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Creative Zen Vision W Review – 60 GB Personal Media Player

ByJohn P.

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.

Logo of One Man's Blog, a personal tech and lifestyle website. 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…

Screenshot of One Man's Blog homepage showcasing latest tech and lifestyle articles. 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).
  • 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.
Bike repair stand with a bicycle in the background on a wooden surface.
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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John P.

John P. is a former CEO, former TV Show Host, and the Founder and Wizard behind Texas Metal Works. You can find him on X, Facebook and LinkedIn. Feel free to send shoutouts, insults, and praise.

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172 Comments

  1. 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

  2. Hi!, I would like to know if you can use the player while charging via DC Adapter.

    Thanks a lot!! :)
    Best Regards,
    Vertexar

  3. 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

  4. George B,

    I knew that the multi pin slot at the bottom was not for a SD card, but i wanted to know what it was for, because i was alarmed, because the Vision m has a slot like that, and you need a block-like thing to connect it to the computer and such. but theres a usb port right next to it on the w, so i wascurious.

    thanks

  5. Hi folks!

    I’d like to say that I own a ZVW 60 GB for 3 months and it had frozen for 3 times :-((((
    I don’t really know If it has any relation to your storage data, cause it has not been bulky!
    when it occurred, I had to take the battery off, but I still really think it’s a good media player. It´s not perfect, but I think it’s the best one.

    Hugs,
    Fccarneiro.

  6. Chris,
    I have my W for almost 3 mos…no freeze-ups so far.
    Also I cannot find a reset button/hole anywhere.

    The multi-pin slot you are talking about (bottom of unit, next to the USB) is used only with its docking station – it’s NOT a SD slot, like it looks like.
    There is another slot with a flap/cover on one of the short sides: This one is for a Compact Flash card or a special (their own) 5-in-1 card adapter. See http://www.creative.com/products/pmp/accessories/

    I hope it helps!

    GcB

  7. Hi,
    I was thinking of purchasing a Creative Zen w, in the next week and a half, and i was wondering if it tends to freeze? at all. My zen m freezes constantly and i nee dto stick a pin or pencil tip into the reset hole at the bottom. does the zen w have a reset hole? because if it does, then that probably means itll need to be restet. I was looking at the exterior on many different websites and at frys, when i noticed an imput slot which looks like a 30 pin connection spot. thingie. does it use the same type of av out, dc in, usb in port type of thing that the zen m uses? i know it sounds confusing, but im sure you can understand.

    thanks,
    chris

  8. Hi!

    I just wanted to tell you I came across your site while searching for information on my new Zen Vision W. Your review is spot on and your instructions re: ripping DVDs and reformatting are excellent, particularly for a technotard, like me.

    Thank you!

    ; )

  9. Man,

    I owned a previous Creative product the Zen Xtra 30 GB and although I love it, there are a few things I wish it had and am hoping that the Zen W now have:
    -more “random” random feature – my old player would always come back to the same songs and it got old
    -delete feature – if i come across a track or a show that I no longer want, can I delete it immediately

    Also, I have a 50″ TV. If I were to hook up the Zen W up to it, to watch a show or a DVD I converted to XVID at watchable quality on my TV, would the format on the player look as good coming from the player?

    Thanks!

  10. Hi friend,

    Can we use creative zen vision W (30/60GB) to store data in it as an external HDD

  11. Jeff,
    As far as I know (and I know very little ) the XP does not see ZEN as a USB drive. Look up item #12 above and the Man gives you some ideas on how to set your ZEN up as a USB drive. Of course I don’t know anything about “partitoning” drives, but then maybe you do.
    It’s another disappointment for my ZEN. The Man says it up front:

    “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.”

    George B
    Brighton, Michigan

  12. George, you beat me to giving this answer :)

    I do have a simple question.. Can you listen to music that is on the W through windows media player? Or do you HAVE to transfer the files to your computer first? I have a few computers that I use on a daily basis (like home/laptop/work), and can’t transfer the songs onto every computer just to listen to them. I did toy with the creative software to listen to music, but its pretty weak.

    Any thoughts? Thanks.

    -Jeff
    http://carabs.com

  13. Hi Laura,
    As long as you install the Zen software to both computers you won’t have any problem downloading files to your Zen from either computer. The problem you might encounter is that once you download the files, you cannot move the files around inside your ZEN. I imagine they do that so you can sync your various folders later – but I find it very annoying, especially when you try to group music tracks (or for me pictures) under a new folder. See comment #40 above, along with many similar others.

    Creative Labs, are you listening??

