Zen Vision M 30GB & Playdock Z

After my IRIVER 6GB H0 died during a firmware upgrade I decided to look to the market for its replacement. I wanted more memory & to buy from a company that (in my view) put effort & resourses into after sales as well as new sales. Didn't fancy IPOD - due to (what I consider to be) restricti've practices. So after a bit of research creative seemed a natural contender - in fact the only one that seemed to offer IPOD-like-specificaction for the price. I've had the Zen Vision M for about a month - all I have to say is that it is brilliant:
Reliable<
Fantastic sound - for a condensed music format<
I prefer the chunky case - makes it more durable & harder to loose<
Works brilliantly in the car stereos - thanks to the much higher output volume than the IRIVER<
Mine is black. I've had no trouble with scratching - although i did buy the Creative leather case on the day I got the player & I never leave it 'naked' in my pocket<
I've so far put about 00 albums, 500 photos & 50 videos (from my digital camera) on it & am only scratching the surface of the memory capacity<
I find the?controls much better than the IPOD wheel (one of my kids has got a Nano - which is very good also)<
The menu is completely intuiti've. I quite like picking a single artist or gendre that I might have several albums from, pressing play & letting play for a few hours!<
Dead easy to upgrade the (brilliant) software & firmware?- & I'm no techy. <
I thought that was as good as it was going to get. I was wrong. I managed to track down the Playdock Z500. This was a bit of a challenge - as they seemed to sold out everywhere on the internet (in the UK) & no shops seemed to have them. Near to London's Oxford Street is Tottenham Court Road, this seems to?be countries best place for electonic gizmos. There are about 30+ shops in a short stretch of road. Having been in and out of?about 0 of these, I struck?Lucky. After a quick 'barter' to agree the price?- as is the practice in the road, I left the shop a proud owner of the play dock.
What first struck me was the weight. This is not?a flimsy peice of kit. When I got it home & put it all together the results were fantastic. A few key points:
The speakers have a built in subwoofer round the back & a base knob that you can adjust. At a deafening full volume, apart from potentially upsetting the neighbours, the house was filled with sound there was no distortion. For a small system this certainly?'punches well above its weight'.<
The Z500 has a video out, so I can see the pictures, videos & even the menu?from the Vision M on the television when the supplied cable is used. Picture quality much?better than I expected & very satisfactory.<
The remote control that comes with?the speaker is just excellent. Funily enough it is exactly the same moulding as the one used on my?fathers Bose system - & that cost ?900 ($500+?). Not only do you get on/off & volume - but enough buttons to navigate the whole Vison M menu - on your TV if the AV lead is plugged in!<
The?Playdock has a volume knob on the top - plus a 'wide sound' button, which really transforms the sound.<
The speakers on my PC are not vey good - so guess what? That's right, they ended up in the bin & the Playdoc doubles up for this as well!<
Not to mention, this is a very attracti've piece of 'furniture' too! It was on this basis that my wife forgave me buying both items without consultation!<
I've never written a 'review' about anything before. But I was so impressed that I felt I wanted to (I would have been just as quick to complain if I was unhappy).
I hope that someone else finds this posting helpful & find the devices as good as I have.
Pete /02/2007

I own the Zen Vision M 60gb & have just bought the Playdock Z500 which I agree sounds amazing .My question is regarding the remote control . I've managed to do most things on it but I was wondering if you knew how to jump to the A - Z listing down the right side of the screen in artist & track search menus ?On the player you normally would press the edge of the touchpad but on the remote I cant find a way of using the A - Z shortcuts & have to scroll down for what seems like ages!Hope somebody can offer some help?Thanks,?John?

Similar Messages

  • Zen vision m 30gb and z

    When my zen vision m 30gb is sat in the z500 playdock everything functions as it should but the following day (if i have had it on about 5hours) the zen is dead and just flickers on when put back into z500 then stays off. I noticed that the battery is down to the red so i presume that is why it goes off. I thought itshould recharge whilst on z500!
    My zen does recharge separately with its own charger,it has the latest firmware so is the z500 faulty?or is it something else?any advice would be great!

