Upgrading my old 256mb mp3 player

[Jjoshua2]

I have $70 buy.com gift certificate to use up, and I think I want to upgrade my old 256mb mp3 player. I'd like one that plays videos. I'm thinking the Zen Vision M would be nice, seems to have a better screen and more video formats than ipods. It seems that zen has xvid and ipod has h264 so is one better? Both should be plenty fine since I have 30gb?
buy.com link http://www.buy.com/prod/Creative_Zen_Vi...2_5_Color_LCD/q/loc/111/202155623.html
Are there any others I should consider?
How would this compare to a pda? The Palm E2 has the same 320 res, with also 320 the other way, which wouldn't help with movies though.
http://www.buy.com/prod/Palm_Tungsten_E2_Handheld_PDA/q/loc/101/10407645.html
I'm thinking it might not support as many formats? I could use it to sync with my outlook calendar though, which would be nice, and it would support lots of games. (I'd need a pda for those two right?) I'd need a pda that I could stick in a 2gb SD flash card. Any thoughts?

 

[myocardia]

If you listen to MP3's much, get a dedicated MP3 player. A PDA isn't going to have very good sound quality at all. The Zen Vision M's are very nice; they're what I would buy, if I were in the market for an MP3 player that could also play video. I absolutely love my Zen.

 

[Jjoshua2]

So I could tell the difference in sound quality with earbuds? How would screen for the videos compare?

 

[AMCRambler]

Wow the Zen looks pretty damn cool. For $175 I'm seriously tempted to pick one up.

 

[Jjoshua2]

Yes, for me it will be $105

 

[Jjoshua2]

Does anyone else have any insight? Is now a good time to buy? Anything else exciting coming out soon?

 

[Common Sense]

The Zen is great, I love mine. Once you see it in person, you will want one. The screen is amazing.

 

[Jjoshua2]

My brother has an 80gb ipod video, and I decided I want something like it, so it sounds like if I liked that I won't be disappointed by the Zen M. How long until the next generation of players comes out you think?

 

[nordloewelabs]

i have a Creative Zen NX (4yrs old) and a ZVM 30Gb bought last summer. here's my take on this. cant remember all the figures so do some quick research to double-check them. it's always good to compare specs of 2 products side by side.... TV commercials and people's blabbing (like my blabbing here) dont mean much.

1) ZVM screen supports about 260,000 colours. iPod's screen supports 60,000 colours only.

2) ZVM supports videos on MPEG-1, MPEG-2, XviD, MPEG-4 SP, DivX (4.x and 5.x), Motion-JPEG (commom in Digital Cams) and WMV. iPods only support their own video format, which is a particular implementation of MPEG-4. that means that you will need to convert 99% of the videos you ever try to transfer to the iPod. the only times i need to convert a video before transfering to my ZVM is when i come across old DivXs 3.1 or videos with AC3 sound. i have Hauppauge TV card so i always record stuff on VCD/SVCD format (DVD resolutions are overkill for the player's screen size) and i transfer them straight to the player without conversions. sometimes i remove commercials using VideoReDo's Automatic Ad-Removal function....

3) ZVM supports audio on WAV, MP3 and WMA (not that i care about the latter). and you will be allowed to copy your songs back and forth out of the player without conversions or *restrictions*. from or to CD-Rs/DVD-Rs, hard drives, Pen Drives etc with no transcoding or limits on the number of copies you make. no restrictions on which or how many PCs you plug your ZVM to either. and if in 2 years you decide to buy a payer from a diffrent manufacturer, you wont have to re-buy your songs or re-rip them.

4) ZVM is compatible with *several* online music stores (not that i care coz DRM suck). iPods only support iTunes.

5) ZVM's Signal to Noise Ratio is 97dB. the iPods SNR is a mistery.... last time i checked, the info wasnt availabe on the box, manual or Apple website....

6) ZVM's battery life is officially 17hrs for audio and 5hrs for video. in practice, it lasts longer than that coz i only recharge my player every 10 days and i do play music and video during my subway rides...twice everyday! check iPod's battery life. i know it's shorter but i dont know by how much.

