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Creative Zen Vision W Review – 60 GB Personal Media Player

John P.

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Creative Zen WAhh, 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.
  • Zen Vision WUp 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.

Creative Media ExplorerThe 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…

Creative Media ImportI 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).
  • Movie ShotThe 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. Approximately 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.
Zen Vision W Case
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.

Comments

  1. Hi,
    Do you know if there is a free download manual for creative zen vision W.
    There are SO MANY things I can’t figure out on my own. Have had my gadget for several years and it’s time to know how to use more of the functions, but after much searching, I am not able to locate a manual to download. Do you know of one?

    Also, sometimes it freezes up. Have you heard of this with the W model?

    Thanks for responding!
    Wendylynn

  3. Hi! I own a creative zen w and it is broken now. I cannot get it to start. It shows the “Creative Zen W” screen and it stops there. Is there a reset button to it? Or is there something I can do to reset it? I tried taking the batery out but it’s still not working… could you please help?

  4. i had the old vision:m and it was a awesome reliable player. although i moved on to a ipod video 60gb i do miss being able to play avi/divx videos. The vision:w does look a bit too big though. For nothappy you can use windows media player to copy the files over.

  5. hy,i got creative zen!that thing is stupid,i got win xp with sp1 and of course,its needs sp2 or better,so basicly i need to change my computers Software to put some mp3 on the player,why?is there realy
    people who wona doo all that just to lisen to some music,and why nobody told me about things like that when i both the frikin thing,its aint cheap too,so whats the crack?maybe somebody can help me to get this done without spending hours at the computer luking for some upgrades and installing and uninstalling things,i just dont have time for all that sh,i just wont that thing to work.thanks

  6. Hi this is kinda weird !! my little brother sticked a Nokia charger inside the headset port (since he assumed that it fits there :\) so i had 2 ICs burned inside !! right behind the port (yellow colored) so i had them changed i started my zen !! it worked very well ! i entered the recovery mode (by using the battery thing) formated the hard drive and it formated verywell then erased the old firmware and connected the zen to my pc the upgraded the firmware and the zen rebooted after finish !! but the peoblem is i see the “Creative” logo and the “ZEN” logo when it start my zen but then i see NOTHING only a black screen

    what do you think the problem is ?! please help

  7. Sad to report, word I got from Creative is that they are NOT making the Zen Vision anymore, or the docking stations which I never knew existed and cannot find even listed on eBay. Here’s the email I got from Creative when I asked them about a docking station:

    “Dear John,

    Thank you for reaching us at Creative Email Technical Support. I appreciate the opportunity to assist you. I am sorry for the trouble you having.
    I understand that you are wanting to know why there is no docking station for the Zen Vision. The Zen Vision is no longer being manufactured and this is the same for the docking station, and we are out of stock and no longer able to order. As for as the Xdock this is one of the Wireless sound systems that we manufacture and it is designed for the Ipod the other XFI wireless will work with our MP3 players using the line in feature

    I apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused.

    If you still require assistance, please reply to this email with any previous correspondence to ensure the quickest and most accurate service.

    Best Regards,

    Wayne
    Technical Support
    Creative Labs Americas”

    I bought mine on a close-out sale price at Circuit City in December 2007 just before Christmas. Best Buy didn’t carry them at all.
    Needless to say, I will be VERY careful not to misplace my Zen Vision W, which I also love. I also use it to record the lectures in my college classes. I have two 1� hour lectures, back to back and the battery on it holds up just fine while recording them. When classmates miss a class, I off-load the lecture and burn it to CD to give them the next time they show up.

    I also own a very tiny Creative Nomad Muvo 128mb mp3 player that I use to listen to my Audible.com audio books on.

    I love my Creative products and only wish they hung in there with the Zen Vision.

    John Lord

    p.s. – I found a web page somewhere that a hobbyist described how he opened his Zen Vision and replaced the hard drive with a 1.8″ 100GB drive designed for the iPod and now has probably the worlds only (or at least, first) 100GB Zen Vision W. I probably won’t be doing that since i don’t want to risk breaking my Zen. Besides, the drive costs about what the 60GB Zen did and if I just go buy a used 60GB Zen Vision W, then I’ll own two Zens with a total of 90Gb between them with no risky hardware hacking.