    well,its still not charging and nobody has an answer

  • Zen Vision:M 30GB recognition problems...Big t

    Hi, 2 days ago i ran into a problem with my Zen. I had to charge it, as the battery was low and had to put some new music on it.. I plugged it into the USB port on my Laptop, where all of it's software is installed. The Zen wasn't recognized. Instead of the charging screen it normally started up with, it started up with the play screen(the screen it shows when a song is playing). I looked at the battery icon in the top right corner, and it wasn't doing anything. I turned the Zen off and started it up again. Nothing changed. I restarted my computer. Nothing changed. I shut down my computer and started it back up again. Nothing changed.
    I took it to my desktop computer, a Compaq, and tried it there. It worked, but not how i was expecting it to work. The battery icon started flashing with the little lightning bolt, acknowledging that it was charging. But the play screen was still there. The odd thing with this is, i left the player to charge for several hours. When i came back, the Zen was in some form of idle shut-down. The screen was black, except for the battery icon with the lightning bolt. Oddly enough, he battery bar hadn't filled up anymore than when i left it. Upon unplugging the player though, the Zen turned off. When i turned it back on, the bar had filled up more. It wasn't fully charged though.
    I plugged the cable back into it, and this time, the battery icon WASN'T charging. It just had the play screen on. It wasn't doing ANYTHING this time. Frustrated, i went out and bought the wall charger, and now i have a full battery. But it doesn't solve why my computer won't recognize my player.
    Today, i un-installed the software that came with the player and re-installed it. It didn't do anything. I installed the software on my desktop computer, and THAT didn't work either. So i came to the website here and used the trouble-shoot guide. That didn't help, and this is where my problem differs from the other posters here who have recognition problems:
    Back to my laptop: I have Windows Service Pack 2. I installed Windows Media Player . I went to the Device Manger, like the trouble-shoot guide said to. The kicker: Windows Portable Devices is NOT, i repeat NOT in my Device Manager. Neither does the Creative player either. I clicked on "The player does not appear in Device manager". That link showed me a diagram of a desktop computer, so went back to my desktop computer. I did everything above mentioned, and Windows Portable Devices is not in the device manager of my desktop computer either. Further reading the trouble-shoot guide, i could NOT locate "Other Devices" or "Unknown Devices" in my Device Manger on either desktop or laptop. There's nothing "Creative" related or "Zen" related at all in any of the Device programs.
    I don't know what to do. All of the trouble-shoot guides don't discuss my issue at all. Everything is "If an MP3 player is reported working properly in Device Manager, but it is not detected or listed in Windows Media Player or Creative Media Explorer..."
    Mine isn't even detected in Device Manager. My Device Manager has nothing regarding my Zen or Windows Portable Devices.
    I'm thinking about messing with it in Recovery mode, but i don't want to erase everything i have on here, just to have my player still not work. I'm going to try messing with this at my friend's house to check the cable and the player there too.
    But any help regarding my situation would be greatly appreciated. This is driving me crazy.

    I tried my uncle's Zen Vision: M 30GB on my laptop and strange things happened. My laptop recognized the player as an unknown device and said i needed to install the MTP driver. I did that, and upon doing so, my laptop recognized my Uncle's player as a Portable device, allowing me to transfer songs to his player. But it STILL doesn't recognize MY player. Email support says i have to send it in for repairs, but i don't know...
    Any luck with you?

  • Creative Zen Vision M 30gb and Vista.

    Is there a way to get a Creative Zen Vision M 30gb to work on a Vista computer? It will save me buying my son a new MP3 player. Thanks.

    I've been in touch with Creative support for over a week now but so far without success. Every time I download links they suggest I still can't access Creative Media Explorer, I just keep getting this error message:-
    "The Creative Media Explorer that is compatible with this device is not installed. Please reinstall the application and try again"
    This has included deleting all previously installed Crteati've files as well as downloading in a 'Clean Boot'. I've also rebooted my Zen Vision M.
    At this rate I'll have to bin the Zen and look at an ipod:manmad:

  • Creative zen : vision M 30gb strange problem

    ,Creative zen : vision M 30gb strange problem. Hi people,
    My mp3 player is 2 and a half years old. A few months ago he didn't charge anymore. ?I thought i could repair it by buying a new battery and install him in my mp3.
    Afther a few ours of ?assembling it was ready for charging a thought..
    I used the usb charger and de sync adapter...
    the morning after, my mp3 is not charged and only showing me a little red stripe in de battery (right top) i can listen music but only for a few minutes...
    Also my PC does noet see my MP3
    tested on :
    windows xp service pack 3?
    vista?
    windows 7?
    please help me
    Stijn van Vilsteren?
    DUTCH?
    i am sorry for my pore english !