    George B
    Brighton, Michigan

  14. Hi there,
    I have just bought a ZVW and I am so impressed!!!!
    I do have one question that I hope anyone can help me with:
    I have my music on two computers and I was wondering if Creative lets you get the music off both computer or if it is like my previous ipod which only let me take it off the first computer I installed the software on?????
    Hope you can help :)
    Laura

  16. ATTA BOY Girl! That’s the spirit. Reminds me of the total exhilaration I felt the first time I upped my RAM…What a feeling!
    Congratulations!

    George B.
    Brighton, Michigan

  17. OFF TOPIC – follow up to 80-84

    I AM A COMPUTER GODDESS

    I did it, I changed out my USB ports…well, actually I added 2 USB 2.0 ports, replacement wasn’t really an option due to the configuration.

    With a cup of courage in one hand and a vacuum hose in the other…a quick call to my IT guy for work (which indicated that yes, it *is* OK to use a little muscle to “crack the case” as I have the old style metal big box CPU), and a consultation with the paper-based owners’ manual for the card (I’ve always preferred an owners’ manual in hardcopy form) I actually got it done.

    For tonight…I can do no wrong!

    Thanks for the vote of confidence, John, and your recommendations, George.

  18. John AND George,

    Thank you for your input…George, I’ll take your advice and purchase the universal OEM charger, thanks for teking the time to respond. John, OK, I’ll “suck it up” and attempt to replace my existing USB ports for 2.0. I didn’t think it was too complicated but, yee gads, how scary is it to open one’s CPU? Besides, I’m certain I’ve lots of dog hair inside that needs to be vacced out I’ve not made the bridge to a laptop yet (if I did, I’d *never* stop surfing, so I stay “wired” to prevent an early demise of my marriage ). I’ll let you know just how easy it was, for the other neophytes.

  19. Tammy,

    I second everything George said. :-) Also a couple of other comments:

    • I am very surprised that your WinXP machine is not USB 2.0. Why do you think that, and have you tested it?
    • Without USB 2 transferring media to the device will be PAINFULLY slow. If you were to transfer say 20GB of data (MP3s, Photos and Movies) onto the machine the difference will drop you from 2 days (USB 1) to 1 hour(USB 2) to complete the transfer. It will honestly be that dramatic. USB 1 was just not made for media. It was made for keyboards and mice. ;-)
    • You can get a USB 2 card for $30-40 at Best Buy and I would HIGHLY recommend doing so. I know that installing it for the first time sounds very scary, but it is much, much easier than you probably think. You probably have to remove one or two screws to remove the computer’s case and there are some slots in there to accomodate expansion cards. The card will only fit one way, and these things aren’t nearly as delicate as you think. You turn off the machine, plug in the card and turn the machine back on. XP should detect it and install the drivers and you’re done!
    • If you are taking a laptop with you when you travel then you can use the USB port on the laptop to charge your Zen. Just make sure your laptop is plugged in, and plug the Zen into the USB port for a few hours and you’re good to go!

    Oh, and thank you for the kind words. :-)

    John

  20. Tammy,
    I re-read your questions – I think I missed a few :-)
    The tranfer time can be painful, even with USB2 – don’t know why. I don’t want to imagine what it will be with USB1 :-(
    If it works for you and you don’t use the ZEN as a storage device (wanting to save there the 2Mb+ pictures) the ZEN can be set so it will transfer the pics at a smaller resolution, like 800×600 and about 75Kb, good enough for the ZEN’s screen and even your TV, but not for printing glossies. With that setting the transfer time is more acceptable.

  21. Tammy,
    I think the best solution is to by the Universal Power Adapter – see it at:

    http://www.creative.com/products/product.asp?category=213&subcategory=217&product=14722

    It’s OEM and it’s good :-)

    As far as I know you can charge a MP3 thru a USB1 port (on your computer), but like ALL USB’s the charging is slow (takes 3-4 hrs I think).

    With the Universal Power Adapter you don’t have to lug your laptop along.
    As for the quality of the electricity, usually the Universal Power Adapters can take quit a bit of voltage fluctuation. Never been to Peru, but I never encounter any problems in other Central or South American countries.

    Enjoy your trip – from what I heard it’s not for the timid at heart :-)

  22. John,

    First let me extend my thanks for your well-written review on the Vision W unit, your comments further solidified my decision to make the purchase (pretty scary stuff for a first-time media player buyer).

