Customer Reviews:
 Forget about the SD card alleged capacity September 22, 2008
Creative Zen 8 GB Portable Media Player (Black)
This player has some really nice features, but SD capability isn't one of them, despite their advertising. I tried several types of cards, including two that Creative Zen verified as working with this product, and the player cannot recognize them. Don't bother contacting their Customer Support; they just parrot back the online instructions which don't work, except their command of English leaves something to be desired. Since I was counting on this capability, this defective thing is going back.
 EXCELLENT DEVICE September 22, 2008
I cannot believe how great this device is.
I use it on my way to work since i use mass transit of New York it keeps me occupied watching either my music videos or complete movies.
Creative ZEN 8gb September 21, 2008
I like this MP3 player, small and easy to carry----very easy to download songs and organize your music----and it sounds great!--I also put some of my vacation photos it--I would highly recommend this product to anyone.
User-UNfriendly. Just terrible. September 19, 2008
2 out of 4 found this review helpful
I had expected the best with this product. I had a friend who really enjoyed his zen (an older version) and I decided I would replace my malfunctioning iPod with a Zen based on his liking of the product. The prospect of getting an 8gb mp3 player for only about $100 was also enticing.
However, after one attempt at getting the mp3 player to work, I had all my music and was quite content until I plugged it into headphones, or an auxiliary cable for the CD player in my car. Upon doing so, the Zen would freeze and resetting it did nothing. Despite the confidence I felt because it was "Rebuilding" my files, I ended up sending it back and requesting a replacement.
The new Zen did not freeze. This time, when attempting to add songs all programs would stop responding and my computer would freeze! There is no software like iTunes that came with the Zen so it was rather difficult to add songs. There was, however, some program called Audible Manager that was included but when trying to do anything it asked me to log in with my username and password. A username and password that I do not have, nor have any idea how to get or why I should get them.
The Zen is also not recognized by the device manager, so I cannot eject it like I would a flashdrive, or iPod. I'm very uncomfortable with having to just unplug the Zen in order to disconnect it. Overall, this was an incredibly disappointing product.
 Wow, I WANTED to love this item September 16, 2008
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
I was excited to try a highly-rated mp3 player that wasn't an iProduct. When I received the player, I happily spent the better part of an afternoon loading software and figuring out my new toy. Sure, I had to stick a pin in the hole and reset the player a couple of times, but we're just working out the kinks, right? No problem that the Zen doesn't sync with iTunes, either, because that was the whole point, wasn't it - to break away from the iBehemoth. And so what if the Creative Zen software is total crap. It's a plays-for-sure device, so I should have no problem using it with my media player of choice (that's not iTunes).
So why does WinAmp keep crashing every time I try to sync the device? After a couple days of experimenting and reading forums it turns out that WinAmp doesn't work if Windows Media Player 11 is installed. Okay. Tried uninstalling WMP 11 - but it didn't help. That's okay, there are a lot of other players I can use to sync up. Foobar 2000 doesn't support portable devices yet, neither does Songbird. Real Player is okay, but the smart playlists don't have many options and data doesn't sync back from the device to the library. Ditto for Media Jukebox 12 and Media Monkey, who likes to crash almost as much as WinAmp, but for no reason I can find. After a week of searching (and frequent resetting of the Zen with my trusty pin - keep one in the car and another by your computer!) I finally settled on WMP 11. The Auto Playlists are decent, and WMP is the ONLY media player that will actually update the play count, ratings, and other changes made in the Zen. Yay.
Too bad WMP has no Podcast support to speak of - although there's Doppler and Juice, both of which were buggy for me and crashed frequently. Last night (13 days after ordering the Zen) I tried FeedDemon for my podcasts, liked it okay, and felt like I had a system that could work. My wife was grateful she wouldn't be going to bed alone anymore, now that I had everything figured out.
So today my Zen crashes and won't reset. Instead, when I try, I notice that the back of the player feels warm. Directly behind the center buttons. Hmm. Really warm. Yowzers! It's getting hot! And you can smell burning/melting silicone (?) plastic (?) whatever. And the heat is spreading slowly from the edge to the center of the player.
Quick! Customer support. I can't find a phone number on the website, but here's an email option. Help! my Zen is burning up and I can't reset it. Send. Auto reply says their normal response time is 24 hours. Hopefully this thing won't burst into flame before then. Actually, I do get a relatively prompt reply, only two hours later. Via email, Mac asks me to plug the player into a REAR USB port and instructs me on how to reset the player by inserting a pin into the hole. Believe me, Mac, I'm an expert at resetting the player. And I don't think that's going to put out the little fire that's eating my Zen player from the inside out.
Tell you what. Instead of trying to diagnose my problem via email, I'm just going to send this puppy back to Amazon.com and ask for a refund.
Just as soon as it's safe to put in a cardboard box.
Hello iTunes. Did you miss me as much as I missed you?
|