    Squipy wrote:
    Hi, I stopped using this MP3 for about 2 or so years because I bought a new one. I decided to start using it again and downloaded all the required software but as soon as I unplugged the MP3 from the power outlet, the player died. I can't get it to start up without plugging it into a power outlet. I think it has rechargable battery? Why didn't it recharge itself?
    My second enquiry is about the capacity of the player. When my player was empty, I went into "Information" and it said Total Space: 28GB and Free Space: 2GB. Why is free space only 2GB? Shouldn't it be 28 as well?
    Thanks in advance!
    The battery will only last about 3yrs regardless of use.You will need to change it. Did you scroll down to see the album,picture,track counts? Did you partition part of the dri've for removable storage. You can find instructions to open here ? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Drkr...e=channel_page & ? the battery here(very easy to do) http://cgi.ebay.com/Original-Creative-ZEN-Vision-M-30gb-Battery-LPCS285385_W0QQitemZ400028645679QQcmdZViewItemQQpt ZOther_MP3_Player_Accessories?hash=item40002864567 9&_trksid=p39.c0.m4&_trkparms=72%3A205|66%3A4|65%3 A2|39%3A|240%3A38|30%3A0|293%3A|294%3A200

  • Creative Zen Vision M (30gb) - Is it the end?

    Hi all,
    I've read a lot of posts and think the only way to find a possible solution to my problem is to just post it....
    I've had my Creative Zen Vision M (30gb) for about?2.5 years, apart from crashing a few times, I've always loved it and would never go near Ipod!
    Lately however it's done something, that it has done before which is to suddenly 'remove' about 2000 tracks, it would go funny, crash and reset a few times, recharge with the plug and it was fine again, the tracks 'reappeared'.
    Now it seems when it happened this recent time, 3000 tracks went and I was left with about 000. So i tried formatting everything cause it just wouldn't rectify itself, then I chose to reload the firmware but everytime I tried to connect it to my laptop it would say my player wasn't connected.
    I have recently baught a new laptop with Windows 7 and even without the software it detects it fine and I think I could just drag music over to it now. BUT - It only has 50mb of memory! Plsu MP3 Recovery Tool and online detection firmware thingy justy doesn't think my player is connected or says cannot update firmware on windows 7?
    So my questions?are - how do i fix it's Is my memory fried, would it be worth getting out the old laptop? Where do i go if i want to repair it's Even if it detects it in XP, the software doesn't detect the player.
    Can anyone shine any light here? Am I forced to buy another Creative product or do I jump ship?

    If the XP computer has WMP installed it may not detect the player (the firmware file) It works best on XP /SP2 WMP0 installed. The issue with WMP is a sticky in the MP3 players forum.

  • Zen Vision M 30GB Problems

    Zen Vision M 30GB Problems? I have a used Zen Vision M 30 GB. I have?a few questions, along with some problems.
    My player has to "rebuild" at least twice a day, is that normal?
    When a song is playing, is the song name, length of song, etc supposed to be displayed?
    Now the major problem:
    I can not get either my laptop or desktop to recognize my player.
    On the desktop (Windows XP?SP3)?it seems to constantly refresh the Device Manager as an MTP device. while it continues to do this I can see the device is giving me a Code 0.
    On the laptop (Windows Vista) it searches for a driver, but the search fails. It does not continuously refresh, but still gives me the same "Code 0 This device can not start" message.
    On both computers it says "Docked" on the player when plugged in and also charges.
    The player plays well once it makes it through the "Rebuilding" stage.
    I thought about formatting it, but?I was not sure that would do any good with this problem. Plus there was a lot of music left on the player from the previous owner that I rather like.
    Any help would be greatly appreciated,? Thanks

    smittyknox wrote:
    I have a used Zen Vision M 30 GB. I have?a few questions, along with some problems.
    My player has to "rebuild" at least twice a day, is that normal?
    When a song is playing, is the song name, length of song, etc supposed to be displayed?
    Now the major problem:
    I can not get either my laptop or desktop to recognize my player.
    On the desktop (Windows XP?SP3)?it seems to constantly refresh the Device Manager as an MTP device. while it continues to do this I can see the device is giving me a Code 0.
    On the laptop (Windows Vista) it searches for a driver, but the search fails. It does not continuously refresh, but still gives me the same "Code 0 This device can not start" message.
    On both computers it says "Docked" on the player when plugged in and also charges.
    The player plays well once it makes it through the "Rebuilding" stage.
    I thought about formatting it, but?I was not sure that would do any good with this problem. Plus there was a lot of music left on the player from the previous owner that I rather like.
    Any help would be greatly appreciated,? Thanks
    No rebuilding that often if not normal. You seem to be having symptoms of hardri've issues. Now have you done a cleanup>reboot on the player?CHARGE PLAYER BEFORE DOING THIS? http://forums.creative.com/creativel...ap&thread.id=3? That may help with the constant need to rebuild(kinda like defragging the dri've) Use a REAR usb port when connecting to the computer & try using a different usb cable. DO NOT CHOOSE RELOAD FIRMWARE ON THE RECOVERY MENU

