Creative Zen Vision:M 60 GB Portable Media Player Black
by Creative
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Category: Network Media Player
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Digital Photo Product Details
Manufacturer: CreativeBrand: Creative
Edition: Electronics
Audio: English (Original Language)
Model: 70PF204000000
Publisher: Creative
Studio: Creative
Music Label: Creative
Product features:
- 60 GB multimedia device holds tens of thousands of photos, up to 240 hours of videos, or 30,000 songs
- 2.5-inch, high definition LCD screen features a 320 x 240 resolution and hundreds of thousands of colors
- Supports many video formats, such as AVI, DivX 4 and 53, XviD4, MPEG-1, -2, -SP, WMV9, and Motion-JPEG
- Integrated FM radio and recorder, voice recorder
- Measures 4.1 x 2.4 x 0.87 inches and weighs 6.9 oz
- Ultimate Ears MetroFi 220 Noise Isolating Earphones
- Logitech Portable Speaker S125i with Built-in iPod Dock
- Ultimate Ears 700 Noise Isolating Earphones
- Logitech Pure-Fi Express Plus Omnidirectional Speaker Dock for iPod and iPhone
- Ultimate Ears TripleFi 10 Noise Isolating Earphones
Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Creative Zen Vision:M 60 GB Portable Media Player Black
Customer Review: Great Little Gizmo!
Summary: 5 Stars
Let's just say right off the bat that I am somewhat technologically challenged when it comes to these new fangled gadgets, at least until I get used to them. I still used the CD player and CDs. Well, my 33 year old son told me I needed an ipod. He has a friend who is really into this stuff and said to buy Creative Zen, because they are better and cheaper, with better capabilities. I picked this one because I wanted plenty of room to hold DVDs and music. Besides for sixty dollars more, you double the gigs. I bought this gizmo and asked my son to figure it out for me. Big mistake! He started loading all his stuff on it, so I had to buy one for ME and give him the first one.
All that said, and also that I am just getting my feet wet with it, this is an awesome little gizmo and I am tickled pink with it! Will be travelling in a couple of months and HAVE to take my Barry Manilow music with me. I would go into serious withdrawal without it. I've got 46 songs loaded already and it didn't even make a dent in the memory. It loaded in seconds. Was amazed at how fast. There's no little wheel. It's a rectangular touch pad and 2 buttons to each side. It needs only a light touch for the pad. You can also lock the pad so it doesn't get moved by mistake, like if you want to start it playing and leave it on. You can also set it to turn itself off in varied amounts of time if you leave it on by mistake.
I think it takes tens of thousands of songs and a couple hours of DVD. You can load photos too and can also pull in radio stations. The screen is a couple of inches square and it shows a crystal clear picture. You can watch a DVD and actually see it! The music is clear. Man! What a neat little gizmo. It's small and packs a whallop! I can load ALL my 7000 Barry Manilow albums (well, maybe not quite that many), and still have room for some meditation music for the plane, some Wayne Dyer motivational stuff and maybe add a little Earth, Wind and Fire, and Benny Goodman, and Harry James, and whatever and STILL have room for a DVD.
It comes with earphones and a charger that plugs into the computer. It also has a software disc that comes with it and a fabric type pouch. You charge it up and start.
Can't wait till I really get into this gizmo. Welcome me to the 21st century! If I can do it, you can too. (Not nearly as scary as I thought.)
PS--My son is even more tickled than I am, cause he understands the gizmo better (but not for long). He's just not tickled pink--maybe blue, or green. Actually, he likes green. He is an electrician and has loaded a bahzillion songs on his, so he plays it while he is wiring stuff all day long.
Anyway--Buy it. You'll like it.
