Not Ready For Prime Time

I've owned many MP3 players incl. Creative's Muvo Zev V and Zen. What drew me to the X-Fi2 was the larger screen the video out the RSS plus the touch interface and speaker somewhat.





Display: Very pretty 400 X 240. Good quality video and images look sharp and bright.



Audio Quality: I did A/B comparisons between the Zen and the X-Fi2 and the X-Fi2 wins. The top end is smoother and the bass is tighter and deeper and the overall sound is more open. They're similar in max volume but the X-Fi2 sounds better.



X-Fi: I don't use it.



Creative Centrale: Install it then forget it.



Audio Storage: Album art is a problem. The art has to be "embedded" in the ID3 tag for it to appear it's possible Windows Media Player automatically does this. This can also be done with an app like "Mp3tag". Which meant going back and doing that to all 350 albums I had on the old Zen. Note that I don't use any services like Rhapsody or files with DRM so for me playback itself was fine.



Viewing Photos: Some jpgs don't show up except as "?" marks. Not sure why.



Videos: Nightmare. With the avi or wmv that worked fine on the Zen the audio would break up or the vids wouldn't be recognized. Creative Central was unreliable and slow and coverts vids to wmv.



I tried about 6 other converters and either audio or video was messed up or just not recognized (XVid Divx or wmv). Finally tested Handbrake and the X-Fi2 was happy playing those XVid files with very specific settings about 90% of the time. And when it works it looks great.



Video Out: Works surprisingly well but no one will think it's a DVD.



RSS: Run a sync program from the X-Fi2 when it's connected to your PC. Kind of a pain but it works.



Battery: Seems like the charging time and life are on par with the Zen.



Interface: Not easy. A quick light touch mostly doesn't work. Pressing down a larger area takes longer to process so sometimes the fingernail trick is best. And sometimes it just takes a long to to respond in general. It also misinterprets gestures frequently. But with practice it's usable.



The volume control is not immediately accessible (3 steps) on most levels and not at all from the main menu. So trying to quickly turn it down on a sunny day (hard to see the display) is almost impossible.



Trying to do things one-handed is difficult (e.g. walking to the train X-Fi2 in one hand coffee in other).



Summary: It feels that the X-Fi2 was launched before development was complete. The touch interface is quirky the video support is very finicky and the menu design needs refinement. I'm hoping further firmware updates improve things. ITMT the average user will NOT be happy.

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Best flash player on the market great even for large music collections

This is a great choice for those people who previously limited their flash players to workout duty or only holding a small piece of their large music collection and having to change the music on it every so often. With a 16GB capacity most people can fit their entire collection on here without difficulty and even have room for some videos.



First impressions of this player are very good. It is extremely appealing to the eye everyone who sees it will ask about it. It is about the size of a credit card just thicker (less than 1/2inch). The front is a very glossy black plastic that looks great until you touch it instantly covering it with fingerprints :) The back is a rough cheaper feeling black plastic. Overall it has a nice solid weight and feel to it but not very heavy. This will easily fit in a pocket.



The 2.5" screen is absolutely gorgeous. Very bright with vivid colors. The viewing angle is very good two people can easily look at the screen at the same time while watching a movie for example. The menus are all nicely animated and intuitive to navigate. The icons and text are big clear and easy to read.



One of the big perks to having so much capacity is plenty of room for videos. This was one of the first things I've tested as it was a big reason for my purchase. First of all it DOES play Amazon Unbox videos perfectly. Transferring files was very easy (just a few clicks) and very quick. The quality of the video was great as well. The max size of videos is apparently 320x240 I have not been able to get it to play anything larger than that. If the video is smaller (for example widescreen) you have the option of playing it at the correct aspect ratio or fill the screen (stretched out). I've gotten it to play videos encoded in Xvid and WMV format. Xvid files were encoded with AutoGK and the WMV files were encoded with Arcsoft MediaConverter. If you synchronize with Windows Media Player you can put in *almost any* video file and it will automatically convert the file into WMV format and then transfer to the player. How long it takes to convert depends on the type of video you're encoding how big the file is and of course the speed of your computer.



Music sounds very good on this player but please... get rid of the stock headphones they are horrible. Using a decent pair of headphones makes a HUGE difference. The EQ options are OK there are about a half dozen presets and a customizable EQ. The "Bass Boost" option just made it worse in my opinion it just distorted the sound. Otherwise it is a very even and balanced sound very similar to the Vision:M.



The FM radio has a whopping 32 presets and the reception is pretty good. Strong stations are in stereo weaker ones come in mono. I haven't had a chance to test out the built-in mic.



I easily transferred music and playlists onto this player from Windows Media Player and MediaMonkey as well as protected music (WMA) from Napster. Everything was very easy usually just dragging and dropping. The speed of transfer is probably the fastest I've seen. I've used this player on XP Home and on Vista Premium 64-bit.