  • Zen Vision:M 30Gb not connected (!) and I'm becoming crazy

    :Zen Vision:M 30Gb not connected (!) and I'm becoming crazyl Hi,
    I tried for week to do something with the Vision 30Gigs of my son, and I don't no what to do now, maybe open the window and throw the zen..
    No, seriously, he still remains in not connected and in Control Panel, system, device manager, always with the yellow sign blinking and tells that no driver is loaded.
    I'm in XP SP3, removed WinMediaPlayer to install the WMP 9 because the 0 is not compatible with SP3 I think,
    The zen is automatically in Recovery mode when boot, because I have tried all the possible and I have erased the firmware by "reload firmware" but without being connected to the computer,
    I tried the recovery tool, but not connected...
    So, I'm sure that some guru has the solution, and I'm convinced that this zen is not dead!
    Thanks in advance for your precious help.
    Ray

    Read everything before you start.
    Rayray wrote:
    Hi,
    I tried for week to do something with the Vision 30Gigs of my son, and I don't no what to do now, maybe open the window and throw the zen..
    No, seriously, he still remains in not connected and in Control Panel, system, device manager, always with the yellow sign blinking and tells that no driver is loaded.
    I'm in XP SP3, removed WinMediaPlayer to install the WMP 9 because the 0 is not compatible with SP3 I think,
    The zen is automatically in Recovery mode when boot, because I have tried all the possible and I have erased the firmware by "reload firmware" but without being connected to the computer,
    I tried the recovery tool, but not connected...
    So, I'm sure that some guru has the solution, and I'm convinced that this zen is not dead!
    Thanks in advance for your precious help.
    Ray
    You're right the Zen is not dead. It needs a firmware to work & it doesn't need to be connected to the computer to erase it. It does however need to be connected to a computer to reload it. First you will need to install WMP0. http://www.filehippo.com/download_wi...edia_player/9/
    You then need to charge the battery When its charged & turned back on you will choose Format>Cleanup. You then connect player to see that Windows can see the device. Once you can see that it is recognized in Device Manager you will Disconnect it from the computer (use rear usb ports)
    You will need to download the firmware file for the player to the desktop & open the file.(do this before you connect the player again)http://support.creative.com/Products...me=MP3+PlayersOn the player before you connect it to the computer that has the firmware file open & ready to go you will choose Reload firmware connect the player to the computer(use rear usb port) choose your language & let it run. (the autoplay window may open DO NOT CLOSE IT)
    The reason it did not work before with WMP9 is that the driver is a part of WMP0.

  • ZEN Vision:M 30GB Battey not recharg

    Has any one else?had any issues with the battery not recharging on the ZEN Vision:M 30GB. The battery Icon does even show that is?recharging. Any suggestions?I emailed Creative Lab support and they told me this below!?All ZEN MP3 players (except ZEN Nano and ZEN Plus) have a rechargeable
    lithium-ion battery. You can charge your MP3 player by connecting it to
    the power adapter (if included with your player), or by connecting it
    to
    a powered USB port on your PC.
    When a MP3 player has not been used or charged over a long period of
    time, it can take up to 60 minutes for the charging icon to appear when
    it is being charged

    Mine is doing that too... I had to send my other one in because it lost power and so they sent me this one, and I have a power adapter for the wall, which for as?long as I left in on there (4 hours) it should be showing some charge, but nothing.Right now, its?"charging" from my computer and I'm importing videos to it, so hopefully it shows something.

  • Zen Vision M 30gb firmware issue (&quot

    Hi im just hoping someone could help me, my zen vision m 30gb?froze and i had to format it to get it to work again but, then i got firmware problems after this. so i tried to install a new firmwarei downloaded .6 firmware and clicked the remove firmware button?and tried to install but it still won't install no matter what i try. Anyone have any ideas to help??PS the player made weird clcking noises before i could format it. Thanks :smileyindifferent:?

    Haha yeah but, the problem is I didn't drop it!:smileyindifferent:?im goin to see can I send it back for repairs or get a new , suppose thats all i can do....?thanks

  • Zen Vision M 30gb Prob

    I have a relati'vely new Zen Vision M 30gb player, which as of today stopped working.
    It will not turn on, will not charge or interface with the computer. When plugged into the computer a blue light flashes at the top of the player, and the same occurs when attempting to turn on. I have tried recovery mode to no avail and the resets do naught.
    Can anyone help me with this problem?