Update: The sound quality is AWESOME. I hear things in my CDs that I never heard before, and these are CDs I have previously played over and over. I loaded songs all day yesterday, maybe something like 40 CDs and I still have something like 48 gigs left! I already loaded enough songs to take myself to France and back and I still have room for tons more stuff. No kidding, I DID load my ENTIRE Barry Manilow collection (and it's a big one) + 8 meditation CDs and some old stuff like Reader's Digest set of 4 1950s CDs. Come to think of it, I might have loaded more like 50 CDs yesterday. Anyway, you get the idea. Did I say this gizmo was a nice size for your hand, guy or gal. Not too big, not too small, but j-u-s-t r-i-i-i-i-g-h-t! One of the best buys I ever got for my $$$. And, my CDs are here, so if they get scratched in CD form, I've got 'em right here! Oh, if you copy something to the gizmo you don't want, you can easily delete it off through the software. Look out world! I'm starting to get into this gizmo!
Another update: it's really easy to load songs. The software practically does it for you. All you need to do is find the "Rip" and "Sync" buttons. You can also change titles or artist info later and it updates automatically when you sync something else. Got a pair of Bose headphones for my gizmo at the Bose outlet in Hagerstown Sunday. Awesome! I'm cookin', man! Am still in search of a just-right case for it. Meanwhile, I'm using an old CD belted holder. Think I might have found the right case. Will let you know when it comes. Check my other reviews for wall charger and auto charger and cases NOT to buy. Yes! Finally found a great case. See it in my other reviews.
May 1 update--still LOVIN' the gizmo! Ladies, guess what! Some of the purses out there have a nice outside pocket that the Giz fits in perfectly. Put the Giz in the pocket, dangle the wire from the Giz, and go shopping while plugged in and with your purse on your shoulder. Love it! I've got so darned many CDs on it now, it's pityfull, and I STILL have 47 gigs available! I am sooo glad I came to my senses and bought it!
Oct 2007 Update--my son wanted me to tell you all that he has beaten the heck out of his gizmo, unintentionally of course. Being an electrician and wearing it on the job while he crawls through things to wire stuff, it gets banged, dropped, etc. Anyway, he wants you to know that it still works fine even though it has taken one heck of a beating.
Description of Creative Zen Vision:M 60 GB Portable Media Player Black
Smaller and better than ever before, ZEN Vision:M does more than play your videos, photos and music. It displays them in their true glory on a vibrant, large full-color screen. Perfect for road trips long or short, carry your entertainment in the palm of your hand.In its own right, the Creative Zen Vision:M is a very capable digital audio player, video player, photo viewer, FM radio, and more. Indeed, one could go on and on about how it has the right specifications to make it a constant companion for entertainment on the go. The really big news about this device, though, is that it's the first device to boast complete compatibility with Amazon Unbox, the new digital video and music download service from Amazon.com.
| The Zen Vision:M has the features, ease-of-use, and power to become your constant media companion. See the Vison:M interactive demo. |
Let's get things out in the open. The Apple iPod is the 800-pound gorilla when it comes to the digital media player business and, unavoidably, every other device is measured against it. In most respects, the Vision:M matches up pretty well, and there are few things you may even like better. Length and width dimensions are exactly the same at 4.1 and 2.4 inches respectively. When it comes to girth, though, the iPod has the Vision:M beat; the Vision:M is .7 inches thick, while the iPod measures .4 inches. The Vision:M is slightly heavier, too. These details aside, the Vision:M feels comfortable, yet sturdy, in the hand, with curved surfaces in all the right places.
Creative takes a somewhat different approach with the Vision:M's controls, answering the iPod's Click Wheel with a vertical touch pad--which allows you to scroll up and down menus and control volume--plus four buttons that offer navigation through the user interface. The contextual menu button on the bottom right is a welcome addition, allowing you to make quick settings changes and view information about media files on the fly--functions that are more cumbersome on an iPod. Creative could have made the buttons a bit more sensitive--they require a firm press that gives an overall feeling of clunkiness to an otherwise well-designed user interface. Another annoyance is the touch pad's over-sensitivity; it's easy to make selections unintentionally, sending you on a wild ride through the user interface.
