Creative Vision:M

[WonderBread]

i got one, pics and a very small review to come shortly

[robbie]

Sweet!!!

[WonderBread]

First off I have to say that this thing is amazing!

http://www.circagfx.com/box2.jpg

The Zen Vision:M supports JPEG, MPEG-1/2/4, WMV, DivX, and XviD with an estimated 4.5 hours play time while watching movies. When used as an audio player, MP3, WMA (with DRM) and WAV are all supported up to 320kbps that can carry a tune for 14 hours. And like all things Creative, the Zen Vision:M has an FM Tuner and Voice Recorder.

[img]www.circagfx.com/contents.jpg[/img]

The player was packaged very well in its case. If dropped while in its package I doubt it would ever be damnaged. The Vision:M came with a pair of some very crappy earbuds, a usb cable, power adapter that has removable pins for compatibility in other countries, a docking piece where the usb and power connect to. Also available on the docking piece is an A/V out for your television if you want to play music or video on your TV through the Vision:M.

The Vision:M has the same audio quality as my X-Fi XtremeMusic, surprisingly. There are about 9 preset EQ settings plus a 5 band EQ. It has a bass boost and Smart Volume option. The Smart Volume is the same thing as the SVM on X-Fi sound cards.

http://www.circagfx.com/nowplaying.jpg

When playing a song, the info viewed for the song is almost exactly like the format for the video iPod, Album photo on the right, titile of the song on the top, album name in the middle and the artist on the bottom with the track length at the bottom of the screen.

http://www.circagfx.com/box.jpg
The flash in this picture actually exaggerates the light scratches you see in it. In the regular light you don’t see them unless your face is right up next to the player

The quality of the video is awesome and the picture I have it does not do it any justice. After watching a movie for 20min or more I forgot that I was watching on such a little screen because the quality is amazing and the audio, imo, uses the same CMSS:3D that is used in the X-Fi for surround sound simulation on headphones.

http://www.circagfx.com/movie.jpg

The Vision:M is much thicker than the Video iPod from Apple, most likely because the Vision:M has a bigger battery has an FM tuner, and Microphone built in.

http://www.circagfx.com/bottomview.jpg

For the same price of the Video iPod, $300 USD, I cant complain because I get better video quality, more video playback support, an FM radio, a mic to record memos if I would ever need to, a daily organizer, longer battery life, and much better sound, its totally worth the the purchase

[Toro]

I used my friends one of these the other day. They are pretty heavey, but your can tell they are sturdy and well put together. I found the touch pad in the middle a bit of a pain in the ass at times. The picture of Family Guy playing doesnt really do the screen justice if you ask me.

Also I would like to say that the navigation software (when it's plugged into your pc) is pretty smart. If you try and drop a jpeg into the music folder, it recognises this, and automatically offers to drop it into the correct folder, but drag and drop system rules
It also comes with ripping software, but I didn't get a chance to test this out. That option is also only available when the unit it connected to pc.

They are currently selling in HMV for £240

[Áedán]

What's the battery life actually like, as opposed to what's claimed?

[Gizmo]

Dunno how I missed this before, WonderBread, but I've got it now.

Front Page! www.aoaforums.com

[fantomfreq]

This thing looks really nice. I'm all for the variety of formats that this device seems to support. I'm no audiophile, but does the great sound quality you claim this device to have make much difference when heard over headphones? It always seems that I can't usually tell that something's audio quality is 'bad' until I hear something appreciably better. That's the way it went when switched from cheapo earbud phones to the slightly more expensive in-ear kind.

I'd also like to point out that this device looks much like an iPod, both in external design and menu system. This is for (at least one) very interesting reason. Creative holds a patent on the hierarchical menu system that many, many MP3 players use. Apple, being the largest seller of such players, has the most to lose. Every once in a while, Creative struts out this patent. Of course, the menu system is also excellent when it comes to finding and organizing music.

If I'm in the market for an MP3 player anytime soon (which isn't likely unless my current one kicks the bucket,) I'll be sure to give this one a look.

[WonderBread]

the actual battery life from what i've experienced is about 3hrs on a movie and 11.5 to 12hrs just listening to music.

for the sound quality, it will never be as good as a computers quality of sound because is just doesnt have the same ammount of power to push the sound like a PC does. but it does incredebly well for its size. when im listening to music comming home from work or school and i sit down infront of the computer to check emails and what not, i have a hard time deciding whether to keep listing to my mp3 player or to turn it off and listen from the PC

[Toro]

I listened to the sound quality briefly when I was helping my mate with this. The sound was from the headphones supplied. It wasn't too bad to be honest, could be better.
With regards to sound quality from personal players... I have a very good set of head phones that give as good quality as anything I have heard from my pc, they have a brilliant response range, and you can hear everything from bass to treble. They are Sony Ericsson headphones, as supplied with my blue tooth mp3 player.

[WonderBread]

i new immediately, from experience, that the headphones supplied were going to be crap so i didn't even take them out of the package. i gave them to my sister along with my old irock 800 series 128MB mp3 player. What i use for headphones are the Sony MDR-EX51LP light weight earbuds, wich sound pretty good for only having to pay 20 bucks with my employee discount at work when im at the computer i just switch to my MDR-V6 Studio Monitor headphones which kick ass!

[Toro]

I've got a Plantronics headset for my PC. Mic is great quality, and the headphones feel like they have a subwoofer in them