    No helping me. I just got mine about 5 weeks ago and its been working great. I charged it overnight last night to take to the gym and it didn't work. So I though that maybe the outlet I charged it on was popped or something. I verified that it worked. I plugged it in again and I have the blue light, but I just chekced and the battery meter barely had a line, and that was after 7 hours. I unplugged it and it wouldn't turn on. Any idea. I am currently charging it now and there is a blue light again. It just doesn;t seem to hold a charge

  • Zen Vision M 30GB is stuck in Recovery Mode

    Hi, I have a Zen Vision M 30GB that is stuck in Recovery Mode. I have tried ' Cleaning ', ' Formatting ' and ' Reload Firmware ' but none of my 3 computers in which it was previously used recognise the device. The computers have Win Xp Home, Win xP Pro and Win 7 Pro, 64-bit. I could get it to connect once to my Win 7 and I set the firmware down to .4 ( I think), as I have read that latest Firmware .20 does not recognise some of the new batteries with 400 mAh and 700mAh batteries. I have tried the MP3 Recovery Tool, Creative Wizard tool but none work. Would appreciate any suggestion. I have read extensi'vely the postings about Zen Vision M in the ABIT (anythingbutipod) Forums, but no luck in re-loading the firmware. TIA, MPM

    I had installed .4. and in the Recovery Mode, it dispalys v0.0.6. I have Creative Zen Vision M Media Explorer installed in both, my Xp Home desktop and Xp Pro ( not 64-bit) in my laptop. I will check which version of WMP is installed in my Xp systems.
    On many occasions, all 3 computers (including Win & Pro 64-bit) signalled ' Un-recognised USB Device many times but now nothing happens and I can operate the touch pad of the Zen even when it is connected to the computers !!

  • ZEN Vision M 30GB Video Conversion problem: black scr

    My husband cannot display any video on his ZEN Vision M 30 GB. Any video converted comes over with ONLY audio, black screen (? no video display )This happened with the original firmware and software. I updated firmware and did all available software updates; no change. I had a previous ZEN Vision M 30GB, which did not have any problem with video conversion and display.Are there any known problems with specific Media Player versions, or QuickTime ?which may be a potential cause of this problem?( I have heard that this product works best with Media Player 9. )Anyone had similar problems, or have any ideas?Thanks,Ravenquille

    Problem apparently solved: Last night, I downloaded and installed the free program, SUPER. My husband has not had a problem so far; been working beautifully! Ravenquille

  • Zen Vision M 30Gb Battery Prob

    My zen vision m 30gb player can not hold battery charge. The battery when charged fully will drain out without usage. When charged fully and in use, the charge will last for only 2 to 5 minutes instead of the 5 to 0 hours it use to last. Can any one help me with this problem please? The firmware I am using is v .62.02_0.0.23 and my operating system is windows XP professional with service patch 3. I have done clean-up and reboot, the only thing I have not done is reformatting the player.

    branbran,
    Based on your description, it would be advisable to get in touch with support. Check the "Support" folder on your installation CD for Customer Support contact details.

  • Zen Vision M 30GB Warre

    Hello i own a creative zen vision m 30GB and no that the new creative zen has come out I have heard that they won't be making any hardisk MP3 players again so i was wondering if my Zen Vision M broke now would it still be coverd in warrenty and what would happen?

    Actually from what I have been reading, creative is working on another hard-dri've based player which is supposed to incorporate a lot of cool stuff. I am sure your m vision would be covered under their warranty given that you either purchased that extra warranty from them or have a problem within the manufacturers warranty.

Maybe you are looking for

  • Get date of first day of current week

    HI! Why does the following method do not return the date of the first day of the week in which the given date lies? public static int getFirstDayOfWeek(int year, int month, int date) {  GregorianCalendar GregCalendar = (GregorianCalendar) new Gregori

  • Safari 5.0.5 crashs at startup OS X 10.6.8 - Kernel address invalid

    Safari crashes at startup on OS X 10.6.8 - with kernel address invalid So far the following have been done: Removed plist files from ~/Library/preferences and ~/Library/Safari Clear Database Cashes Removed all Cookies, and temp files Permissions Repa

  • Outgoing Payment PLD (Link)

    Hi, How to give link in outgoing payment PLD? Thanks & regards, Mohit Soni

  • [Solved] best dynamic DE/WM ?

    hello, i often use CLI applications in favor of GUI equivalents as they have often been far more stable, and are usually far faster. i love Screen-vs, yet in order to use the occasional GUI application (firefox) i have to use a rather messy system of

  • Function module for transfering a file contents into another?

    Hi all,    Is there a Function module for transfering a file contents into another?That is the whole content from a file to other?? Regards, Shashank.