The Zen Stone architect

I recently got a GB Zen Stone, and I love the thing to death. Nifty little flash dri've that just so happens to play MP3s too. Genius.
Despite only owning it for near a month now, I've some questions about its primary workings, and hopefully a member of the development team would grace my post with an in-depth, technical response.
First off, the lowest volume setting is too loud. My ears hum after listening at that volume for 3 hours straight (my typical music selection is a mix of jazz (Ellington, Davis), classic rock (Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Grateful Dead), sitar (Ravi Shankar), and classical (Gershwin, Yo-Yo Ma playing Bach). Nothing that gets violently loud on its own). I downloaded and installed the software application that controls the volume, but it only restricts the maximum volume level. Oh, I should mention that I am currently using the earbuds that came with it, but I don't think that matters.
Second, what factors influence the Shuffle algorithm/function? It could just be me, but it seems like the same songs come up again and again between listening sessions (a session being the time between power-on and power-off). Does the folder and/or file name length have any influence?
Third, is there a way to add or remove audio codecs from the player? WMAs are terrible, and I'd love to be able to play OGGs.
Those are the only two things I can think of. If my mind sparks and I figure something else, I'll add it on to my list.
Thanks to you for reading my post, whomever you are.

Yes, the softwares can co-exists with each other. However the iTunes would not work with the Zen Stone Plus.

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Can the Zen Stone Plus coexist with iTun

I am a runner and I am interested in the Zen Stone Plus. I use iTunes and various iPods. How would the Zen software coexist with iTunes.
Most of the music in my library is from?my own CD's?and not from the iTunes Store. Thank you. Bob Michiel?

Yes, the softwares can co-exists with each other. However the iTunes would not work with the Zen Stone Plus.

Can the zen stone be used as a small hard drive/flash dri

Could i stick in other stuff besides mp3 files for storage, like pictures, small programs, stuff like that? I know i wouldn't be able to use them on the mp3, but could i store them in it to open on a computer?

The Zen Stone acts as a thumbnail and you can load anything you want on it, the only thing is that what cannot be read would not be touched. Just use Windows Explorer to drag and drop the files.

Arranging tracks with the Zen Stone P

I've recently upgraded from a Zen Nano Plus to a Zen Stone Plus. With the Nano I had?Creative Zen Nano Plus Media Explorer, which allowed me to change the order of tracks?in a folder and number them automatically. Zen Nano Plus Media Explorer?doesn't work with the Stone, so any arranging and numbering of tracks has to be done manually, which is a right pain.
Is there a version of Creative Media Explorer available for the Stone Plus, or perhaps some third-party alternati've that would allow me to do the same thing? Thanks in advance.

I have the Stone (not Stone Plus) ... it doesnt have bookmarking, but it does have the ability to fast forward/rewind by holding down the skip fwd/back keys. Also (and I dont know if this is a function of my audiobook or of the player), it seems to create a .pos file next to my audiobook file, so if i move from an audiobook to my songs and then back, it picks up the audiobook where i left off.

Zen Stone Plus: Does it start playing again where i stopped the so

I hope one og you can help me.
I want to know if the Zen stone Plus MP3 player starts in the same song after it has been turned off.
So if I turn it off 3.4min in a song, does it then start at 3.4 when i turn it on again, or does it start from the beginning of the song
The reason i ask is because i often use the mp3-player to hear "sound-books", and the files are often very long, so its very annoying when my current mp3 player starts from the beginning of the file after i have heard maybe 30 min

I believe the pattern with the Stones has been that if you plug them in for charging, even if you don't update the mp3s, playlists, etc., they essentially get "reset" when they resume.
They pick up where you left off as long as you *don't* plug them in for charging, changing what's loaded, etc.
I don't recall it being possible to do something like set a bookmark.
Basically, you should have several hours of play / resume time like you desire, but if you have to charge the player at some point, you'll have to go back to the beginning of the file. Not sure if they can alter this in future firmware or not.

