Creative ZEN Vision:M 30 GB MP3 and Video Player (Black)
by Creative
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List Price: Our Price: $150.00 You Save: $99.99 (40%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Category: Network Media Player See more product details |
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Customers in the UK,
Buy this product at amazon.co.uk
for British Pounds
Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Creative ZEN Vision:M 30 GB MP3 and Video Player (Black)
Customer Review: truly a feature loaded player that's well worth the investment!
Summary: 5 Stars
I consider myself well versed with MP3 players (i've owned an ipod and creative products), software, and features and after much research and questions, i decided to go with Creative for a second time and am very glad i did!
This is truly a feature packed MP3 player that's simple to use for anyone, and offers plenty of goodies for your money. I've read some folks who are high on the ipod horse, however, i prefer not to be told where i have to buy my music and once i realized that the only way to purchase music for my ipod was to buy it at itunes, i felt like i was forced back into the apple store long after i had purchased my ipod. Unless you pirate your music, the only place you can buy music is at itunes... the apple money machine continues to roll on. When you buy an ipod, apple has you where they want you.
The Creative Zen Vision M takes the personal music player to another level by expanding on the basics of an ipod photo and gives you so much more freedom then you thought was possible. The physical size of this unit is about 4" tall x 2 1/2" wide x 3/4" thick, making it slighty thicker then the ipod photo and weighing in slightly more. When you hold this in your hands, you can feel the quality. The buttons are located in easy to use areas and the backlights are vibrant and have a soft "click" when pressed. The screen is incredible! Believe the hype! The color is bright and crisp and truly makes other named mp3 players look black and white! The numbers don't lie... check out the specs and see for yourself!
The unit includes a USB 2.0 cable, A/C adapter (yes, ipod users, you heard that right... it doesn't cost more), software, headphones (that acutally sound halfway decent), and a carry pouch. I admit, the pouch is a bit goofy and useless... creative really needs to stop doing the pouch thing. You can purchase some great accesories including A/V Cables, leather case, dock, wired remote, and other goodies.
Setup is a breeze with this player, installing the drivers and software was real simple. Once the drivers are installed, you can decide weather you'd like to use windows media player 10 or the creative managing software. The included software is feature loaded with video compression software, mp3 encoding, photo management, and other goodies. Transfering music is as easy as dragging and dropping as is importing photos and downloading movies to the player. Learning how to use this player is half the fun!
Another great feature with this unit is the "plays for sure" technology. This player is compatable with many of your music membership services like napster, rhapsody, or (my personal choice) virgin digital (best price per month). Or, get this, you're actually FREE to decide where you'd like to buy music from, and no matter where you get it, it will actually play on the player! How about that! you can shop around for the best price on your favorite music!!! You can even listen to your favorite radio station (news, talk shows, music) and college students will love the built in voice recorder for classes and organizing those recordings is a snap on your computer!
Creative is also working on the video content portion of their content and currently allows anyone to create and upload their own "Zencasts" to their website and share with others. I understand that Encore is about to release video content for creative users with more on the way!
Audiophiles will love the sound quality and the features to tweek the sound to your liking. The battery seems to last about 12 hours for me before completely dying and charging time takes just a shade under two hours. I haven't noticed the unit getting warm with normal use at the office or during trips to and from. You should however be prepared for the co-workers and their questions and envy... two guys at the office decided to order one shortly after seeing mine.
This player is truly the best kept secret in a world that's seemingly dominated by a carefully marketed toy that scratches if you breath on it. IF you're looking for the real deal, with flexability, and is truly feature loaded then look no further! Creative has a real winner on their hands!
Customer Review: Making the choice.
Summary: 4 Stars
While the Vision: M and the iPod Video (5G) both have their strengths, neither is the perfect mp3 player.
A quick rundown: The Vision: M has a better interface, better file handling, and a more vibrant screen. The iPod is slightly slimmer, and perhaps more stylish, and has more accessories and a wider viewing angle from the top.
