very solidly built. The interface is also simple and easy to figure out and very similar to the Zen M interface.

The only big difference is that the Zen W uses buttons instead of the touch thumb-pad on the Zen M. I think they should have tried to integrate the thumb-pad somehow because it worked so well on the Zen M. In this respect, the Zen W buttons seem like a step backward in progress. However, I do like the fact that they made all the buttons on the right side so you can effectively use the player with only your right hand. (sorry lefties).

The built in Compact Flash slot is also a very cool idea. You can backup your compact flash or microdrive photos onto the player with the slot. The only thing is that you can't use the compact flash as a secondary hard-drive... meaning you can't just slip a compact flash card with video on it and watch it straight from the card. You must import it onto the player first before you can play the media. You can't play mp3s or browse photos straight from the CF card either. All the files must be imported onto the hard-drive of the Zen W first. This seems pretty lame to me because you're not using the slot to it's full potiental. Hopefully there will be firmware upgrades that will let you do this in the future. Another thing about the player that needs to be improved is it's thickness. The second thing you'll notice (after the lovely huge screen) is how thick this thing is. I mean, it's barely pocketable. So it's not quite as portable as the Zen M. How think is it? Well, it's nearly an inche thick... a little less thick than a PSP. If they could cut the thickness in half, it would make this player much more portable.(not to mention sleek and sexy). Here's a quick run-down on Pros and Cons.

Pros:

-Gorgeous 4.3 inche (480x272 resolution) screen that displays up to 262,000 colors. Movies look so much better than on a 320x240 (Ipod)screen. And if you like to watch Anime, you'll have no more problems reading subtitles.

-Built in mini-usb port, power, and Audio/Video out port(for tv output).
-Sturdy magnesium casing and solid feel.
-Lots of extras like FM radio, organizer, calendar, voice recorder -Audio/Video cable included, plays Xvid and Divx files.
-Built in compact flash/microdrive slot for photo backup.
-Removable battery (yes, finally!)
-Optional wireless Remote control available (built in IR reciever)
-ZenCast organizer (allows you to download/organize Podcasts to Zen W)

Cons:
- Pretty thick at almost an inche thick. (barely pocketable)
- Divx playback (Frame-rate) a bit jerky. Screen not as sharp-looking and colors not as vibrant as Zen M. (I'm nit-picking, you may not even notice the difference...especially if you don't have a Zen M)
- No video line-in for video recording. It would be great if they had this built in and you could record from any video source... don't know why they don't.
- When viewing files on Compact Flash using CF slot, you must first import/upload files over to the Zen W drive first to view.

In conclusion, this player packs alot of punch for the money. And almost everything it does, it does very well. If you love movies and music like I do, you will definately enjoy this device. It's very impressive and looks and feels sturdy. The biggest flaw/turn-offs to me is it's thickness. A device made for portability should be ... well, more portable. In a world where other mp3 competitors are sizing down their players, creative seems to be sizing their's up. If they could somehow cut the thickness of this player to half while not sacrificing any of it's other features, it would be perfect. Still with it's minor imperfections, this player is still worth every penny and outshines it's competitors. If you value portability over video capability, I'd go for the Zen M. The Zen M still plays video...but on a smaller screen.(And it's cheaper too)

One last thing, the viewing angle on this player is great, unlike the first model zen vision media player that came out a few years ago. And since the screen resolution and dimensions are the same as the PSP, so you can buy a screen protector for the Psp and use it on this baby :) Cool huh?

Update: For those of you interested in a case for the Zen Vision W 30GB version, the Nintendo DS lite is about exactly the same size as the 30GB Zen Vision W so many of the cases for the DS lite work pretty well for 30GB Zen W as well. However the 60GB Zen W is a bit thicker and the cases probably won't work as well for it.

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Review by Jon Almada : Amazing!

