Scared To Buy A Creative Mp3 Pla

I'm planning on buying a Zen V Plus (4GB or 8GB), but I'm afraid that the product might die on me within months and not years. While browsing this forum, I've read so many problems regarding various zen mp3 products, and I'm simply afraid to part with my well-earned cash. I'm more tempted to go with the 8GB Zen V+, but it's so expensi've(?59.99).
My Creative Zen Micro (purchased for ?49.99) has recently developed the infamous headphone jack problem, I had my zen for about a year before this problem. Also the player freezes too much.
In my opinon Creative owe it to fans to produce products that are durable and last more than a year. Imagine paying so much for a product and it is unusable after a year.
I need convincing to buy another Creative Product (zen v plus).

I've got a Zen Micro over 2 years old, used daily, no problems.
I replaced the battery a little while ago, as the original was getting towards the end of its life. It took maybe 7 seconds and no tools to do.
If I'd bought an iPod instead, getting the battery changed would either require sending it back to Apple, paying shipping plus their replacement cost.
They don't necessarily send your iPod back Chances are very high that you get someone else's refurbished one. Oh your music? You'd better have backed it all up, because it's gone.
The other iPod alternati've is sending away for a battery kit and taking it apart myself and hoping that I don't wreck it by breaking some tiny wire.
Both of those options cost more than a replacement battery from Creative, once you factor shipping, not to mention with my Zen I was listening to music again within seconds, no waiting for shipping and refurbishment.

Similar Messages

Buying new creative mp3 pla

hi everyone,i am thinking to buy a new creative mp3 player. i m considering whether i should buy zen neeon 2 or zen v plus.can anyone here give me some comments? which model is better? the sound and so on...thanks...

I'd say go for the Zen V Plus. It generally gets better feedback when compared to the Neeon 2. By personal experience, I can say that it's (the V) amazing. Nice and fullly featured, sweet screen and excellent sound quality. The extras make it worth having it as well. Just make sure you go for 4GB. or 2 gigs isn't enough, at least not for me. Some people have had some problems with getting it to work, but I managed to, by rolling back to WMP0 then reinstalling . If you are going to get the V,?I suggest you use Beta 2 of , because the full version won't recognize mine if it's docked for a long time (charging, etc.). Hope this helped, and I hope you enjoy whichever player you plan on getting.

Help on recommending a Creative mp3 pla

Hello.
I don?t know too much about these things but I?m hoping someone would help. Thanks. =)
Basically I am after a Creative mp3 player that meets the following:
- Budget of spending ?75 (if slightly above may consider)
- FM radio and record radio
- Line in function (so for example if something was on MTV I could record music off it via a jack going from the TV headphone socket directly to the mp3 player)
- lit up LCD display
- 40gb space
- purely for music storage and playback, not bothered about video playback or anything else just music. Added bonus if it includes that anyhow =P
- Plays wide range of music formats such as wav, ogg, asf etc
- fast music transfer (most likely usb2.0)
The above features is the main important things that need including and ALL of them. I?m trying not to go off topic on Creative products but what I have my eyes on right now is the MPIO HD300 for around ?70, although I?ve not heard entirely positi've customer feedbacks about them?.. Still the MPIO HD300 sounds very good as it has the functions I am looking for and slightly more. But if there?s something better in the Creative department within my spending I?ll be sure to go for that!
I could just cut that babble and say I need someone to recommend me a Creative player that?s better than or along the same lines as the MPIO HD300 (40gb) and within ?75.
See I could just buy that MPIOHD300 as it has everything I need, but I need to buy it as a gift for someone and they are asking for a Creative player bah! Why can't buying stuff be simple argghhhh.
Please help me out people. Sorry for the babbling, need to make sure I get it right.
THANKS! =)

Vision M looks VERRRY nice, unfortunately it hasn't got what I want from what I've read such as 'line in' (or does it's?), doesn't support as many audio formats.
Just minor issues but I do need them to be included.
30gb would have been ok if it had the required features I was after. I was just watching the flash demo of the vision M. Just out of curiosity can you record as much radio as you want from it until the memory is full? Or are you limited to a certain amount of time you can record from radio?
Also I wonder why a lot of mp3 players don't have the 'line-in' function. I'm sure just about everyone would make use of it. It just doesn't seem to be a standard feature which is a bit crazy.
Zen V Plus would have just about been ok but it's limited to 4gb in space. I had a look this morning through the products doesn't look like any other Creative players fit the match.
Looks like the gift won't be a Creative.
Ahhhh well. I'll have to see what other brand players are knocking about. I'm assuming I can't get help on that here but that's cool.
Thanks for helping =)

