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[NoCodeUK]

Hey guys,

I have been looking at MP3 HD Based players for a while and was considering an IPod until the ZEN appeared.  Anyone who has one could you tell me more about them...

Can the HD be accessed directly in XP?  How well do they work with MC?  What are the best/worse features?  A direct comparison to the equivalent ipod would be nice plus anything else.

Thanks in advance

Adam

[WendtCreations]

Hardware ... The Good:

1. Great capacity for the price, the same size iPod is more expensive.
2. firewire and USB 1.1 connectors on the same machine, or you can pick the newer USB 2.0 if your machine supports that.
3. Great display and logically organized menus that are easy to navigate.
4. Can be used as a regular hard disk to moved files around (only some software allows for that type of access.)

Hardware ... The Bad:

1. I personally do not like the buttons.  I find them small and not easily distinguishable in the dark.  They are not a problem if you are looking at them while pushing them.
2. No STOP function.  You can only pause a playing song or turn off the player, there is no actual STOP.
3. "fragile"  they don't handle being dropped very well, but that is more of a limitation with HD based player than anything dealing with the Zen in perticular.


Software ... The Good:

1. There are 3rd party companies that are developing software that works with the Zen, like Red Chair software and our friends here at JRiver - so you do not have to use Creative's PlayCenter if you do not want to.

Software ... The Bad:

1. In my opinion, this is where the Zen really falls short.  The third party software is simply not up to the task.  I love MC9 as a player and media library, but support for the Zen is unstable and lacks complete integration with the device (see my other post about the crashing.)
2. Notmad Explorer (by Red Chair) is very robust in terms of stability, but all it is is an extension to Windows Explorer, it has no music library so you are navigating hard disks to move your musicl; when dealing with libraries that number is the 10 thousands, this gets old very quickly.
3. For Windows XP, Microsft has released their FREE add-on, which lets you see the Zen as a hard disk and transfer files to it.  Very very stable, but has the same issues as the Notmad Explorer I mentioned above - you just move around your computer, which becomes unwieldy.  You can also transfer files to the Zen using Microsft Media Player 9 (Still my favorite player in terms of control) but that has serious glitches on the Zen, playlists do not transfer as playlists and there is no duplicate-file checking, and some tags do not transfer properly.
4. Creative's own software "works" the best still in terms of control over the Zen, but it is terrible software over all.  It looks like it was designed by a child to win an goofy art project, and it has serious limititations for controlling your music files on your actual computer.  FOr example, it will not allow you to pick a network mapped drive as the source for your library, and scanning is painfully slow.

I love my Zen, but I am still waiting for that great piece of software that will make it as easy to use when it is plugged into my computer as it is when it is not.

I hope that gives you a start

[NoCodeUK]

Cheers...so this not having a stop thing...what do you normally do??  If you turn it off does it remember its previous playing position??  If you pause it does it stioll drain battery power as if it were playing?  Tell me a bit about the menus...What kind of control do you have?  It has access to EAX onboard doesn't it??  How does this work?? Cheers

Adam

[dobon]

I'm picking up on this thread as I have used both a 15Gb 3G iPod and a Zen player for a while now. I do not own a Mac and don't think I am biased. The iPod is undisputably the best HD based player on the market. The Zen is about 70% larger and heavier. Even so it has a much smaller display and smaller (and less responsive) buttons. The only reason to buy the Zen seems to be if price is critical and not even then as the 10GB iPod is marginally cheaper (at least in this country) than the Zen. Who needs more than 10Gb in a portable music player anyway?

All this said, I think the Zen is a really good music player. Like a cheap razormachine gives you the same shave as an expensive one, the Zen has the same functionality as the iPod. It's just more bulky (but not too bulky), less elegant (but not unelegant) and less intuitive. It works really well though when you learn to use the scrollerwheel and buttons properly.

There is no hold button. It takes a few clicks in the menu to lock the player, but the buttons are not as responisve as in the iPod so you don't activate them easily by accident.
There is no stop button, but you can choose to pause or to turn off the player. It will resume (if you have chosen the option) where it left. There is also a very nice auto turn off feature which can be set between 5 and 30 minutes.

[loraan]

Who needs more than 10Gb in a portable music player anyway?

*raises hand*. My music library, when encoded to 192 Kbps WMA, is about 11 gig. I have about 8 gig left on my 20 gig Zen.

My take on it:

iPod - Very small. Nice User Interface. Expensive (about twice as much per MB than Zen). Doesn't play WMA files.
Zen - Not as small as iPod. Usable, but slightly confusing UI. About half as much per MB than Zen. Plays WMA and MP3.

Personally, I see price and WMA support as the major reasons for choosing one or the other. USB 2.0 support used to be another major issue, but iPod is about to have that, if it hasn't been released already. If you have the extra money and don't need WMA playback, the iPod is clearly awesome--if you don't believe me, just go to the store and look at one! I, personally, couldn't justify $500 and went with the Zen instead. I'm totally happy with it, even if it's not quite as sexy as the iPod.

[loraan]

Cheers...so this not having a stop thing...what do you normally do??  If you turn it off does it remember its previous playing position??  If you pause it does it stioll drain battery power as if it were playing?

If you turn it off while playing, it resumes playback when you turn it back on. If you pause it, it doesn't drain battery power any more than if it were stopped. Frankly, there's not really a reason to need a "stop" button. If you want to stop playback, you hit pause. If you want to play a different song, you just highlight the song, click the scroll wheel, and click play. You can also simulate "stop" by clicking pause, then next track, if you really want to.

[dobon]

More pro Zen:
Better power supply. The battery has better capacity and is exchangeable. (iPod battery is "semi-exchangeable). The iPod drains battery when connected to a non-Mac laptop (with 4-pin firewire), and easily runs out of power during bulky uploads.  The Zen has separate mains and firewire connections and no such problems.

Unlike the iPod it also has a very well functioning dsp-system (EAX) , much like the MC DSP Studio, and a better equalizer (with custom option) as well. The equalizer and the DSP can not be active at the same time though.