Creative Zen 2 GB Portable Media Player (Black)
by Creative
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List Price: Our Price: $65.00 You Save: $14.99 (19%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Category: Network Media Player See more product details |
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Customers in the UK,
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Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Creative Zen 2 GB Portable Media Player (Black)
Customer Review: Good flash player, terrible interface, inconsistent SD
Summary: 3 Stars
On the one hand, feature wise this isn't a bad player. The screen is crisp and clear, with great video playback. Audio quality lives up to the Creative name. And managing files is as simple as drag-and-drop... no ridiculous software to install. It does all of the actual media playback stuff rather well.
On the other hand, the interface for playing back songs is annoyingly counter intuitive. Sometimes you want to press forward to go forward, sometimes pressing forward goes to the right on the current screen. Sometimes to go back you press backwards, sometimes you have to press return. In general, until you get used to the interface it is simply strange and weird. You'd be hard pressed to explain some of the reasoning behind the developer's choices.
The second major ding is SD card support. I expected that the Creative Zen would be a nice little system for managing collections of music on HDSC cards. However, deleting from the SD card is simply not supported. Not only that, but all of the databasing operations (play by artist, etc) are simply not supported on external cards. The card is a glorified Hard Drive, which may meet your needs but doesn't meet mine.
Like many Creative players before it, the Zen is a beautifully sounding player with excellent hardware marred by frustrating software issues. It is one of the better players out there, but it could be much better with a little firmware love.
Customer Review: Confusing, then dead
Summary: 1 Stars
I got this Zen before I knew that it can only be recharged by plugging in to a computer. It was supposed to be a gift for someone who did not own a computer (I was going to load it for her), so I wish I had known. Anyway, decided to keep it for myself and started transferring files... The software that came with it did not convert my videos properly even though they were in the preferred format. Much communication with the Creative tech help... They kept referring me to irrelevant articles on their website (like "How to play home videos on your computer") and told me several times to use "Creative Centrale" to transfer my videos. After much badgering, I finally got them to tell me that Creative Centrale is their software, which by the way is NOT the software that came with the Zen. On my own, I discovered that using Windows Media Player was perfect for transferring videos to the Zen. Yay.
So I was all excited to start... The next morning, I grabbed my Zen and plugged it into the computer. No recognition. Was it on? Yes, the indicator light showed that it was on. Was there anything on the screen? No, it was blank. What about turning it off and turning it back on, which works with every other electronic device? I'll be darned - it would not turn off! Blank screen, and wouldn't turn off, after 10 days of ownership. I had to send it back.
Darn.
Customer Review: Great mp3 player, except one thing
Summary: 4 Stars
This is a great Mp3 player, with expandable memory, folder browsing, no software needs to be installed for copying mp3s or video, great sound quality, customizable equalizer, nice video playback divx, mpeg, radio, and microphone.
I-pod is not even close to it. You stuck on stupid Itunes with IPOD.
and you have to tag all your mp3's, even if you tag them you have bunch of unorganized mp3's floating around.
But with Zen, you don't have to tag any mp3. You can just search between folders and you can see the file names and folders just like your pc or mac. and when you copy your mp3's you can copy back to you PC.
Music sharing with friends is just that easy. you don't need to install softwares, it's works like any flash memory.
But there is only one thing needs to be improved. Folder browsing is only available for SD memory and if you want to search new music or video while listening music, music just stops.
Also on SD mode, you can't create playlist. These are annoying.
if creative can fix that with their new firmware upgrade, it will be perfect.
But it is still better than Ipod, at least now I can upload my new musics without tagging or lunching Itunes or any other mp3 softwares.
Just get 2gb version and buy yourself a 16gb or 32gb SD or SDHC memory and you are all set.
Customer Review: Good for the price.
Summary: 3 Stars
I ordered the Zen for my 9 year old. She had no problem figuring out how to use the features. The display is clear and large enough for the intended use. The included software work pretty good as well. The only real problem I have encountered is with video playback. Short videos (music) from youtube usually play well, but you need to convert from one format to another to get it to play on the Zen. Sometimes the audio and video get out of sync in the conversion process, other times it's great. Feature length movies, however, have stopped on their own during playback (fixed by fast forwarding a bit) or sometimes lock the Zen up alltogether, requiring pushing the reset on the bottom of the player. Most of the video problems may be with the software that I have been trying to rip and convert dvd's to wmv format. I've not completely given up on movies, but I'm not sure I can make them play like they should.
Mp3's are clear, as well as the radio. The radio doesn't have a strong tuner, though. Powerful stations can be heard clearly, but weaker ones will not come in at all.
All in all, I don't regret this purchase and comparing the competition and prices, I would buy it again.
Customer Review: ZEN is the Great!
Summary: 5 Stars
I owned Creative ZEN for three Months, and no problem. This is my 4th Creative MP3 player. I can make limit volume and password to protect my ear from too high volume. I'm deaf and can't understand talk, but I can use program to make my movie have subtitles by use AnyDVD and CloneDVD, I used to import from DVD to my MP3 player. It is good for any deaf people can enjoy watch movie and hear music smooth sound. ZEN's screen are easy to watch movie with two people. Also I can import music from iTunes to ZEN, just like iPod. With Media Explorer program are easy to put into MP3 player. This program can reduce size picture when I put picture into MP3 Player to save space flash.
The music is great sound in my MP3 player when I turn on Bass Boost. Screen is great with 16.7 million colors and easy to watch movie in sunlight. Picture and video in MP3 player is great picture with no noise picture. I can put more than 2 GB by put SD or SDHC. I don't have to worries about SD, just like normal put USB Flash into the computer. If my MP3 player is full I don't have to buy another MP3, all I needed is buy SD or SDHC. SD is easier to find in store than buy mircoSD.