The screen on the Vision: M is better looking. Put the iPod and the Vision: M side-by-side with an identical image and it is instanlty clear that the Vision: M is brighter and more vibrant. The minor downside is that if you angle the screen down or up a little too far, the colors either white-out or invert. This means that you have to tilt the player just right for optimal viewing. The iPod colors aren't as rich, but the wider viewing angle doesn't require any particular tilt to see the screen. Your hand will get tired from constant positioning if you watch a movie on the Vision: M, but your eyes will be a lot happier with the images they are seeing.
As far as storage space is concerned, both units are exactly the same. Battery life is similar between the two and you won't notice a difference.
Along with storage space and battery life, something else to consider is the user interface. Apple's player controls are easy to use and very responsive. The Vision M: has a touchpad, which is also very responsive and easy to use. The 4 buttons surrounding it require some force to depress. Hopefully the buttons loosen up a bit with use; otherwise, you'll gripe every time you strain to press them.
Despite the good hardware controls, the software interface of the iPod is lacking. The breadth and depth of the functionality and options available in the Vision: M are better. Things like themes, folders, navigation options, shuffle options, etc. that are not available in the Ipod stand out on the Vision: M. As an example, there is no bookmark function for iPod audio unless a file is a specially created "audio book". If you have a few long audio files (e.g. recorded lectures, etc.) that you want to pause in the middle and then return to later, you're out of luck. The Vision: M does have a bookmark feature so you can do just that. On the downside, neither of them will let you bookmark a movie. Nor will either of them let you bookmark a song within the context of a playlist, a nice feature if you listen to a long playlist, stop in the middle to do something else, and then want to return later to the same song within the playlist.
Apple's iTunes software is awful because if you plug someone else's iPod into your computer you are likely to wipe out all the songs on their iPod. Once your files go onto the iPod, its almost impossible to get them back out (it is possible to get around this with third party software, but it is a far from perfect solution). The Vision: M, on the other hand, not only lets you easily transfer files back and forth, but also lets you organize them any way you want in folders on the player. Since many people have built up a music collection over the years in their own unique folder structures, being able to keep them intact on the player is important.
The iPod is too restrictive since it requires very specific audio and video formats to work with the player. With the Vision: M, there is no need to spend time jumping through file format hoops.
Finally, the bundled USB adapter of the Vision M: requires a cable and a second adapter to connect. This means you will tote two things around with you to connect to a computer when all you really need is one. The iPod has only one cable. On the other hand, the bundled adapter on the Vision: M allows you to plug into a wall socket to charge. The iPod requires a completely different adapter to plug into the wall. It doesn't even come with the player; you have to pay extra.
In the end, there is no clear winner. If you like style, small size, and choice of accessories, perhaps you'll be happier with the iPod. If you like control over your files and rich screen color (with a little positioning), perhaps the Vision: M is better.
Customer Review: Why I chose this over an iPod
Summary: 5 Stars
I'll try and avoid philosphical discussions of the iPod and competition. I don't know why iPod users seem to need to bash products that they've never seen or touched, but they seem to.
I was looking to replace my Zen Touch 20 GB. I was almost going to buy the black iPod video 60 GB. I went with this instead. I only wish that it had a 60 GB model.
They've made improvements over the Zen Touch. The buttons on the front are better, the navigation is better, and the USB cable charges the thing as well, the external power supply isn't required (although it is supplied!). The iPod charges $30 for their AC charger, but this one is included, kinda. The only bad thing about that is they both plug in to an external dongle. The dongle plugs into the Zen Vision, and both the AC adapter and the USB plug into the dongle. I'd like to leave my USB plug at home, and the AC adapter at work so that I always have power somewhere, but I have to remember to bring the dongle with me everywhere I go, or buy another one or buy a docking station. Kinda irritating. In addition to that, there is a noticeable lack of accessories for the Creative player. If that bothers you.
So as for the un-avoidable comparison to the iPod... It's slightly less than once heavier than the 30GB iPod. Not a big deal to me. It's dimentions are identical to the iPod from the front, but it's a little bit thicker. Extra space to house the FM receiver, recorder, and more battery life I suppose, not a big deal for me. It's very stylish, solid, good looking machine. So is the iPod. However, the video iPod that I was playing with actually had a bit of a sharp edge where the plastic front met the metal back, which completely ruined the asthetics for me. The Vision also has a screen with more colors and brighter images. It just looks better.