    I am planning a vacation w/husband to Peru in late-August and am curious about any difficulties I might experience with attempting to recharge the unit in rural overseas areas. I do intend to purchase, and fully charge, a backup battery or two, but I’m concerned about voltage differences creating problems with the unit. Do you have any advice? It is my understanding that one should only purchase OEM products for charging and replacement battery purposes and that is my intent.

    Second (naive) question…my WinXP computer, believe it or not, does not have a USB2.0 port, I do understand the 2.0 upped the transfer speed by about 40 times but, as I don’t really have anything to relate to (although I do X-fer back-up files via a flash drive), I’m uncertain how S-L-O-W transfers might really be. I suppose I could “bite the bullet,” crack the case and replace the existing USB port(s), but that scares me even more than a one hour transfer that should only take 10 minutes.

    I look forward to your words of wisdom.

  23. I have had my Zen since August september since the arrival. Mine has been everywhere already. Screen protectors for psp work great. Needs: Bluetooth adapter, Battery with Kickstand, and Web Browser. Ipod Adapter to play on the cool radios that only work with ipod….More themes? I do use mine with my 2200 lumen Dell Hdtv projecter, lloks great still. Screen is indeed sharp and clear. If the software gui freezes…remove battery, 15 minutes of Rebuilding and your good. I have discovered too if you need juice to power it turn it external hdd and plug it to the USB adapter of your choice….If its too low you need to AC adapter or install software. For instance, I have it in Removable Hard Dsik mode, and im charging on my 55 inch tv with USB port. Has to be in Ext drive mode though, so you cant watch anything(pics or movies unless they are on the hard drive partition for the Flash drive part so it wont see the other side where you music and photos are located on.

    Well I love my zen, and every day I find a new project on it. Next its the HD to see if OS is a image on it or If i can switch Hardisk.

  24. I also have the remote control which works well..

    On pc’s without admin rights…..no flash drive support for some reason.

    Why cant you send a DVD rip to Zen cd? huh Creative huh huh huh Leaving us to look for DVD decrypting software ( http://www.doom9.net in case your in search for this guide….)

  25. I have had my Zen W 30g since its arrival in states(august/september 06). So far Yeah, It freezes every 2 or 3 days, if I have all 8,000 songs, or season 9 of the simpsons on it. Meaning if its full, it seems to flake. Could jjust be a firmware issue. I bought mine from creative when it was on wait, thought hey it’s not a Tripod. It is much more I have discovered. The compact flash works well with my camera(wifi/bluetooth would have been a nice option or an adapter to fit in ipod cradles) Also a web browser is on exploration. Also trying to crack gui a little bit….It seems may be able to run linux……….

    Well so far it goes everywhere in my pocket and car, no scatches on durable screen. I have used some protecters…the ipod we cut or psp fits perfect

    WMP11 still doesnt like it, but 10 does.

    I have MCE DVR from Lg, which sends to pc, and will work on ZEN

    FM radio is cool when you have antenna(headphones)

    more themes as an option?

    Battery with a Kickstand to hold it up?

    well ideas to come…..

  27. John,

    I’m sorry to hear that you had two defective ones in a row. Perhaps there was a batch that had bad firmware or something, but this is the first I’ve heard of this issue and there are many, many Zen Ws working fine out there. You might try another vendor…

    Also, they certainly do sell them through stores. I bought mine at Fry’s Electronics.

    John

  28. Does anyone know why Creative Labs does not market the Zen W through stores but only on the web?

  29. We have had two Zen W’s enter a freeze mode in which no buttons do anything. Removing the battery does no good, as it repeatedly will freeze at a point in the boot process. Amazon replaced the first one and is now fortunately giving us a refund on the second. This product is clearly defective either in hardware or software.

    John

  30. I contacted Creative Labs about how to load DVD movies. They replied it was illegal even though it was for personal use. There is a product on the web that facilitates this just fine. Why can’t Creative Labs have decent software?

  34. Tiff, I believe the link you provided is for the Creative Zen Vision M. Not W. And since the sizes are different, the W won’t fit.

    John, your site is going to be a part of my weekly blog reading. Keep up the great work, we all appreciate it!

    -Jeff http://carabs.com

  36. Another option for a carrying case for the Creative Zen Vision W would be Western Digital’s case for their silver portable external hardrives:

    http://www.westerndigital.com/en/products/accessories.asp?ProdID=193

    After looking over the dimensions of the Zen W and the internal dimensions of the case, I would think it would fit perfectly both the 30gb and 60gb. The case is a hard shell which would help protect it, however this would be a protective case for when the player is in a bag, not in use. I haven’t personally ordered one to try, but thought I should put this info out there.