Regarding the SD cards. I think its only a slight inconvenience that the memory card media isn't directly integrated with the other content. Meaning if you have videos on the SD card you don't go to the "Video" menu where all the other videos are you have to access them through the "Memory Card" menu. Once there you browse through the file structure like normal. If you organize the content smartly on your cards you should have no problem. And really its a small price to pay for that feature. Currently SDHC cards are up to 16GB in capacity meaning you could double the capacity and carry around 32GB worth of content in your pocket. Amazing. I tested a Kingston 512MB SD Card and a Kingston 2GB microSD card (with adapter of course) and they were recognized and played the content without difficulty.



A quick note about the firmware. Mine came with 1.10.05. When my player turns off it really turns off. With newer firmwares when it turns off it goes into a sleep mode for a while before it finally turns all the way off. What that means is with the older firmware each time you turn it on it has to "boot" all over again whereas with the newer firmware you get an "instant-on" at the expense of slightly reduced battery life (since it is asleep and not off). Something to consider before you decide to upgrade the firmware.More detail ...

cheaper version of the old Zen: mixed results

I have both the older 8gb Zen (2007) and a new 16gb Zen MX. They are basically the same except that the MX has integrated access to the removable SD card directly from the Creative Centrale software that comes with the it. With the old Zen you had to go into a removable card menu on the Zen and then access the card via the computer operating system to add or delete files. Zen MX also does not have the code for some video formats and the software has to convert them before transfer to the Zen MX; on the old Zen you could just transfer the video files directly to the Zen. Finally the Creative Centrale software that comes with the new Zen MX does not seem as intuitive and user friendly as the older software that came with the Zen. If I had to do it again I would have bought the older Zen rather than the new Zen MX but the older ones are becoming hard to find and are a lot more expensive. Strangely enough the 16gb version of the old Zen is more expensive than the 32gb version!



To answer those who said the Zen MX will not play DRM protected files. Not true. It will play DRM9 protected files but they have to be put on the Zen via the transfer function in the software not through drag & drop because the former also carries over the license info and the latter technique does not. Creative notes this on their web site.More detail ...

cheaper version of the old Zen: mixed results

I have both the older 8gb Zen (2007) and a new 16gb Zen MX. They are basically the same except that the MX has integrated access to the removable SD card directly from the Creative Centrale software that comes with the it. With the old Zen you had to go into a removable card menu on the Zen and then access the card via the computer operating system to add or delete files. Zen MX also does not have the code for some video formats and the software has to convert them before transfer to the Zen MX; on the old Zen you could just transfer the video files directly to the Zen. Finally the Creative Centrale software that comes with the new Zen MX does not seem as intuitive and user friendly as the older software that came with the Zen. If I had to do it again I would have bought the older Zen rather than the new Zen MX but the older ones are becoming hard to find and are a lot more expensive. Strangely enough the 16gb version of the old Zen is more expensive than the 32gb version!



To answer those who said the Zen MX will not play DRM protected files. Not true. It will play DRM9 protected files but they have to be put on the Zen via the transfer function in the software not through drag & drop because the former also carries over the license info and the latter technique does not. Creative notes this on their web site.More detail ...

excellent player

This is the 3rd creative player I have owned. All of them have been excellent. I really like the mosiac the best. The sofware sets up a logical order so I can find stuff like set up the equlizerturn on speaker etc I will say that it did take me while to learn how to navigate the menu options. The speaker is an added bonus. I rarely listen to music mostly audio books. The sound can be addjusted so I can hear the spoken word clearly. I have poor hearing as a result of listening to music to loud when I was younger. Just a word to the younger folks out there. One final thought all of the players Zen nano plusZenV plusand the mosiac 300 do freeze up. I just reset the player it always rebulds and goes to where it left off this is annoying nothing more. When I look back to transister radios i listened to when I was a kid this device is a miracle. Jim C PS I would not continus buying creative if I didnot like the product. I did buy a sansa once e140 did not like itMore detail ...

Excellent player but no fifth star until they bring back analog interface

First an introduction: Recently I've owned and used and liked an iPod 4th gen 80gb zune 80 iPod 5th gen 80gb creative zen vision: m 30gb AND 60gb versions (the holy grail to so many mp3 player fans) and I am a power user with a music library of 35gb all tagged using the free Media Monkey software. I know what I'm talking about. (If you're curious the two ipods were returned the ZVM30 was given to my cousin when I got the 60 the ZVM60 was destroyed in iraq and so was the Zune80)



Looks extremely sexy definitely on the iPod and Zune level of sexiness.

It's ridiculously lightweight and weighs just a bit more than a nano and about half as much as a harddrive bearing zune or ipod.



Video transfer/conversion does not apply to me so I will not be reviewing it.