I just got my Zen Vison W yesterday. Pulled it out of the box and had it up and running within 30 minutes. The entire package is well thought out with an AC adapter, decent earbuds and a well designed software package for importing content into the player. I took about one hour to import my music to the player and also used the Zencast service to import Rocketboom and other video broadcasts to the player with zero problems. The import process for RSS-driven videocasts (no, I won't use the i*od word, since a certain fruit-based company is using legal tactics to go after anyone who even utters the word now). The Zencast service that Creative sponsors is just great and really is simple to use for both the Zen Vision and Zen touch players I have. I hope Creative extends the service with more functionality and features over time. I'm still working out how to load videos from my Directv Tivo, but overall, this is an amazing package. The only weak area I see is that the FM radio is a bit insensitive for folks like me who live further out in the boonies. I was able to pick up stations and feel that if I were closer in to the city, I'd do just fine. Powerup switch is sort of unique with a momentary contact switch that takes a little getting used to. At first, I thought I had a broken switch and then it became clear that this was all designed in. I'm going to be careful when turning the unit on and off, since I never have liked momentary spring-driven switches - They just seem to break unless you are very careful. I would expect that Creative used high-quality components for the switch. Powering off uses the same switch with a momentary hold to signal the system to shutdown. The system powers off and on in a matter of seconds and despite complaints about similar units being slow, I don't see what the big deal is. Where else can you get this kind of performance, quality and sheer information storage? If it takes a second to get things to work, so be it - Frankly, I think it is a very good balance that Creative achieved with technology, form, function and limitations. In other words - They did great! I was surprised that the sound w/o earbuds, using the inboard speaker was as good as it was. It can overdrive a bit, but honestly, it is just fine for watching videos in quiet locations and the sound is clean and just loud enough for most needs. I was very pleased with the video quality. The screen quality is outstanding and the angle of view is *very* good. I have yet to try hooking the output to my Westinghouse LCD, but I'll bet it'll be amazing. The photo section is great too - I was able to transfer all my photographs quickly and the ability to play through the pictures is just great. Very nicely done. I also took one picture and zoomed in on a spot I liked and used that zoom picture for my wallpaper. Yep, they have wallpaper that can change just like on a PC and it really is pretty cool. Getting data into the system is easy and just involves a USB cable and plugging into a standard Windows XP box. I was up and running in minutes. The battery charge time states 3 hours on the box, but it seemed like I was topped off in far less time, so I'll have to see how it goes over time. The only weird thing is how to set the time and date. Takes a bit of fudging to work the menus and figure how to do it, but overall, it was pretty easy. The alarm feature was interesting too... I'd guess you really need to set the volume high to make it work and I'd suggest future versions of the Zen incorporate a small buzzer or pleasant chime to make this feature shine more. Creative hit a home run with this unit and this should be the standard for all portable video. Huge screen, easy to operate menu and high quality. I'm glad I've always stuck with Creative - they always give exceptional quality and functionality for a great price. I recommend this player highly and think you'll be glad you bought it if you go for it. By the way, all my friends and family were blown away when they saw it... ;>) I'm happy with the product and will be using it for a long time to come.

Review by Kallen L. Mayer "Kal M." : Great Purchase

If you want to carry every media file on your computer with you at all times, this is the way to go! With the 4.3 in. screen you have absolutely NO problem wathcing movies or anyother video wherever you are. This is also the only media player i have ever seen with an external speaker which makes showing off everything ive got even easier. I suggest this player for everything except if you want music while you jog or work out etc. It's far to big to fit comfortably in your pocket, but once you get used to all the other great features it has to offer that wont even be a problem anymore. Another thing i like about this product that i havent seen with anyother player is that you can delete media off it without connecting it to a computer. the microphone works great and i've even recorded some of my band practices with it to show my friends. the best part id say is that you dont even have to use the software given to you to put media on the zen. for example, you cannot put media on the IPOD without ITUNES, you cannot put media on the ZUNE wihtout the ZUNE software, but wiht the zen you can sycronize it to multiple different programs, windows media player being one of them (thats what i use, its easy to use and works great). you can even open your media player as a folder and put media on there with a drag and drop method. i do, however, suggest installing the creative software because it automatically converts unplayable video formats to work on your zen! GREAT PRODUCT!

Review by Michael Freedman "Michael Freedman" : Good product, but here are some warnings

All-in-all a fine product, rather than add to the marketing reviews, here are a couple of points not well communicated.

