A new year, a new media player. Some of my friends would probably tell me to stop buying shit like this since I can never find one that fulfills my needs but... I got this for WZ, not me! I'll just use it most of the time...
This is the new purchase, the Creative Zen media player, I bought the lowest 2GB model. It's a small, thin device, the footprint is about the size of a credit card. And it's about 3 SD cards thick. Oh.. before you ask.. yes, the smooooooth front display is a bloody fingerprint magnet!
The controls are your typical media player controls, the back and menu buttons form the top portion, your standard 4 way dpad along with and enter button in the middle, then a user customisable shortcut button and the play button form the bottom portion. You'll learn your way around the player in no time since the player's UI isn't exactly complicated.
The top is where the SD card slot and the microphone hole is. The player supports SDHC cards! (Now you can see why I only got the 2GB one) But... the way the card works is.. interesting, more on that later.
There's a mic on the Zen because like most of Creative's players you're able to use the Zen for voice recording, the mic isn't particularly powerful, it's good enough for recording a conversation at a table probably, but that's it.
The side is where the audio jack, power/hold switch and the USB port is located. Like all recent Creative players, a wall plug is not packaged with the device, you're expected to charge the device through your computer. But.. surprisingly, unlike all the other Creative devices I have so far the Zen can be charged from a simple 5V power supply, and doesn't require a proper USB host to initiate charging. That means you are able to use all the usual power to USB plugs to charge the device, but obviously if anything happens to your device when charging this way it probably be best not to tell Creative.
Media Support
On the audio side of things, no surprises here. It supports the normal formats, MP3, WMA, Unprotected AAC (I think they call this... the non DRM'ed iTune Plus songs), WAV and Audible formats. (what the heck is Audible used for?)
On the images front, JPEG is the only supported format. There's probably some limit to how big an image it can view, but it worked fine on the 5MP pictures I fed it.
And now the most important part... video formats supported. It supports WMV9 and... MPEG4/DIVX/XVID in an AVI container, it's not listed what audio codecs are supported in the video files, but my test files had MP3 audio streams.
Unfortunately... the file's video resolution cannot be higher than 320x240, and maximum bitrate supported *seems* to be 1Mbps.
So... while the good news is that XVID is supported, it's very likely you'll need to reconvert anything you want to put on it. A converter is provided with the device but there are plenty of other options available online, personally I go for FFMPEG or the VirtualDub+AVISynth combo for my video conversions.
The SD Card Support
The ZEN comes with an SD card slot, you can put your media on the card and then browse through it on the ZEN. BUT... there's one caveat. The files are not integrated into the normal media browsing experience on the ZEN, this is because normally a brand name media player like the ZEN or an iPod indexes and stores all files in a database so that you can do all the usual search by artists, album, etc. etc.
This isn't how a cheapo generic made in China media player works though, since they don't have to care about DRM and other licensing crap so they just slap in a file browser interface and let the user sort out the files themselves.
And that's what happens when you choose to view stuff on the SD card, you get a file browser interface where you just go to the folder where your media is and play it.
Once the SD card is in the ZEN you don't have to take it out to copy stuff to it anymore as the ZEN is able to work as a card reader when connected to the computer.
An Extra Accessory
To make sure that the ZEN can be protected while WZ uses it, I bought the clear plastic case.
It's basically a clear plastic case which encapsulates the ZEN leaving only the controls and the ports (NOT the SD card slot though!) exposed, it also conveniently has a key ring on it ideal for securing it on WZ's high chair or stroller so he can't throw it away.
The case also comes with a kick stand to prop the ZEN so you can see the screen while it's on your desk.
A Most Requested Feature
The ZEN comes with one of the most requested features I've seen people ask for on the Creative forums ever since the first Zen PMC.
You can hide video and photo folders.
You either need the feature, or you don't. :P
Conclusion
The ZEN is a nice small media player, XVID compatibility is welcomed but still not as capable as most would like. Personally for me it's disappointing that I can play videos in sequence or loopable, cause it means I can't load clips for WZ to watch!
Other than that.. it's a pretty good media player. Worth a buy if you're looking for a portable, pocketable player that's not an iPod. ;)