Creative Zen

[Moldiver]

Hey all, I'm a total newbie when it comes to this so I'd appreciate as much feedback as possible. I'm looking for a portable mp3 player I can take on travels but don't know where to begin. I'd like a decent sized memory and the option to make easy playlists. The classic ipods look good, but I've also been looking at Creative Zen. There's also the Sansa Clip 8G which I spotted in the Amazon bargain thread. Can anyone recommend a player please? I've read that Creative Zen has better audio quality than iPod, and I also read a positive review for the Sansa, which seems good for the price.

Thanks

[Moldiver]

Quick bump as I'm trying to narrow down players and I just spotted a SanDisk Sansa going for what seems like a good price. Any advice would be appreciated, thanks :)

[kevinsim]

Creative Zens are excellent - I have a Vision:M 30GB which is fantastic. Ipods are very limited once you move away from iTunes, and I believe Sansa ones struggle to play anything not in traditional mp3 format (ie wma, mp4 etc...)

[Mr Majestik]

The new Creative Zen X-Fi are suppose to be the best sounding mp3 player by a mile plus you can also incress it's size with sd cards. They also play loads of diffrent music and video types. They don't look that great though.

Ipods are suprisingly poor sound wise but functionality wise their second to none and the sheer amount of third party gadgets for them mean they unfortunatly can't be ignored.

No idea about the sansa.

[Moldiver]

Ok, cheers both of you. I'll rule out the sansa and look a bit more into the Zen models for now. Not too fussy about gadgets to be honest, unless the iPod has anything particularly outstanding. Just a good quality player that'll allow me to create simple playlists.

[Panavision]

Have a look at the SONY
Sony NWZ-S639FB 16GB Drag & Drop MP4 Video Player with FM Tuner, Black (http://www.thedvdforums.com/affiliatelink.php?localaffiliateid=8&url=http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B001FB56PC/thedvdforums-21)

Supposed to be the very best for sound quality.

[Steve39]

I've got this 8gb Zen (http://www.thedvdforums.com/affiliatelink.php?localaffiliateid=8&url=http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000V9IAYS/thedvdforums-21) and it's been great. Sound is good and the fact that I can just plug it into any computer and see it as a external drive is a big plus (for work anyway). It also has an FM tuner and a SD slot to give you even more storage options.

[Wilson]

i had a zen vision M for about 3 years i guess and just moved onto an iTouch. The Zen was fine, not sure what people mean when they say the iPods sound the worst of the lot and i cant tell the difference. The both sound the same to me. The iTouch lives away from iTunes perfectly well too, the only iTunes thing on it that i have are 2 games that i bought. the 1000+ mp's are all my own and the movies were converted easily to mpeg4 using a freebie bit of software i downloaded. So dont let people scare you into thinking you have to use iTunes all the time cause you dont! You do need the iTunes interface to copy files onto the iTouch/pod though as it wont appear in the file list in windows like the Zen does but you can source files for it anywhere you like, you dont have to buy stuff from that all the time.

The biggest worry i had with the Touch was how durable the screen was, but its survived 3 weeks in my coat pocket without a scratch so far and ive ordered a case off Play anyway.

Why did i move from the Zen? I just wanted the flexibility of the iTouch tbh and a bigger screen for movies. The only annoying thing i found with the Zen was that it would lock up occasionally requiring a hard reset, and if you dont have a pin or paperclip handy to stick in the hole then your stuffed until you find something. Apart from that its a nice peice of kit, i just find the iTouch more flexible.

[vast_girth]

Have a look at the SONY
Sony NWZ-S639FB 16GB Drag & Drop MP4 Video Player with FM Tuner, Black (http://www.thedvdforums.com/affiliatelink.php?localaffiliateid=8&url=http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B001FB56PC/thedvdforums-21)

Supposed to be the very best for sound quality.


The missus has got a Sony and i have to say the Sonic Stage software that you have to use with it is the most **** poor peice of crap i have ever had the misfortune to use.

Like a lot of sony stuff. Good hardware. Duff software.

i only hope they have made it better for later models...