- you can't copy your owned media (DVDs) onto this player... meaning you are hooked into dowloading amatuer productions or paying for commercial content. The site that Creative promotes (CinemaNow) has stopped distributing to these media players, so available content is limited.

- The device did not charge up when first received. It took two hours to find the answer: there is a piece of tape over the battery contacts which you must remove first (duh!).

- Getting ahold of Creative is not easy, theie web site says a phone # is on their paperwork, but it's not. Their support # is 1-405-742-6622 (not toll free). The first thing they do (before helping with your problem) is try to sell you extended service (don't you hate this crass commercialism?).

- The menu does not have an option for audiobooks, so your books show up as music. I imagine then that random play could drop a bit of Hemmingway into your set (maybe this is a good thing?). In general, audiobook navigation has a way to go.

Review by Pie : non-tech review

My Creative Zen player died on me (through carelessness on my own part) and I decided to get a replacement. I was looking for another mp3 player but spotted this instead. Afer much deliberation - I only wanted to spend under $100 on an mp3 player, so I had to take in account the other features that come with this - I decided to go for it. And I have not regretted it since.

Like I mentioned in review title, this is strictly non-technical, because I am as layman a user as you can get, so the technical stuff just go over my head. I will simply tell you what I like about this player and why I feel every penny spent is justified. I'm not someone who will read the whole manual, and I'd rather just start using and learn as I use the item. Only when I am stuck or something bad happens do I start looking through, therefore everything I say here is from my own experience with my player. This might be a good review for someone else like me.

My findings:

The screen is very good, the picture is clear and the angle of view is good. My friends and I crowded around it when I first got it, and everyone could see clearly what was shown on the screen. The sound on the built-in speaker isn't that great for songs, but for watching a movie, it works good.

It plays everything I have downloaded so far. When the format or file is unsuitable, the software automatically tells you to convert. All you have to do is follow the steps and the files will be changed to fit into the player. It will even transfer the file when the conversion is finished. Granted, conversion takes a while (I don't know what a standard time to convert a full movie file is though) but usually I leave it to convert and transfer while I sleep and everything's done by the time I wake up. I love how I can just leave it to work while I go away or to sleep.

The files you download, if under a folder, will automatically be transferred under a folder of the same name. I haven't worked out if I can move the files around in the player yet (when hooked to the computer), because I would like to just have all movies under one folder instead of having 20 differently named folders with 1 movie in each. But some people might like this aspect, so it's a personal issue for me.

A small thing that I like is that the album picture of the song you're playing will be displayed when you play the song. This is not the case for all songs, especially if downloaded from unknown sources online. But if you ripped it from your cds, it should display the picture.

I'm still a little confused about how the fast forward and rewind button works. It seems that for some movies it will simply skip to bookmarked points, whereas others it will work as if it's a VCR and you have to stop it. When in such a "VCR mode", picture doesn't run while in fast forward or rewind, so you'll need to get used and I bet you'll be able to estimate well with experience.

There are a few view modes on this player, Fit to Screen, Stretch to Full, Zoom to Full & Original Size. I find myself using Zoom to Full when viewing widescreen movies. The Stretch to Full makes everything look out of proportion, so I'm not touching that.

I tried the built in microphone once to record my friend snoring from about 2 feet away. I couldn't hear it when I play back on the built-in speaker but I can hear the snoring when I use the headphones. Another instance I recorded my friends and I chatting normally while sitting at different positions in a enclosed room, and we could hear just fine from the speakers when we play it back. So it might be ok for normal volume recording but most likely you'll use it for personal voice recording.

I don't know if it's a technical issue, but I'm bummed that you can't use the fm radio without using the headphones. It'd have been nice to be able to set it down and listen to the radio sometimes.

I haven't had the player go flat on me yet - it charges up whenever it's plugged through the USB, so I never have to worry about it. I only plug it in with the adaptor when I am in a hurry to charge it up, otherwise I wait till I am transferring files on it. It gives good playback life, although I haven't really timed it. All I know is I bring it with me on the road and after watching 2 or 3 movies, it's still not out. The auto-shutdown feature is great because there will be the occasion when you just forget to turn it off and you'll be glad that it didn't run flat because of that.