Why can't i buy a creative mp3 player in a normal retail sto

i find it really rather disturbing that creative mp3 players are not more widely available in normal retail stores. i li've in one of the top 0 major metropolitan cities in the USA and i go into my local best buy and all they have is a 5GB micro, a 20GB xtra, and a 20GB(?) touch. why is that all they have? if i want a MUVO, i'm screwed. meanwhile that same best buy has every style, size, and color of all the ipod crap and a million accessories (bleh) but NOTHING for creative. the only micro they have is the black one, and only in the 5GB size. i go to another place like Staples, and they have the muvo TX, no micros.
I go next door the the compusa, they've got a full lineup of all the ypod crap, nothing from creative.
i find it really irritating when one wants to say, buy a player for a friend and cannot find what they are looking for. makes it real easy to buy the freaking ypods. ugh.

steveski wrote:
hey blood, you're completely missing my point... I KNOW i can order them online at a million places.
the poster that said they don't want to compete with prices, that's insane. there would be NO STORES anywhere if stores were really afraid of that. internet prices are lower for EVERYTHING.
my point is i guess, why don't stores stock more stuff from creative (other then soundblaster stuff)? the answer to my own question is probably that creative stuff does not sell as well as ipod stuff.
the reason i say this is a friend of mine was heading out of town and was interesting in getting an mp3 player for the trip so i suggested he might look into the new creative MIX thingy but we everywhere we looked they had nothing, so the dolt ended up getting an ipod shuffle. oh well. we lost another one due to players just not being in the stores. sad!
I bought my zen micro from a retail store.. In canada. In holland in the one electronics store they have the touch,3 colors of micro, 2 muvo players, and a Xtra. They only had the ipod mini...

Apartment Bookshelf Stereo Solution with Creative mp3 Pla

I'm looking for a recommendation for an at-home speaker setup for the Creative mp3 players.
We li've in a small apartment with a small living room, so we do not need that much power. We just want to have a convenient way to play our mp3s and listen to the radio.
The ideal setup would be a small unit of speakers (or separate speakers) with a drop-in dock for the mp3 player. A remote could be used to adjust volume, go to the next track, or turn power on and off. FM radio reception would also be nice. It MUST provide power to the mp3 player so the mp3 player is not running on batteries. I've seen all kinds of products that do this with iPods, but we already have (and enjoy) our Creative products.
Of course I can just connect one of our mp3 players to a bookshelf stereo. This is not a terrible solution as long as I have the A/C power cord close by. No remote and no easy dock, but it works... I already do this in our bedroom using the little bookshelf stereo we have.
The big downside to this is that I have read in the manual for some Creative mp3 players that you shouldn't leave them plugged in an charging all the time. That's a bit of a problem if we want to leave it connected to the stereo most of the time, and don't want to worry about having to recharge it.
We have older mp3 players like the Jukebox 3 and the Zen Xtra. I've seen the portable docking device for the Zen Micro, but no way do we want an mp3 player with such a tiny hard dri've. We need at least 20GB.
How about connecting a Zen Vision M, or an older Zen/Jukebox to something like the I-Trigue L3800, or to one of those iPod devices like the Klipsch iGroove? The I-Trigue with the Creative Wireless Remote I200 is one option, but is it safe to leave the mp3 player plugged into AC power all the time?
I've also considered a WiFi stereo component that can pull songs off the computer, but with that the computer always has to stay on. When we have a house maybe I'll build a media computer/server that stays running all the time, but for now we just want a very basic setup for our apartment.
I wouldn't mind upgrading my mp3 player, so I'm pretty close to just purchasing a 30GB iPod and one of the many drop-in solutions for playing your iPod tunes in the living room. Too bad Creative doesn't offer such an accessory for the large-capacity Zen mp3 players.
Sean

Hmmm... I am now finding some intriguing accessories... like the Cambridge Pladock that can play and charge Zen players. A little pricey for what probably isn't the best-sound, but all those iPod solutions from Klipsch and Bose are pricey as well.
Looks like the Zen Vision M docking station might be a good solution. Does anyone have one of these that they just leave connected to the stereo and/or tv and AC power? How do you like it's I guess this might be more versatile than the Playdock.
Not quite as slick as the many iPod solutions out there, but I like the Creative mp3 players we already have, and the Vision M looks like an awfully nice updgrade from my Jukebox 3 (which has been a little buggy since a recent drop to the pavement). In addition to using it to listen to our mp3s over external speakers, it would be nice to use it for watching video on the tv as well.Message Edited by sean000 on 08-2-2006 02:55 PMMessage Edited by sean000 on 08-2-2006 03:3 PM