[Alan b]

There's also the Sansa Clip 8G

Sandisk Sansa Clip 8Gb MP3 Player with Radio Black - £36.13 (http://www.thedvdforums.com/affiliatelink.php?localaffiliateid=8&url=http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B001GCTR3C/thedvdforums-21)

Amazon also has this one:

Creative ZEN 16GB MP3 Player - £79.99 (http://www.thedvdforums.com/affiliatelink.php?localaffiliateid=8&url=http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000V9IAW0/thedvdforums-21)

[Poop]

The sony no longer uses the soundstage software.

[Moldiver]

That Creative Zen 16GB looks really good for the price. Anyone used it? I'm not bothered about video playback at all, I just want the songs really.

I read that you can use a good 3rd party software to allow wmp to work with the ipod. does creative zen offer a similar thing?

[LiviLion]

I have a 4GB Creative Zen V Plus and really like it.

You can use WMP to sync it as well if you like instead of the creative software.

If you are not bothered about video you can pick up a refurb 4GB Zen V+ from here http://www.luzerntech.com/MP3/ for just over £30 delivered.

I spilt coffee on mine so got another one from here. Would have went for a newer model but I have the QDOS car dock for the V+ so wanted to keep using that.

The V+ also has an FM Radio.

[staffyman]

I've got the 16gb model of the Zen and it's been fine for the most part (touch wood).

I've noticed that watching avi files, the sound does go out of sync after a while, but if you use the supplied conversion software then they play without problem (though conversion does take an age).

For audio playback though, it's been fine and I've never had any lock-ups or any of the other problems that some users have complained about. I've been more than happy with the purchase.

[Steve39]

For audio playback though, it's been fine and I've never had any lock-ups or any of the other problems that some users have complained about. I've been more than happy with the purchase.

Same here. :)

[Moldiver]

Well chaps, I can keep 'umming' and 'ahhing' all day, but I have to go for one, so I'm going to check out the 16GB zen and order from Alan b's link. Seems like a top price for what you get.
Which software would I be best off using? Is the bundled one fine enough, or will I do better with someone else? Livilion mentiones syncing wmp. Do a need a certain product to do this?

Thanks a lot for all the suggestions and help :)

[Steve39]

Just plug it in and you'll get the Autoplay window popup. From there you can choose to sync with WMP, Open the device as a folder (to drag & drop files) use the Creative software (which is ok)... or a miriad of other options to pull files across.

:thumbs:

[fabbers]

Well chaps, I can keep 'umming' and 'ahhing' all day, but I have to go for one, so I'm going to check out the 16GB zen and order from Alan b's link. Seems like a top price for what you get.
Which software would I be best off using? Is the bundled one fine enough, or will I do better with someone else? Livilion mentiones syncing wmp. Do a need a certain product to do this?

Thanks a lot for all the suggestions and help :)

I've got the 16gb and it's great. I just drag and drop the stuff across but i've also just used windows media player and that synchs fine

[staffyman]

I use the bundled software (or maybe the latest one from the creative site) and it's been fine. I tend to stick video's and photos one there too though, and the Creative software offers the ability to convert the files so they take up less space. The Zen works fine with WMP though, as the above have all stated and were it not for the Photo/video stuff then that's what I'd most likely use.

[Moldiver]

The Zen turned up today. Had a quick play and it seems pretty ace. Used the bundled software which is very easy and haven't bothered to sync it to wmp.

Question though. I ported over a few files and some aren't appearing as they should in a folder. For example one folder appears as 'unknown', even though I added a title on my PC. This still contains all the songs though, bar one which appears on the player as a seperate track for some reason, even though it's in the pc folder.

another folder had about 110 songs, various artists. they're japanese mp3s, but when put on the player they're scattered all over the place, so I ended up deleting them.

I hope this post makes sense. Is there any way to sort these problem files via the zen itself, or if not anything specific I need to do on the PC?

Cheers again.

