Ahh, toys… the latest one to enter the fold is the Creative Zen Vision W personal media player. This device does just about everything.
But is it any good? Well, read on to find out.
Feature List
- 4.3″ WQVGA high-resolution LCD screen – View 480 x 272 resolution in a wide aspect screen at up to 262,144 colors or output video and photos to an external display at a maximum of 720×480.
- Holds up to 240 hours of movies – ZEN support formats such as AVI, DivX 4 & 53, XviD4, MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG4-SP, WMV9 and Motion-JPEG, which simply means more choices and fewer restrictions.
- Store up to tens of thousands of photos – Complete with a thumbnail gallery and zoom capabilities.
Up to 15,000 songs – With 5-band EQ or 8 preset EQ settings and 96dB signal-to-noise ratio.- TV output – Connect the ZEN to a projector or TV with the bundled AV cable for everyone to see.
- FM radio – Listen to more music with the integrated FM radio with 32 station presets.
- Personal organizer – Syncs your contacts, calendar, and tasks with Microsoft Outlook.
- Voice recorder – Record meetings, lectures, even voice memos.
- Long lasting battery – Enjoy up to 13 hours of music, or 4.5 hours of movies.
- Offload digital photos – Transfer pictures from your camera to ZEN without a computer.
Initial Impressions
The device was packaged with accessories including earbud headphones, a wall power adapter, a USB cable, a software disc, A/V-out cables, and a felt case.
After unpacking the device I noticed that it is hefty, but not heavy. It weighs 10.5 ounces and though it looks a little plain you can tell that the screen is quality even before you turn it on.
The software installed just fine on my heavily abused XP system and is very simple to use. It includes functions to load songs, video and photos on the device as well as the ability to rip audio CDs. One thing notably missing however was the ability to rip DVDs.
This to me was a glaring omission. How does Creative expect people to get their DVDs into this PMP device? In order to perform this task I had to use some other software. I’ve documented the process of ripping DVDs to your hard drive for transfer to the Zen here. I’ve got two options, one fairly simple but not free, one free but a little more complicated.
Back to the review at hand…
I found Creative’s transfer software to be very simple to use and after loading up some MP3s and videos I immediately plugged in my Bose QuietComfort 2 headphones to take a listen. With these headphones I initially felt the sound quality was a little flat, but then I changed the EQ settings to suit my preference and it sounded fantastic.
I then threw on a movie and was impressed with the sharpness and clarity of the video. I never forgot that I was watching a tiny screen, but I was very, very happy that I hadn’t picked up an iPod. The Zen W’s screen is at least 200% larger and I wouldn’t want it any smaller.
The only thing that I immediately missed is some sort of built in stand for the unit. If you want to set it down to watch it you’ll have to lean it against something, and then it wants to slip. I’m considering making a stand for it myself on my PlasmCAM.
The Good and Bad
Things I Like:
- The screen is beautiful. It is very sharp and clear and has a good refresh rate.
- The user interface is very intuitive. I didn’t read a single page of the manual, but everything was extremely easy to figure out.
- The built in speaker is adequate. I wish it could go a little louder but hey, at least it has one, (unlike the iPod and other units).
The player remembers exactly where each movie stopped, and resumes playing from that spot, even if you watch several different movies at at time.- The fast forward and rewind functions work awesome! They start out slow and then speed up exponentially. It feels just right – very unlike Ipod.
- The non-bloated, functional and simple software.
- Although I haven’t tested it yet, I’m looking forward to syncing the device with TiVo as the box says “…transfer them to your player using TiVoToGo…”.
- Creative built in a ton of extras such as Outlook contact, calendar and task syncing; and excellent FM radio and a microphone for recording.
- CNet claims 18 hours and 28 minutes of MP3 battery life, with 5 hours 6 minutes of juice when playing video, which is far more than Creative’s claims. In addition, it’s removable so you could get an extra one if you wanted to keep going after that.