  8. Good morning all,

    So I love(d) my Zen W 60gig. I used it daily on a lot of aspects of my life. But sometime in Dec I seemed to have misplaced it. I have ripped apart my house, call, office.. it Can not be found. So I figured I would just buy a new one. But it looks like Creative is not making them anymore? They are no in stock Anywhere.. they just seem like they are gone from market. Have anyone heard anything about this? I really can’t seem to find a good replacement for this.. I need a nice screen, a big HD, and a card reader slot. All the Archos look great, but without that card reader slot, it is a no go for me.

    Also, it seems like the “Pages:” (« 1 2 3 4 5 [6] Show All) links on this page above are not working within FF and IE.

    -Jeff
    http://www.carabs.com

  9. Dear John,
    Thanks for the awesome review of this player. I just picked mine up yesterday and I love it. I’m having a slight problem. AVI files will play only for about 4-11 seconds then it freezes. What’s happening? I tried removing the file and putting back on still same issue. What would I do?

  10. I absolutely loveee this player! Just like in your case, money was no object, I just wanted to get the best suitable player for me. I actually bought an iPod before this and it was a horrible experience! Their software sucks and the screen is way too small. Plus that navigation wheel was driving me crazy. The Zen W has a very nice sized screen and it’s so easy to transfer media into the player. I had an old Creative player before (the B&W version) and I liked that one too because of the easy file transfer system and navigation. I still have trouble getting my videos in from Adobe Premiere, but I’m still learning. I found your review very useful.

  15. I just use Vista to convert and add to the player from bit torrent…no problems here…also no creative software

  17. ALL I know CREATIVE won’t answer technical questions accurately – If you e-mail them..I Think all they do is READ THE MANUAL.
    CREATIVE Software is not Vista Compatible either. – So If you want to use their software you will need a computer runnin’ XP – I’m not happy with the software at all – other thing I’ve found out: You won’t be able to convert some files to AVI if you have QUICKTIME 2.2 You need to downgrade this VERSION! – its a PAIN!
    And the thing I HATE MOST!! – “CAN NOT CREATE VIDEO PLAYLIST” its a most for MUSIC VIDEOS!

  19. sorry, i just realized you can reply to comments, it couldnt be done before,so iw asent used to it

    its the little black oval-like thingie above the back button

  22. Well – I got the ZEN Vision W 30GB about 2 weeks ago – And sometimes the ZEN stops responding when unpluggin’ the device from computer – all I do is to disconnect the battery and put it back – Now features :
    I think CREATIVE could have done better software for this PMP – The main reason I bought it – was because I wanted to see my movies y music videos in a bigger screen – however the software SUCKS! – you can not have video playlist as IPOD does – the buttons are too small ! – Imagine PLAYING THE EAGLES OR PINK FLOYD album ??….

    Well other than is nice device with a bad software. I will try to sell it and get the new ARCHOS 605 WIFI 30GB

  23. Richie,

    about your battery, for my zen vision m, i used to have it plugged in, and chargin while i used it on home speakerss andhtinks, if you keep things charging, or just plugged in while its finished charging for a long time, the battery life goes down, so my zen m used to have a 14 hour bat life, and now it has about a 8, so you might just want a new battery. though, ithink that creative should make a battery like they did for the vision, where its extended time. OR another one, that its just an adapter, that you can put AA or AAA batterys in, so its like a shell, and you can just keep putting batterys in over and over, it would be great

  24. Well after almost exactly one year my zen w is still alive and kicking, however, the battery that came with it just stopped working….hmmmm Coinscidence, i think not…..

    I went ahead and took it apart for kicks…wow the lil hitachi drive is tiny….

    I played with the recovery part of it the other day…lets you wipe it out all together…and that includes password…

    The only way it would go into recovery mode was to unplug hd, boot it up…then plug hd back in…..

    This thing has been left in 100+ degree weather in the sun and cold…still booting just fine……

    Ps, mine was one of the first to hit shores here in US.