Zen Stone Plus Speaker. Browse music without starting the first song in the next fold

Hi everyone,
I'm not sure what I want is possible.
I've had this player for about a?week now and I believe I could browse to the folders while listening to a song. For some reason when I do that now the player?start playing the first song of every folder when I browse through it.
I'm starting to doubt if I remember it right that it was possible to browse through while listening to a song before?
I tried playing with the setting and even did the recovery tool thing to put the player back at the setting it came with. But it didn't work.
Anyone know if this is posible, and how?
Thanks.

Tag support: the ability to select music by album/artist/track instead of folders
Display always on option - i know its to help save battery life but sometimes it would be helpful if the display stayed on
Display artist and song name, inst4ead of just the song name/file name
Alarm clock function: my Zen stone plus has a speaker, and a clock function. My Zen Xtra has a clock and an alarm clock function but no speaker other than headphones (if any are plugged in) for the alarm to sond through, the same is true with my visio:M? the Zen Stone plusw/speaker has a clock but no alarm, and if anything it would make a fantastic little alarm clock with a 'sound' to music or wsound to beep? function.

Lame Foldernavigation with Zen Stone plus with spea

I purchased the 4GB Model because i hear a lot of Audiobooks. Those are organised in folders. I downloaded the manual / help file before purchasing and was quite happy that the Zen support folders. Now im disappointed the way the Zen Stone handles them. I added some other shortcomings and suggestions of improvement too.
Its not possible to navigate into/out of a folder. Instead you see every folder regardless of it'ss hierachy level. Although the player "supports" up to 4 hierachy levels. This is really disturbing. I want to use those leves to organize my files and to increase overview. Its not possible! So it makes no sense to organize your files as Zen does not show the structure.
So i have to scroll through hundreds of folder. What increases problems is that you cant do that fast. Every time i go to the next folder Zen starts playing this folder. This is not only annoying but takes about 3 sec of time. It gets a little faster if dont hold the button but than you have to press the button so many times.
Great you can turn the display bei 80 degrees. Even greater would be to do that in 90?s ste
ps.
I like to use headphones which also work as a strap so hanging around my neck i can't read the display properly. Due to it'ss round shape it would make even more sens to make this possible. You can even think about making the 4 buttons displayrelevant. (There function rotates with the direction of the display.) The display is big enough to display some tiny icons like the play triangel or a + and - sign. Then you would have softbuttons which can even become other functions you can see directly.
Its good the display turns off after a while to preserve energy. But i dont like to press buttons then different/more. Now after max. 30 sec it turns off. The next press turns it on again and only after this it'ss reacting normally on pressing buttons.
Im kind of used to press the center button for play / stop. Not only the ipod shuffle but many, many (soft)players work exactly the same way. So im kind of confused to press the tiny double button on the headphone side which is barely reachable particulary if you use the silicon cover. I know, i can press the center button twice but after 30 sec i have to press it three times! Just to pause the playback. This can't be!! Imagine how often you have to pause the playback and how often you change settings etc. I really think the functions of those buttons should be exchanged.
The speed of rewind, forwarding should increase over the time you hold those buttons. Now its about 0 sec. which is not enough. This is particulary useful for audiobooks.
If you switch to/playback another file via Directory search Zen should memorize the songposition of the last song. (Bookmark-function) This is also particulary useful for audiobooks.<
I have a suggestion to solve problem and 2:
No folder starts playing just by selecting.
The folder view is recognzied.
If a folder contains songs (not only other folders) those are shown and can be selected/played.
Its visible by an icon or an different font if folder are empty or contain other folders.
With the +,- buttons you go to the next, previous folder / song. This goes as fast as you press. Holding those buttons starts scroll/selecting which increases speed by the time of holding.
The I<< and >>I - Buttons expands/collapses folder.
Holding those buttons for longer collaps / expands all folders.
The Center Buttons plays the folder / song and returns to the playback view.
Lots of ideas. I hope someone appreciate them and maybe some of them can wind up in an firmware update someday. That would be awesome.
Nevertheless i love my zen.
Alexandra

Hi,
Yeah..appreciate it very much.
I'll pass this to someone here for their reconsideration.
Cheers.

Creative ZEN Stone Shuffle Mode?

