(Expired) Creative ZEN Vision M 30GB Media Player for $249.99 Shipped

"Great substititute for an iPod" is a good reason to avoid it and just buy the iPod. I've tried other MP3 players. Nothing beats the iPod. I guess that is why they own the market. This one strikes me as throwing away $250 that could be used towards the Apple product.
 
Ehh.. as an owner of multiple mp3 players, i'd have to say there are MANY things the ipod could improve on. The thing that pisses me off THE MOST about the ipod (that i miss terribly from my dell DJ) is the inability to select just one song, or make a "playlist" on the fly by selecting songs from different albums/artists. THe ipod very ignorantly only lets you play an entire artist, or an entire album, or all of your tracks/genres at once. If you want to pick and choose, you have to make a playlist on your computer at an earlier time. Tell me there hasn't been a time where you wanted to hear about 10 songs that put you in a certain mood. "make a playlist" you say.. well while the tracks will stay similar, i always like to hear different songs because the moods are never EXACTLY the same.

/end rant
 
In response to your rant, JL514, the iPod does in fact have a very intuitive and easy to use "on the go" playlist feature which you may have missed. I have owned an iPod mini as well as a nano and video. All three had this simple feature. It allows you to easily select songs and put them in a special playlist which I believe can only be edited from the iPod itself. That way, you can satisfy your ears no matter what very particular mood you happen to be in.

By the way, this Creative MP3 player looks like a pretty good unit and a nice alternative to the 30GB iPod video which costs at least 30 dollars or so more.
 
the ipod can do both of those things...

jl514:

im not quite sure what you mean. the ipod DOES let you do this... when you click on a song just hold down the middle button and the song will flash about 3 times, this automaticallyadds the song to your "on-the-go" playlist. once youve added the songs you like you can then go into your on-the-go playlist and either save playlist or clear playlist... or just play the music from there.
You can also go into your settings and tell your ipod to either repeat tracklist repeat a single song or dont repeat anything.

i have a 60GB video and i absolutely love it, the only downfall i can readily name about the ipod is also its greatest strength.... Itunes. Itunes has to be the best supported mp3 player software out there since apple is backing it so hard as the standard in mp3 player for mac, on the other hand it is the most bloated piece of crap ever. it runs processes in the background which slows your pc down if only slightly and the ipodupdater also runs background processes, i only do ipod stuff on my spare machine. not my main desktop. regardless i would never trade away my ipod for another player. i am happy with it as a player and Apples warranty and support make me feel confident in this purchase.

P.S. i forgot to ask what Gen ipod you had worked with. i am only familiar with the 5th GEN video. its possible that older pods didnt have this function, but they do now!
 
Dang it! If only this deal had been posted a week ago, I might would have gotten one of these. I spent about a 80 hours researching different types of media players and the like, and the Zen vision is definately in the top end of the market. As for the argument between iPod and everything else, it really comes down to what you want to do and what your needs are. iPod is a very effective media player, but it lacks a lot of functionality that are offered with other systems of similar type. The screen is small, there's no memory card access, and as has already been mentioned, it's way too dependant on iTunes. Everything else on the market has their advantages/disadvatages too, so it really depends on what you need.
 
i just ordered the creative zen vision M and have had it for a month or so and i absolutely LOVE the player. The downside to this little gem that i find is a) no one makes enough accessories to this thing ( which i dont care about but some might ) and b) it doesnt let you see EXACTLy how much battery life is left but to my knowledge neither does the ipod (it has a battery indicator but nothing saying ok there are 3 hrs left) c) the black model scratches, get a screen protector for it if you buy one and a case. I currently have a full season of bsg s2 half of bsg s1 3 epsidoes of firefly and 4-5 lost episodes and my entire music collection (around 9 gigs) and i STILL have 3 GBs left. The best part about this thing is that it has AMAZING tv out, my lost hdtv episodes look absolutely great on the sony bravia 42" hdtv. I have ripped dvds (firefly) used xvid compression and had to do nothing else to get them to work perfectly on the zen. Its play for sure is also pretty nifty, who would have thought that microsoft windows media player would have been useful.
If you have XP it will unlike previous Zen players be recognized automatically without driver installation which is another plus. I got one for about 250 off of Circuit City but that was with a 100 gc, so this is a good going price imo.
 