The Vision:M's screen, which measures 2.5 inches diagonally, offers sharp details, vibrant color, and excellent response with little or no video ghosting during high-action sequences. The 320 x 240 resolution is to be expected from a device this size, and although it's small, you'll likely have no trouble enjoying video while you're sitting on the subway or a flight, or in the back-seat of a car. Our only nitpick was the screen's less than stellar viewing angle, especially when compared side-by-side with a video iPod. While this can be good for maintaining privacy, the narrow viewing angle also means that friends beside you will struggle to see anything other than a black screen.
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The Vision:M's music organization scheme is standard fare; you can browse playlists, artists, tracks, albums, and genres. Equalizer settings are robust, with a nice range of automatic settings, plus a custom equalizer that's easy to control. The music library's "DJ" function is a nice touch, allowing you to listen to your most popular tracks. It can also pull up the tunes you listen to least frequently--in case you've got some forgotten tunes lying around on the Vision:M's 60 GB hard drive. Sound quality is everything you'd expect from a top shelf digital audio player, and DRM'd Windows Media files played without a hitch. The device fully supports a whole range of "PlaysForSure" download and subscription services, such as Napster and Yahoo Music. Creative also ships a CD-ripping and music transfer application called MediaSource with the Vision:M.
Playback of Windows Media DRM'd video files (WMV9) was also hassle-free. Purchased videos delivered crisp colors and detail, with no frame drops. Video playback consumes a lot of power, bringing Creative's claim of four hours of video playback into serious doubt. Expect under three hours when watching videos continuously. Thankfully, if you need to come back to your video later the Vision:M's software remembers the timecode of where you left off--unless you power the device down between viewing sessions. In addition to protected and unprotected WMV files, the Vision:M can play MPEG 1/2/4, Motion-JPEG, DivX 4 and 5, and XviD formats, making it a very flexible device with respect to encoding options.
The Vision:M can also store thousands of photos, letting you browse through them or set up a slideshow. The device's TV-out option comes in handy here, as you can present slideshows on a TV or projector. Videos can be displayed this way, too. An FM radio with easy preset tuning functions and great signal reception, plus a voice recorder feature, round out the extra media features. There's also a handy application on the Vision:M that formats a portion of the drive for use as USB 2.0 mass storage, letting you set aside up to 16 GB for data storage.
Connectivity and Synchronization
A Creative Sync Adapter ships in the box with the Vision:M, making it a snap to connect the device to a USB 2.0-capable PC. With the connection made, Windows XP recognized the device right off the bat and Windows Media Player immediately asked us if we wanted to load the PC's music onto the Vision:M. Music management and synchronization has come a long way on the PC, and the experience of organizing and transferring music to and from the Vision:M was, barring a few curious click-through boxes, pretty seamless. The Vision:M also supports synchronization of your Outlook contacts, calendar, and tasks, in case you want to use it as a personal organizer of sorts.
Amazon Unbox Integration
To be truly successful, the Vision:M has to be more than a great media device, it has to integrate with Amazon Unbox and make the process feel like second nature. Although the Vision:M was tested using a beta version of Amazon Unbox, things are looking good already. Amazon Unbox and the Vision:M go together like peas in a pod, making the process of purchasing, downloading, and enjoying content on the go a real cinch. The Amazon Unbox Video Player, which queues, downloads, organizes, and plays your purchased movies and TV shows, recognized the Vision:M right off the bat. An icon for the Vision:M appears in the devices panel of the application, and you can immediately begin transferring downloaded content to the device. Once you're all loaded up, the Vision:M offers a great way to bring Amazon Unbox entertainment along for the ride.
Pros
- Crisp, vibrant color screen is great for video
- Generous video format compatibility
- Excellent sound quality and music management functions
- Narrow screen viewing angle may be a problem for some
- Finicky controls for some functions
- Slightly more bulky than other competitors
Creative ZEN Vision:M, earphones, Sync Adapter, USB 2.0 cable, pouch, user's guide, and installation CD that includes Creative MediaSource and Creative Media Explorer software. Note: As of July 2006 Creative no longer ships the Zen M with the AC power adapter.