  37. Thank you very much for al you answers!
    I think that I will buy one of these players in a couple of months! :)

    Gonçalo
    in Warsaw
    (But from Lisbon, Portugal)

  38. Dear Gonzo,
    Everything you need to charge it comes in the box. Nothing extra to buy:-)

    George B
    Brighton, Michigan

  39. Mine came with the AC adaptor

    I also ordered the Creative silicon skin. They have two part numbers, one for 30 gig and one for the wider 60 gig. It does not have protection for the LCD screen. The only benifit I see is that it makes the unit easier to grip and it won’t slide when you prop it up to view.

    I also ordered from eBay a peel-off plastic screen protector. It did not install well and trapped air bubbles and would not stay down around the edges. It looked so bad I threw it away and decided that taking care of the screen and hoping for the best is better than putting on a protective film that looked like crap.
    YMMV
    MikeC

  40. Thank you for your answer.

    And Does it come with that a/c adapter or we have to buy it? If we have to buy, how much does it cost. The thing is… it wont be near the PC often.

    Thanks again.

  41. Thank you, MikeC!

    Dear gonzo,

    The ZVW player charges the battery everytime you connect it on PC (USB), or energy (A/C adapter), even if you turn it off. The full charge of the battery using USB connection is about 6 hours, and using A/C adapter about 3 hours.

  42. Hello!
    My question is simple. Does it come with a battery charger? How do you charge it? Do I have to buy a charger?

    Thank you

  44. fccarneiro I can try to answer some of your questions

    1. I don’t know. I suspect that the Zenvision W will not appear as a USB mass storage device. So many of the new generation of players will not.

    2. The problem here is that the ZEN has no built-in FM antenna. It uses the headphone cord as the antenna, so if the headphones are not plugged in, you have no antenna and no reception.

    3. I found a way to organize my video files by organizing them in folders first on my PC, then transferring them. Unfortunatly, this does not appear to work with music files. The Zen organizes them using the MP3 tag information.

    YMMV
    MikeC

  45. Hi Posters,

    First, I´d like to congratulate The Man for this review! It´s complete and simple to understand.
    Now I have some questions:

    1 – I’ve just bought a Zen vision W 60 GB and I’d like to use it as an USB Mass Storage device in PCs without installing the Zen Drivers. I could find the option of partition and I selected 32GB of hard disk. So, after the process is done, the USB symbol appears on the screen but when I try to connect it on a computer without the Creative driver, the PC shows a message of “Unknown USB Device” and starts looking for a driver. Isn´t it possible? To use this player as a Mass Storage device, without installing the Creative Driver?

    2 – How can I use the FM tuner and the buit-in speaker simultaneously????

    3 – Can I see the mp3 files organized in folders on the player screen, or just organized like singer, album, etc…???

    Thanks a lot for your help!!!

  46. ya i just bought a creative zen vision w 2 days ago
    i love it but sure the thickness it alittle much but i dont care.
    i live music and now i have 60 gigs to listen to and the screen quality is
    the best ive ever seen.my computer died the day after i got but i was smart enough to put some of my stuff on it.i also like it when people see it they just have to ask what is that and i just explain what it is and everyone once one when i show how good it is i am just waiting for some good cases in a couple of months

  47. Hey Spike. My friend has an M. I have the W. The W is much better for watching video, but it’s way too big to wear with an arm band, or even put in your pocket and jog. The M is wear-able, but it has a much smaller screen. If you need your music and video on the go, get the M. If you want it mostly for video, then the W is for you.

  48. Hey all posters,

    One question, plain and simple. Creative Zen Vision M or Vision W?

    I’m a high school kid in Sydney (I’m guessing most of you are American) and I use my current Zen Neeon absolutely everywhere, about 8 hours a day. The problem is that 6 gig is not big enough for all my music and all the school work i transport to and from school.

    Thanks to all

    like_spike

  49. Thanks for the insight George. Glad you’re enjoying your new W, and it sounds like you got a great deal.

    As far as the directory structure and transferring are concerned, it seems that the general concensus is that you do indeed have to organize them in the computer first. I do wish you could just drag and drop them onto the Zen in Windows explorer, but so far everyone seems to have to use the Zen software to do that.

    Take care,

    John

  50. RAY,
    From the User’s Guide, Playing and Managing Videos:

    Setting a password to display or hide protected video or picture folders
    You can password protect your Protected Content setting.