%Creative ZEN Stone > Shuffle Mode? I recently bought a Creative ZEN Stone 2GB (2nd generation) MP3 Player. I created one folder with random music I like to listen to while making sports which I'd like to play in Shuffle mode and some other folders containing some complete albums, ordered with numbers in front of the file names. If I switch to the "sports" folder an choose Shuffle mode, the player seems to shuffle all the files on the Player. Of course I'd like it to shuffle only the files contained in the "sports" folder, listening to ambient music during sports doesn't motivate me too much you know. And if I want to play the "ambient"-folder in Shuffle mode, I don't want to listen to power metal at all.
Did I miss something or is the Player unable to shuffle one single folder? Correct me if I'm wrong, but if you choose Shuffle mode, it shuffles all the files on the Player, regardless of any folders.
Is there any (probably 3rd-party) firmware out there with which I can make my Creative ZEN Stone 2GB (2nd generation) shuffle only one single folder?
Thank you in advance for you answers.

When you say second generation, do you mean zen stone with speaker or/and screen
On the zen stone plus with speaker ( and screen) you can shuffle just the contents of a folder without playing anything from another folder b y doing this:
Music > select a folder select play mode, select shuffle folder, job done.

Firmware zen stone plus 4GB with spea

in the dropdown list when looking for the latest version of the firmware for my "zen stone plus 4GB with speaker" i just can found the "zen stone plus 4GB"..
this mean that there are no available updates for my device, or that the model with built-in speaker use the same firmware of the one without speaker?
Thanks for help!

Hi JLM, am running .0.05e fine and in fact listening to it at the moment. Is there anyway you can regress back to .0.03 to test your theory? Testing a bunch of 28k CBR MP3s is an easy thing to try also.Message Edited by BlueRobin on 0-02-200802:49 PM

Frozen problem of ZEN Stone p

Hi all,
I need your help with my ZEN Stone plus (2GB). It was bought last December. Recently, it always gets frozen?with the?showing of?"CREATIVE" letters?after I press the play button. I cannot get to?the menu. All the buttons lose their functions. I cannot even turn it off. In addition, my laptop doesn't recognize it'swhen I plug it into the USB portal.
When I plug it into my laptop, the light for recharging is always on. It never flashes even if it is out of battery.
I have?tried the "reset button". But it dosen't work at all. The same problem?repeats. Can anyone help me out? Thank you very much.

$Re: Frozen problem of ZEN Stone plus Have the same basic problem, slightly different symptoms.
Had just recharged my 2GB player (w/speaker) and added some songs and a podcast not half an hour before.
Was playing songs one at a time but got distracted. When I went to choose the next song pressed the button up top to bring the screen up. It came up but then winked out. Figured it timed out so I turned it back on again.
Showed the Creative screen, got to the "Zen Stone" screen and then just sat there and sat there. After what seemed like forever got onto the website and followed the directions about rebooting and restarted it. Same thing. Tried it again. No luck.
Thought to hook it up to the computer to see if that made a difference. The player came on automatically but stil stalled. And? the computer doesn't recognize it. No icon of any kind, nothing in "Safely Remove Hardware" or a sign of it anywhere else. Even opened Creative Media Lite and it says there's no player connected. So I've hit reboot and have left it turned off.
Thought about letting the battery run down but since I can't be certain it will recharge even though it lights up when connected to the USB - and there could be a solution but only if it has power - I'm not going to do that. There's nothing specific I can find in the Troubleshooting about "frozen log in".AND "computer won't recognize".
I don't care about the files. But I haven't had a moment of trouble from it until this happened - no computer interface issues, battery life problems, nothing. I love this little thing. People are always asking me about it when they see it clipped to my shirt collar when I'm out. Haven't had it long and can't afford to replace it right now.
Really hoping that it's something fixable.

Armband ZEN Stone P

Greetings from Italy.
Today I bought ZEN Stone Plus and his armband but i'm not able to insert the "Stone" in it.........
Is there anyone who can help me?