Things I don’t like:
- You must install the Creative software in order to transfer files. Although you can easily partition up to 16GB to act as USB Mass Storage, it doesn’t allow you to just see the whole 60GB and drop files where you want them. Still, this is a reasonable compromise.
- Although the size is fine, I wish it was just a little thinner. Its .9″ thick and it would be ideal if it could be more like .3 – .5″ thick. I realize the technology isn’t there yet.
- The buttons are a little too small for my fingers. I’m 6′1″ with fairly large hands.
- It doesn’t stand up by it’s self. If you set it down it needs to lean on something.
In order to test the widest range of encoded information I downloaded a bunch of bootlegged movies from the Internet (and then deleted them immediately afterwards of course :-) ). I did this because I can’t possibly create test formats for the wide variety of choices out there.
Compatibility
Formats Tested:
- I checked out a version of Employee of the Month, encoded with TMPGEnc, 352×240, at 30fps, and it worked well until about 1/2 way through when the voice got out of sync with the video. This is normally associated with the quality of the software used to encode the video.
- An Inconvenient Truth encoded with TMPGEnc, 352×240, at 30fps worked flawlessly.
- I tried to install Bowling for Columbine which was encoded with MPEG4, 560×304, 24fps, but the Creative MediaSource software failed to convert it and therefore it did not transfer to the device. The software did not explain why it couldn’t convert it, it just failed.
- While watching a video of Half Baked (encoded with XVID, 624×336, 24fps) the video played back choppy. Aproximately every 10-20 seconds there would be about a .5 second pause.
- Barnyard, encoded in MPEG1 Layer 2, 352×240, 30fps worked just fine.
- The Ant Bully, encoded with DivX 6.2.2, 352×240 at 30fps worked perfectly.
- Casino Royale, which incidentally is the greatest Bond movie ever made!!!, encoded in MPEG1 Layer 2, 352×240, 30fps worked fine as well.
I could go on, but I think you get the picture. I’d say that approximately 90% of the movies downloaded at least worked. A few of them had a glitch or two. The ones that I ripped from my own DVDs, using this method, worked flawlessly.
Summary
I had considered every personal media player on the market before picking up the Zen Vision W. Money was truly no object, I just wanted to get one that had a fantastic screen, long battery life and excellent compatibility with a wide range of encoding and formats.
For any amount of money I don’t think you can do better than this media player, and given that you can pick one up for $350-400 it makes the perfect A/V travel companion.
Other Resources
As always, questions and comments are welcome, and if you found this article useful please do me the favor of DIGGing it, bookmarking it with Del.icio.us, or any of your favorite sites from up by the article title.
Have fun!
EDIT: 1/8/2007 I also just added a complete teardown of this device for those that might be interested in upgrading the hard drive.
EDIT: 7/12/2007 Thanks to Michael we have this picture of the SF Planet Zen W Case w/stand. As he described it:
The kickstand is built separate as a flap in the back. The top cover just throws back and hangs there to keep the weight pulling backwards onto the kickstand.
And when you’re done, the kickstand is magnetic, so it will snap back to the case and not stick out.
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Ahh, toys… the latest one to enter the fold is the Creative Zen Vision W personal media player. This device does just about everything. 
Up to 15,000 songs – With 5-band EQ or 8 preset EQ settings and 96dB signal-to-noise ratio.
The software installed just fine on my heavily abused XP system and is very simple to use. It includes functions to load songs, video and photos on the device as well as the ability to rip audio CDs. One thing notably missing however was the ability to rip DVDs. 
I found Creative’s transfer software to be very simple to use and after loading up some MP3s and videos I immediately plugged in my Bose QuietComfort 2 headphones to take a listen. With these headphones I initially felt the sound quality was a little flat, but then I changed the EQ settings to suit my preference and it sounded fantastic. 
The player remembers exactly where each movie stopped, and resumes playing from that spot, even if you watch several different movies at at time.
