Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by JayBarti on September 1, 2009 at 5:10pm

Personally I like the Creative line of MP3 and media player products.

Little or no DRM, on average of 90% file play back compatibility, I pretty much avoid the iPods and Zunes because of the DRM that they use.

I am about to purchase my 3rd creative mp3/divx player, more then likely it will be the Zen X but I am not sure, just waiting for my Zen Vision to kick the bucket.

Permalink Reply by Jerry Howell on September 1, 2009 at 6:28pm

Go easy on me....what is DRM? Is it Digital Recording Media? Just an educated guess...

Permalink Reply by Paul on September 2, 2009 at 8:08am

DRM is Digital Rights Management. It's a sledgehammer approach to copy-protection that will prevent you from backing up your media files or moving them from one player to another. It's best avoided if you can

Permalink Reply by JayBarti on September 2, 2009 at 9:12am

DRM as said above is digital rights management.

Basically they created it to combat piracy, but it is something that really only hurts the honest consumer. As long as it can be played back on something any digital file can be pirated usually very easily. It is the failing of the entertainment industry to recognize this, thus DRM is something that is largely useless in the way they apply it.

I have a rant on it here...

My big issue with DRM is that by using it the entertainment cartels are trying to make ordinary consumers into criminals for simply wanting options.

Permalink Reply by Jerry Howell on September 2, 2009 at 9:18am

Ok, Jay, since my ZEN Stone Plus (found that is what I have!) is doing good, what ZEN product do I need? I can do without the games. I place battery life and at least 4G storage as high.

Permalink Reply by JayBarti on September 2, 2009 at 10:21am

Now I only recommend creative because I personally like them, there are a lot of other very good product lines out there. It all depends on if you want to add Video payback and a mini-screen really, and what you want to spend. Your buying dollar is probably the main choice restriction here.

Most Creative Zens are between 4-32gig in size depending on make and model. Personally look for a Solid State memory device over something with an internal HardDrive (most mp3 players are like this now but always check). I get 4 hours of video off of my current model and about 16-20 hours of continuous MP3 playback.

Personally as I have said I like the Zen X-Fi, native Xvid/Divx/MP4 playback (video), radio tuner, 32 hours claimed of playback time, and a SD card expansion slot.

Permalink Reply by x jeremy jarratt on October 3, 2009 at 4:35pm

Personally, i LOVE my Creative Zen Vision:M! The features are endless but it's still pretty simple to use. Plays video too. And it can do what you want. As for syncing your podcasts, i'm still looking for a solution for that. It'll sync files just fine, but you still need a podcatcher or feed aggregator to actually GET them to your hard drive. I was using iTunes for that, but now it looks like i'll be switching to VLC (videolan.org) or something else so i can automatically download podcasts.