    Press and hold the Menu/Back button to access the main menu.
    Select System Player Settings Protected Content Password.
    Use the Navigation buttons to create a password.
    Select the Checkmark to confirm the password.
    You will be prompted for this password when you select System Player Settings Protected Content: Show or Hide to select whether to show or hide the protected folders.
    To disable the password feature or change your password, select System Player Settings Protected Content Password.
    Use the Navigation buttons to enter your current password.
    To disable the password, use the Navigation buttons to enter 0000.
    To change the password, use the Navigation buttons to create a new password.
    Select the Checkmark to confirm your settings.
    Notes
    If you have forgotten your password, see To clean up your player’s hard disk drive.

    Hiding video or picture folders
    You can hide video and picture folders containing content that you do not want your player to display.

    Press and hold the Menu/Back button to access the main menu.
    Select Videos Video video folder that you want
    OR
    select Photos Pictures picture folder that you want.
    Press the Options button and select Protect.
    Press and hold the Menu/Back button to access the main menu.
    Select System Player Settings Protected Content: Show or Hide to select whether to show or hide the protected folders.
    Notes
    You cannot hide individual videos or pictures.
    The Protect or Unprotect option will appear in the Options menu only if the Protected Content setting is set to Show.
    When the Protected Content setting is set to Show, hidden folders that are now shown are indicated by the Protected Content icon.

  51. Well I see “morganusvitus” has the same Q regarding folders. And like “HBK” said:
    “I found a way to put my movies in folders on my Zen Vision W. Organize them into folders first on your PC before you transfer them. They transfer along with the folder.”
    If that’s the only way to be done, without a way to by-pass this restriction (like if I don’t care for sync of folders), that’s a heck of a draw-back.

    Back re: FM reception: As long as you have the headphones/antenna plugged in, it picks up all the stations any other good FM reciever does. I picked up two NPR’s (Lansing and Ann Arbor) with no problem.

    George B.
    Brighton, Michigan

  52. I got my Zen Vision W (30 G) and I think it is an amazing gadget – for $265! I still have to try the sync with my Outlook, but I have been busy at work.
    The FM Radio really rocks, it is amazing!
    My question: Once I downloaded a file or files from my computer it saves it at a folder that (I imagine) mimics the one in my computer. But it does not allow me to move the file to some other folder. Maybe it does that so it keeps track of folders/files for syncing. But since I download things from two computers (with slightly different directory stracture) it would be great if I can move folders/files around the “W”.
    Any ideas??

    Thank you,
    George B.
    Brighton, Michigan

  53. Oops. Sorry Christine, I missed your question previously. Luckily Joe caught it.

    I did indeed try the FM reception on this device and I thought it was OK. It uses a digital tuner, so you can dial in the exact frequency pretty easily. The earphones double as the antenna. In both of these regards it reminded me of a digital Sony Walkman tuner. I found it to be much better than the cheap crappy kind of digital tuners you find, but it doesn’t have the strength of a car or home stereo tuner.

    I tested it indoors in my home. I’m sure the reception would be better outside. I wouldn’t rate it as one of the unit’s strongest features, but I would say it’s better than average for a portable FM tuner.

    Hope that helps,

    John

  54. i wish you would answer Christine’s question of march 24, 2007. FM reception (on the M or W) is important to me too, and NPR reception is often difficult. So how does it rate? thanx.

  55. Thank Man, I guess as long as its watchable and stereo sound is good enough.
    I definitely do not expect surround sound or high definition. Guess i am convince enough
    to get one pretty soon. Thanks again your site is such a great help!!

  56. HBK – I can’t say specifically what movies in 720×480 look like, but I can tell you that we take it over to people’s houses and hook it to whatever TV they have and watch movies and they are watchable. Now, I’ve got a complete theatre in my house so my definition of “decent” is probably different from most people. I wouldn’t call it ideal, and you only get the movie in stereo as opposed to surround sound, but no one else seems to mind and the movies are still entertaining.

    Mattie – Sorry, I’ll have to let someone else handle this as I don’t know…

    Ray – Are you asking if the hard drive is noisy? If so, I’ve never heard a peep out of it. If not, could you please clarify your wording a bit?

    John

  57. Hey Guys,

    Sorry I am a little late in all of this.

    The one thing that concerned me about this is the audible of a hdd search.
    Can you please let me know if it is noticeable?

    cheers

  58. Could somebody let me know step by step how to hide protected content? I know there’s a way to do it but the help file (ironically) didn’t help much. If forgive me if this was already covered. :)

  59. Hi how’s the quality of video for playback at 720 * 480 on tv using the tv out. Is it decent and watchable?

  60. I found a way to put my movies in folders on my Zen Vision W. Organize them into folders first on your PC before you transfer them. They transfer along with the folder.

