Customer Reviews

Creative Zen Vision 30 GB Multimedia Player Black

5 star:		(24)
4 star:		(16)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

OK, I did too much research on these devices ... so I am here to share :
I will break down Pros / Cons / General Advice / Why Creative over an IPOD.

OK ... giving this 5 stars, not because it is perfect ... only because *all things being equal*** it is best in its class.
Pros
- SMART drag / drop (which is HUGE if you were an 'old time original napster dude, where you downloaded everyone song you ever wanted, and still have the collection). SMART means this ... if you drag / drop music, pictures and video in one folder, it will ask you if you want Creative to put the files into the appropriate folders. And it does this well. Nice feature, if you have digital pics, and digital movie footage (from the same camera, in the same folder) ... you don't have to do the sorting yourself ... as it handles it for you.
- long battery life
- nice little speaker for 'preview' without having to block out the rest of the world with your headphones (useful if you

are sharing family pics w/ your kids and don't want to depend on the headset)
- nice HD screen BIG screen
- nice wow factor
- beautiful design
- HUGE format replay support (like AVI, which none of the other players support, even the Vision M). AVI for me is huge, because I take a lot of digital camera movie clips, which are in AVI format. I wanted to be able to play these back, without having to convert, and this unit handles it.
- removable battery
- option for EXTENDED 28 hour battery life
- fm, voice recorder
- tv outputs
- Can manage with what ever software you so desire ... (see cons on IPOD below).

Cons
- had to reset unit (remove battery, put battery back in) as the unit froze on me within 72 hour period (however, it is

possible that I had a corrupt MP3 that caused this ... and I did fill it up to 30% capacity and did a lot of moving of files

around. Like any hard drive file system, this can cause some confusion to the underlying OS, so I am less concerned about

the freeze problem ... but will be keeping an eye on it)
- headset does not make sense ... should have come with a right angle plug (minor, and a $20 fix ... just buy a pair of nice

headphones). The plug and its location is prone to become damaged (as it is right by the finger controls, and sticks

straight out ... very annoying). I replaced with a nice pair of Philips right angle plug headphones, which comes with a wind

case, for easy travel (without the tangle).
- like everyone said about the screen ... it is tough to view with 2 eyes ... let me explain ... (which by the way ... if

you change the underlying skin to SILVER, versus the standard DARK BLUE, you will be in much better shape). Now, for the

explaination ...
If you look with your left eye only ... you will notice a sweet spot when viewing. At that sweet spot, the picture will look

like a picture ... when out of that sweet spot, the black becomes 'shiny'. Now, when you are infocus with your left eye,

close it, and open your right eye ... you will notice that your right eye sees the pic a bit shiny. If you adjust the view

angle with your right eye, your left eye will see that bit of shinyness ... and so, on. I am NOT sure what the folks of

creative were smoking when they designed this screen, but it is tough on the eyes. NOT NOT NOT designed to watch a move, but

definately has the WOW factor, because when you look at it, at a glance, the screen is NICE, almost HD.
- If you use polarized lenses, when you are driving, don't even think of looking at the screen, because you wont see

ANYTHING. Somehow, the polarization cancels out the view ENTIRELY. Not sure why, but it does. (Despite the screen flaws,
- expensive (but only $80 more then the Vision M, which is a nice alternative, but does not have the replay speaker, the bigger screen or the extensive format repaly support.



General Advice
Don't rely on MP3 tagging, because your songs will always be out of order. Create Playlists ... this way you can go to your

group of songs and can pinpoint any song you want in SECONDS, versus having to sort through incorrect Genre, mislabeled album

titles, etc. It comes down to this ... label your songs yourself, don't depend on these unreliable MP3 tagging services,

which will completely destroy the existing tags on you songset. I have a huge collection of howard stern comedy clips, and

mp3 autotagging had these songs in ballet, soul, etc. And the funny thing is that these services claimed to have completed

100% accurate tagging to my songs. B*&&S%$!. Stick to your own labeleing, and use playlists. I had over 1300 songs

organized in about 1 hour.