I uploaded photographs and although the quality of the pictures isn't perfect (you get that compressed look), it's more than sufficient to be able to view the photographs in detail. You can even rate your pictures so that you can view only pictures from a certain rating that you wish. Of course, the slideshow feature is always a good thing.

Plugging the player into the tv was easy! Once plugged in, your tv screen will reflect what is shown on the player. All you have to do is select your movie/music/photo slideshow and play as per normal! It's that simple!

A lot of people have complained about the size of it, though I admit it is a little bulky, I don't see the point of having a tiny player which will come with a tiny screen and then you won't be able to view much anyway. So for my viewing enjoyment, I'll gladly accept the size :)

Hope this has been helpful to you!

Review by Xeon : Friends Dont Let Friends Buy iPods

Since iPods have flooded the market, I will compare this player with the ever so popular iPod since I also owned that player before this one. I've owned this player for about 1 month now so I think I have a pretty good idea of how this thing is. I will try to review every level so you have a great idea about what you get with this player. I will skip the physical design of the player since, its obvious from the photos. WHY I BOUGHT THIS PLAYER: I bought this player after I was fed up with my iPod dying on me after 1.5 years. I know that seems alot in terms of owning an iPod, but when you put it on the lowest settings possible, it just doesnt cut it for me. So I decided to try the best Creative had to offer in terms of competition to the iPod, and that is the Creative Zen Vision W. FEATURES: You'll find many features that the iPod has on the Zen Vision W (ZVW for short). Music - In terms of music you can browse by artist, album, genre, playlist, all tracks, recordings, bookmarks, and a DJ option. The last three will make you scratch your head if you are an iPod user. Thats because, the ZVW also comes with a built in microphone and of course you can listen back to your recordings, hence the option. The bookmark function is used to have you start off where you left off on a certain track when you had wondered off to other songs. You are allowed 10 book marks at one time. The DJ option are Creative's Pre-made playlists where you can choose it to play the top 20 popular songs, random songs that you have yet to listen to on your player, random songs, song that are highly rated, songs have yet to be rated, and an album of the day. When listening to music the quality was pretty much the same as the iPod, I didnt notice any difference in sound quality without the EQ settings which are (Jazz, Acoustic, Vocal, Classical, Disco, Pop, New Age, Rock, and your own custom made EQ). The EQ I must admit is a little quirky however I think its my stigmatism I've gained after using the iPod. You also have the option of increasing your bass, turning on smart volume (which is the equivalent of the iPod's Sound Check, a volume limiting feature that is password locked, and the option of whether to have the ZVW's speaker on, off, or on auto (the speaker plays when you have no earphones in it). The sound of the speaker for the player is somewhere from mediocre to above average though I barely use the speaker. The music presentation is pretty similar to the iPod. You have a thumbnail of the album art to the left and the track name, followed by the album, and the artist to the right. Below that information, you can see the track progress which you can speed through or reverse and obviously skip back or forward.Pressing the OK button while the song is playing will lead you to the screen where you can rate the track (again the same as the iPod), however pressing it a third time will not lead you to an enlarged photo of the album but where the track you are listening to in comparison to the tracks that are on the playlist. The one thing that the ZVW lacks is a good way to make a playlist on the go on the player, I have yet to successfully create one. I often find my problem to be that I have whole albums on a playlist rather than certain songs. For me, I have to make my playlists on the computer. The ZVW also has a submenu you can open up to see the details of the track such as how many times you've played it, the genre, the artist, album, song name, track duration and track bit rate. You can also - though I don't now what the purpose is - tell the player that the next time you link up to your computer you want to purchase the track you are listening to. One thing iPod users may moan about is that the ZVW ONLY supports wma and mp3 , so that iTunes Collection you just bought is not going to sync up right away, though creative does give you a converter to convert your file, and if that fails.... burn your tracks as an audio cd and then rip 'em. The battery life was pretty true to the product description... 