HiFi Blog: digital audio goodness

We’ve reported on it last week, and it’s finally here. Creative’s reply to the iPod Video, named Zen Vision:M (press release).

You can’t help but notice the clear similarity between it and the iPod Video when it comes to the graphical interfaces. “Couldn’t they have at least changed the battery indicator’s color?” is a thought that may cross your mind. Indeed, this first glance makes the Zen Vision:M look a bit lame. But a closer examination of Creative’s offering, shows we’ve got a pretty decent device, and one that beats the iPod hands-down in the video department.

(Note that all the “iPod Video” references that follow, are referring to the same-capacity 30GB iPod Video model.)

First, let’s have a look at the Zen Vision:M’s specs:

• capacity: 30GB
• screen: 2.5’’, 262,144-color (18-bit) LCD, 320×240 resolution
• dimensions: 62×19x104mm
• weight: 166g
• battery: 14 (not 11!) hours for music, 4 hours for video
• supported audio formats: MP3, WMA, WMA DRM10 (which means tracks from subscription services play fine)
• supported video formats: *DivX 4 & 5*, *XviD5, MPEG-1*, MPEG-2, MPEG4-SP, WMV9, Motion-JPEG

CNET Asia brought us one of the first reviews. They rated the device with a 8.2/10 (“Excellent”), giving it props for the wide video video codec support, brilliant screen, improved vertical scroll and and fast transfer speeds.

*Form factor*

It’s similar in width and height to the iPod Video, but it’s twice as thick. At 62×104x19mm versus the iPod’s 61.8×103.5×11mm, it has 76.7% greater volume and 22% greater weight than the iPod, as iPod Hacks notes. Creative does try to compensate this by adding an extra feature or two (radio, built-in mic) but people are a bit pissed, and this picture comparing the two doesn’t make matters better.

The vertical touch pad and tacticle buttons are used for navigating. We’re glad to hear that the vertical touch pad is improved, but the buttons seem a bit too stiff, probably because of the single-piece front faceplate—CNET says:

The new Vertical Scroll is also horizontally moveable now; tapping either left or right will move menu selection laterally, though there is no clear indication when this feature can be used. We found it odd that while we could not switch folders while in folder view under the Photos menu, it worked like a “page down” button when in thumbnail view.

There’s a dedicated shortcut key (“My Shortcut”) which you can assign to any feature you want.

*Audio*

Detailed reports on sound quality haven’t surfaced yet, but the first signs are reassuring we’d be surprised if they were other than excellent; after all, SQ was never a department Creative lacked in. When it comes to audio support, you get MP3/WMA/WMA/WAV. Your tracks from subsciption services will play fine. You also get a user-defined five-band equalizer with 8 presets, and a bass boost function; this is “an EQ that works” when compared to the iPod’s.

Why there’s still no AAC support (I’m talking about mere AAC, not AAC+Fairplay) is beyond me. As you’ll see this has also got an effect on the video support section.

*Screen*

The screen quality looks top class (picture)—also check the blurry comparison with the iPod’s screen (picture), though we’re going to nead a clearer shot before drawing any definite conclusions. Still, CNET reports that video viewing under bright sunlight isn’t ideal: “reflections from the plastic coating rendered the video a muted dark shade.”

[*UPDATE*: Looks like we’ve got a clear winner when it comes to the screen’s quality—the Zen Vision:M definitely outperforms the iPod video in that department.]

You can adjust the screen’s brightness to your preferences (not possible with the iPod) and as noted by MonsterNet “at the maximum brightness, the ZV:M is brighter and more vibrant than the iPod.”

The screen supports album art, and displays JPEG images up to 8 megapixels. It can only display JPEG pictures, while the iPod screen does JPEG/BMP/GIF/TIFF/PSD/PNG, but I think this doesn’t matter much—I may be alone in this.

*Video*

There is such a wide video support (the Zen Vision:M does strong>DivX 4 & 5, *XviD5, MPEG-1*, MPEG-2, MPEG4-SP, WMV9, Motion-JPEG), making the iPod’s support look funny. (The iPod does H.264, MPEG-4.) You get the much-wanted DivX and XviD support, so you can just get those DVD/TV rips directly on the device and they’ll play. No tiring day-long conversions to an iPod-playable format. As Stuff Magazine “notes”http://www.stuffmag.co.uk/hotstuffarticle.asp?de_id=912::

So if you’ve been surreptitiously – not to mention illegally – backing up all your DVDs onto your PC, you’ll be able to drag them onto the Zen and play them without having to wait hours for software to downsample them. An you’ll get four hours of video playback too. Bear in mind, however, that AC3 audio isn’t supported.

A con, as we’ve noted in the ”*Audio*” section, is the lack of AAC support which means those DVD rips of yours that use it for audio will play with no sound—keep that in mind.

According to Creative’s press release, the device also supports TiVoToGo for viewing of TV shows recorded on a TiVo personal video recorder.

In more video-related goodness, the Zen Vision:M can play both 320×240 and 640×480 resolution videos—the latter when outputted to a TV screen looks pretty nice (not HD-quality by any means, but sure beats 320×240), so score another point for Creative’s camp.

*Features*

There’s a pretty decent *FM radio* functionality with 32 presets—you can even use the virtual keyboard to rename the presets for handier reference. *Radio recording* is possible too as well as the ability to record using the *built-in microphone*, with the volume levels displayed on the screen for optimum voice recording quality.