My Zen Stone does work with my Mini Mac (OS X 0.4.7) but there's a snag. If you connect the Stone via USB when the Mac is on then it doesn't appear as a mass storage device on the desktop. The Stone can be seen by in the system profiler utility, but it's not correctly functioning. To enable you to use the Stone on a Mac you have to reboot the Mac with the Stone already connected via its USB cable. If you unmount the Stone then you have to reboot again.
When you have done the reboot so that the Stone appears as a volume on the Mac then it works very well. It even appears on iTunes (Mac version) as a Nomad MuVo. This is without using any special software/drivers to make this happen. So not only is the ZEN Stone a mass storage device that can be filled by just drag-n-drop, you can choose to use iTunes if you wish. There's no 'random fill' facility in iTunes (as you get with a shuffle), but random filling can be done by using the iTunes 'party shuffle' feature - just create a new party shuffle list then drag it to the Nomad MuVo icon. Easy.
Let's hope the initail connection issue will be fixed soon with a firmware update.

Zen Stone not showing up in device manager

Before you send me to some link... I have hit quite a few?Currently I have been trying to use the Muovo driver; it flashes that it has detected something then it searches for about 2-5 minutes (it does not detect the player) and shuts down?When I use the Zen stone driver I get the Semaphore period timed out message?Yes I down loaded and ran the Recovery driver from Packard Bell....(however there is no questions asked it just runs and thats it)?Using Windows Media 0?Currnetly the zen stone shows up in USB mass storage device(but not on)Sometimes it shows up as recovery class device...but will not be detected??So any ideas?

There is another possible cause - which I found from this board - if you ever had an Iomega driver loaded on your PC e.g. from a Zip dri've, but there are other Iomega drivers around too, this can causes this problem. (Don't ask why............). If you can find a Iomega driver on your PC, you need to delete it. This worked for me - and I had a similar problem to you before I deleted the Zen driver. Honeyrose

Zen Stone : firmware prob

Hello,
Since a week, my Zen Stone refuse to powerup. After many tries (reseting, trying to replug it on the pc, ...) unsuccessfulls, I try to flash it with the ZENStone_PCFW_US__05_0 firmware.
The firwarme program display : Current Firmware Version "0.00.00" (?), Upgrade Firmware Version ".05.0"
But when I want to flash, I've got an error message "Semaphore Timeout".
Then, the zen stone is detected as stmp3500...
I try to update the firmware from another PC and I still have the same problem.
Does anybody can help me ?
Thanks

Yes, Windows XP French with SP2

4GB Zen Stone Plus on its

As reported on Epizenter, Creative has announced that a 4GB model of the Zen Stone Plus will soon be available to the public.
Unique features aside from the 4GB capacity include:
*ACC (Un-DRM'd) File Support
*2hr battery life
This player is promising and hopefully will deli'ver what you are looking for.
Hope this helps!
To read the article from www.epizenter.net:
http://epizenter.net/comment.php?comment.news.346

funny(!!) I have the same model (Zen Stone Plus) and the exact error occurs to me to --a power sign and NO CHARGE!!
I thought I heard that with Zen -starting it (re-boot) with the Zen plugged-in already will let it work? I tried that and , that didn't help.. -Does any Forum user have any idea what to try?

Creative Zen Stone Plus Returns First Track On Player After Recharge

? Hi Everybody... I didn't see this topic posted on another thread, but I wasn't going to read thousands of posts to get this answer either. My problem is I own two players, one is a Creative Zen Stone and the other is the Zen Stone Plus. My Zen Stone does not return to the first track on the player when I recharge it (it remains on the same track), but the Zen Stone Plus does. This normally wouldn't be a big deal, but my mother-in-law listens to audiobooks. Sometimes those books don't have seperate tracks which means there is a single track that runs for like 6 - 8 hours. Is there a way to allow the player to pick up where it left off? It is a real pain to have to fast forward through most of an audiobook, especially when my player (the less expensi've player) continues where it left off. BTW.... Letting her have my player is not an option since hers has a display screen and mine doesn't.

So, reading the forum, it seems we have seroiusly problems with charging.... I'll try all I've read: disabling "energy conservation mode" on USB root, using an USB powered hub as Battery Charger, updating the Firmware, formatting / resetting the player and then using cml and the led to charge it to the full. I hope it solves, at least for me.... ?

The Zen Stone architect

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