  61. The site looks great ! Thanks for all your help ( past, present and future !)

  62. Forgive me if this is covered before. I’m just getting used to my ZenVision W and am putting media on it. I have questions about organizing movies and music.

    1. Movies: When I add a video file, it puts it in a folder called Videos/My Videos. Even though I can create subfolders under Video, sucy as Comedy, Drama, Action, etc., It will not allow me to save video to any of those created folders. I’d like my movies in catagorized folders, not all dumped into “My Video”. Is there a way?

    2. Music. The same with music. I’d like to make folders, such as: Rock, Classical, Easy Listening, etc, and put songs and albums in the folders. Is there a way?

    It appears that I can do this sort of thing with Photos, but not music or video.

    Thanks

  63. David,

    In the ZVW, the 30 GB drive is 54mm x 71mm x 5mm, the 60 GB drive is 54mm x 71mm x 8mm, but the case is identical.

    This Toshiba 100GB drive says it’s 54mm x 71mm x 8mm, so I see no reason why it wouldn’t fit – or any other drive that is 8mm.

    Having said that, no one has yet actually completed an upgrade to my knowledge.

    Hope that helps,

    John

  64. i am debating whether to buy a zune or a zen vision W. the zune sounds like it has easier upgrade options, but i still like the zen vision W better because of the bigger screen and removable disk mode. i read the zvw upgrade article you did, and since 80GB drives are physically larger than 30 or 60s, could i place an 80GB in the zvw without ruining the fit of the case on the hardware?

  65. Jeni,

    Yes, you can definitely randomize the playback. I don’t have the Zen with me here so I can’t remember the exact sequence, but if you go into the song library and then use the menu button you should be able to find the random playback function.

    John

  67. I started by looking for a portable fm radio I could take on walks to listen to NPR programs. When I saw this, I thought it would be great to have all the additional features, particularly the video.

    I tried a portable radio from LL Bean, but couldn’t get fm stations on it.

    Have you tried the fm on the Zen W? It’s an important feature to me and if the reception is mediocre I would like to know.

    Thank you.

  68. have you compared the Zen VW with the Epson P-3000/5000 – They both do a lot of the same things. You said price was not an issue. I can get a P-3000 40Gig for about the same $ as a 60Gig ZVW. Okay, no FM. P-3 screen slighly smaller, but much higher resolution, does it matter on small screens? Any comments appreciated – wise choice and $ is important to me. Thank you

  69. In newer cars, I believe “iPod compatible” may mean that they have an iPod specific jack to plug into, which allows you to view and possibly navigate the iPod using the stereo controls.

    However, any portal audio device with a 1/8″ headphone jack will work with generic tape adapters and FM transmitters (I prefer the former when it’s an option, despite the wire).

  70. B.J
    I’ve owned my Zen vision M for about a year, and now I think it’s fallen short in capacity, I mean, what it can do, versus the new Zen W, which incidentally I’ve already purchased in amazon and it’s on its way, yey!!!

    The zen W has an accessory called the Belkin tunecast II FM transmitter, which pretty much works in the same way as the apple’s Itrip, check it out at: http://www.creative.com/products/pmp/accessories/#

    Hope this helps you make the right choice! :)

  71. Heyy One Man,
    I just got the ZVW for christmas and have been trying to find a hardcase ever since. Can you help me out

  72. Ok i’m am going crazy, i can’t decide if i want to buy the creative zen w or m. I know for a fact that the m can plug into your car stereo and all but i haven’t been able to find anything about the zen vision:w being able to do the same. No where have i read has it been metioned that this is a feature.

  73. Guys

    I’m just about to purchase my own Zen W, I loved the M version and now it’s time for a bigger toy :)

    I loved some of the accessories shown on the Creative website, however; I haven’t been able to locate the infrared remote that I desperately want. Any advice here? By the way, I’m looking for an online purchase, I tried amazon, but they didn’t have the remote.

  76. I just purchased the 30 GB version of the Zen Vision W. Looks good so far although as a newbe (and I find the instructions not great) I’ve got 2 quick questions.

    1. The model I viewed at the store the photos covered the entire screen when displayed. Mine are leaving a black band around the edge (although if I output them on the TV this stops
    2. Are there any other transitions for the the slideshow photos. The current are rather lam.

  77. Scottie,

    Sorry I forgot to answer this question before. It’s been a long time since I’ve had a machine with ME on it, so unfortunatly I can’t test that for you. The specs say that the device requires XP. I’ve only loaded it on machines running XP, so I’m afraid I can’t tell you if anything else will actually work.

