Customer Reviews

Creative Zen V 2 GB Portable Media Player (White/Green)

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

I noticed a lack of reviews here. If you're interested in buying this player, there are multiple reviews for this same Zen V, except in the black/green color. Same product, same storage GB's.

Look for -- Creative Zen V 2 GB Portable Media Player (Black/Green)

Lots of reviews talking about pluses AND minuses of this player.

Update:

The player freezes with no sound and with the screen on (displaying album artwork), at random times and for no apparent reason. One of my two units had to be reset so many times that it can no longer be reset: it feels like that internal pad you press on with a sharp pin has now disappeared (it must have broken off). Our only recourse now is to wait 3 days for the battery to run dead, and hope that it will be reset simply by recharging it from scratch. We've only had this unit since August (it's now December), so I no longer feel the reliability level of this product is sufficient to justify its purchase. Buy something else that doesn't have to be reset all the time!



I bought the 2 GB model because the 4 GB version wasn't available yet and it had the largest flash memory of any unit that works with my Napster-To-Go subscription, so it can store the largest number of songs and color photographs.

Why did I choose a flash memory based MP3 player? Napster-To-Go compatible hard drive models with much larger storage capacity abound, but I figure they'll break prematurely because they use a hard drive that can't withstand much jogging, accidental bumping or dropping.

I bought two of these players plus the separately sold AC wall charger, and attached one of them to the wall charger for 6 hours, while I attached the other one to a USB port on my PC to charge it for 6 hours.

At the end of 6 hours, the unit attached to the PC was fine until I unplugged it, then it went comatose and would not even revive when the reset button was pushed several times. I had to exchange it for a replacement unit just two days after buying it.

The unit attached to the wall charger was fine, and I went on to load it up with music using my Napster-To-Go subscription. That was fine until 2 weeks later, when my wife charged it on a PC using the USB cable. After charging and disconnecting from the PC, it too went comatose.

This time I was able to revive it by pushing the reset button.

Then I took a look at the other unit, which had been charging on the AC wall charger. It had also gone comatose, and I was able to revive it by pushing its reset button.

The reset button is inside a tiny hole on the left edge of this unit. You can find it by following the thin groove that's below the screen all the way to the left edge of the unit, where you'll find it on the side. The picture in the manual does NOT accurately depict its location.

The hole leading to the reset button is very, very small. The instructions say to penetrate that hole with a pin.

I used the sharp end of a safety pin to do this. When the pin is inserted, it's quite easy to miss the reset button unless the pin is inserted at exactly the right angle. You'll know it's not at the right angle if you don't feel that you're pushing on a pad with a spring behind it when you reset the unit. That pad travels a short distance until it's stopped by a control surface inside the unit; that's when you know it has been reset.

The reset system should be redesigned so that it doesn't depend on the angle you insert the pin to work. I suspect that the first unit I returned could have been reset if I had known that you have to insert the pin at just the right angle to do it. Since I didn't know, my several attempts to reset it were not successful.

Resetting the unit is akin to rebooting a PC: it revives it when the internal software (called "firmware") has frozen by restarting the software. It does not erase your songs or photos.

Make no mistake: this MP3 player looks, feels and works beautifully. However, since the firmware is newly designed, it appears to have bugs relating to disconnecting it from USB or charger power that cause it to freeze, and the reset button is a little hard to use if you don't know about the things I described above that could cause you to be unable to reset it. You may just end up with a unit that's frozen and not be able to reset it.

It needs to be a little more user friendly than that. Hopefully a future firmware update will be available that will lower the occurrence of the unit locking up (freezing), especially when disconnecting from a USB port or AC charger after recharging it. As another user noted, the "safe disconnect" icon is often times not even in the system tray.

If you don't subscribe to Napster-To-Go, your options to get content for your MP3 player are to transfer your favorite songs from CDs you own to your hard disk ("ripping the songs"), or purchase songs one track or album at a time, at a price ranging from 88 to 99 cents per song from Napster, Rhapsody or WalMart.

You can also download books you want to listen to (such as best sellers and classics) or "podcasts" (your favorite newspapers read aloud, or your favorite radio programs like NPR) from a plethora of sites (like NetLibrary or Audible) that make these available, onto your computer's hard drive. Now you can listen to your music, audible books and podcasts over your PC loudspeakers while sitting at your PC.

Then you can transfer your songs, audible books and podcasts from the hard drive of your PC to your MP3 player(s). This enables you to take your MP3 player with you to enjoy listening in your car, in your office, while jogging or working out at the gym, while shopping, or at the pool or the beach to hear your music, audible books and podcasts anywhere.

When I was looking for a MP3 I read a lot of reviews and none of the products had flawless records. Despite some reported problems on the Zen that freezes when being disconnected from a PC(USB connector), I bought one and I am super happy with it.

I have not had a single problem, the sound is great, the size is perfect and it works perfectly with my PC. I did not buy an iPod because I did not like the complexity and restrictions to what source you can download music from and I have no regrets. Installation on my PC was easy and it works perfectly with Media Player. Too easy!! It comes with a little protection bag and that's great to protect your Zen when you throw it in your backpack with the rest of your stuff.

All in all and when comparing with my friends' iPods, I am so glad I bought the Zen. It is cheaper, works great, easier to download music with and maintenance free (my friends buy protective sheets to prevent scratches on their iPod).

Definetely a "BUY"

This is a nifty little unit with easy controls and superior sound quality. My daughter has friends with IPODs and Sansas and this blows them away.

