Creative Zen Vision 30GB vs. Consus PMC-300 20GB

[MonsterNet.Org]

Creative Zen Vision 30GB vs. Consus PMC-300 20GB

Introduction

Last year, Creative launched the first Portable Media Player, the Creative Zen Portable Media Center, or Zen PMC in short. It was developed jointly with Microsoft, and featured a Microsoft-driven OS (Operating System). It was a pretty cool idea. In a relatively small device (compared to a laptop, for example), you could watch your favourite movies on it. It had several flaws. First, it only played Windows Media video and music files. Transferring any other format requires the file to be transcoded, or re-encoded to the Windows Media format. This is generally a lengthy process. Converting a full-length movie would take hours. The second problem was its price. It simply wasn't worth the price tag when you compare its features. Plus, it didn't look too good and was a tad too big to comfortably fit in the pocket.

As seems to be the case with Creative, a slew of Portable Media Players started to enter the market. They offered one thing the Zen PMC did not have: multi-format support. MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4, DivX, XviD. After all, how many people actually have videos in Windows Media format? Currently, one of the most popular product is the Archos AV420 Pocket Video Recorder. This player has been the undisputed king of Portable Media Players. There are also other offerings, such as iRiver's PMP-120 and Samsung's YH-999.

Singapore's Gajah International also released their Consus PMC-300 at the same time as the Zen Vision. Gajah kindly loaned us the PMC-300 for this head-to-head review.

Full review

[blastoff]

Hey - that was one excellent review: finally one we've needed for the Vision.

I was wondering if you noticed any sound sync issues with playing video on the vision. I have had one for a couple of days, and it doesn't seem to be limited to one type of format, although it does not affect wmv.

From my post on the Creative forum:

If I have a divx or xvid video successfully transferred onto the Vision, open it and play it, it's perfect. Great image, great sound. If I watch the entire video to the end, it's fine. HOWEVER, if I pause, rewind or fastforward the video and return to playing it, the audio and video remain out of sync. Pausing again, ignoring, forwarding or rewinding doesn't fix the issue. The only way to watch the vid and audio in sync is to start watching the video from scratch.

Did you have any issues in the course of your review? And was there any format you found to be particularly suitable?

Thanks

blastoff

[MonsterNet.Org]

Hi Blastoff,

For my review, I used a downloaded XviD movie (Alient Planet), and for the other movies, I converted them from DVD to both DivX and XviD formats. For the audio, I used VBR MP3.

No, I did not encounter any audio sync issues when fast forwarding or pausing the video. I did encounter occasionally (probably twice) where fast forwarding led to corrupted video.

You could try pressing the "Back" button to go back to the menu, then play the video again. Since there's auto resume, you should be able to resume watching from that point with the audio in sync.

The little issues that I had with the Zen Vision are what I mentioned in the review (see the last page for a summary).

As for the video format, I guess it is up to you, since it depends what are your source video formats in the first place. My video codec of choice is XviD, but that is just a personal preference.

[blastoff]

Hey - thanks for your quick reply

I've got a whole hard drive full of different videos from the net so I have no idea how many of them were originally encoded - but most of the videos do have this issue, which I suppose I could get over, but just gets more and more irritating as I'm viewing.

Your suggestion was a good one, and one I hadn't thought of, but not successful unfortunately.

It's only about half a second out of sync, but it's quite disappointing that I can't fix it.

[MonsterNet.Org]

Hi blastoff, Unfortunately I can't help without more information...

Hope you understand.

[blastoff]

No problem - thanks for your help. Again, the review was excellent.

[jallen1788]

does the zen vision support album art? i've been wondering and cant find this info anywhere. also, what is the actual size for media out of the box? i know it claims 30 gigs, just wondering what is the true size.

[kasper]

:lol: Kick ass review! I've been wondering if i should purchase this for a long time, even though it isn't out, and after all the reviews i finally found one that was actually helpful.
I'm in Australia, and me and heaps of my mates have been wondering when this product actually hits shelves, i've looked regularly for updates on the actual Creative site, except they've poorly left the Zen Vision's information for somebody else to ponder up. I don't even know if it's been released in the U.S. yet, i know it was released in Singapore but that's about it.

I was wondering if there's any information on an actual release date, for Australia if possible, or even for the U.S.? And also, what exactly is the quality of the video when it's displayed on a TV, you said it was somewhat "fuzzy", is it very slightly fuzzy or hardly noticeable.

Once again, thanks for taking the effort for making a review that's actually worth reading.

Thanks for your help,

Kasper

[wuLFe]

Great review on the Vision.  I am seriously thinking of finally purchasing this - my old iPOD recently passed away (battery died, and I really have no wish to have it repaired or replaced), and thought I might as well move into the world of PMPs...

As such, I have been closely investigating a few of them, and have settled on either the Vision, or the Archos AV500 - the cost difference between the two is negligible, BUT I am swaying towards the Creative because I have a huge amount of video files on my home PC, and I will need all the compatibility I can get.  

I don't really need video recording, and will probably just buy the extended battery to counter the relatively poor battery life.

However, I do have one question.  One of my pet peeves about the iPOD was that it only organized mp3s by id3 tag - a lot of my music is not tagged, but very well ordered in directories/filenames.  Does the Zen Vision take id3 tags into account exclusively, or can it make use of either when organinzing music?

Thanks for the great review

[MonsterNet.Org]

does the zen vision support album art? i've been wondering and cant find this info anywhere. also, what is the actual size for media out of the box? i know it claims 30 gigs, just wondering what is the true size.

I don't believe it supports album art. I cannot be sure as I have since returned the Zen Vision to Creative.

The actual usable capacity is stated in the review, which is 27.9GB

I'm in Australia, and me and heaps of my mates have been wondering when this product actually hits shelves, i've looked regularly for updates on the actual Creative site, except they've poorly left the Zen Vision's information for somebody else to ponder up. I don't even know if it's been released in the U.S. yet, i know it was released in Singapore but that's about it.

I was wondering if there's any information on an actual release date, for Australia if possible, or even for the U.S.?

I believe those who pre-ordered in the US have received theirs. As for localised release dates, you would have to check with your local Creative distributors. You can find a list here

And also, what exactly is the quality of the video when it's displayed on a TV, you said it was somewhat "fuzzy", is it very slightly fuzzy or hardly noticeable.

It is only very slightly fuzzy, and it was in comparison to the Consus PMC. The video out quality was done by pausing the movie at certain points and comparing the picture quality. Therefore, in normal video viewing, such fuzziness would not be noticeable since the videos are moving.

Once again, thanks for taking the effort for making a review that's actually worth reading.

Thank you

However, I do have one question.  One of my pet peeves about the iPOD was that it only organized mp3s by id3 tag - a lot of my music is not tagged, but very well ordered in directories/filenames.  Does the Zen Vision take id3 tags into account exclusively, or can it make use of either when organinzing music?

The ZV organises music by ID3 tags, as do many other hard-disk-based players. However, using the Import Wizard, you can tag your music that you are transferring. You can see the Creative Zen Xtra review for the auto-tagging function.

Thanks for the great review

Thank you.

[kasper]

Thanks a stack,

Kasper  :lol:

[kasper]

I would use this player to listen to music, occasionaly watch video and would probably make use of the photo feature somehow, would you reccomend this product for me? Even though i would mainly be using it for music?

Thanks,
Kasper

[MonsterNet.Org]

Well, if you don't mind the price and the size, then go ahead    Otherwise, I think a normal digital audio player would do fine. Photos? Well, there's always the iPod Photo...

[kasper]

Thanks for all your help.

Kasper