    John

  78. Hi again,

    im running windows me on my computer that i will be conecting my zvw to (when i get it). is the software compatable with windows me? if not, what os do i need?

    Thanks,
    Scottie

  79. I transferred 644 images comprising 1.12GB for the test distributed in 3 folders. If you were to resize your images down to 720×480 before loading them everything would be MUCH, MUCH faster. You could keep your high res originals on your PC, and the low res copies on the Zen.

    The television is a 1080i LCD panel with 1366 x 768, so it’s a pretty big difference between this and a tube. You probably won’t notice anything that I described because the tubes have a lower resolution than the Zen.

    John

  80. John,

    Thanks for the research. The good news sounds great. As for the average news… me and certainly the family members I’d be sharing photos with have tube based televisions… not widescreen to be sure… but anyway, it claims 720×480 on external screens. What is the resolution on your TV? Also, how many 6-10MP images (or total folder size) did you transfer? Thanks!

    Jason

  81. Jason,

    I’ve got some good news and some average news for you. I tested out the photo area thoroughly for you. Here are the results

    I was able to upload photos organized into directories and sub-directories. You could theoretically have a structure like this:
    -Vacations
    —— Hawaii
    —— Greece
    —— Las Vegas
    -Family
    —— Mom
    —— Dad
    …etc.
    You can have images within the directories and the sub-directories. When you pull up the photos menu on the Zen it shows you the exact structure you transfer it in.

    I have photos already organized like this on my computer and I literally just dragged and dropped the entire My Photos directory onto the unit and it worked perfectly. The photos look fantastic when played back on the Zen.

    Now the “average” news. It’s not quite bad, but also not good:
    – Transferring a lot of photos will take a while. (Mine are all 6-10MP images) Even though it’s USB2 it seems to take longer because there are just so many individual files.
    – The zen takes a while to build thumbnails for all of the images when you have a lot within a directory, and it only builds thumbnails for the ones currently being displayed. After they are built they persist even if you turn it off, so that’s good.
    – I plugged it into a 42″ Sony HD LCD TV to test the slide show capabilities, but was less than satisfied with the images. The Zen stretched them to fit the entire screen, which is good, but it still displayed them in like 480×320 resolution or something like that. The big screen really made the grainy resolution stand out.
    – Working with a ton of images is going to be rather slow with this device. I don’t think I’d want to use it as the primary device for viewing 14,000 photos. Then again, there is nothing on the market right now that is even as good as this. So if you need it then this is the best you’re going to get.

    Again, when you view the images on the actual Zen, they look better than you’d expect them to. It’s only on the big screen that they show their true resolution.

    Hope that helps!

    John

  82. John,

    Thanks a lot for the response. I’m primarily interested in using this for photos, as a handheld digital photo album that I can also hook up to a TV, and as a bonus a backup of my photos and an easy way to empty my card if it fills up on the road. The MP3 and movie playing is just a bonus for me. If you do get a chance to verify the folder grouping, that would be fantastic. I also plan on dropping by Best Buy and seeing what it feels like in person, and if possible, trying out the photo navigation there (albeit with less than fourteen thousand photos).

    Again, thanks!

    Jason

  83. Scottie,

    I highly doubt Creative will repair one bought off of eBay… but my experience there has been that as long as you stick with sellers that have a 99.x% feedback rating you are usually going to get a good product.

    Just make sure you get one that says NEW IN BOX.

    Also, try searching Froogle. I found tons of them available there right now.

    John

  84. Jason,

    The images on the screen will be displayed according to their correct orientation, but you can rotate them manually if you want.

    As far as organization is concerned, my wife uses it so I don’t have it to test right now, but I believe you can upload the photos within folders so you can view them as groups that way.

    You can definitely do this with the movies, but I didn’t pay much attention with the photos. I should have though, because you can transfer photos right off a compact flash card onto the hard drive if you wanted to off load them from a digital camera or something…

    John

  85. Actually… I do have a second question. For viewing photos, just it simply show ALL photos with thumbnails, or is there any sort of organization of the photos?

  87. Hello,

    I still havent spent all of my xmas money yet and i have wanted a ZVW since i first heard about them. but there are none in stores or in the creative warehouse. what i want to know is can i trust one i buy of ebay, and will creative reapir it if it screws up?

    Also, my home system is running windows ME. will the ZVW software run on that. If not what are the minimum requirements?