Why Creative over an IPOD :
OK, here is why. IN MY LIFE, I purchased 5 songs through IPOD. Notice the workd PURCHASED, meaning I OWN THEM. Would you

believe that when I went to play those songs on another computer, I WAS REQUIRED TO LOG INTO ITUNES, to ACTIVATE THE APPROVAL

OF THOSE SONGS BEING PLAYED!!!!! Is that insane? Talk about big brother keeping tabs on the S&#! I purchased. I hate to

say this, but APPLE is for people that don't have brains. They are for people that don't want to think, and don't care to

ask questions, and don't care to understand. For those ... there is apple. For everyone else, CREATIVE understands your

personal needs, and also has a talented bunch of engineers that understand what an enthusiast REALLY wants. The CON however

to buying the Creative is that you will have to use 5% of your brain. If that is OK with you, then this is the device for

you. If you don't want to use your brain, and want APPLE to do all of the thinking for you, buy an IPOD ...but beware when

you 'upgrade your computer', and APPLE says there is a limit on how many computers you can play your 'PURCHASED' songs on.

ALSO, why this over an IPOD :
- built in speaker
- nice HD screen, especially if you are a PROUD parent, and want to keep every digital picture of your kids in your shirt

pocket, as well as your full MP3 list.
- TV output, to share slideshows with your family
- EXCELLENT support : Creative picked up the phone BEFORE I purchased the product, as well as after I purchased the product.

BOTH times, I was treated fairly, respectfully, and was helped. STELLAR.
- bad replay support on the IPOD, as it isn't a generic multimedia device.
- IPOD doesn't have FM tuner, doesn't have voice recorder (which is awesome by the way), doesn't have TV output, doesn't have removable battery
- With IPOD, you better love ITUNES, because you have no choice but to be married to it. Not very American, is it?? Kind of like a fixed marriage. With the Creative unit, you can use what ever you desire (its own software, drag / drop within windows, Mozilla firefox, Windows Media Player, etc.)

Got to go folks, there are probably more items, but my fingers hurt from too much typing.

Creative nearly hit bullseye with this device. It's perfectly sized, easy to use, and has plenty of capacity. Images are crisp and colors rich, but the unit falls just short with a narrow viewing angle and sluggish navigation.

First, the bad. The screen is uncomfortable to watch head on. The left tilt helps but it's still not satisfactory. In addition, my unit has several tiny starlike specs that distract me from my movie. Compared to my HP iPaq, the unit takes time to boot and navigation is much slower. Finally, I don't understand their claim to support a variety of formats. For some of my movie clips, like from my digital camera, I can play them right away on my PC on Windows Media Player 10 but have to go through a conversion process to play them on the Creative. And the conversion lowers the quality of the file.

Now for the good. 30GB holds a lot of portable movies. Navigation is a breeze. The sound is wonderful and the screen displays color beautifully, with sharp clean images. The file management software is straightforward. The unit is well constructed and feels good in the hand.

Now for a word about getting content onto your portable video player.
There's always CinemaNow. But if you want to watch the DVDs you own, you've got to rip. Creative includes Video Vault demo software to help get your movies portable, and it's pretty good. I prefer it to the software called "DVD to Pocket PC" because it's more stable. The downside is it creates much larger files (an average movie is 600MB rather than 300MB).

To get DVDs onto the Creative using the demo software, you have to
(1) rip the DVD into a file format the demo software will accept (I use DVD Shrink freeware)
(2) use the demo software to convert that ripped file (2-5GB) into a portable movie file (400-800MB) to put onto the Creative. This step takes 1-3 hours per movie, so I run it overnight.

To get TV onto the Creative, it's helpful to have a Media Center PC with a DVR. This way you can move recorded TV shows to the Creative and watch them on the go.

Yes, this is all very time consuming work, but no different than ripping your CDs to create an mp3 music library. Using this process, one snag I haven't figured out yet is how to get my 16x9 (and wider) movies to play in the correct aspect ratio on the Creative Zen Vision. It ends up being slightly stretched top to bottom. Thankfully, the stretch isn't so bad.

For me the results of all this digital transfer are worth the effort. It's a blast to have this on a trip. The Creative Zen Vision is a pioneer product and a fun toy for the electronics enthusiast.

update: I solved my 16x9 problem. The full version of Video Vault software (whose demo is included with the Zen Vision) has an option for 4:3 or 16:9. This is the best program I've found for converting movies into portable-sized files.

I started looking at items like this one because I wanted a device I could use to store my photos while traveling without lugging a notebook computer around. When I picked this one, I think I made a great choice.

Mainly, in this review, I want to address some misconceptions found in other reviews. First, the screen: The viewing angle is not an issue at all. I was amazed to see what is said in some of the reviews. It is a one-person device, but I can move my head several inches in any direction without problems. The screen is amazingly sharp and clear, and easily visible even in bright sunlight.

Second, you CAN use this as a removable drive. You simple set that up under the extras menu, make sure you have navigated to the removable drive screen on the Vision, and then plug it into a computer. It will come up as a removable drive under My Computer. It works fine. All I had to do to find out about this was read the manual.