Pages: « 1 2 3 4 [5] 6 7 » Show All
Hi!, I would like to know if you can use the player while charging via DC Adapter.
Thanks a lot!! :)
Best Regards,
Vertexar
vertexar,
you can, i did, i programmed all the settings, like time, date, eq, the first time i got it, and stuff. im not sure if youre SUPPOSED to.but i did, and mine is fine. and it will slow down the charging process.
now i charge it while still haveing it plugged into my speakers and playing
Hey , ive read all of the responses and comments on here, it helps a lot but i just need to no one more thing before i buy it, does the creative zen vision w work with all dvr’s or only the tivo??i have comcast digital cable’s version or a dvr and i dont want to spend 400$ if it doesnt work with my dvr, hope someone can help me thankyou…
Frank,
I also have the Comcast DVR, but to my knowledge NOTHING works with it.
Someone please correct me if I’m wrong, but I know of no way to get content off that device. The reason Tivo works is that they have built that functionality into the device and included networking capabilities.
The Comcast DVR is a big, dumb ugly piece of junk by comparison. :-)
John
John,
i looked into it alittle and i found that Comcast just came out with a Tivo box, im not sure how much it cost but i hope it doesnt cost that much, maybe you could see if you could find that out….
and thankyou for the info
Thanks for the info Frank. I’ll look into it.
Does anyone no where i can buy videos and music online that works well with the zen vision w
frank the tank,
try limewire, or bittorrent, or utorrent, or mtorrent for music
you dont pay for them there, but you can download thenm
for videos, get blockbuster online, or netfliz, and use this link
http://onemansblog.com/2006/12/22/shrink-dvds-to-play-on-ipod-laptop-or-portable-devices-for-free/
to rip movies and then convert them to the right format. its what i do.
i use itunes to organize my music, then ill drag it to my ZVW after.
sometimes it doesnt organize it right, but its okay
Thankyou Chris,
i also have one more question, what will i actually need to get the tivo option to work…i have comcast digital cable and i was wondering if i could just buy the tivo series 2 which is compatible with cable…what else do i have to buy in order for it to work like which software.
again thankyou chris for the info
well i use windows vista n zen seems to work pretty well with it better than xp it doesnt need any cd or driver :> n it worked as a Mass Storage device
creative is better than ipod :>
anyone know which universal remote I can use with my unit? thanks
AhmedSS wrote:
well i use windows vista n zen seems to work pretty well with it better than xp it doesnt need any cd or driver :> n it worked as a Mass Storage device
creative is better than ipod :>
Hi dudes!!! Well I own a ZVW 60 GB and I’ve already used it with Win XP, without install any Creative Driver. It worked like a Mass Storage device, like AhmedSS described. I don’t remember the specifications but it really was Windows XP.
Re: Items 112 – regarding ZEN seen as a Mass Storage Device by your computer:
See also my comment #100 above.
You can have your ZEN pie and eat it too!!
Hi, Zen Vision Owners!
I was thinking about any possibility of new firmware updates to Zen Vision W.
I really would like to have video playlists and e-book reader. Does anyone think it’s possible? thank you all!
Does anyone know if audio from your computer can be recorded to the Zen, by means of an input cable from the computer speakers,to the Zen.
Much like you would connect an old cassette recorder to your computer via the auxilalry jack on the cassette.
jim
if you can get the audio file onto your computer, then you can just drag it to your zen. if you mean recorded by the mic. then yes, you can,but i dont understand your question
One Man,
I’m looking to get a Zen Vision W. I’ve read all about it way way back before, the specs and all, and I was just about to get a 30 GB when the store I ran to ran out of stock. I figure, by the time they restock a 30 GB, I will have enough money to get a 60 GB, so I’m going for that.