Looking to buy a new mp3 pla

My last (and only) mp3 was a Zen Touch 20GB, which I loved dearly. But, alas, the HDD died. Couldn't fix, don't know why I didn't send off. But anyway. Is the menu system/player software basically the same as the Zen Touch (obviously refined)?
I liked the fact that my ZT had 24hr battery life and a nice way to scroll, so can someone perhaps suggest a player with similar advantages? I'm asking here as people will know which players tend to have problems and which are genuinely worth purchasing.
Do any Creative players support id3v2.4 tags, or just v2.3. And do any players support album artist tags? Or will I just have to navigate via album, as I did with the Zen Touch?
One last thing, I'm not fussed about pictures and video, just a solid mp3 player that does exactly that.Message Edited by Dragon on 2-2-200708:39 PM

well, if you liked navigating the touch i would def say go for the vision m: it uses a similar vertical scroller but is better refined, and has a fat battery life as well (always a plus). Although it has photos and videos that youre not interesed (but which you may well come to be soon..), the album art feature is def a bonus and failr sure they can hangle the new tag systems. as for other features im waiting for something that rellly gives the vision m a run for its money - especially its usb host funcionality (brilliant for travlers)

Zen Vision M - I am never buying another Creative MP3 Product aga

For years I bought their MP3 players because it's obvivous it has the better sound quality, but the **bleep**ty support, endless firmware issues and crappy software just makes me want to take a sledge hammer to the **bleep**. Its obvivous that both the Apple IPOD and the ZEN Vision M has issues. But it does not appear that either company seems interested in fixing the problems. IPOD - Crappy Sound.ZEN Vision M - Crappy software and crappy firmware.
Maybe Creative should get together with Apple and make a great sounding visually pleasing IPOD. Until then my MP3 days are over, but it was great while it lasted.Message Edited by Dane on 04-07-20070:30 PM
Message Edited by Dane on 04-07-20070:3 PM
Message Edited by Dane on 04-07-20070:3 PM

So I gotta say... I have to agree a bit! I had so many problems with my Zen vision:m and felt that the ipod was just a stupid option. I then desided to try and li've with it and make the best of having such a adapting machine... I now have made my own ecosystem with Urge and windows media player! It works great and I have just been up on the Customer service intill they gave me good service. I am now doing great and wish that creative would make more updates... but I will li've!

Best Creative Mp3 pla

Hi
I would like to know which is the best creative flash memory mp3 player(around GB).
jesin

I'd say go for the Zen V Plus. It generally gets better feedback when compared to the Neeon 2. By personal experience, I can say that it's (the V) amazing. Nice and fullly featured, sweet screen and excellent sound quality. The extras make it worth having it as well. Just make sure you go for 4GB. or 2 gigs isn't enough, at least not for me. Some people have had some problems with getting it to work, but I managed to, by rolling back to WMP0 then reinstalling . If you are going to get the V,?I suggest you use Beta 2 of , because the full version won't recognize mine if it's docked for a long time (charging, etc.). Hope this helped, and I hope you enjoy whichever player you plan on getting.

Buying New MP3 Pla

I plan to buy a new MP3 player. I have been reading post on problems that people are having. I am concerned that I?will not have these types of problems. First my computer OS is XP home, service package 3 with WMP . On my old MP3 I could download books and open them?using WMP and transfer to my MP3 without any problems. This was before I had to reformat my hard dri've and reinstall windows. So?WMP 0?is not on my hard dri've and I cannot roll back to it. My question is will my new?Creative MP3 install and work on my system?without all of the problems I have been reading about?

I'd say go for the Zen V Plus. It generally gets better feedback when compared to the Neeon 2. By personal experience, I can say that it's (the V) amazing. Nice and fullly featured, sweet screen and excellent sound quality. The extras make it worth having it as well. Just make sure you go for 4GB. or 2 gigs isn't enough, at least not for me. Some people have had some problems with getting it to work, but I managed to, by rolling back to WMP0 then reinstalling . If you are going to get the V,?I suggest you use Beta 2 of , because the full version won't recognize mine if it's docked for a long time (charging, etc.). Hope this helped, and I hope you enjoy whichever player you plan on getting.

