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According to Microsoft's Bill Gates, video is the future for personal digital players — and he's cited the Creative Zen Portable Media Center as an example of that future. With that kind of endorsement, I was interested in trying out this harbinger of a brave, new visually-oriented world of portable entertainment.
The Zen Portable Media Center
The Zen Portable Media Center was one of the first portables to let you play MP3s and WMAs, store photos, and watch video. And not just a tiny bit of music, or a 30-second video clip, either; the Zen has a 20GB hard drive, which can store around 300 hours of music, or hold about 40,000 JPEGs — you get the picture.
Loading all that material onto your Zen is pretty straightforward: the player comes with the Microsoft® Windows® Mobile™ software for Portable Media Centers, which also upgrades your PC Windows Media Player program to Version 10. The program takes the files you want to load onto the player and converts them to the proper format, if necessary. Just make a USB connection from the Zen to your PC, and you?re all set.
Size and accessories
The Portable Media Player is larger and thicker than a 20GB MP3 player. Carrying it around was a lot like carrying around a James Michener paperback — I couldn't slip it readily into my pants pocket, but I could easily carry it in my gym bag, and it did fit nicely in my coat pocket.
Speaking of portability, Creative thoughtfully includes a sturdy travel case that really does its job. My Zen Portable Media Center rattled around in my gym bag, my van, and held court on several desks and tables. Without protection, the viewscreen would have been hopelessly marred with scratches and grit, significantly diminishing its effectiveness.
The carry case?s stiffened front flap had padding to protect the screen from harm. When opened fully, hidden magnets held the flap to the back of the case, turning it into an angled stand for the player. All of the inputs and outputs for the player were accessible through the case, with the exception of the USB dock on the bottom of the player. The only time I removed the Zen from the case was to sync it with my PC.
Included with the Zen were all the cables I needed to use. In addition to an AC charger and a USB docking cable, it also came with a 54" A/V cable that I could plug into the player's A/V line out. The cable's other end had stereo audio and video RCA connectors, so I could feed audio into a stereo system, or run video (via a composite connection) to a TV.
Although the Zen had a built-in speaker, I preferred using the provided earbuds (or my own headphones) for listening. The speaker was very small and (to my ears) had a sound quality on par with AM radio.
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The Zen Portable Media Center
The Zen Portable Media Center was one of the first portables to let you play MP3s and WMAs, store photos, and watch video. And not just a tiny bit of music, or a 30-second video clip, either; the Zen has a 20GB hard drive, which can store around 300 hours of music, or hold about 40,000 JPEGs — you get the picture.
Loading all that material onto your Zen is pretty straightforward: the player comes with the Microsoft® Windows® Mobile™ software for Portable Media Centers, which also upgrades your PC Windows Media Player program to Version 10. The program takes the files you want to load onto the player and converts them to the proper format, if necessary. Just make a USB connection from the Zen to your PC, and you?re all set.
Size and accessories
The Portable Media Player is larger and thicker than a 20GB MP3 player. Carrying it around was a lot like carrying around a James Michener paperback — I couldn't slip it readily into my pants pocket, but I could easily carry it in my gym bag, and it did fit nicely in my coat pocket.
Speaking of portability, Creative thoughtfully includes a sturdy travel case that really does its job. My Zen Portable Media Center rattled around in my gym bag, my van, and held court on several desks and tables. Without protection, the viewscreen would have been hopelessly marred with scratches and grit, significantly diminishing its effectiveness.
The carry case?s stiffened front flap had padding to protect the screen from harm. When opened fully, hidden magnets held the flap to the back of the case, turning it into an angled stand for the player. All of the inputs and outputs for the player were accessible through the case, with the exception of the USB dock on the bottom of the player. The only time I removed the Zen from the case was to sync it with my PC.
Included with the Zen were all the cables I needed to use. In addition to an AC charger and a USB docking cable, it also came with a 54" A/V cable that I could plug into the player's A/V line out. The cable's other end had stereo audio and video RCA connectors, so I could feed audio into a stereo system, or run video (via a composite connection) to a TV.
Although the Zen had a built-in speaker, I preferred using the provided earbuds (or my own headphones) for listening. The speaker was very small and (to my ears) had a sound quality on par with AM radio.
