Creative’s Answer to the iPod Video

[Chris Gohlke]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.engadget.com/entry/1234000157071380/' target='_blank'>http://www.engadget.com/entry/1234000157071380/</a><br /><br /></div><i>"Creative is introducing their new Zen Vision:M, an answer to Apple’s 5G iPod, and what an answer it is. We know it gets old hearing every new player get compared to Apple’s flagship offering, but can you seriously blame us here? The specs are vaguely familiar, with a 2.5-inch screen at 320x240 resolution and a 30GB hard drive, though thankfully Creative squeezed in 4 hours of video playback, doubling Apple’s endurance on at least video. (The audio playback conks out at 11 hours.) The size of the two players is virtually identical, with the Zen Vision:M only changing it up on thickness — at about twice the iPod’s 0.43-inches."</i><br /><br /><img src="http://www.digitalmediathoughts.com/images/creativeipod.JPG" /><br /><br />We will have to see what the street price of this ends up at, but at $330, it will be just a tad more than the comprable iPod, but may be worth it if you are into the extra features and are not interested in purchasing video through iTunes.

[Kent Pribbernow]

Yikes! Creative is moving dangerously close to lawsuit territory with these designs. At first blush, both the hardware and the GUI looks suspiciously like an iPod.

That said, I do like what I see here. Of all companies developing digital audio players outside Cupertino, I have always had strong feelings about Creative. I said the colorful Zen micro was going to be a success story, and I was right..sort of. It earned the number two spot for the company in the portable player space, albeit a DISTANT second.

I think this device has what it takes to push Creative farther up the chart as well, but we'll just have to wait and see.

[Felix Torres]

The black looks good but I'm not a fan of touch-pad controls.
And the screen is still too small for any real video use.

I prefer the regular landscape Zen Vision.
If they come up with one with a bigger HDD I might jump.

Until then, I'll keep flogging the Riot...

As for the poddishness of the design, the engadget editor suggested its payback for stealing "Nano" as a product name.
I'm thinking its a dare...
Bad blood is building between those two. :twisted:

[ale_ers]

Yikes! Creative is moving dangerously close to lawsuit territory with these designs. At first blush, both the hardware and the GUI looks suspiciously like an iPod.


It has been said that Apple stole the GUI from Creative (or was it Rio). Everyone assumes Apple was first because they are the most popular.

[James Fee]

Doesn't matter what it looks like or what it does. The Vision:M won't do a thing unless they advertise it. Of course Apple doesn't even need to advertise anymore as anything they do shows up in every local papers Business section.

Can someone please buy out Creative and start really marketing their products (Microsoft?).

[Vincent Ferrari]

This might be the one... Holy crap, native Divx? You mean I could torrent a show and watch it without converting it?

Where do I sign up!?

I can't believe I'm saying this, but (gasps) I may like this better than my iPod...

[Phronetix]

This might be the one... Holy crap, native Divx? You mean I could torrent a show and watch it without converting it?

Where do I sign up!?

I can't believe I'm saying this, but (gasps) I may like this better than my iPod...

The native divx is cool. i think apple's going to be jumping on this one, with respect to design similarities. I can't quite believe creative did this. I guess if imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, creative's gonna need a set of knee pads for this one. :silly:

[Vincent Ferrari]

If we're going to talk imitation, everyone should be paying the now-defunct Diamond because if you owned an original Rio (I did, a 600) you know that everyone pretty much copied them.

I don't think this is a case of imitation as much as it is a design that's now commoditized. Scrolling and cascading menus are what they are. Green has always meant a battery was charged, red means dying or dead... We're not talking about revolutionary stuff here.

Commoditization is the sincerest form of flattery, I guess :-)

[Kent Pribbernow]

I don't think this is a case of imitation as much as it is a design that's now commoditized. Scrolling and cascading menus are what they are. Green has always meant a battery was charged, red means dying or dead... We're not talking about revolutionary stuff here.