  88. Diana,

    That is horrible news. I’m sorry to hear that. I can only think of two possible suggestions:

    1. If you’re still in your first year of ownership you might want to contact Creative about getting it replaced.
    2. If you’ve never updated your firmware, you might want to try that. Sometimes there are bugs that get fixed in later versions of the software.

    Good luck and sorry I can’t be of more assistance.

    John

  89. hello , my zen w seems its dying. it freezes after 30 min and doesnt turn off,i had to remove batt. and then it turns on but freezes on splash screen and deosnt load at all. cant see no movies anymore :-( help! doesnt do disk cleanup ,reboot,format at all… its like dead and revives when it wants. what can i do ?

  90. Noiskee,

    You have to go through the Zen software to actually load the movies. You can, however, partition some of the hard drive to act as a USB drive that would be recognized when you just plug it in. But that space is not accessible to the Zen’s media player.

    As far as the calendar, tasks, etc. I believe they just sync up with your Outlook. I’m not aware of a way to input directly.

    John

  91. i’m planning on buying the 30gb zen vision w.i just want to ask if u can directly input data(type using the creative zen device?without a keyboard?) on the calendar,tasks,etc functions?or do u have to use outlook or the included software to do that?and can u plug thru usb and copy paste directly videos and mp3s to the device?or u need to use the software?

  92. Hmm. Well, I haven’t seen any of the ads that you are referring to, but I didn’t do much comparative shopping.

    But the packaging that comes from Creative includes a battery, so I don’t know why anyone would advertise it as having a seperate battery.

    It’s the kind of thing where if you remove the battery there is a huge chunk missing from the back of the player. You simply can’t sell it without one.

    I’d recommend you clarify that with whomever you are thinking about buying it from. Make sure they mean 2 as opposed to 1 battery.

    John

  94. The unit comes with a large li-ion battery. It snaps on, so the good news is that since it’s not embedded in the unit you can purchase a second battery if you really need a lot of playback time.

    I’ve used mine for well over 5 hours playing back movies on a TV while traveling, for what it’s worth.

  95. How does the battery work? Is there an internal battery? or o I need that Li-ion battery pack thing?

  96. Scott,

    Thanks for the comments!

    I have yet to experience any sort of freeze, or for that matter any type of glitch at all with the Zen. At this point it’s traveled coast to coast in planes, trains and automobiles with no issues.

    As far as the headphone jack is concerned, we haven’t owned it long enough yet for me to give a long term report, but if you look at the complete teardown of the unit that I did you’ll see that the jack is pretty solidly mounted on the unit, so it would take a serious failure for that to stop working.

    In other words it’s not going to just jiggle lose or anything.

    I’ve owned an iPod for years, but everything about the zen is better and I wholeheartedly recommend it at this point.

    Take care,

    John

  97. Dear One Man,

    I heard some of the previous Creative products had static current problem where the system freezes due to the static. Did you face any such problem with Vision W?
    I also heard people discussing that audio out point (where you plug the headphone) does not work (or the connection loses) after 6-7 months of use. Any comments on this?

    Thanks for the detailed review. I am deciding whether to buy iPod Video or Vision W.

    Thanks again…

    Scott – from MN

  98. Crystal,

    Sorry… I know it was also very frustrating for me. Its a little difficult for me to tell you exactly what to try (not being there and all) but if you’ve already run the fixup file then I’d recommend the following, in order of preference:
    – Physically disconnect the Zen device and then reconnect it.
    – Reboot the computer and then connect the Zen.
    – Reinstall the Zen software – full install – and then reconnect the device.

    I probably should have documented the process exactly when I encountered the problem, but I was more focused on solving it so I’ve forgotten the exact steps I took.

    John

  99. Ok.. I ran the fixup.. but there’s one part of the process that I don’t get. It asks me to go to “view” and “show hidden devices”. Then it asks me to remove my player.. I don’t know what to remove??? I don’t know if I’m suppose to remove the driver that was installed when I first got it.. or if I’m suppose to simply remove the USB “unknown device” .. I’m guessing it wasn’t the second because it didn’t work.

  100. FYI in case anyone else runs into this issue…

    When installing the machine onto a different machine we encountered an error in getting the computer to recognize the Zen.

    We kept getting an error that read “MTP Player Not Recognized”. After trying just about everything I could think of, I came across this thread. All I needed to do was get the fixup.zip file, but the problem was, the link was dead!

    Much, much further in the thread someone else found the file at the very bottom of this thread. The link to the specific file you need is here for now.

    After running the fixup file and plugging the device back in, everything worked.

    Whew! I sure wish Creative had better documented that issue.

    John

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