It also works fine to store my photos. It's easy, fast, and SMALL, being about the size of a deck of cards. The 30 gigs is enough space for even a pretty long trip, and I take a LOT of photos with a 7 MP camera.

I had no trouble transferring my movies to this, either. I have a very large collection of DVDs, and I wanted to be able to watch them while traveling. I am using a program called Magic DVD Ripper to convert them, and it is easy. It does take about an hour for my computer to do the conversion.

The battery is removable, so you can, if you like, carry a second one. Try that with an Ipod.

All in all, I haven't found much of anything to complain about.

Negatives:
Three hours with video and nine with audio, about 30% less than Creative claims.
Microsoft Windows XP is required; while Creative wisely chose to stop using Microsoft Media Center, they added the XP requirement...a bad move.
Creative software is required for installation AND all file transfers, this cannot be used as an external USB harddrive.
Viewer is required to look directly at the video screen, the viewing angles are extremely narrow. Also there is no color adjustment or antireflective coating.

Positives:
Large screen in a small magnesium-encased unit weighing only 8.3 oz
FM radio and recording, mp3 playback is excellent. (No line-in audio or video recording.)
VGA Video looks great on the display (if angled correctly) and through the tv output.
Removable Lithium-Ion (Double-life battery available)
Customizable EQ Equalizer settings include eight presets as well as custom 5-band EQ sliders and a bass booster.

Overall:
The best for now, but limited by its requirements.

Excellent buy. It's easily my favorite electronic device. Some thoughts on the various features:

I tend to travel a lot. I usually lug around my digital Rebel and take a lot of pictures. A 6.3 megapixel camera tends to fill up memory cards quickly. On my last trip I brought along my Zen Vision and used it to back up my digital pics right from the CF card. I didn't need to carry around my laptop to download the pictures, and I only had to bring two memory cards with me. My back appreciated this change.

The built-in screen far surpasses my expectations. It will not replace a laptop screen for some applications, but the resolution is FANTASTIC.

I already used the Creative MediaSource Organizer to manage my music collection, because I had a Zen mp3 player. This software is superior to the offerings of any other vendor I am aware of. It's neat, fast and powerful. It's multiple panes and intuitive interface make it easy to organize and transfer content.

The Media Explorer is used to transfer pictures and video. The transfer is amazingly quick and painless. When viewed on the Vision's screen, the video is bright and clear. The pictures have excellent contrast. I wish there was a rotate feature so that portrait-oriented photos could take up the whole screen. Then again, I haven't read the manual yet so maybe that feature is there somewhere.

The interface used to navigate between the photo, video, music features is ridiculously easy to figure out (like I said, I haven't read the manual yet and I have used all the features successfully).

One previous reviewer implied that you cannot charge the Vision with a USB plug only. This is not the case. The unit comes with a charger that can be plugged in to a standard wall outlet. However, the Vision will also charge while connected to your computer with the included USB cable, even if if is not plugged in to the charger. If you travel with a laptop, you don't need to carry your charger. I find that plugging in the Vision to a USB port will fully charge the device in a few hours - a bit slower than if you plug it in to the charger.

When at home I plug the Vision in to a Bose Wave Music System. The combo is absolutely amazing. It fills my apartment with fantastic sound, and there is no need to mess around with CD's. It's nice not having to have my computer connected to the speaker system to listen to MP3's.

One reqret - I purchased a white unit. In retrospect I would have chosen the darker color. The white unit tends to stand out while watching movies in dark environments - like an overnight flight.

I bought the new iPod video when it first came out, without the benefit of being able to preview it. After buying software upgrades, I spent quite a few hours trying to convert my movies into the proper format, then the proper size, only to realize that my images were now too small to see. I returned it. I was going to give up when I saw a link that led me to the new Creative Zen Vision. It was pretty new too, with no real reviews. I figured I would give it a shot.

First impression is that it has twice the screen size of the iPod. It's the options within the Vision is what sets this apart. While Apple has sold us the puzzle, one expensive piece at a time, Creative Vision has given us the whole picture. This is a VERY feature rich media machine! It has an external memory slot! Can you possibly believe that the #1 competitor doesn't have this? I have 2 other iPods and now I wonder why I ever bought them!

Those 2 features alone are what sold me, but then it does much more. It has an external speaker (so you are not completely lost if the headphones are mutilated by car door). It has a built in microphone (you can record directly to the hard drive without having to buy anything else). It has a built in FM radio. It has Video/Audio Out so you can port your media to another computer or television (how about carrying a bunch your DVD quality presentations/movies in your pocket, plug them in, and you're up and running)! Finally, it even has a basic Organizer with Calendar, Tasks, and Contacts.