    Now that I think about it, the battery didnt crap out until I updated the firmware 1.00.01 to 1.01.10 or some shit….hmmm

  25. John, thank you for the information, definately appreciated. I picked this up last night at circuity city for $249 and think I am going to like it. Right now I am looking for a good application to convert my media center DVR-MS files. Experimenting with Digital Media Converter 2.78 which seems to do a decent job. Also using CloneDVD Mobile for moving over DVD’s. It does the widescreen DVD’s in 480×272 no problem, but the Zen isn’t happy with a standard 4:3 DVD converted to 364×272, it locks up the player. 320×240 is ok, 720×480 plays perfect as well. It’s odd, because 364×272 seems like it would be the native size to shrink down to for 4:3.

    Does anyone recommend a good case? It looks like the one from creative with the stand isn’t much, several negative reviews on it.

    Any thoughts on this one? For only $15, it’s worth a try.

    http://sfplanet.com/product/VIG018

    thanks again for your tutorial.

  26. Jason,

    Yes, I did previously answer this question in the comments a couple of times, but I know there are a lot of them to look through. The devices are identical whether they come with the 30 or 60gb drives in them. Thus, any of the cases will indeed accommodate the thicker 8mm drives.

    Also read about when I upgraded the drive in my unit to 100gb.

    Hope that helps.

    John

  27. I did read both articles. IMO, it’s not clear if the 30 gig will accept the 100 gig replacement drive since they used a 60 gig device for the teardown.

  28. Um, I’m guessing you didn’t read this entire article because John provided a link to another one he wrote about tearing down the Zen and upgrading the hard drive.

    Try scanning the page again. Look for the word EDIT.

  29. John, I am not sure if this was asked, but will it be possible to upgrade the 30 gb device to the 100 gb 1.8 HD? I understand the larger drive is a few mm thicker than the smaller drive.

    Any insight would be appreciated. my old 20 gb B&W ipod just broke, and the prices are dropping on the 30gb Zen W’s. thanks!

  30. Yes Kim, as far as I am concerned this device is unbeatable. Not only does it play back every format of bootleg movies I’ve, er… “people” have encountered, but the picture and sound quality are fantastic.

    Add to that the fact that it comes with a cable that allows you to hook it to your TV and you have an instant way to play back downloaded movies on the big screen, or to take them with you to a friend’s house.

    I highly recommend the Zen W!

    John

  31. Another great review.

    I was out traveling when the Achos 20GG portable video player came out, I picked one up in Heathrow Airport, it cost a good pile of pennies and it worked for 4-5 days. I never dropped it or mishandled it, it just stopped working.

    I live in Asia, and it would be a major pain to FEDEX it back and forth, plus it would probably get lost or taxed on the way back here, so I just let it lie. I have been a little gunshy with these players since.

    This one however looks like a great little entertainment center for people on the road, especially the support of all the various codecs we… ehmn I mean “they” use for boot leg movies :)

    Kim:)

  32. Oskar,

    im not quite sure, but you could always just ad one every time, and see what the number is… ex. 0001, 0002 … and so on… itll take a LOONGGGG time.

    if you already know what your pasword is, then where it says “hidden” or ” show” under the player settings, under that, there will be a “change password”

  33. there is no reset button. and you cant reset your password..unless you backdate your zen to factory standards, which i have no clue on doing

  35. mine freezes sometimes when i wall-plug charge it in foreign countries, but i just hit the reset button and it works fine. Also, if i forget my hidden content password (actually i was trying to get it to work and couldn’t figure it out, i typed in a random password in a mad rage and now i forget) how do i either reset it or get my password? i have all my files backed up

  36. John,
    All I want from a site like this, is a way to find any older posting that would help me with a “now” problem. I don’t now of any easy way to do it.
    I think the paged method is good, so one does not have to wait for the download of 120+ posts. I would prefer to see the latest postings first. Assigning a seq. number to each posting would make it easier if a new posting wanted to refer to an older one.
    But, any search/grouping of subjects would be ideal, although I don’t see how it can be done easily :-(

    As for my “My Zen” issue (see my last posting) it drives me crazy. It works like I described with my machine at home (XP Home), that is I can move file/folders and also rename same, while I cannot do any of the above with my machine at work (XP Pro).

