Product Description

Creative's Zen Vision:M? is the ultimate player for people who want to enjoy music and movies on the go. This stylish, versatile system features an advanced colour screen for brilliant movies and stills, and its rechargeable battery delivers playtimes up to four hours with video, up to 14 hours with MP3 music. The Zen Vision:M offers the ergonomic design of Creative's Zen family and supports popular music, video and photo formats. It can store up to 15,000 songs* or up to 120 hours of video on its high-capacity hard disk, sharing images and videos with friends and family is ultra-easy. * Based on four-minute songs at 64kbps in WMA. Key Features: Stylish design is compact (104x62x18.9mm) and tactile, with textured finish and smooth contours 30GB hard disk stores up to 15,000 songs* or 120 hours of video 2.5-inch (51x39mm) screen displays images at 320x240, ensuring high quality Supports audio formats WMA (with DRM), MP3, WAV; video formats MPEG (1/2/4), DivX, XviD, WMV; picture format JPG (JPEG) Output to TV via optional AV cable Battery playtimes up to 14 hours of music or 4 hours of video

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #12582 in Consumer Electronics
• Brand: Creative Labs
• Model: 70PF169000071
• Released on: 2006-01-05
• Dimensions: 40.94" h x 24.41" w x 7.48" l, .36 pounds
• Display size: 2.5

T3 recommends
This video/MP3 player tops the iPod in several areas. March 2006

What Hi-Fi Review

March 2006

Manufacturer's Description
T3 recommends
This video/MP3 player tops the iPod in several areas. March 2006

What Hi-Fi Review

March 2006

Manufacturer's Description:

Smaller and better than ever before. The Zen Vision: M does more than play your videos, photos and music. It displays them in their true glory on a vibrant, large full-colour screen. Perfect for road trips long or short, carry your entertainment in the palm of your hand.

120 hours of movies
Big screen blockbusters, yesterday's picnic with your best friends, and even your favourite TV shows. They now fit in your pocket and are perfect for sharing. Zen Vision: M supports many video formats, such as DivX 4 and 5(5), XviD(5), MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG4-SP, WMV9 and Motion-JPEG, which simply means more choice and less restrictions on the types of video formats you can use.

Tens of thousands of photos
View precious memories--tens of thousands of them--in 262,144 vivid colours at 320 x 240 resolution. Featuring a True Resolution image display, you can now view any photo you import without loss in quality or having to resize it. Take a closer look at your photos with the Zoom function, or scroll through your entire photo collection easily with the touchpad.

An amazing 15,000 songs
Perfect for taking with you on the road or around the house. Your music will sound as good as it looks, thanks to Creative's world-renowned audio clarity, custom equalizer and 8 preset EQ settings.

Movie and Photo Slideshows
Connect the Zen Vision: M to a projector or TV with the video cable, and delight friends with big screen movie magic.

2.5-inch high-definition LCD screen
Watch movies and photos in their full glory on the large 2.5-inch LCD screen, even under bright lighting. Displaying up to 262,144 vibrant colours, get crisp, clear detail in every image in high-definition 320 by 240 resolution.

Vertical Touch Pad
Ergonomically designed, the innovative touch pad control enables quick, comfortable access to menus and settings.

Rechargeable Li-ion battery
Enjoy up to 14 hours of music, or 4 hours of movies with the rechargeable Li-Ion battery. Perfect for watching an entire movie non-stop anywhere you are.

FM radio and recorder
If 15,000 songs aren't enough, listen to more with the integrated FM radio. 32 station presets let you switch stations whenever you want.

Personal Organize
Store and view all the information that's important to you--daily tasks, contact lists and even a calendar. Zen Vision: M syncs easily with Microsoft Outlook, and lets you edit your information with Creative Media Explorer.

Voice recorder
Meetings, lectures, even voice memos to yourself--record them all with the integrated voice recorder, which stores hundreds of hours worth of recordings.

Full access to online music stores
Select from more than a million songs from a myriad of online music stores--Napster To Go, Yahoo! Music Unlimited, Rhapsody To Go, and so much more. With PlaysForSure support, you will always be able to play any digital music you purchase.

Fits your life perfectly
Select from an extensive line of accessories that make Zen Vision: M the perfect companion. Pamper and protect your player with the chic leather case and LCD screen protector. Or choose from the wired remote, docking station, and car adaptor kit designed to make life easier.

1 Based on 500 Kbps MPEG4-SP format.
2 Based on 4 minutes per song at 64 kbps WMA.
3 Audio at 128 kbps MP3, in locked mode.
4 For converting TV programs recorded using Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition, it is recommended that you have Cyberlink PowerDVD or Intervideo WinDVD version 6 and above installed in your computer.
5 DivX and XviD encoded files are playable if they are encoded as standard MPEG-4 Simple (SP) or Advanced Simple Profile (ASP) without GMC support. This product is not certified by DivX Inc. May not play all DivX 4 and 5 files.

Customer Reviews

Don't follow the iPod crowd - get a DECENT MP3 player!!!
I have been looking to buy an MP3 player for quite a while, desperately searching for something which doesn't tie me into the iPod/iTunes monopoly. I reviewed and tried many different products (from Apple, Cowon, Sony etc) and finally decided on the Vision M - and boy, am I glad I did!

