An extensive look at the Zen Vision:M for those considring buying one (plus my firmware wishli

Question

<SPAN> Well first, I want to say that this is the 0th mp3 player that I have owned. This is definitely the best and most powerful player I have ever owned. With that said, its not perfect either, hence the purpose of this review. As I did on this board with the Zen Micro, I write this review in hopes that Creative will listen. Hopefully, creative will read this and take it to heart.
SOUND QUALITY:
<SPAN> This is what any music device should be about right? Nothing else matters if the sound quality stinks. I used to own Creative?s Zen Micro. The sound on it was great but the bass was lacking. The best sounding mp3 player I?ve ever owned was Iri'ver?s old H20. With its customizable SRS settings, it still stands out against all others I have encountered. If that Iri'ver was the best, I am happy to say that this little device is a very close second. Creative included a bass boost function, and paired with the customizable EQ settings, the sound is amazing. It knocks the micro out of the ballpark.
MENU NAVIGATION:
<SPAN> The menu on this thing is very familiar to that of other Zen players, including the micro. That?s not a bad thing since the navigation system is the most popular among most mp3 players of this class. I used to own Phillip?s HDD 6330, and that player and the 5th generation iPod have something that the Vision:m lacks. I have all of my music specifically organized by genre. I would like to go into the genre folder, and select a song by title, not by artist, then title. On the 5G iPod, and the HDD6330, the first menu option when going into the genre folder in ?All Titles?. So, all you had to do was select genre / all titles and you had every song in your library from that genre. This player lacks that ability.
<SPAN> I will give praise to Creative for its side alphabetical bar. This has made scrolling my library very much easier. This is a very innovati've feature to use. I also give them props for making the main menu customizable. If Creative will add that one thing, its menu system would be unmatched and close to perfection!!!
FEATURES:
<SPAN> Creative has built a host of features in this thing as they do with a lot of their players. The FM radio is good and the voice recorder is good. Now lets get to the good stuff. The Vision:m actually lets you choose your own background. Not only that, but for the picture you do decide to use, its lets you edit its brightness and color tone. This feature definitely comes in handy. I selected a nice picture of me and my son at the town fair, and it was way to bright. The letters on the screen were hard to read no matter what theme I used. Upon selecting a picture to use as background, the player gives you the option to raise or lower its brightness and color tone. I lowered the brightness and changed the tone and now, the background looks great. Creative should have gone that extra mile and gave the player the ability randomly select a new background every day.
<SPAN> Also, I am liking the content password feature that gives you the ability to hide video and picture folders. Basically, if I wanted to, I can create a folder on my Vision:m, put some porn in it (come on, that?s what this is really about), and on the player, set it the folder to ?protected?. On the players System settings, set the option to hide all protected folders to ?hide? and you are all set. To unhide the folders, go back into System Settings and select it. Upon selecting it, you will be prompted for the password. I also like the fact the Creative include a calendar and organizer into the player. It?s nice however unnecessary it may be.
USER INTERFACE:
<SPAN> I have got to give creative its pro
ps.
Those who criticize Creative for copying iPod really have no idea what Creative has done! Its ergonomic design is the best I have seen since the iPod!!! It is designed for one handed thumb use. One of the problems with the micro and other players like it is the fact that its touch pad was too sensiti've and by simply holding the player, it was a good chance you would accidentally access a function, when the hold switch wasn?t on. The only thing that?s touch sensiti've here is the scroll pad. Creative brilliantly included two side buttons along the thumb pad, which you can easily press with your thumb. This is not copy-catting. This is innovation! Add to that, the other outside buttons that surround the thumb pad are NOT touch sensiti've. They are clickable buttons. The chances of accidental button pressing are greatly minimized. My only problem with the setup is that Creative foolishly assigned the scroll pad buttons to song skip access. That?s fine and dandy when you are in the ?Now playing screen?, but when navigating the menu, it'ss a slight discomfort. The side buttons would be extremely useful when navigating the menu system. Especially with one handed use.
VIDEO and PICTURES
<SPAN> Well, the one feature that sets this player apart is its ability to play video right? Well, when I first got my player and through my content on it, I threw some videos (less porn) that were on my computer on the player. They played flawlessly with no video conversion necessary. They included a downloaded episode of ?BattleStar Galactica?, ?Boston Legal?, and ?Prison Break?. They all played beautifully. I don?t know if the player?s CPU can handle it, but I would love the ability to fast forward or scan through long video files a lot faster. Selecting ?Seek To? from the menu helps a lot, but its not fast enough. Also, I would like for Creative to add quicktime or .mov<SPAN> support if its possible (legally). My digital camera and cell phone records video clips in .mov format. I also have lots of trailers on my computer in quicktime format. It would be nice if I can simply drop some of the clips on the player without converting them first.
<SPAN> The Pictures show great on this player. You can't scroll through them as quickly and as crisp as with the iPod but there is a reason for that. The ipod scales down and convert photos so they can be shown on the screen. The Creative doesn?t do that. Simply drop the picture on the device and it will be displayed. The benefit to this method is that the player allows you to zoom in on the photos which is a very nice feature and an adequate trade
In. It makes transferring pictures faster also.<SPAN> Add to that, you can switch the folder view and thumbnail picture view to vertical scroll. Speaking of which, where is the USB OTG? This would be a big plus if you had it.
