A
size-bumped Zen Vision:M wasn't the only thing to get some rumor play yesterday. Rumblings also began of a Zen Vision:W to replace the
Zen Vision, which was
infamous for its bad viewing angle. Now the Vision:W itself has hit newsstands in the latest issue of Popular Mechanics magazine. Featured most prominently is the 4.3-inch widescreen, which Pop Mech calls "the best screen we've seen on a portable media player." High praise indeed. It looks like the standard bevy of Creative codec support is going to be evident here, and the prices aren't too bad neither: $399 for the 30GB version, $499 for 60GB (OK, not exactly
free). Of course, that "W" stands for widescreen, not wireless, but the Zune won't have nothing on this screen, so it's really a different game entirely.
posted Aug 23rd 2006 1:48PM
looks basic besides the screen. plain and boring looking
I want it
Does anyone have any sales figures on the original Zen Vision? Was the screen so bad that no one bought it?
I returned my old Zen Vision because the "standard bevy of creative codec support" didn't include divx 3 or AC3 audio, which, when i checked, amounted to more than half of my movie collection (which is pretty big). I'd re-encode for a small percentage of movies, but not for the 100 gigs of movies that needed to be re-encoded. Has the support changed?
Oh, i just found my thread in creative's support pages for all my gripes with the thing, the biggest complaint being that they just don't care how close it needed to be to be the perfect pmp, and there were still no firmware upgrades: http://forums.creative.com/creativelabs/board/message?board.id=pmc&message.id=3348
-Taylor
I bought a Zen Vision and everyone talked about how bad the screen was and honestly I dont think its really bad with the viewing angles. I wasnt happy with the software/ Itunes wanna be that came with it so I use the Zen Vision drag and drop method to get my best results with pics, movies and music. My only gripe/ improvments would be to enable a text viewer so I could perhaps read notes or what not, and work on the codec supports. Some reason it wont play certian MP3's and I have no clue why. But altogether it gives my Ipod a definite run for the money and is a nice solid gadget all around.
georgedakota: "looks basic besides the screen. plain and boring looking"
Yah... cause we all buy things based on how they look first. Like the iPod! That's right, I didn't cough.
Apple had better hurry up with their video iPod. I'm starting to consider other options for my video playback.
"looks basic besides the screen. plain and boring looking"
And? All I need to play back video is a box with buttons. What did I get? A box with buttons. Sweet.
So, the Vision:W is a Vision:M that you have to turn upside down to watch?
WTF? That didn't even make sense. Upside down? The Vision:M's screen is 2.5"; Vision W's a 4.3".
Since when did 4:3 mean widescreen? Talk about newspeak...
oops, my bad. I misread 4.3 inch as 4:3.
Um, that's a 4.3-inch widescreen... "4.3-inch" is the diagonal dimension, not an aspect ratio.
Wait till you see it in person before calling it just a basic PMP. If you haven't seen the latest GUI from Creative then you definitely should say anything. It's far superior to any GUI available in a PMP and DAP for that matter.
Video playback is so easy with Creative players as it'll play tons of popular formats including Divx and Xvid.
Well I'm not trying to take any attention from the creative player discussed here, but what if the video ipod had a shuffle interface on the side instead of a clickwheel. THats what the creative zens design reminds me of anyway
That thing looks like a microwave oven.
Really. Like a 70s era Westinghouse microwave oven missing its door handle.
"Leaked"? How is a review by an extremely popular magazine a leak?
N.Sider, you've really got to be kidding me.
The only reason I haven't bought a new DMP since my 4G ipod is because very few can play AAC, which most of my songs are encoded in.
"The only reason I haven't bought a new DMP since my 4G ipod is because very few can play AAC, which most of my songs are encoded in."
Ah yes, the Apple conundrum...
This playeur seems to be a bad copy of the new Archos 404/504/604 products...
More expensive, limited functions, cheaper design.. The only good news : its screen may have almost the same quality than the Archos one.
I waited a best answer from Creative... I'm very disappointed !
What about a 720*480 display, AAC and .MP4 container support?
it's price has come down a lot since however long ago it first came out. I've been looking into getting this mp3 player once i get the money and at most places its only $299 instead of 399.
not to dig up an old old thread but Shadow already did... ive also been looking at these as the ipods and zunes cant drag and drop and i hate their respective programs and stores. am i correct in thinking that this is truly drag and drop? like i drag the new Static-X cd out of my music folder, drop it onto my 60 gig flash drive (aka zen vision w) and push play? how about my spiderman 3 movie?
i am also impressed that this comes with a cable to hook it up to a tv so i can watch spidey 3 on my 50" plasma w/o burning it onto a disc first... and since i dont have a dvd burner yet (gasp!!) and i want an mp3 player anyway, this is a great option.