But most of all, the great thing about the Vision is the fact that I don't have to use iTunes. The iPod and iTunes are a great combination for those who aren't the most computer saavy. But the Vision works with creative's iTunes equivilent just fine, in addition to windows Media Player 10, in addition to the windows file system directly, akin to a mass storage device. So with a little knowledge, you have many more options. I like that.
OK, so even more most of all was my real test. One morning, I wanted to watch a 15 minute segment of a local new show on the train. I was hoping to be able to plug it in to the TV and record it directly, like some other products on the market do. I wasn't. However, I was able to record it on tivo, transfer that video to my computer, and using Windows Media Player convert, resize and transfer to the Vision in one step. All in all, it took about 30 minutes, but only because tivo is really slow. If I had tried to do that with the iPod, I would have had to transfer the video from tivo, find some sort of software to convert it to a format that QuickTime Pro can play, then convert and save it in the right size/format for the iPod, and then transfer it to the player. I never did it with the new show recording because I didn't know how to get it into Quicktime, but I did take a 5 minute MOV file that I already had and converted it to iPod format and that alone took forever. It's this lack of flexibility that killed the iPod for me. The Vision will take many different formats without converting, the iPod will only take a very specific format. That's bad in my book. Now if you only EVER plan on buying video from iTunes, then that won't be a problem for you. The rest is just a pain in the butt. I can't make that committment.
So that did it. I love the thing, although I'm still kinda getting used to it. I'm not anti iPod, but the iPod just isn't for me. I'm above it.
Creative has been making these things for a long long time, and although apple has come along with a very good product for the masses, it isn't the end-all be-all. Apple has, however, motivated some of the Asian players again, and there's nothing wrong with a little healthy competition.
Customer Review: amazing...truly amazing
Summary: 5 Stars
Ive been in the process of buying a mp3 player and spent countless hours researching the best of the best, trying to get the biggest bang for the buck...look no further.. The Creative Zen Vision: M has a 30GB hard drive thats able to store up to "15,000 songs", "120 hours of video", and "tens of thousands of photos". It also has a FM radio (with the ability to record songs off the radio), a calender, contact list, and task menu (of which all can be synched with Microsoft Outlook).
I have to admit, im not a real big fan of the ipod..tis a product for the followers of the glorious (only people who want to seem cool buy it). I, myself, love to be different (and still like to look good doing it) so when i saw this product, the features, the PRICE...i knew this was the perfect player...
I was skeptical at first, reading some of the other reviews...complaints about problems with freezing, minor things like- "the buttons are too hard to push", "ive only gotten 11-12 hours of music", and other such stupidity... The Creative Zen Vision: M has a 4.5 rating on Amazon whereas the Ipods have only 4 stars...i mean, whats up with that? If you look at reviews for this product you'll probably see some really dumb ones...like this one posted by an Ipod freak-
"Why settle for less, when you can get a brand new original iPod Video 60GB for Free! I got mine from this web site: bestfreeproducts.info/ipod-video"
What was that?! The Ipod people are getting scared...lol.. Anyway, i got mine and have had it for a week and it works PERFECT! No freezing, no glitches, perfect sound quality, the easiest, most user-friendly software EVER, a great scroll pad for selecting music!
Ok, now here's the real meat of this review:
The great things the Creative Zen Vision: M has-
1. GREAT battery life
2. A multitude of colors (262,144 vivid colors ), making images clearer and sharper
3. 30GB of memory...whats not to love about that?
4. FM radio...a nice plus for those random moods
5. FM radio recorder
6. Can store videos and photos in addition to the music
7. Can create playlists and slideshows using the awesome Creative Zen Mdeia Explorer
8. Media can easily be dragged and dropped into player
9. Can buy an AV cable to hook up to tv to play videos and slideshows
10. Voice recorder
11. Calender and such
12. Scroll button (the controls in general)
13. Price...Ipod-299.99
Creative Zen Vision: M- 268.99 Obvious choice?