The low points; Yes, the view straight on is not the best. But I usually don't hold the screen that way, just a few degrees down is fine (the picture doesn't distort, and I don't get any reflections). I would like the Power Connector to be readily available. It's under the same rubber flap as the A/V Connector, which is to say that any time you leave the power connected; you have to expose the AV connection to the elements too. A simple tethered plug would be better. Next, the Compact Flash slot is outdated. A simpler, and smaller, Secure Digital slot would be better, especially as most PDA's, phones, and Digital Camera's tend to go that way now. Creative does sell an adapter, but it's another piece of the puzzle to buy.

This thing could easily be 5 out of 5, with just a little more tweaking.

I've done quite a lot of research on this device before buying it. I must say - I actually purchased this device twice :(. The first time was when it first came out (many months ago) and the second time was about two months ago. When I first purchased the device - my driving requirement was an MP3 player and watching videos. I didn't want to go with the iPod since I didn't like the fact that it was only compatible with iTunes and the idea of watching videos was cool - since I spend at least two hours on the train to go to work.

Unfortunately, when I first purchased this device, I had to return it about a week later, because somehow, I had managed to 'crash' the device and it developed a firmware problem. Instead of ordering a replacement model - I decided to get a refund. My first experience was not all that great :(

Since then, I've occasionally monitored various postings and comments (online) on the device, and with my getting more involved in digital photography, decided to purchase another one :). Since my purchase of the this device the second time, I haven't had any regrets. It has worked (almost) perfectly, cause in the world of software, nothing ever works perfectly, and it has definitely met all my expectations.

Here are some of the things I use my ZV for:

1. Storage device for my Compact Flash cards for my Nikon Digital SLR - so I don't need to lug around so many cards. Whenever I fill up one card - I just dump the pictures to my ZV. And yes, it handles RAW and NEF files (although you can't actually view them from the device).
2. Storage for backing up my documents on my computer (a portion of the ZV can be configured as an external drive - so no more USB key fobs for me).
3. A MP3 media player (for my CDs I've ripped).
4. A MP3 media player for my Napster to Go subscription.
5. Watching TV shows that I've transferred from my Tivo.

Although this device is not small, the cool thing is that I only need ONE device, and because it's so versatile, if I'm bored, I can easily entertain myself by either listening to music or watching a show.

The only disadvantages I've had in using the device:

1. The screen isn't bright enough in direct sunlight (but then again - most of the times when I'm watching video - it's not in direct sunlight).
2. A bigger hard drive - more of a feature request - because once you start to use this device - you're hooked.

I've had my Vision for about 3 months now and I use it almost daily at work. The audio is great, the graphics are very good for a handheld device, the UI is easy to get around.

Every now and then it will just sorta crap out on me and I have to pull the battery to get it reset, but that's only been two or three times (I think that some of my audio files might be corrupt). The fact that it has a radio tuner (which works great), plays audio files and video files was a huge selling point for me. Plus, if you get the extra card reader, it will read a ton of different cards and allows for easy storage of data files (I use mine for pics - this holds a lot more than my SD card for my camera).

The pictures never can do justice on a small screen, nor are the videos 100% quality. But if you want that, use your computer.

I've also found that the normal battery doesn't quite stand up to what I use it for. After 8+ hours of use at the office listening to audio files, the battery tends to die before I pack up and head home for the day - and that's even with adjusting the settings to be power conservative. When using the tuner most of the day, this isn't an issue. I haven't tried to watch hours upon hours of video on it yet, but I'm assuming it would die even quicker than it does with audio files.

Overall, it's been great for me. Just what I needed - with some very minor adjustments on my part.

First, a word of caution. This is a totally non-techie review, and applies only to my personal experiences with the Zen Vision. Your experiences will undoubtedly be very different from mine.

The Zen Vision is a great little machine, but not without its minor flaws. It plays videos on a 3.7" diagonal LCD screen. And since it has a 30GB hard drive, it will hold a lot of videos. It also displays .jpg photos, and of course, it plays music too. The unit does all of the above quite well in my non-techie opinion. There's even an FM radio that sounds very clear when the earbuds are attached, since they act as the antenna. Some FM stations can apparently be recorded if desired. The unit has a built in microphone for making voice recordings. I tried it, and the sound quality is more than adequate, although there's no way to adjust the settings. There's also a cable included for playing the Zen on a TV set. It does other little things, too, such as a Contact List, Task List, and Calendar, but don't expect miracles from these latter features.