18 hours. Photos - In terms of photos, there's not much to say about the photos. You can view them in a slideshow with music with 8 different transitions, where they are variations of the way the photos slide off the page and one where it fades the photos in and out. You can hook up the ZVW to a TV and share your photos that way. You can also use your photos as wallpaper for your player and change different themes. The PSP wallpapers can be used on here. Finally, the ZVW only shows jpeg photos which are the most common format of photos so it shouldn't be a problem. Videos - In terms of videos, this player centers itself around it. The video section is categorized with Zencasts (creative's version of a podcast), video and TV (files you categorized as TV). It supports many formats such as AVI, MJEPG, MPEG-1, MPEG-2, DIVX, XVID, MP4 and WMV9. This should just about cover every popular format of video that is downloaded. If your video is compatible with the player which is a rare occasion, the included video converter on the computer will help convert it which takes about 3/4 the amount of time to watch the file. On even rarer occasions, though it has happened before, you should have a converter other than the creative handy as well. Videos depending on the quality of your original video, are pretty well presented on the ZVW.That in itself was a major selling point for me because I hated having to convert all the time with the iPod. My copies of Heroes, BBC's Planet Earth, and other files have shown up pretty crisp and clear with a wide viewing angle and since its in widescreen I dont have those pesky letter boxes above and below the screen. Even if there are (such as the 4:3 aspect ratios (the no-widescreen square-ish videos) I can adjust the video so that it stretches out to the entire screen and I dont really notice a size distortion when I do that. A unique feature about the ZVW is that it can fast forward through files at certain speeds in the same manner as how you would fast forward through a DVD, so you know where to stop exactly. Of course the video picks up right where you left it. I cannot answer you how the unbox works with this player since I've never used the service, I just download videos where I can and watch them on my player. One minor gripe I have though is that due to the size and weight of the player, I cannot hold this player through out a whole movie (I cant do it even with my iPod) so I usually just end up putting it on my arm or something. What I am trying to say is that a stand would have been nice. You can also view your video content on TV with the A/V cable. When hooked up to the TV it may seem weird since the display of the menu will be small but when the video plays it will fill up the screen and I found the quality of it being interpreted onto the TV set(the old boob tube not the new flat panel wide screens) a pretty accurate interpretation of the video file. And for those tech geeks out there, sorry but you cant record TV shows directly into this player. One thing that I felt could've maybe done better is to have sequaential video playback, which it did lack. The battery life for video was very good... 4.5 hours which is about an hour longer than the iPod's. Compact Flash Card - Sorry, I havent used it. Microphone - I've found this to be very useful as a college student as a I record my professor's lessons. The microphone tells you how strong the sound source is when you are recording it, and you can stop, pause, or split when recording. The microphone was able to pick up sound pretty well and the quality of the recording was a very good interpretation of the actual sound of the source. FM Radio - I live in NYC and we have a ton of radio stations here and the ZVW was able to pick up the signals of each station easily and it shows how strong the signal of the station is in the same manner as a cellphone signal. Autoscan makes presetting alot easier as all the available stations are presetted, so you can just skip from one station to the next with just a push of a button. OTHER NOTEABLE FEATURES: - You can sync up the player to outlook so that you can store (though you cant edit) your schedule for the month, year etc. - Timer feature closes the player after a certain time (good for those times you are going to sleep with this on) - Control the brightness and how long the backlight stays on. - PROTECT which files can and cannot be seen with a password rather than the iPod making you lock out the whole player - DELETE files directly off the player - DURABLE design of the player itself - I dropped it from 5 feet FACE FIRST into my hardwood floor and not a scratch on my player... can your iPod withstand that? - INEXPENSIVE MAINTENANCE - #1 complaint about the iPod is the battery and how you have to spend alot of money to get it replaced. With the ZVW, you just slide out the battery off of the back like you would a cellphone battery and replace it yourself. The battery sells for 50 bucks... whicb is alot cheaper than what you have to pay to replace the iPod's. - EVERYTHING INCLUDED - Thats right, no having to go out and buy the freaking charger seperate, or the A/V Cable. Everything you need is in the box. BOTTOM LINE : Though this player is quiet bulky compared to the iPod - some users might have to use two hands to hold it - it has alot of features that outnumber the iPod. The great display, and number of format support for videos, the items that come included with the player, the number of features it has, and the cheaper price I feel outweigh the iPod. The only reason I can see people buying an iPod is to look like everyone else... that and only carry around light things that don't really have many features.