a few creative zen vision:m questions

August 10, 2007 7:12 AM

i am looking for a new mp3 player, have narrowed it down to the ipod vs creative zen vision:m, but i have a few specific questions about the creative zen first

I don't really have any ipod questions because my boyfriend has one that i can test out. that said, my creative zen quesitons are:

1. random - i know there is an "album of the day" and a "random all" feature, but can you do random within an album, or within the on the go playlist you create, or anything else?

2. camera image transfer - the 60GB version lets you directly transfer images from your camera to it, which is a big selling point, but they only list a few cameras on their website that they tested with. has anyone used this feature with the canon rebel xti?

thanks for your help!

posted by illegiblemess to technology (7 comments total)

1. Yes, with any playlist you can set it to various playmodes including shuffle. That can be a saved playlist, a single album, or an on the go playlist of various tracks or albums that you added individually.

2. 30GB only here, can't comment on this one.
posted by utsutsu at 7:25 AM on August 10, 2007

This doesn't answer your question, but you might want to know...

My wife has the creative vision:m. She loves it. Except for one thing. Apple (iTunes) has a virtual monopoly on video content (especially the TV shows she would want to download). Video was very low on her priority list, so it wasn't such a huge issue, but it was still annoying. If video is important for you, I suggest you check out your video options before you buy.
posted by jknecht at 8:25 AM on August 10, 2007

Apple (iTunes) has a virtual monopoly on video content (especially the TV shows she would want to download).

This may be true for newer tv shows, but as far as the rest of the internet and the video available, Apple has no where near a monopoly. And the quality of their players is seriously lacking.

I have a 30gig Zen. Love it, had it for a year and half. 30 gigs is a lot of stuff. I have about 6k songs on it and a few Simpsons episodes right now. Fairly easy to rip movies to it for traveling too.
posted by Big_B at 8:35 AM on August 10, 2007

I've had the Vision: M 60 for about a year. Love it. The USB host capability works very well with my Rebel XT, so I imagine it will also work fine with the XTi. That feature was a major reason that I bought the Vision:M 60.

I say go for the Zen and help end iPod/iTunes tyranny.
posted by johnvaljohn at 2:10 PM on August 10, 2007

Another Zen:M user here, and just wanted to throw in my 2cents: I love it, and the screen is really pretty. The "random play all" shortcut button is one of the most fantastic upgrades on the Zen family (I have owned Zens for maybe 7 years now, and love them dearly).
posted by nursegracer at 3:18 PM on August 10, 2007

This may not be very helpful, but do you really need that much storage space?
I considered the 60GB vision:M, but realized that I change music on my player pretty often, regardless of size. If this is the case with you, then consider getting a flash memory based player (both Apple and Creative have those). They're smaller and generally more forgiving of rough treatment like running, dropping, etc. Basically get an iRiver Clix 2. It has, literally, the best screen out there, can act as both a sync-able and a plug-and-play device, and has video playback. I've talked to a couple of Vision:M owners who switched to this and they all (5) like this one better.
posted by pantsrobot at 5:02 PM on August 10, 2007

I resent that anyone says that iTunes has a monopoly on video. BOOO.

The reason the vision wins CLEARLY is that you DON'T HAVE TO USE iTUNES. It's ALL about MediaMonkey.

The vision will play just about any format, not just that crap mp4 format. Divx's, etc, will play perfectly, with twice as many colors and better resolution.

Vision all the way, leave the Apple products to the fanbois.
posted by TomMelee at 5:55 PM on August 10, 2007