IM chat gimmick is worthless move along.



wifi connect works and is easy to set up but there is no link to shoutcast or icecast directories. Instead creative "media box" will show up with internet access but has a very limited selection of podcast streams and almost no streaming music.

Streaming music from a local wireless network is very cool but chews up the otherwise good battery life limiting its usefulness.



SD card support is hardly seamless and has a limited set of browsing functions but this may be nitpicking as most players don't bother to include ANY expandable memory.



x-fi sounds "different" but not unanimously "better" and uses more battery not really a selling feature then



The headphones are awesome and while they're compared as worse than the zune 80's included headphones the zen's fit more comfortably (to me) and sound just as good.



The built in speaker is very cool and sounds surprisingly good for its size there is never any distortion even at maximum volume (distortion is what makes speakerphones and other bad+loud audio sources sound so horrible). It is perfect for showing a song to a friend or friends or playing a little background music in a quiet room.



No line out but using the headphone jack at full volume sounds just fine on my car stereo and home stereo with no distortion.





Software:

A lot of people complain about the Creative software but you really never need to use it except for video transfer. I use Media Monkey to sync my music and it works flawlessly. Everyone has Windows Media Player and that syncs just fine with the player. It's an MTP device and that means that a lot of different programs can sync with it. So except for video issues you really have no reason in the world to complain about the creative software.





Buttons:

The nine button grid is 4 directions and a center "select" button and on many menus and lists the diagonal four buttons act as home/end and pageup/down but on many screens they are useless. If they were customizable they could be very powerful! Faster seeking view toggles many possibilities if they were customizable. Firmware update maybe?



I have long fingers and big hands and the player is comfortable to hold but the buttons are small and indistinct you have to concentrate a little to be sure you press the correct one if you are fishing for the next/prev track or the volume up/down buttons in your pocket. The pause button is unmissable though and that is most important.



The zen vision:m's vertical slider with side to side rocking and touchpad tap for select was really perfect for an audio player and I find myself missing it a lot (but I don't miss that player's poor battery life large size or ogreish looks)



A disappointment: On no screen are the grid buttons used to refer to a specific function on a grid on the screen (which would have opened some very quick and intuitive menu options) they are ALWAYS arrow buttons with a center select and sometimes other use diagonal buttons.



Creative have dropped the ball a little by adding four new buttons and not using them to their full potential. The most notable example is that the IM chat function could have used a cell-phone style text entry but instead uses a very obtuse method that keeps the buttons as arrow keys. Once you've moved past the chat function and removed it from the main menu you'll then notice that on the 'now playing' screen the most common and important screen the four diagonal buttons don't do anything at all. :(



The customizable shortcut button is still here and still awesome easily settable by simply holding it down. It comes preset to the x-fi settings screen which should have been integrated into the EQ screen anyway. Mine is set to jump to 'now playing' perfect for changing volume or next/prev track quickly from any menu and then you can press back to return to wherever you were.



The menu button (or "right click" button as I call it) shows the list of options for most screens but the list sometimes runs off the top and bottom by just a few lines and could have been scaled down to fit them all. Would have been nice to enable the 'diagonal' buttons to be shortcuts for some of the common menu items while the menu is open.





The Interface (the most important part of any mp3 player):

It may sound like I'm pointing out a lot of flaws in the device's usability but let me assure you it really is fantastic to use. The device interface is the same as the venerable ZVM and is powerful attractive and simple. The 'right click' menus offer a lot of functionality while being intuitive to any computer user; rather than hide a cluttered pile of settings in the main menu settings screen many settings are accessed from the screen they're related to. I'm a big fan of the ZVM interface and am glad they didn't change it. On the Zen the graphics have been given quite a boost since the ZVM days and the gui really is pretty.







Useful things the Zen players do that ipod and zune do NOT under any circumstances support:

- [zune] sync with 3rd party software

- 'now playing' playlist access

- creation/saving of playlists on the fly

- ability to add a track to the 'now playing' list allows you to build a playlist and not interrupt currently playing track great for playing music for others

- bookmark track positions (great for podcasts audiobooks long music mixes)

- switch between view of albums artists or track in the music menus

- rearrange items when you customize the main menu

- "dj" menu with options like "play popular" and "play highly rated"

- delete actual tracks from within the player

- record voice

- hide photos/video easily obviously to hide porn when showing off your player to your mom

- actual usb port no proprietary connector

- built in speaker

- wifi network access



I see this player is squaring off against the ipod and zune and is already going above and beyond them both feature by feature.





PS:

Nitpicks:

- no rapid way to seek in a track

- no "go to album" or "go to genre" for a track only "go to artist"

- pageup/down buttons stop working when you move "right" to the list of letter shortcuts on a long list and they don't work on the 'right click' menu

- speaker should have been put on the left side your hand ends up covering it up sometimes when you hold it right handedlyMore detail ...