EDIT:

I've just carried over another cd album, but it's put itself in the same folder as the previously mentioned 'Unknown' one. Weird :/

[staffyman]

I think the Zen uses the tags on the MP3's themselves to sort where they all go, so my advice would be to check all the tags and correct them where necessary. A misspelled word can mean a whole new listing is created in the Zen as has happened with some of my files. I need to tidy all mine up.

[Moldiver]

Thanks Staffy. I downloaded Mp3tag and went through the folder changing every tag. It seemed to to the job for the songs, but the folder itself is still called 'Unknown' on the player. Any ideas how to change the name of the folder? It shouldn't be difficult I'd have thought. I've tried renaming it by right-clicking but makes no difference.

I've since ripped some cds straight to the machine and they're perfectly fine, it's just these 100 song compilations that are gonna be a pain to re-tag.

[Moldiver]

Hey chaps. Just a quick question, hoping someone might be able to advise. The Zen has been fine for about a week now but I've noticed it likes to turn itself on every so often. Did it again about ten minutes ago: the screen flashes on and then shuts off, lasts all of a second. Any ideas?

[staffyman]

Hey Moldiver,

Sorry, didn't realise you'd replied. I think that 'Unknown' is just a default folder for any files without Album tag info. They're all just bunged into there as there's nowhere else it can list them. It was more or less the same on my previous i-river MP3 player, except there it was 'Unknown Album'. I think the best course of action would be for you to choose whatever name you would want to rename the folder to, paste this into the 'Album' tag information for the songs on your PC and when you copy the MP3's to the Zen, the Zen should automatically create the desired folder with all of the files inside. A bit of a chew on but that should sort it.

Sorry for the strange problems you've been having. I can't say I've ever experienced that with my Zen, but I've got mine in the leather case most of the time so if it turned itself on randomly then the chances are that I would never know. As I said before, there are some users who have mentioned strange glitches with the Zen but I guess I've been blessed in that I haven't experienced any so far. Have you checked to see if you've got the most recent firmware? You can do that through the bundled software. Beyond that I'm afraid I have no idea. Hope you get it sorted mate!

[Moldiver]

Hey Staffy, thanks :) How do you actually paste into album tag information? do I need to select folder properties and do something from in there? Or can I chamge foder tag using Mp3tag? Can't figure out how to using that anyway.

I've checked my firmware and it all seems ok. It's a new player so I think it was already set to latest. I contacted Zen and they just gave me three bunch of options, including the one you mention and doing a reset. It isn't a major problem. As I say it barely lasts a second, I've only manage to catch it now and then in the corner of my eye.

[DrVenkman]

I've been using MediaMonkey for all my Zen needs. It can be fiddly when you have badly named albums but it renames them and tags with album art ready for the zen to display. Sorted!

[Moldiver]

Finding it difficult to use. Do I still need to retag every song individually? Can't figure how to add art either. If I try to auto-tag from web it never finds the correct stuff

[cprompt]

Can't figure how to add art either. If I try to auto-tag from web it never finds the correct stuff
Do what I do - locate the album on amazon/hmv/play, right-click the album cover and save the jpeg, then mp3tag it in to the tracks (extended tags). Job done.

[Moldiver]

Thanks for that, worked a treat :) The Zen is a Bit fiddly overall though isn't, in that you can't simply add the artwork to existing albums on the player. Means having to delete everything and start from scratch.

[douglasb]

If you use the Autotag from Amazon option, it should just pull the artwork through at the same time. TBH I'm less fussed about everything having artwork, etc. these days. 98% of the time the Zen is locked and in a pocket so having all the bells and whistles is less important.

[Moldiver]

Man, I'm starting to think this is a piece of **** :( I was just putting some cds on it and suddenly it acts like crazy. whenever I try to browse or add media I get a message saying ' the device is not connected or busy', though if I select browse it shows an empty folder. The player still has all the files, but it won't delete any. Every time I try to delete from the player it looks like its deleting, but when I exit and go back in the file has magically reappeared.

I've installed the latest firmware and tried resetting it, but nothing is working. Any advice would be appreciated.

Edit, discovered the clean up option, which seems to have done the trick :/