*Other features* include:

• PM functions: calendar, tasks and contact lists, syncs with Microsoft Outlook
• content password protection: the video folders that the user has selected are invisible until the correct password has been given
• clock with wake-to-any-music alarm
• full-color image output on any size TV screen through an optional composite video-out connector

There’s a handy *keyword search*, trying to match your query with any part of the song’s metadata, not just the beginning of each field. Did that make sense? (A: No.) If you’re in the “Tracks” screen and you look for “gold”, “What’s _Gold_en” (Jurassic 5), ”_Gold_en Brown” (The Stranglers) will come up. Previous keyword search iterations (on other devices) would only bring up ”_Gold_en Brown” if memory serves me well. Hopefull that made things a bit clearer. Match this with Creative’s *powerful playlisting* functions, and you get a decent set of tools for managing your music on-board.

When it comes to *tweaking the GUI*: you can choose among six color themes, change the background screen, and customize the main menu, adding and removing items from it.

*Miscellanea*

You can *charge the battery* either via the included AC adapter (2.5 hours), either via the included USB 2.0 cable (6 hours). When compared to the 30GB iPod Video, it’s got the same *battery life* when it comes to audio (at 14 hours), and twice that when it comes to video (4 hours versus the iPod’s 2), which is a major bonus for video fans.

What about *data* (not audio/video) *transferring*? Creative keeps this dumb strategy where you can’t just drag and drop data files to the device and be done with it. You have to enable the option, and set the data sector’s size (512MB-16GB). Why this can’t be done the easy way is beyond us.

Bad news in the *connectivity* department: the mini USB port and AC jack now reside in a sync adapter (read: outside of the player’s body) that you have to attach every time you want to charge or transfer songs to the device.

*Software*

You can use either the included MediaSource software or Windows Media Player 10 to sync your audio/video content with the device. MediaSource allows you to convert your incompatible video files to WMV format and have them auto-transferred to the device. A similar option for converting DVDs doesn’t and won’t exist, due to piracy concerns, but you can do it on your own.

*Gimme colors*

Americans get the widest selection with white/black/green/blue/pink (pink!), while Europeans apparently miss the multi-color love with white/black options only. Asians stand somewhere in the middle, getting white/black/green now with blue and pink to be released later. We don’t know if something similar will work for Europe.

*Accessories*

In the box you’ll find a $30 AC adapter, a USB 2.0 cable, the usual pair of crappy earphones, and a cheap protective pouch. Optional accessories, include a docking station (picture—where we notice a line-out too, unless we’re mistaken), an AV-out cable, a screen protector, a wired remote, a car charger, an FM transmitter and a leather pouch.

*Pictures*

Available over at CNET Asia and the MonsterNet forums.

*Quotes*

“When people see the Zen Vision:M, they tell us it’s incredibly cool,” said Sim Wong Hoo, chairman and CEO of Creative. “We designed the Zen Vision:M with its mesmerizing 262,144 color screen to display four times the color of the 30GB iPod that plays video, and to provide twice the battery life for video playback. Plus, we offer people the freedom to choose their video in a variety of different formats, and to get subscription music or download tracks from a number of different sites to their player.”

Also, you’d think that will all the GUI-similarities between the Zen Vision:M and the iPod video, Sim Wong Hoo would be a bit more conservative in his statement, but according to the BBC, he took the time to remind everyone (read: Apple) that they’ve own the ‘Zen Patent’ (the patent that covers the blatantly obvious “Artist → Album → Tracks” navigation system):

“We will pursue all manufacturers that use the same navigation system,” said Mr Sim. “This is something we will pursue aggressively. “Hopefully this will be friendly, but people have to respect intellectual property.”

*Pricing/availability*

Our Japanese friends should have it around mid-December for 39,800 Yen (compared to the iPod’s 34,800 Yen). US should see it “this month” for $330. No word for Europe, but our guess is we’ll see sometime in January. Note that it’s $30 pricier than Apple’s 30GB iPod Video. But. One, Creative’s bundling a $30 power adapter with their offering. Two, it has to be said that drops from the MSRP in Creative’s products are frequent (the same is never true with the iPods), so dont’ be surprised if you spot the Creative offering priced lower than $330.

That said, I did expect a more aggressive pricing from Creative’s part. Come on, your competitor leads the market by far, has everything going for them and your reply is a similarly priced offering? No matter what you think your research department’s efforts are worth, be aggressive—if this had been priced at $279 it would be surrounded by a much more positive hype, and quite possibly a bigger marketshare for Creative at the end of the financial quarter.

*Conclusions*

If you’re mainly geared towards video: there’s no doubt as to who 0wnz whom: DivX support, a bright screen, twice the battery life when it comes to video (4 hours versus the iPod’s 2), and the ability to output 640×480 to your TV (versus the iPod’s 320×240) really make the Zen Vision:M a no-brainer for those who value video-playing capabilites highly.

If you’re mainly geared towards audio: I think the iPod wins: almost half in thickness, with the same battery life and a far-better software to manage your songs. (If you’re a video fan, you can forgive the thickness, and video library management is crappy in both sides so I didn’t took these under great consideration in the previous paragraph.) It’s not a definite win though, as the Zen has got some pretty powerful features (keyword search, excellent on-board playlisting) and some extras (FM radio) that we can’t ignore.

I mentioned in the ”*Pricing*” that I expected a more aggressive pricing, but the $330 price point ain’t that considering all the extra features you get, and the AC adapter.

It’s difficult to recommend this over the iPod or vice-versa. Which means in the end, that Creative has got themselves a great product. Weigh its pros and cons, calculate which features mean more for you (e.g. are you going to miss the DivX goodness?) and decide if this is the device to get.

Now available for pre-order from Amazon.com, for $330:

• Black
• White
• Green
• Pink
• Light Blue