Creative Labs Zen Vision 30GB Reviewed

[James Fee]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://reviews.designtechnica.com/review3129.html' target='_blank'>http://reviews.designtechnica.com/review3129.html</a><br /><br /></div><i>"Creative Labs second iteration of their portable media player, the Zen Vision, follows in the footsteps of their Zen Portable Media Center, which failed miserably when it was introduced. Forget everything you know about the Zen Portable Media Center though, because the Zen Vision is a completely different product – one that you might actually want. First of all, the Zen Vision ditches Microsoft's Portable Media Center operating system, instead opting for a custom, in-house solution. With a 30GB hard drive and a 3.7" color screen, the Zen Vision should have a lot to offer, read on to see if it delivers."</i><br /><br /><img src="http://www.digitalmediathoughts.com/images/notapmc.jpg" /><br /><br />Wait, a PMP that I might actually want? I did a double take when I read that, but closer inspection shows that they have abandoned Microsoft's PMC and went with their own OS. Still with a lack of content even a better OS won't make up for the hassle of getting shows on a PMP.<br /><br />One has to wonder which is a bigger disappointment for Microsoft, <a href="http://www.microsoft.com/windowsmobile/portablemediacenter/default.mspx">Portable Media Center</a>, <a href="http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/tabletpc/default.mspx">Tablet PC</a> or <a href="http://blogs.msdn.com/virtual_pc_guy/archive/2004/11/04/252150.aspx">Bob</a>?

[Felix Torres]

Oh, c'mon!
That's too easy:
Tablet PCs sell at the rate of a million or so per year, the PMCs in the tens of thousands, and Bob sold about a dozen copies total, and eleven of them were returned.

The last one, however, is still shrink-wrapped, unused, and will someday be worth millions!
bwah-hah-hah! :twisted:
(Or not...)

All jesting aside, you're trying to compare a niche product, a product ahead of its time, and a product without a time.

If you must make fun of PMC, try this:

PMC=HPC... :wink:

[James Fee]

you're trying to compare a niche product, a product ahead of its time, and a product without a time.Some of us might say PMC is a product ahead of its time too. ;)

[randalllewis]

The Vision is unquestionably a niche product. So what? I own one and I bought it for three reasons: first, as an extra back-up for all my music and photos, second, as a portable photo album, and third as a way to watch movies on planes without lugging a laptop.

The Vision does a great job at all of these things. And I question the audio judgement of the reviewer as well. The Vision sounds as good through headphones (not the tiny external speaker) as Creative's Micro, which I think has the best sound of any MP3 player.

[Jason Dunn]

I own one and I bought it for three reasons: first, as an extra back-up for all my music and photos, second, as a portable photo album, and third as a way to watch movies on planes without lugging a laptop.

Randal, I was very interested in buying one until I read a review (http://gear.ign.com/articles/640/640939p2.html) that stated any video files transferred over were transcoded to 320 x 240 resolution rather than 640 x 480. Is that true? For me, that's a huge showstopper. :-( I emailed Creative's PR department and they ignored me. Can you clarify?

[randalllewis]

The Vision comes with a trial version of a program called Video Vault. Using that program, I transferred commercial DVD's I own and DVD's I made to the Vision. The program offers a choice of conversions between 320x240 WMV and MPEG4 and 640X480 MPEG4. There are a couple of suboptions on audio quality as well. I've chosen the 640X480 option. The downside is the speed, these conversions take a very long time but I believe that is the software and not the Vision. I would be interested in exploring any other conversion programs that may be out there.

Jason, I hope this is answer to your question.

[Jason Dunn]

The program offers a choice of conversions between 320x240 WMV and MPEG4 and 640X480 MPEG4. There are a couple of suboptions on audio quality as well. I've chosen the 640X480 option.

Aha, interesting stuff - so the WMV encoding is limited to 320 x 240, while MPEG4 can be 640 x 480. I wonder why that is? Most of my content is in WMV, so that limitation would suck. Very curious. Thanks for the input!