<SPAN> The AV out works great also. I don?t have a/v cables that connect to the player on hand but I did have red and black audio cables that would connect. I stuck the jack in about half way and connected the red on to the video in port on the TV and it worked. I still highly recommend purchasing the a/V cables for it.
PLAYER DESIGN:
<SPAN> What can I say. So, it looks like the iPod. But should we really fault Creative for that? iRi'ver?s H300 was the first mp3 player to have support for photo?s. When the iPod photo debuted, you could very well have accused Apple of ?copying? iRi'ver. The only way this player copies the iPod is the fact the screen is the same size and dimension. Oh, and the controls are on the bottom. Kind of like the same way Apple ?copied? iRi'ver. I emphasize the word copy because both of theses players were in development at the same time. Creative released their player a short time after Apple. There is no way Creative could have thrown a player this functional and feature heavy together so quickly. The fact that the players look similar is mere coincidence. Other than that, like the 5G ipod, it'ss a beauty. The fact that the buttons glow gives it an extra coolness. I give creative props for its new interface which rocks and what I like to call?The Thumb Click?<SPAN> Oh, and Creative, the next time you release a player, you can keep the so called ?sync adapter?. I don?t like it one bit. Find a way to build the outlets into the player without compromising is size!!! Its just one more thing I have to keep up with.
SOFTWARE / COMPUTER INTERFACE:
The last time I dealt with Creative?s software is when I had the Micro. It was clunky but functional. I like what they have done this time around. Still the familiar software but more organized. My only problem is when syncing. I edited an id3 tag on my computer and synced the library again. The software failed to sync the song, listing it as an error. The only way to correct this was to delete the song from the player and re-sync it.
ZEN CAST ORGANIZER NOTE:
<SPAN> Creative, I say this with the best intentions not to be taken the wrong way. You guys need to scrap the current beta software and go back to the drawing board. Do you guys even realize the potential you have with ZCO? First off, when using the sync organizer, it works, but it can't handle video. It is ridiculously slow when handling video. The syncing software in explorer works a lot better. And then ZCO doesn?t show all of the podcasts available on ZenCast. It brings up internet explorer. What you guys need to do, is go back to the drawing board and design software that expertly organizes my entire media library with extreme simplicity. Have a section for music, pictures, video, and zen/pod casts. The Music section can have the option of connecting to an online music store, the video section can have the option of connecting to an online video store, and the ZenCast, to to the Zencast website, where you can easily subscribe to any zencast<SPAN> without bringing up the browser.
<SPAN> Lets say you guys strike a deal with?.say?..NBC. and NBC makes its episodes of ?Book of Daniel? available on the Zen video store. I should be able to purchase a season pass, and every time I sync my player, it will automatically download and/or sync the latest episode.<SPAN> The possibilities are endless!!!
BUGS:
I have only noticed two bugs with this player. It seems that the Vision:m has an obsessi've compulsi've need to display album art for every song played. Even songs with no album art associated with them. Since my library is organized by genre and not by album, the player simply picks another album art from the folder ad displays that art for a song with no album art. Creative please fix this because its annoying. Also, one almost unnoticeable bug. The ?song time? count at the bottom of the progress indicator in the ?Now Playing? screen seems to have a hard time counting seconds in some songs. Its too slow and eventually catches up. Then counts regularly, and speeds p again. At first I thought the problem was with VBR mp3?s but it does it with regular 28 kbit rates.
Overall Creative has built a very good player and is currently the best out there. I was a fan of the micro and am now A HUGE fan of this one. This player has yet to crash since I have had it, considering that the micro crashed 3 times by this point of my having one. In fact, this looks to be the most stable player I?ve owned as well. I want to personally thank the Creative development for making a player so superior to anything else out there and at such a competiti've price. I will stomp for your company and brand every chance I get. But You have to meet me half way. Outside the Geek world, your brand is barely recognized. You need to set up a huge base of operations in the US and heavily promote your brand. Not just in magazines and one or two city billboards, but on constant TV commercials, get some music artists on TV promoting your player. Come on guys, really show Apple that you are serious about taking them on. I realize that this costs money to do, but you have to spend money to make money right?
Below is my Firmware Wish List I prioritized them starting with the most important thing. Please try to get to some of these issues.
<SPAN>-<SPAN> fix album art bug
<SPAN>-<SPAN> make a main menu option for Zen cast. This shouldn?t be in the video folder.
<SPAN>-<SPAN> Add the ability to browse by title in the Genre folder.
<SPAN>-<SPAN> Add support for .mov format to video please.
<SPAN>-<SPAN> USB On the Go would be a nice addition as well
<SPAN>-<SPAN> Add the ability to randomly select a new background from a pre selected group of photos every time the player is turned on or each day.
<SPAN>-<SPAN> SRS if possible.<SPAN> It sounds wonderful on other players.<SPAN>
<SPAN>-<SPAN> Make side scroll pad buttons to be used for navigating menu system.
<SPAN>-<SPAN> A small game or two wouldn?t hurt, but add more coolness to it.
Thank you for listening

Answer 1

wow, very nice review Makes me want to get a vision for myself.
WebKnight wrote:
<SPAN>
Add the ability to randomly select a new background from a pre selected group of photos every time the player is turned on or each day.
I would love that feature. I can't stand useing my computer with a single wall paper anymore (I have 500 anime pics that i rotate between every 2 mins ) If you could make the vision rotate background every x minutes or every time the player is turned on, it would be totally amazeningly sweet!!!! (i might have to go out and buy one then :P)
I just hope that creative has better firmware support with the vision than they have had with the touch.
Once again, great review