The unit is small but heavy, and does indeed feel good in the hand. You just know that Creative has packed a lot of technological punch into this very solid little package which is slightly larger than a deck of cards. It makes sense that the bulk of the heavy but compact circuitry is for the operation of the videos, since that is the main selling feature. Still, if I may get psychological for a moment, when I'm using the machine I have this continuous feeling that the Zen Vision's screen will be destroyed by heaven-knows-what in the next few seconds, simply because the screen is so large and so vulnerable and works so well. There is also an expectation that the battery will die in the next few moments because no electronic gadget this good can possibly run too long, even if the battery's just been re-charged. I'm certain these feelings are caused by guilt from enjoying the machine so much.

But here come the flaws. First of all, the software that came with the unit sucks. Creative provided the basic Media Explorer software, plus some kind of Yahoo music software that wanted to take over the world. Also included was a trial version of something called Video Vault. I installed these latter two applications, because like Mount Everest, they were there. However, they were quickly deleted because I found them to be less than useless. Creative's Media Explorer software wasn't much better but I've left it intact because I need to use it for downloading photos. For downloading videos and music, I find that Windows Media Player 11 is superior, in that I don't get the continuous error messages of Creative's software. However, WMP11 goes through a slow "conversion" process (why that's necessary I don't know), followed immediately by the "sync" (why can't they say "transfer"?) process. But at least WMP11 works much better than Media Explorer.

As for screen quality, it's not bad for an LCD screen. It's about what you'd expect to see on the LCD screen of any quality digital camera. When viewed outdoors, it's a little difficult to see the screen and the colors, but I guess that's also to be expected. But when viewed indoors, the screen is sharp, and the colors are more than adequate, though not consistently brilliant by any means. Colors seem to be more pronounced in photos than in videos. The viewing angle is indeed very narrow. Looking at the screen from the left, it looks like a negative photograph. Looking at it from the right, it looks washed out. Suggestion: Don't use these viewing angles.

Three major sore points regarding the video:

1. Apparently the video "conversion" process mentioned above reduces the file size, and thus it reduces some of the quality in the content, because any quick movements on the screen appear blurred or pixilated.

2. There is a slight distortion on all of the videos using widescreen, wherein the viewing area on the Zen screen appears more elongated (wider and flatter) than the original video. Although this minor distortion doesn't diminish the viewing enjoyment, it is still somewhat annoying.

3. Creative claims that the Zen battery will last 4 hours for playing videos. Wrong. It's closer to 2 hours.

However, the video sound is great and in perfect sync.

The Zen Menu System is a trifle cumbersome, and uses a lot of buttons to navigate. Another complaint: Creative's Media Explorer software utilizes the same user-unfriendly folderol that Windows Media Player does, namely, the utilization of Playlists, Libraries, Albums, Artists, Genres, etc. etc. All these unnecessary options just complicate things in my opinion.

For some unknown reason, my PC didn't recognize the Zen when I "docked" it to the USB port, so I'm not able to remove it "safely". This is only a minor drawback as far as I'm concerned, but I have no idea why this should be the case. Still, while I was docked I was able to transfer files OK, and I could view the Zen's files under "My Zen/Storage Media", but it was not given a separate Drive Letter like my other Portable Media Player. I consider this, along with a few other problems, as minor annoyances which should be expected and tolerated with the purchase of any new electronic gadget.

Bottom line: Is the unit worth its hefty $400 asking price? After due consideration, I would have to say yes. The pros far outweigh the cons. Despite its flaws, it is a sweet and incredibly versatile machine that provides a lot of pleasure, and I hope it will last forever.

I was really nervous after buying this poduct that it wasnt going to be that great. After all, most electronics arent nearly what they say they are once you actually have them in your possesion, having said that....this one is great.
I love everything about it. The LCD is HUGE and crystal clear, however, as im sure you have read, the viewing angle is very limited. but thats why they call it a PERSONAL video player. The interface is very easy to navigate, everything is at your fingertips.
The weight is incredibly light for the size, and in a general sense it blows any Ipod out of the water. The battery life is really good for both video and music. (see creativelabs.com for actual specs.) overall i would rate this pvp as the best on the market right now. i have used many ipod, and i find no comparison between the two.
the only downside, is that it is larger and bulkier than the ipod, so if you want it for everyday use, maybe an ipod would be better for you. secondly the calendar option only lets you create, add, or edit information from your computer and then sync the info to the zen.
but dont get me wrong, this thing is amazing.