A very happy and content owner of a Zen 30 M

And I spent over 300 bucks for it. Very satisfied. The interface takes some getting used to, but once that happens this product is excellent. The navigation tools work well, the battery life exceeds expectations. I have downloaded full movies and web shorts onto the Zen, as well as 1000's of tunes. The movie quality is excellent, and it's weight and size are very convenient. The only drawbacks I can think of are the headphones (get some nice replacement ones asap) and the lack of accessories. Other than that, the Zen M is one great buy!
 
Glad you guys pointed out the on-the-go playlists on iPod. I was gonna tell him about it but you saved me the trouble. One thing I would like to see on the iPod is a shuffle on/off thats easier to get to than having to navigate through all those menus. Also dont like that you cant add the song youre currently playing to the on-the-go.

On the whole, I like my ipod better than either creative player Ive tried (MuVo2 4GB, and MicroPhoto 8GB)

Oh and caleb.. I had a 3G iPod and it had the on-the-go, so did the 30GB Photo, so does the first gen mini. Its been around at least since the 2G iPods.
 
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Which is exactly why you would buy this , so you dont throw away $250 towards an apple product. there is no wow factor any more, its like "hey look i got an ipod, really i got an i pod too" vs if i buy the creative zen, "its like hey i get a creative zen,. really! , iv never seen one of those before," bam you have a conversation peice.

oh well i guess its just me , not wanting to have what others have.
 
Hey, Im gonna shoot myself in the foot cuz no else is doing it!

Bad analogy, sure, but you get my point.. I think thats the wrong reason to buy something like this. I agree that its likely to be a better conversation starter, but so what? Get the player that works best for what you want or is aesthetically pleasing to you. If you wanna buy a conversation piece, there are lots of less expensive choices. I have a $30 Beattie Jet Lighter from the 40s or 50s and it gets noticed a lot.

I just saved you $220, wheres my cut?
 
I got an email about a new message from q-ball. I come to the thread by way of the provided link and theres no post from q-ball.. This seems to happen pretty frequently.. Why? Did he delete his post?

Oh, his post is like five up. Wonder why I just now got a notification?

Well, whatever, at least Im not going crazy.
 
kidneylovr said:
this beats the fruit whatever pod creative rules
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I would LOVE for you to back up just one (any single, solitary one) of your comments with some kind of fact or reason. You love to speak out but you never support your statements.

So I ask again.. WHY is this BETTER than the iPod, kidneylovr?
 
I just love how iPod lovers always comment on Creative MP3 player deals. If you like youre iPod better, kudos for you! But don't go on here and say that your player is better than Creative players.

If your ear is fine tuned, you would realize that Creative players have better sound quality than iPods. Each players has it's ups and downs, and whichever way you weigh those differences will decide which mp3 player you prefer.

DGC's is obviously an immature little kid that makes biased comments because he loves his iPod so much. Go out and try the mp3 player, with the mindset that your iPod is not the best player. If Creative was "an alternative", in which I believe an iPod enthusiast said in the first place, then why has their mp3 players received so many awards?

I could name many reasons why I would choose Creative over iPod. Can you provide a reason as to why iPods are better than Creative players?

You love your iPod so much that you go on other mp3 player threads and whore the thread by saying useless comments that has nothing to do with the deal. Get a life.
 