14. Display (has a clock, time left panel, and the ability to change color themes to go with the background picture)
15. Oh...duh, you can set your own background picture
Some bad things-
1. Have to convert files in order for player to read them (but the Zen Media Explorer software that comes with it will ask if you would like to convert and will do it for you)
2. Have to buy case and charger (if you want to charge from a wall outlet) charging from a wall outlet takes 2hours vs. the 6.5 hours it takes to charge by computer
3. The black color of the player makes scratches more visible...get a CASE!
Ok, another important part...what the package from Amazon includes (some reviews are deceiving so id like to set them straight)-
1. Creative Zen Vision: M
2. Software
3. Adapter (for charging on computer and transferring files)
4. USB cable
5. Earphones
6. Pouch (it is what it is, a simple leather pouch...Best Buy sells a nice holder with belt clip on their website)
It DOES NOT come with the power adapter to charge by way of wall outlets...it DOES NOT come with AV cable
Hope that this review will be as helpful to you and clear as possible..the last thing you need when trying to make a investment involving a good sum of money is to have confusing reviews...
Customer Review: I like it better than that pod thingy
Summary: 5 Stars
I have one of those pod thingies. It's very nice. But it is very difficult to operate where I use these things most... while driving. You must also utilize Itunes to manage your music. I have thousands of music and audiobooks. It is no fun to go through all of these and select one at a time to decide which go to the device and which do not. That said, the pod does let me play by composer. I do enjoy all kinds of music but I am a real classical junkie. So this is a pretty nice option.
So on to the Creative unit. The first thing that I checked for was the availability of batteries for the device. My Ipod must have the battery replaced by the factory. I will never purchase one again for this single reason. The Creative folks have one. It is pricey but I don't plan on replacing the batteries all that often.
Files can be transferred in various ways. You can use a couple of applications that come with the unit or just drag files over through your Windows Explorer. I really like this feature.
While I won't be using the device for video, I do like to carry pictures around of my family and the telescopes that I make. It's a snap to put any files that you want on the device. And the color display is very bright and easy to see. I didn't expect that I'd be using the device for this. I just wanted lots of space for mp3 files. But it turned out to be something that I will indeed use.
Contacts? Wha? This is cool! This is another unexpected delight. I could never copy my contacts to my pod. This was simple folks. And all my contact information complete with phone numbers and addresses are right at hand.
I can fit about 4800 "songs" on the unit. I rip at 192kb/sec so my files are a bit larger than normal. And classical music often plays longer than your normal 3 to 4 minute pop song. This is fine for me. I would have purchased a 40Gb unit had Circuit City one for sale.
There are two things you should be aware of before you lay down your cash:
1)If you are a classical junkie, you'll not be able to sort your files by composer. This is really painful. What I had to do was create playlists for my favorite composers. A utility that comes with the utility allows you to resort your files into folders according to a couple of choices you make. This is a nice feature. I reorganized my folders according to genre. I really would like to sort files on the fly by composer. Creative... are you listening?
2) I purchased the unit at Circuit City. I drove 90 miles round trip to get there and back. When I returned home, I could not navigate the menus on the device. I took the unit back the next day and showed the geekie squawed that it did not work. They agreed and sent me home with a new unit. After I got home, I discovered the new unit would not navigate the menues either. I'm a techie and I've never been so embarrassed...but I'll lay the blame squarely on the documentation. The manual says that you need to tap the pad to select menu items. To me tap, means tap. I tap my mousepad on my computer and it works. On the Creative, you have to put significant force and almost hit it.. okay a very sharp tap. Once I figured it out, I got into the system and found an option to be more sensitive. It is definitely not as sensitive as the pod; it requires more force, which I definitely like. Now I have something that I like. I purchased the little button extension and can use it in the car at night.
One other minor nit is that there are a left and right button available. Forward and reverse? Next and previous? They sometimes work on things but not where you would expect. So just experiment and take notes.
I just took my Zen on a road trip. It ran great. I played music all week (charging from a 12vdc adaptor) and it was great.
Get this one. It's worth it.
Michelle