MonsterNet gets hands-on with the Creative Zen Vision
posted Sep 17th 2005 4:07PM
Not sure why they bothered pitting it against some no-name PVP that we'll probably never hear from again, but
MonsterNet.org reviews the new 30GB
Creative Zen Vision alongside the
20GB Consus PMC-300. You probably already know how much we've been lusting after the Zen Vision (it can handle playback
of playback of MPEG2, MPEG4, DivX, XviD, WMV, and MJPEG video files, and has a 3.7-inch, 640 x 480 pixel, 262,144 color
LCD screen, a 30GB hard drive, a CompactFlash card slot, a built-in FM tuner, support for TiVoToGo, and compatibility
with PlaysForSure and all of the "To Go" online music subscription services), but MonsterNet has a few not nice things
to say about it, like that during testing the Zen Vision's battery life fell an hour short of its claimed 4.5 hours of
video playback and that it has a "very, very limited viewing angle." Even so, they still give the Zen Vision nine out
of ten stars, giving it big points for the UI.
[Thanks, Jonathan G.]
First COMMENT!!! it looks pretty dang cool.
dan it looks nice but to bad it has such short battery life.
Who buys this crap, anyway?
im going to =p
#3
...people who insist on having their illegaly downloaded kiddieporn and copyright infringed MP3's available durng their longtrips to school.
If I the money to spare I would gladly buy this sexy beast of a machine.
god damn any idea when its coming out????
I was tempted to get this but with the Xbox 360 coming out I have to whatch what I spend. I'll probably get the Zen Micro Touch or Philips go gear HDD6330. Should be coming out soon as they are taking pre-orders at creative.com and jr.com.
Consus is no-name, and Creative isn't?
This thing is going to get many gawkers in retail outlets but ultimately, no sales. Sorry.
That's what I was wondering. How can people possibly have that much money to spend, to buy things like this apparently every 5 minutes.
Zen? Does that mean that I can have a little rake, some sand, and a couple of rocks and make it look how I want it?
http://bravomedic.blogspot.com
You can buy a bigger battery for this from creative. I want one so badly. I just wish it could play Quicktime videos since most of the music videos i have i pulled off of the CDs i bought. maybe someone will come out with a plugin for Quicktime.
Creative better get a patent on that UI before Apple steals it for the iPod Video :P
Nick
What's the point of having a VGA screen if the videos only run in half resolution (320x240)? You can watch movies at 320x320 on a $200 Palm Tungsten E which has a finer dot-pitch screen and can also do lots of PDA functions, display photos, play games, etc.
Who the heck wanted this thing?
i dont know what the screen size is on that Palm, but i do know that PDAs dont have battery lives to brag about, and they sure as hell dont have a 30gig harddrive, and probably cant play as many file formats
Since it has a 4x3 screen, this would be your best bet for watching recorded tv shows, porn, and music videos.
For those that have over 400 dvd hollywood moviez collecting dust on a shelf because they have no time to watch them all, a 16x9 Gmini/AV 500 or Cowon A2 would be preferable.
"What's the point of having a VGA screen if the videos only run in half resolution (320x240)?"
I believe you can still watch movies at the full 640 x 480 resolution, but Creative's conversion software has presets at 320 x 240.
No one said you had to use the lower resolution, and no one said you had to use Creative's software to convert your files.
That Consus PMC-300 sure is an interesting player. Double the transfer speed of most players, with a YUV video output.
looks nice, it needs more battery life
This thing looks really nice ... but i wonder how much it costs?
But anyway, I would rather watch movies at home or at the cinema :) I mean do you really enjoy watching movies while you are in the train or something? ... u better watch it with surround system or something like that :)
I really like the zen micro too .. and i wish if i can buy one :)
Cya ;)
90% of the way towards what I want. Perhaps I'll get the Creative Zen Vision 2, or whatever thay are going to call it.
One thing I am curious about though is if it will play media from the CF slot. It's my experience with the PSP that battery life can be significantly extended if you access media from the solid state storage. OK, so you don't get full use of the 30GB HDD on the Vision, so it isn't the best solution in the world, but it would be a useful option.
I love seeing all the "who has the money for this crap" type comments on a gadget site.
paralipsis, no. You have to import files on on CF card to the ZV. While it will import all files, AFAIK only photos can be viewed on the ZV after importing. You cannot use the CF as a removable storage.
From the article: "You probably already know how much weve been lusting after the Zen Vision (it can handle playback of playback of MPEG2, MPEG4, DivX, XviD, WMV, and MJPEG video files, and has a 3.7-inch, 640 x 480 pixel, 262,144 color LCD screen, a 30GB hard drive, a CompactFlash card slot, a built-in FM tuner, support for TiVoToGo, and compatibility with PlaysForSure and all of the To Go online music subscription services), but MonsterNet has a few not nice things to say about it, like that during testing the Zen Visions battery life fell an hour short of its claimed 4.5 hours of video playback and that it has a very, very limited viewing angle. "
holy shit all one sentence!
#21: It's because it's not from Apple. If it was, the detractors would be assuring us it was the most revolutionary thing ever.
I've personally got no use for something like this, but one of my workmates is scoping one out. The difference in our lifestyles is that my commute is a 10 minute motorcycle ride, while his is a 45 minute train trip. He plans on recording programs, football matches, etc that happen overnight and enjoying them on the way to and from work. Very handy if you live places with decent public transport. Not so much if you live somewhere like LA, I guess.
Nah, Apple is not stupid. They'll only release something like this if there's a good market for it. If, there's like only five people who are interested in this lousy, poorly made $450 toy, Apple won't be releasing anything. But once they release, there will be no viewing angle problems, no battery life issues, and it will be thinner, lighter and sexier than the competition. Even if they do release something for video I'm not gonna buy it though.
It is difficult to judge whether No. 25 was a satirical commentary at Apple's expense or a sincere statement. Although I find it difficult to imagine anyone blind enough to utter such a statement sincerely.
Re number 25... you must be kidding? Ipods are universally recognised as having the worst battery life of any MP3 player on the market. Not to mention the inferior function set to almost any other player and a vastly inferior sound quality to anything Creative ever released. And if you find a gadget "sexy" you have more problems than you realize.
I'll echo an earlier comment. WHEN are they actually going to have product available in reasonable quantity? There was much fanfare about this thing in early August. If Creative is going to play the "vaporware" game, they're going to lose a lot of credibility. At least when Apple comes out with the Nano, they have real product right away, even if they're all snapped up amazingly fast...
I've been following the PVP scene for a little while now, and everything so far hasn't really hit the target. This one might do it for me.
My main interest is for watching downloaded TV shows on the commute to school. The availability of IPTV and Bit Torrent has greatly increased the amount of television I am interested in, but there isn't near enough free time to watch it all. Using the 2hrs daily of commute time would be perfect.
My main concern until this point has been the ability to play formats/resolution natively on the player, WITHOUT having to go through the lengthy conversion process. Simply transfering over an episode, and being able to watch it right away, rather than having to leave the computer on over-night, chewing up CPU and disk space.
From what I can see, it LOOKS like this player can do that, although I'm not 100% sure.
Now if only the price would go down, oh, say 50%... ;)
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