Creative products are not just alternatives to the ipod for those in the know. The only things Apple have over Creative are the design and accessories, but those things are highly subjective. In terms of technical capabilities, creative is just far superior. Creative players have better sound qualities, if you can't tell the difference, get a better headset. To get music into an Ipod you have to use the iTune program, Creative you just drag the file into the player without any 3rd party program, windows xp will recognize it. Ipod doesn't allow you to retore the files on the player back to the pc, Creative does. Think of the zen as a removable harddrive player in the truest sense. Ipod video doesn't support divx, xvid, and many other video formats that creative zen vision does. So yea if you are a basic user ipod is sufficient, but for those who want the options and flexibility Zen is the better fit.
 
get an iPOD. way better resale value. everyone wants one so you wont be hardpressed to sell it if you ever feel the itch to upgrade.
 
i think the biggest plus in buying this player is the fact that it supports multiple formats for video and audio support. My biggest gripe with ipods are itunes and the limited format support. The best part about the creative player is that i dont have to have additional software to make it behave as a usb drive. There are configuration issues like album art and the like but once you realize thats what windows media player is for, the problems become few and far between. :D
 
HimNameTuStah said:
I just love how iPod lovers always comment on Creative MP3 player deals. If you like youre iPod better, kudos for you! But don't go on here and say that your player is better than Creative players.

I could name many reasons why I would choose Creative over iPod. Can you provide a reason as to why iPods are better than Creative players?
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To be fair, why would you buy a ___ substitute instead of the ___? You use substitutions when you cant have the one you want. If you take exception to that, take it up with the person who posted that. Im not on anyone's side, or a devout follower of any player, all I said is that I like my iPod better than the Creative players Ive had.

So if you can name many reasons, why dont you? I wasnt challenging you guys to find reasons, I was challenging kidneylovr because of his MO in the threads. I said there are flaws in the iPod, even pointed them out. Never said one was better, just what I like better.

I know you didnt direct this post at anyone in particular, just giving my .02
 
woodysgate said:
Which is exactly why you would buy this , so you dont throw away $250 towards an apple product. there is no wow factor any more, its like "hey look i got an ipod, really i got an i pod too" vs if i buy the creative zen, "its like hey i get a creative zen,. really! , iv never seen one of those before," bam you have a conversation peice.

oh well i guess its just me , not wanting to have what others have.
Click to expand...


LOL one of the many reasons I avoid ipods. Like I said, about 75% of the people here on my campus has one. Now an iRiver H10 or N11 that's has some wow factor to it.

I had my iRiver H120 for over 3 years now and everything is still running just fine, even the batttery.
 
LiveSquid said:
To be fair, why would you buy a ___ substitute instead of the ___? You use substitutions when you cant have the one you want. If you take exception to that, take it up with the person who posted that. Im not on anyone's side, or a devout follower of any player, all I said is that I like my iPod better than the Creative players Ive had.

So if you can name many reasons, why dont you? I wasnt challenging you guys to find reasons, I was challenging kidneylovr because of his MO in the threads. I said there are flaws in the iPod, even pointed them out. Never said one was better, just what I like better.

I know you didnt direct this post at anyone in particular, just giving my .02
Click to expand...

First of all, I was quoting DGJ when he mentioned about the substitutes. I, never said that the Creative player was the substitute. An MP3 player is an MP3 player, and if someone reviews it as a substitute, there is obviously something wrong in the way they think. An MP3 player is an MP3 player. There are no such things as substitute MP3 players.

Here are a few reasons why I chose my Creative player over the iPod:
1) I received an extra battery with the purchase of my Creative player
2) No need to send in your iPod to get the battery replaced for a nominal charge, along with losing everything you have if you do not back up the player (IF you can even back it up before battery goes FUBAR)
3) Appearance (Obviously my opinion)
4) Software/Interface: Plug and play instead of having to do everything through iTunes
5) Not as picky as iPod when it comes to playing videos and the format they need to be in
6) My Shure E2C's sound better on my Creative player than it does on the iPod because the sound quality on Creative players are better than that of the iPod
7) 262,144 colors compared to iPod's 65,000 colors
8) Additional options like voice record, Sync, etc.
9) Battery lasts longer than iPod's battery

I believe the iPod is simply a "fashion" mp3 player. With each generation, there aren't many upgrades.

What are your reasons to why iPod is better?
 
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