But anyway… Now I was just looking for reviews about the product, trying to get some feedback from the actual users to see what they have to say. And let me say I am fortunate to have come upon your review on my first try. Now I am even more driven (and a bit frustrated) to get myself a Vision W, and I’m even more driven to get the 60 GB version. I won’t need to hound for more reviews – yours says it all.
Thanks.
revies say that you can put videos from youtube onto your zen, how would i do this?
I can’t seem to find any kind of docking station for my Vision W. I would like a desktop and/or vehicle mount. Any ideas or custom jobs anyone has heard of?
Im glad to see so many people still enthralled about the zen…..
I bought mine waaayy back in august/september 06 and its been through hell and back, yet screen doesnt show sscrathes, yet the less than a yeard old cellphone who also rides with zen in pocket it scratched to h3ll. The zen has gotten less and less bad about lockup, or a 3 minute period of wating for the next song to play if its on shuffle, with 8-10k songs on it. It great in the car, like a indash tv, the has *removable face* It’s great, I get movies off a torrent then can put the files on zen w and go anywhere…..
Got vista up and running, and yes it list it as a Mass Storage Device, unless it in the Portable HDD mode…
To answer some questions….
Eric: http://www.amazon.com/Creative-Vision-Docking-Station-Black/dp/B000BM2Q8Q/ref=pd_bbs_11/002-8844718-9172802?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1183406743&sr=8-11
(thats the place i get all mods for zen, and some even come from creative)
Richie, That link you gave is for the Creative Vision Zen, not the Zen W. I have read a lot of people purchasing that one thinking it will just work.. but like the text under Tech Details section of that page says.. “Not compatible with the Zen Vision W”.
As for a car mount, I use the following..
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=7695023&st=suction+cup+mount&type=product&id=1138084373352
I like that I can move it around my windshield wherever I want. Like if I and on lunch and want to watch a movie, I pull it near the steeling wheel. But if I am going somewhere and my girl wants to watch something, she can have it over near her, far enough from my view. It was a very good choice for the Zen W.
-Jeff
-http://carabs.com
Gang,
First of all I’m sorry about the problem with the numbering on my theme here. Now that we’re up into the 100+ comments I see that the numbers are obsuring names and I’m working on solving that problem… I’d also like to find a way to have the comments “paged” so that we don’t have to scroll down through all of them to see the one on the bottom. Seems like displaying the last 20 or so at at time and then allowing people to page through older ones would work better, but I need to re-write part of the theme to make that happen and not quite sure how to do it yet.
Moving on, Jeff thanks for that pointer to Best Buy. I actually just left the mount for my Nuvi 660 in a rental car (DAMN!) and need another mount for it. Since it’s about the same size as the Zen W perhaps it will work as a replacement for both! I’m going to get one tonight.
Also, Aaron over at RapidRepair.com just sent me a 100 GB hard drive to swap into the Zen and I’m going to get that fully documented in the next few days and I’ll put up a new post as soon as I’ve completed it. So, everyone can give Aaron some thanks for pushing the documentation forward. :-)
John
I picked up the mount that Jeff recommened at Best Buy today and it’s great! Thanks for that tip again!
John
hey ya’ll i found that my 30gb fits on the JBL onstage plus (for psp).
I picked up on clearance at walmart, 20 bucks….
was 99
It sounds better, and the zen has a cradle in top the has a wire to plugin speakers….
yeah, they come with dc adapter, needs batteries for the road, but 7 days later, im on the same pair at 3-4 hours a day.(4 aaa)
it is in stereo…..I can make a pic, but will have to be later….
http://www.amazon.com/JBL-Tour-Portable-Speaker-System/dp/B000BRV60A
Thanks Amazon…..
Anywhoo, thought some might enjoy a little more oomf, say maybe for an alarm clock or some thing…..
Hi!!, I was wondering, where is the creative zen vision w 60gb manufactured? Is there more than one country producing units? (i heard China and Singapur)
Thanks a Lot for your help!!!,
best regards,
vertexar