True, but there is another element to "imitation" that gets lost in translation; desktop integration and music store implementation (rhyme unintentional). Part of what makes iPod so great is iTunes, or rather how well iTunes works. As is the case with the iTunes music store. I have used EVERY jukebox software under the sun for Windows, and frankly they are all crap. That may sound a bit like a generalization, but as my tastes in computing become more refined (or snobbish), I find myself gravitating increasingly towards quality rather than "commodity" solutions.
For example, look at Windows Media Player. Mainstream users might find it acceptable for gruntwork tasks like listening to a CD, watching a streaming video, both of which launch WMP by default anyway. But let's see a show hands here among Digital Media enthusiasts who think WMP is a well designed application that measures up to iPod/iTunes? *Queue Ben Stein* Anyone...anyone..anyone? Bueller? I thought not. Hell, WMP doesn't even support audio feeds (podcasts) or videocasts (yet unnamed). Apparently Windows Vista has consumed so much of Microsoft's resources they have been literally asleep at the wheel while their competitors have outmaneuvered them.

The end-to-end experience that Window's Media based hardware offers is simply not there, in part because the desktop side of the equation isn't there. Of all the software options in I have sampled, the only one I have seen in recent months that looks like a solid working solution is Yahoo's Music Engine, and possibly the upcoming open source solution called Songbird. Beyond that, the field is littered with crapware, or parasiteware (like RealOne). Oh..and then of course we have Sony with their Trojanware media center "Connect." Appropriately named considering it allows both them, and possibly hackers, to connect with your PC as well.

Meanwhile, the iPod experience almost mirrors that of the Mac experience. Macintosh may not command the aftermarket support that Windows enjoys, but such as it is...you setup a Mac and the damn thing just works. Simply...easily...elegantly...and no worries (for now) about viruses, Trojans, or other security exploits (again, I stress for NOW). Perhaps that may be part of the problem. Maybe consumers are beginning to be less trusting of devices that wear the Windows flag? Has Plays for Sure become a Warning label rather than an endorsement?

[Vincent Ferrari]

You'll get zero argument from me that Apple has mastered the all-encompassing user experience better than anyone else.

But the Zen:M is really about more than that, in a way. While Apple is interested in locking people into DRM'ed tv shows at $1.99 a pop, Creative seems to have finally recognized that people want a good way to play the TV shows they've been torrenting for years.

Frankly, I think despite the UI being a nightmare (using Prays for Sure), people will tolerate it for the increased capabilities provided by the device.

It's not going to be a slamdunk, but it's smart of Creative to move on from the MP3 market. People are going to want all-in-one players, and while Apple's iPod + Video is awesome (and that's an understatement), the idea of transcoding every television show I download doesn't appeal to me as much as just grabbing a show, transferring it to a device, and moving on to my day is ultimately attractive.

I've bought over $2,000 worth of iTunes music, and you know what? I'd be willing to throw it in the volcano at this point for a better overall device. I don't know if this is it, but it's nice to see Creative throw one down that might actually wake Apple up instead of make them laugh.

[kiwi]

I downloaded my first video to my video ipod the other day. what a pain.. It was a movie trailer that was in MOV format so I had to convert it in Quicktime pro 7 then copy it over. 15mins for about 1mins of playtime.. :-\

A media player that could do more than 2 native formats would be nice..

[bryan.fury]

The size of the two players is virtually identical, .... at about twice the iPod’s 0.43-inches."

lol

[Lee Yuan Sheng]

Just played with it briefly:

1. Interface is great. Better than the iPod. Touchpad is no longer as finicky as the Zen Micro. I really liked the small but important things, like the ability to jump between the first alphabet of the category list. The album art feature also looks really nifty.

2. Screen is really good. Large viewable angle, plus better reproduction. A tad saturated, but I think it's better than the iPod 5G.

3. It's not really terribly thick, unlike what the iPod fans have been ranting on. Having carried various PDA phones, I guess I'm used to their size. A Treo or a XDA is thicker than it!

Overall, I think Creative has a really good product out this time. It's one to watch.

EDIT: Oooo, and one more thing: The packaging is quite nice too! :D