7) Creative is specialized in audio and has been making MP3 Players (old ones were damn ugly) for a lot longer than Apple. iPods are a new beast and have capitlized solely on looks (it does look good) and hype since inception.

8) ZVM supports JPEG, GIF, PNG and BMP. the JPEGs are transfered without conversions. on iPods, unless it has changed, the pics are always resized. so if you need to transfer a pic back to your PC or a disc, it wont be the same pic with the same size/resolution anymore.

9) ZVM has Voice Recorder, and FM radio (not that i care about either) and supports output to TV.

10) ZVMs are thicker than iPods....prolly because the battery has longer autonomy....

Creative will be incorporating their X-Mod technology into their next generation of MP3 Players but there are no dates for such products to hit the market yet. the only players that really rival the ZVM are the ones by Archos coz they have bigger screens and even more video format support (DivX with AC3 audio included).

a ZVM is a steal even for $405....let alone $105!

 

[Jjoshua2]

What is xmod technology? I've never heard of it. I found this link for a separte unit. http://www.tbreak.com/reviews/article.php?id=492
It seems to improve the audio quality on the fly?

 

[Frintin]

Using a Zune and fell in love with the Zune interface for my library interaction. It made me wish for the same in Windows...and lo and behold Windows Media Player 11 comes out with the same feel.

Have had some problems with the Zune (crashes Windows if I forget to unplug it when I restart Windows...still not fixed, had a tough time importing album cover art for obscure albums and getting the Zune interface to keep my import, etc.)

The only other player I have experience with is a Sandisk Sanza. Liked it at first because the screen was so dang clear and crisp. But when I went to transfer mp3's to it, several mp3's were not visible on the player. Found out it required a firmware update so I said "meh, did not pay this much money for a new product that needed to be updated out of the box" and returned it.

Have heard lots of good things about the Zen, and I played with one for a while at the store. It was a great player, just happened to get a Zune for a gift instead.

 

[nordloewelabs]

Originally posted by: Jjoshua2
What is xmod technology? I've never heard of it. I found this link for a separte unit. http://www.tbreak.com/reviews/article.php?id=492
It seems to improve the audio quality on the fly?

yeah. that's an X-Mod. according to Creative that device can improve the perceived sound quality of your songs. so theoretically, you could make a 128kbps MP3 sound like 192Kbps. i dont own such device, therefore i cant say anything. i'm a Creative fan but that sounds pretty "sci-fi" to me.

there's another review of the X-Mod on epiZENter.net. if you ever get the ZVM, make sure you check that forum. tons of info.

back to the ZVM.... Creative plans to shrink the X-Mod enough to fit it inside an MP3 Player. considering the current size of the device, i believe it will take them a while to do so, but who knows? maybe they'll have something ready for Xmas. they will license the technology to other manufacturers too so the MP3 players of the future might all come with an X-Mod chip inside.

 

[nordloewelabs]

Originally posted by: FrintinHave heard lots of good things about the Zen, and I played with one for a while at the store. It was a great player, just happened to get a Zune for a gift instead.

the things missing on the ZVM are:

1) a wide and slighly bigger screen like the one from the GigaBeat.
2) support for TXT and PDF documents.
3) support for videos with AC3 sound.

if i had to buy another player today, i'd probably buy one by Archos, -- despite their uninsteresting look. i mainly treasure features and media support so i usually overlook design. those Archos players can do a lot! the less time i can spend converting videos, the better.

 

[Jjoshua2]

So do you think their new xmod dap will be like a ZVM v. 2? It will probably release at $300 right? I don't think its worth almost twice as much... But then it should make everything else even cheaper.

 

[nordloewelabs]

what people think is that Creative's next generation of MP3 Players will all have the X-Mod chip built-in. but noone knows when they will release that new series. many were expecting the announcement during the CES in January, but it didnt happen. the prices will be around $300, i believe. Creative's players are always a bit cheaper than the iPods of the same capacity.

so yeah.... it will be the ZVM2 or whatever they decide to call it. head to www.epiZENter.net and search on their forums. there are a number of long discussions about how efficient the X-Mod technology is and also about the expectations of having that integrated into the future MP3 Players.