Petition for last.fm plugin for creative mediasource pla

If you want a plugin for Last.fm's audioscrobbler for your creative mediasource player, please post in this thread...once, please do not submit posts for any other reason
signature # - the_can

As a Last.FM moderator we see quite a lot of threads and requests passing by for a pplugin that would allow people to "scrobble" the tracks they played on any of Creatives MP3-players. (Take a look at http://www.last.fm/forum/276/_/26462, for example). The problem Last.FM faces here is that, by the looks of it, getting a timestamped log-file from plays on a Creative-player is not possible (don't quote me here, I am just the messenger, and have hardly any knowledge concerning the plugins...)I do know that there is a community that is pretty positi've about Last.FM and that moderators nor staff can help them here. Perhaps the nice people developing the software for your players might want to take a look at the site and decide that it might be a nice idea to open up the software a bit, or develop a plugin themselfs. It might prevent people (like me) from buying an iPod, which does allow me to submit my listened songs to the site...

Ogg support for Creative MediaSource Pla

Hi I just started using the Creative MediaSource Player that came with the Soundblaster X-Fi Plantinum and I am trying to find out if there is ogg support for it. It doesn't seem to recognize ogg files. Does anyone know of a plugin or some way to enable ogg support for it.
Thanks,
Travis

As a Last.FM moderator we see quite a lot of threads and requests passing by for a pplugin that would allow people to "scrobble" the tracks they played on any of Creatives MP3-players. (Take a look at http://www.last.fm/forum/276/_/26462, for example). The problem Last.FM faces here is that, by the looks of it, getting a timestamped log-file from plays on a Creative-player is not possible (don't quote me here, I am just the messenger, and have hardly any knowledge concerning the plugins...)I do know that there is a community that is pretty positi've about Last.FM and that moderators nor staff can help them here. Perhaps the nice people developing the software for your players might want to take a look at the site and decide that it might be a nice idea to open up the software a bit, or develop a plugin themselfs. It might prevent people (like me) from buying an iPod, which does allow me to submit my listened songs to the site...

Which is better? The i-pod or Creatives mp3 playe

I am conducting a survey and I just wanted to know what everyone think. Is the I-pod better than Creatives mp3 players? If it is, why. Also, why is Creative mp3 players better. Thanks for your contribution.

iPods are nice and have a good amount of features. The iTunes online store is fantastic; very easy and nicely priced. You can't fault Apple for what they've been able to do- grab the mindshare for the MP3 market.
However, I have to side with the- SHOCK- WMA side of things.
The problem I wound up having with iTunes is that, if I want to choose a player for my purchased tunes, short of burning/ripping, was to buy an iPod.
However, buying with WMA, you have more choices, and you're not locked in. In fact, when I decided to change MP3 players, I went from a Zen Xtra to a Zen Touch. I really like the Creative brand. The interface is easy, I find, and I don't think Creative Mediasource is the dog that some have made it out to be. I looked at the Samsung YH-925GS, an Ipod (20GB), Zen Micro, and Rio Karma. I kept coming back to the Zen Touch. I think it looks great, handles great, has awesome battery life, is CHEAPER, and is the right size, both physically and with disk space.
So, yes, Creative is better.

Why i will never again buy a creative prod

Hi,
scince there is no company email-adress or subforum for criticism i post my issue here to see what other users think about that:
Below is an email i wrote to the company:
Dear Ladies and Gentleman,
please let me explain to you why i will never again by a product of your company.
It is not because of the product itself, it is the way you distribute your product.
I recently bought a Zen Creative mp3-player, which really is a fine product.
When i bought it online, the product description said "software only available for windows"
which is ok with me, i dont use windows anymore, and i am used to reading this sentence.
Ususally this only means "of course you can access the product with whatever operating system you prefer,
but the software we ship out with the product works only on xyz" (xyz meaning windows in 99%)
Then i tried to copy my music:
It is not possible to read or write to the player using Linux as operating system.
Please dont tell me that this would be difficult to write your software for linux,
i am a software engineer developing for windows and linux and i know that this is trivial.
2.
Even worse, you designed the player in a way, that it is impossible to copy data to it WITHOUT
your software. And no, this didnt show up in the product description. Scince your player is more or
less just a usb-stick, there is - from a technical point of view - not a single reason why anybody would
need a special software just to simply copy data to an usb-device.
3.
Now the worst of all: I still had a windows 2000 system on one of my computers, so i tried to install
your software on the system. which of course failed scince your software can only be installed on windows xp.
Again, for no technical reasons.
This leads us to 2 questions:
a) How much money did Microsoft pay you, that even people owning a legimitate windows 2000 licence are forced to buy windows xp?
b) Let me guess: As soon as windows Vista is released your software only runs on windows vista, right?
Please be also informed that i also sent letters describing the case to several german popular computer magazines, and hopefully
they will publish my concern as an example of how impertinent a company can get.
Regards,
Timo RoessnerMessage Edited by tr on 2-26-200604:07 AM