If you want to use this player for WMA audiobooks, think twice before buying the Zen V. I've only been able to transfer about 60% of my audiobook files successfully. Creative says there must be problems with the files, but they transfer to the Rio Nitrus with no problem and play on my PC. The Zen software frequently locks up my PC and TaskManager has trouble ending the programs when they become unresponsive. The earphones included are painful to wear for long. The USB 2.0 charger is slow. The AC wall charger is extra. Otherwise, it's a sweet player.

Even though I ordered this device only on the 19th of Dec. it was ready to go with the other gifts to the in-laws 4 days later (during the height of x-mas shopping season). Not only am I pleasantly surprised with the player...who needs an I-Pod...I found the speed of shipping and service by the company outstanding!

I purchased the 8GB Creative Zen V Plus player during the first week in February. Today, March 6th, I am returning it and this is why:

The package arrived from Amazon. I loaded up the software on my computer, then hooked up the player through the usb cord. I let it charge for 6 hours like the instructions state. Then I proceeded to load some of my music onto the player. So after the music was loaded, I disconnected the player from the usb cable and started to listen to the music. The sound quality was good, the player is easy to navigate in the menus, etc... The problem was about half the music I uploaded was not on the player. I could see the folder and menu option for the artist or genre but the actual file was not there. So I plugged the player back into the usb cord, and pulled up the file location on the player through the computer. The file was there and I could play it just fine through Windows Media Player. I tried to access it again through the player and it was not there. Then I accessed through the computer just fine.

All my songs, all 4,500 of them, are in MP3 format from 56kps for my audio books to 192kps for the songs I ripped from cd's. The player just wouldn't read about half my songs. There was really no rhyme or reason on whish songs it would recognize. I would load an entire album of 15 songs and I could only play 6 or 7 tracks. This happened with my entire music collection.

So I thought maybe the firmware was out of date so I uploaded all the updates from creative which did include a firmware update. It did not solve the problem. I then uploaded some of the same songs that would not play on the Zen V Plus onto my 3 year old Rio and original Ipod Shuffle and they played just fine. I was frustrated at this point so I called the Creative Customer Service. It is strange because they do not post the number for there company anywhere on there website and now I understand why. They have the worst customer service/tech department of any computer/electronic company I have ever spoke with. After three calls, never speaking to someone who I could fully understand as English was definitely not a first language, more like a 3rd or 4th language, I arrived nowhere. They kept telling me they were emailing document to me on how to resolve the problem. No email ever came, checked the junk folder and every other possible place. So I tried a fourth call. This guy basically called me stupid from what I could understand, saying "I can't believe you Americans" and then mumbled something in another language. I asked for a supervisor. He told me that he would escalate my call and someone would call me in 2-3 days. Then he hung up.

I was really amazed that a company would treat its customers in this nature. They really have to respect for there customers and do not want to help them in any way. So I am returning the Creative Zen V Plus player and I also don't plan on buying anything from Creative again.

By the way, after all this, the problem never was fixed.

Also, when doing research on this product, I came across a couple articles and reviews that stated this player would play DIVX files. This is not true. This player will not play any files without being converted first. I took an AVI video that was 100MB and it converted it into a 1.2GB file. The format they use is absolutely a waste of space. If you want to upload an entire movie on MPEG or AVI format, it will end up taking the entire 8GB of space if not more. I converted the movie Cars for my son on a short road trip thinking I could have my music plus his movie. I was wrong, the movie took up 7.1GB after being converted.

I would not recommend this product to anyone. As much as I don't like the IPod, I would recommend it over the Zen V Plus because: 1. It plays all my music 2. They have a customer service/tech support that helps you and cares about its customers.

I hope this helps anyone looking at this player.

Jeff

I've been using my Zen V for a little over 2 weeks now and I'm happy with my purchase. It's very easy to use and it looks and sounds great. I have not had the freezing issue others have mentioned, but I take care to disconnect it properly from my PC after each use. Creative has been great with firmware upgrades on my older Zen Micro so I'm sure they will have updates for the Zen V as well.

I use the Zen V with my own WMA files and also with Yahoo Music. I also purchased an Xmod from Creative and I use it with this player and at my PC. As good as this player sounds, it sounds even better running through the Xmod. I think that will be the case with all compressed music no matter where you are playing it from.

Photos look beautiful on this player. The screen is incredible and it looks great from any angle. I also like that you can change the screen color. It is a small feature, but it is really cool and gives the player a totally different look when you go from the green "jungle" theme to the red "fire" theme, or to any of the other themes.....blue, earth tones, etc.

One last thing I'll mention. I recommend upgrading your headphones or earphones. I have a nice set of the new Aurvana earphones from Creative and they really bring out the great sound quality of the player. They also do a great job of blocking out outside noise so you can enjoy your music at a nice volume without blaring it. I looked at a few of the sets from Shure, but the Creative Aurvanas were much more affordable so I gave them a shot.

This is my second Zen V. Returned the first one because it worked for a month and then kept freezing up on one song. Would NOT reboot despite pushing the tiny reboot/restart button on the side. Exchanged for a new player and within three days it is doint the same thing! I'm going to get another brand. My husband has a Zen Jukebox and has had no problem for years. This is a great size with great features, but that does you no good if the software doesn't work!

I just love Creative products. I have both Zen Vision M and Zen V. The Zen V 2G batteries last all day, the size is small and confortable, you can hang it around your neck all day long and totally forget you have it there. Sound quality is good, the screen is ok, and in general it's a great product.
The only not so great thing is the program it comes with (Zen Cast Organizer), sometimes it doesnt's seem to get along with my PC, although I'm not completely sure it is the program. It's not bad though.
Buy it with your eyes closed!