    In general, the Zen is very particular in deciding with which machine to do business with. It seems it likes to stay with one machine, not to fool around with many :-)

    George B
    Brighton, MI

  37. George,

    You are correct. You can use the Zen as a storage device… but of course that method still doesn’t allow you to manipulate the media on it, only the partition that you set up for holding other stuff. I should have been more specific.

    I’ll try to work on the comment numbers when I get a chance. It’s this threaded comment plugin for WordPress that replaced the comment numbers. I still can’t decide if it’s better to have the threaded, paged comments, or just the long string of all the comments on one page. But for posts like this one with over 100 comments I think it’s still better this way.

    Did you notice the change, and what are your thoughts since you regularly use it too?

    John

  38. I have the Creative Zen Vision W and I have to say I absolutely love it. My only question is about encoding recorded tv programmes for uploading to the Zen. I use TMPGEnc, had all the settings, and had it working fine – then we upgraded to Windows Vista – it still worked fine – then we had to roll back to XP and I lost my settings!!! now I can’t recreate what they were and am having an awful problem with the audio and video being out of sync. Can anyone please tell me what settings I should be using?

    Many thanks
    Tracy R
    Caversfield UK

  39. I have to disagree John:
    (BTW, can you bring back the # for every comment, it makes so easy to refer back to a previous comment, without “cut-and-paste” :-)

    A while ago I said:
    Comment by George B.
    2007-06-10 18:09:56
    Please refer to Item # 91 above.
    Well, it can see it as a drive! How you ask me?

    Open your “ZEN Vision W Media Explorer” and click on “Settings and Information”. Open the “Tools” tab and “tick” the box that says “Show My Player as a Portable Media Device in my Computer”. Click OK or Apply.

    Now, everytime you connect your “W” to your computer, you’ll see the little icon “My ZEN” under “My Computer” in your Widows Explorer. Open that guy up and you can move files, rename folders and/or files, delete folder/files…just like any storage drive you ever owned.

    Now, I’m sure somewhere buried in the ZEN instructions (???) it says that, but why bother reading the instructions, when you can use the old trail and error approach

    George B.
    Brighton, Michigan

  40. Have you tried disabling any firewalls or other secutiry software you currently have running in case they are blocking communication to/from your USB ports?

    Also, the Zen doesn’t show up as a drive in Windows. You need to use the Creative software to access it. I’m assuming you already knew that…

    John

  41. I am hoping to find some answers here. So far, Dell cannot help and Creative cannot help.

    I use Windows Vista. Had I known that Creative had not run many software and device driver updates I would have refrained from spending $250.

    When I plug in my Zen Vision W, my computer does not recognize that the device is connected. I have tried all of my usb ports and even tried a hub, and none of them recognize that it’s there. I have downloaded all updates for software and drivers but I cannot finish the installation because the player needs to be connected – again, my computer does not show that it’s connected.

    Any help will be greatly appreciated.

    K…

  42. 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

  43. 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…..

  44. Michael,

    Thanks for sending the pictures of the case+stand. I’ve added just one of them to the post above because it seems to tell the whole story along with your description.

    Thanks to your information I’m ordering one now. It looks fantastic. Thanks again for sharing.

    John

  45. Actually…. that’s why this case is so cool. I’ll take a picture when I get home…

    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.

  46. Michael,

    Thanks for sharing that. The case does look interesting. Here is a direct link for those catching up http://sfplanet.com/product/VIG037

    My only question is how does the case stay open when it is standing up to watch a movie? Does it use the front cover as the kickstand by snapping under on the back or what? I mean somehow you have to keep that cover out of the way…

    John

  47. sfplanet.com has a PERFECT case. The very last one at the bottom of the ZVW accessories list. Black leather with a kick stand. 17 bucks.

  49. 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

  50. 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

  51. 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)

  52. 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?

  53. revies say that you can put videos from youtube onto your zen, how would i do this?

  54. 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.

  55. 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

  56. 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.

  57. 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!

  58. 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!!

  59. 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.

  61. 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 :>

  62. 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

  63. 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
    https://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

  64. Does anyone no where i can buy videos and music online that works well with the zen vision w

  66. 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

  67. 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

  68. 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…