Tr,
I am not a Creative employee but I do know a bit about Plays for Sure so I can reply a bit about that.
). Creative did not choose to limit the players to Windows XP. Creative chose to make the ZEN line Plays for Sure devices. Microsoft was the company that chose to limit Plays for Sure to Windows XP (and at one point they were saying there would be a 2000 and ME/98SE update but it never came out). By choosing Plays for Sure I am sure Creative was aware that they would be restricting to a Windows platform but Plays for Sure was the only standard being offered that has built in database and metadata support which the ZEN line all depended on. UMS (Uni'versal Mass Storage) does not have the features that allow for the internal system database to be updated during transfer (rather you have to update it following the transfer which is usually done at boot up which leads to very long boot times following uploads). Creative had been using a proprietary system (called the PDE driver) however that also was being critisised for not being uni'versal enough and requiring the disk to install the drivers (the ZEN Micro fixed that by adding a UMS data dri've feature which many used to store the CD on). The PDE system also did not support subscription tracks like PFS does.
2) The system is in fact not at all like a USB stick. There is a database in the background that stores all of the metadata for the tracks to allow for the sorting and subscription/DRM support. There is a USB storage mode where you can make a portion of the dri've act like a data stick using UMS but it can't support music transfer due to the limitations of the UMS system. On Windows XP machines (with SP ) the player is plug and play with no need for special software (it works with Windows Media Player). It is only when you move outside of the specified system requirements that you lose the plug and play ability.
3) Windows 2000 isn't supported by Plays for Sure. There are workarounds, but really this is a case of Microsoft not providing a driver. You may be a
a) I suspect Creative paid a licensing fee to participate in PFS. I would take your complaints about PFS not supporting Windows 2000 to Microsoft as they are the company that runs that program.
b) I doubt that Microsoft would remove PFS support from Windows XP. Such a move would be horrible but once again would not be the fault of Creative.
One might fault Creative for supporting PFS, but even today it is the only standard available that offers the features it does. It also offers support to what accounts for a vast majority of Creative's targeted user base. I am sure Creative would love for it to be offered for 2000/ME/98SE but they don't develop the license.
Jeremy

Comparison of Creative MP3 Players - How to Choo

Is there a comparison anywhere at the Creative site, or elsewhere online, where someone can compare the features of all the Creative mp3 players - at least by product line - to each other so as to make an informed decision concerning which one to buy. I'm not exactly a simpleton, but I have to admit that the sheer quantity of them is a bit daunting... I realize, for instance, that the Zen has a higher capacity than the Zen Micro, but how does one start comparing the Zen Micro to the Zen Touch, or to the MuVo models, etc...
Thanks,
JP

I did find this:
http://www.nomadworld.com/products/i...mchart_PDE.pdf
It doesn't include every model but it's an example of what I'd like to see.
Jay

Do ALL Creative MP3 players have Bookmarking capabiliti

I currently have a 28 MB MuVo but am looking to upgrade to to a newer model. Before I buy a new model I need to know the answer to the following question.
Question: Do ALL of the Creative MP3 players have the bookmark feature including the Zen models?
If all of them do not have this feature, which Creative models do or do not have bookmarking capabilities?
Thanks for the info!

What is Bookmarking?
Imaging you are listening to a 5 hr audiobook file and you decide to stop and turn off your device at 2:34:22 into the file. Later you desire to listen to the file where you left off, only you discover that you are the beginning of the file and must fast forward to the point where you left off.
Bookmarking allows the MP3 device to continue where you left off listening when either switching tracks or turning off the device.
WARNING:
I have discovered two types of bookmarking that I call
.) firmware bookmarking - MP3 players that will bookmark ALL file types
2.) software bookmarking - MP3 players that will bookmark SPECIFIC file types ONLY. Some audio providers like Audible.com appear to get around the MP3 firmware limitations by downloading drivers and software to interface with their specific audiofiles.
For example:
Creative 28 MuVo has firmware bookmarking capabilities and works on ALL my audiofilesSanDisk
Sanza e40 software bookmarks audiobook files from Audible.com.
HP IPAQ software bookmarks audibooks from Audible.com.

Scared To Buy A Creative Mp3 Pla

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for