The unit is sleek (if a little thicker than the iPod), good looking with a truly fantastic screen (far better than any Apple) and outstanding sound quality, even through the provided earphones. The user interface is a breeze - it takes about 2 minutes to get familiar with it, even without the manual - and has some nice touches such as the DJ functions (most played, album of the day etc.). Viewing photos & videos is excellent and the player can handle a great number of audio, picture & video formats which is a real plus. No need to be tied to a particular content provider (unlike Sony & Apple) - which in my view is an excellent thing! The built in radio (another reason for buying) is excellent with 32 presets and good sound quality.

If I have a few minor gripes, they would be:

1) The "Search By All artists" lists absolutely every artist, including each artist on a compilation album - it would be good to limit this to just the main artist of an album
2)The plastic finish on the front will get tiny scratches quite easily. Personally I think that Creative should have used their "satin" finish on the back of the player for the whole thing - it is lovely and doesn't scratch at all
3)Lack of accessories - still fairly limited accessories - though with built in radio etc., this is not a big deal.
4)Trouble loading software - it took me a while to get my computer to recognise the player, though Creative's excellent support forums and e-mail support quickly resolved my issues
5) No Screen Lock - this would be an excellent security addition and should be easy enough to programme - there is, after all, the option to have "hidden" folders with a 4-digit lock code. Come on, Creative - give us this in your next firmware upgrade!

All in all, I'm delighted with my purchase - this is a fantastic bit of kit. If you, like me, want to avoid being an iPod-following sheep, then buy the best player on the market!

Top Banana!!
What a fantastic piece of kit. "It does exactly what it says on the tin"
Having researched and read review after review on different similar Mp3's before i bought (iriver, samsung, ipod..etc) i am pleased i went for the vision M. SOund quality is very good with the supplied earphones. downloading/sync'ing is easy and straight forward either through windows media player 10 or through the supplied zen media explorer. The screen is a good size for Music vids etc and the bonus for me is the FM radio for when you fancy a change.
However...nothing is ever perfect and vision M does have some "niggles" like most other reviewers I agree the Pad is a little too sensitive even when you change it to the low setting but you do get use to it. Yes it is bulky nearly twice as thick as the ipod but still fits in my pocket comfortably, but thats it - I can't (as of yet) find a major fault with it. I would recommend buying some extras with it, like a good protective case - i bought the sports package with the armband and silicone case with protective view shield, it also comes with a belt clip very handy. I also bought a universal travel charger as the player only comes with a usb cable. Overall the pros out way the cons by a long shot and by the time i'd bought all my extras it still came out cheaper than the ipod - Brucy bonus!!

Brilliant
I wanted an mp3 player to save me lugging all of my CDs up to my new house in September (student), and since I had heard bad stories about the iPods, I opted for this.

It's a little more expensive but is definately worth the extra money. The player is very simple to use, although a quick browse through the manual will definately help you out since the menu system can seem pretty bizarre at first.

The picture and sound quality is absolutely amazing - I was expecting a slightly above-average mobile phone screen, but after watching a few music videos on this thing I was stunned.

The firmware for me was a bit tricky to upgrade, and I had to reset the player once I had done it because it got stuck in the 'Docked' state (ie, it thought it was connected to the computer), but pressing the reset button only tells the player to turn itself off completely and then back on, so you don't lose any of your files.

You can customise the player's menus and settings very easily through the system menu, and you can even set your own wallpapers, which is a nice feature (pick a good contrast one though, since you can only change the text colour by changing the whole theme).

The sound quality is superb, you won't tell the difference between the player and an ordinary CD, and the radio is pretty good too. It's not a DAB radio though, which would have been a brilliant feature to have, but if you're within the range of a radio station the quality should be ok. You can record the radio too, which is always good. I haven't used the built in mic yet but other reviews have said it's good quality.

My only gripe is that the player doesn't come with a decent protecting case. Seriously, you'd think they'd come as standard now. Instead you get some stupid looking leather pouch, which is basically useless since you have to take the player out completely to use it, and you can't even attach the pouch to anything anyway. Absolutely no reason for it to be included. The 'screen protector' which is stuck on by default is one of those little rubbery things you sometimes see on wrist watches and gameboy screens etc. Mine came with two little air bubbles which don't really interfere with the display at all, but I'll have to live with because there's no way I'm taking it off until I get a decent carry case for it. Just read other reviews to see how easy this thing is to scratch, I've been lucky so far and it's in mint condition. I would recommend you buy a decent carry case / screen protector at the same time as you buy this.

Overall it's a fantastic player and the software works flawlessly, even though my brother has a different Creative mp3 player installed too. No conflicts whatsoever. Oh, but do turn off your antivirus while you're installing, as it will slow right down. It's very easy to sync, (just click 'sync', how hard is that?), and you can also download 'ZenCasts', which are essentially podcasts. You can also flag tracks to buy from ZenCasts, by pressing the bottom right button and then scrolling down. I assume it works by opening up the store the next time you connect the player to your PC.

Definately buy this over the iPod, you won't regret it.